March 2009

DCs adjust 10,000 people in Trinidad

by Dr. Peter Morgan

In January of this year, Joe Cucci, DC, and I took off from New York City to Port of Spain, Trinidad with the mission of bringing the healing power of chiropractic to people in that nation. The trip was part of the "Mission-Chiropractic" program, sponsored by the Scoliosis Care Foundation.

A total of 21 chiropractors and assistants provided chiropractic care, performed scoliosis screenings, and taught lessons from the "Straighten Up America" program to the crowds -- including about 3,200 students -- who traveled to see us.

We didn't wait until we arrived to begin our work. While we were on the plane, we adjusted the crew on our portable tables. I've been on many humanitarian chiropractic missions, but this was the first time I ever adjusted the pilot of an international flight I was traveling on!

We had early clues that this trip to Trinidad would give us the opportunity to bring chiropractic to a huge number of its people. Even while we were conducting pre-mission newspaper interviews and television spots, we were kept busy adjusting reporters and station employees.

Thanks partly to the national publicity, Dr. Cucci and his team of chiropractors adjusted about 2,000 people in downtown Port of Spain during our initial "promenade" through the city.

While they were busy on the streets, Meghan Costello, a Northwestern chiropractic student, and I were busy in the governmental office of the minister of education and, shortly afterwards, with officials from the departments of neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, transplant surgery and the medical director of the Mt. Hope Hospital in Port of Spain.

Not only did we give a chiropractic lay lecture to the staff and directors of these departments, we adjusted a neurosurgeon who had a back problem and a heart transplant surgeon.

Other medical doctors and directors were impressed and started lining up to get adjusted. I wasn't surprised when, shortly after adjusting everyone, the medical director asked me how they could create a chiropractic internship program at the teaching hospital.

Later that day, we visited the chief orthopedic surgeon's prosthesis and orthotic facility, where the orthopedic surgeon expressed interest in the Scoliosis Care Foundation. They currently use the Milwaukee Brace and Harrington Rods but are extremely interested in our non-surgical approach.

The next day, we really started to get busy when the chief of neurosurgery called and requested another adjustment. When I arrived at the hospital, about 75 people were with him -- all waiting to be adjusted.

Then, our team divided into three groups and began the real work of the mission. At three different churches, we adjusted a total of nearly 1,000 people. After reuniting at the hotel late in the afternoon, we went out on another promenade in downtown Port of Spain and adjusted another 1,500 or so people.

While people waited on lines to be adjusted, police were called in to secure the area so we could continue to adjust into the night.

The following two days were crammed with activity for all members of the team. At the Laventille Comprehensive School, 1,600 hundred students and 200 staff members awaited their turn at the adjusting tables. Another 1,500 students and 200 staffers lined up at the Chaguanas Comprehensive School. In each school, our doctors gave scoliosis screenings, chiropractic lay lectures and Straighten Up America instructions to groups of 150 students at a time.

Evenings were busy as well. It was past 8 pm one night when eight tables were set up in a community club, where about 100 people were adjusted. At this event, we asked for donations and raised money to repaint a local orphanage.

On the next-to-last day of our mission, we found ourselves in three more churches -- each with about 350 people to adjust! Then, in the afternoon of our final mission day, we all met at a beautiful Trinidad beach for a chiropractic celebration. Many chiropractors opened up their tables and adjusted everyone on the beach.

The orthopedic surgeon who has been observing our mission work was so impressed with chiropractic that he asked us to set up a Mission-Chiropractic trip to Cuba during the first week of July. He made a few phone calls and we now have schools, medical facilities and thousands of people waiting for chiropractic in Cuba.

As we flew home, we totaled everything up and realized we'd adjusted about 10,000 people in this one trip (not counting most of the crew on the flight back!). But my thoughts were already on the next mission and on the extraordinary opportunities we're being given to bring chiropractic to the world.