Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture

Joe Graham is recovering from a terrible car accident in 2002. At the time, he was 21 years old, comatosed and lost all cognitive, motor functions and speech.

This is an interview of his mother Kitty Graham in April 2006. They live in Ukiah, California.

How old is your son?
He was 25 recently.

How was Joe before the accident?
Joe was a very talented, high-functioning young man. He was in college wanting to study psychology. He was a cross-country runner, a saxophone player, a gifted swimmer and skier. He had his own painting business. Interestingly, the fact that he was so gifted and capable physically has helped his body recuperate. And because he was good at math, languages, music and was a very perceptive, sensitive young man as well, that helped his cognitive and emotional recovery.

How is he now?
Joe is a lot further than we ever expected. He had to relearn everything, starting from the beginning, like a baby. And, he did it. He is walking, talking, and eating. He just started his job. He has had several little training positions, but just started working on Monday, stocking, cleaning, and sweeping.

Was it a head injury?
Yes, major. He was thrown forty feet out of the car and hit his head. He was given a craniotomy. The doctors had to take his skull out because the brain was swelling so badly. Sixteen hours later, they went in to drain the bleeding. There was bleeding in the brain stem, and a mid-line shift. The connections that were in the brain were all separated because of the impact and the shaking of the brain.. So much bruising happened. But I totally credit the progress that Joe made to the fact that Dr. Zhu was able to treat him very early.

How did you meet Dr. Zhu and Dr. Moyee?
Dr. Kern told me about Dr. Zhu and Dr. Moyee. I called them at three in the afternoon and they were at Joe's bedside by 11 that night, driving several hours to Santa Rosa from Santa Cruz. Their dedication to people in need is just phenomenal. And, they continued to drive to Santa Rosa and San Francisco. The treatments saved my son's quality of life. After the first two or three days, the western doctor said Joe would live. He predicted that Joe would be a vegetable or in a coma. At the very best, Joe would be like a two year old, non-functioning child. It's a miracle. Anybody that really knows the medical world, who looks at Joe can’t believe it.

Tell me about treatment with Dr. Zhu, Dr. Moyee and the Western doctors.
It's been a long journey. Dr. Zhu and Dr. Moyee came to the hospital on Day 3 after the accident and gave him an acupuncture treatment. He had a craniotomy, Burrell’s and other procedures and was intubated—gastric tubes. They did one treatment and the hospital would not let them stay. It took another ten days to get them in there. And then they started treating him two or three times a week for the first month. But the hospital would not let me give Joe any herbs. Then we went to a different hospital, St. Luke's. They took him out of intensive care and he went into a sniff unit, which is basically a low level maintenance because he was still comatose. There they let me give him the herbs through the gastric tube. He was also treated by an Osteopath, which I think has had major significance. With the herbs that Dr. Zhu and Dr. Moyee gave him, as well as the acupuncture treatment, Joe started coming out of the coma. Joe became active, started doing some basic physical therapy to help him move. He moved two levels of the coma up to almost a level four coma, of the eight levels of coma. At level four we transferred Joe to Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. There they allowed acupuncture but again, not herbs. He started having seizures and CPMC started treating him with western medications. Joe just kept getting worse with the seizure medication. The hospital’s doctors kept increasing the medicine because he kept having seizures. He had been in CPMC for seven months and we took Joe out because the seizure medicine was so debilitating, that he could not continue with his rehabilitation. It was impairing him cognitively.

How did the herbs affect Joe?
When we brought him home we gave the herbs again. When I stopped the Chinese herbs, Joe had two seizures, one mild, and one very intense. We then went back on the Chinese herbs, and at the same time, started tapering off the western anti-seizure drugs to a minimum dosage. Now he is seizure free. Joe has been seizure free for almost three years. I credit it to the Chinese herbs. The acupuncture treatment has been critical in continuing his physical rehabilitation and his cognitive rehabilitation. The western doctors said Joe would never talk. He does have nominal aphasia, but he can communicate his needs.

What is aphasia?
When we first started, all he could say was AH AH AH AH. He could not even make a consonant sound. All he could say was vowels. He still has a tone to his voice, which he is working on.

How has this all affected Joe's disposition, and how is it now?
When we first left the hospital, he was screaming about 40-60% of the day. He would get upset very easily from the slightest thing. Any over-stimulation. A bump in the road while riding in the car would make him scream for five or ten minutes. His brain was so critically damaged.

Did Dr. Zhu and Dr. Moyee have any prognosis?
They are very hopeful. And, I continue to hold on to that hope. They told me that they felt they could get Joe to not have seizures. Western doctors were telling me, no way, he will have seizures forever. We are incredibly blessed. It's just phenomenal. The other thing that they told me was that the acupuncture was really important, but that the physical therapy was also critically important. The acupuncture alone may not bring him back. He also had to do the therapy—preferably with the needles. We were blessed that at times Joe would have the needles in while they were doing therapy with him at the hospital. Occasionally they complained because they were worried about hitting the needles. But they did do it. And, we have continued to do different therapies that way. Joe is on a very active regime of all kinds of therapies, cognitive as well as physical. At this point, it's a combination of modalities. But I know that the acupuncture is an important component and I know it saved his quality of life. It gave him a chance to have a life again.

What improvements are you seeing?
He is reading again, about a second grade level and he's getting better. Before treatment, he couldn't really read at all. He can even play the saxophone a little and read music. We are very grateful.

How are the treatments going?
Now Joe is more cooperative. In the beginning, Dr. Zhu wanted the needles to remain in his scalp for three days. We were barely able to have them in for hours because Joe was not cooperative. He would not leave the needles in long enough, so I needed to come down more regularly. Joe didn't get as much benefit. But now he is willing to leave them in for three days and even longer. So we are reaping the more benefits because Joe is cooperative.

I wish it were possible for western doctors to work with Dr. Zhu. The western doctors saved his life, but Dr. Zhu saved his quality of life. There was another young man who had a bike accident. His head injury was less severe. He is still in bed not talking, not walking, cannot eat on his own, is non-communicative. But because of Dr. Zhu, Joe has a different life!
I have the deepest gratitude and wish more people could have access to what he knows.