One of my patients had a child born in the hospital. One evening I received a phone call. Mary, one of my patients who had just delivered her second child in the hospital, asked if I could come to the hospital right away. Her newborn child wasn’t doing well. After three days, the newborn was not able to feed and could barely breathe. He was having spasms of the diaphragm, sort of severe hiccups. I dropped my fork and drove immediately to the hospital. I found little Thomas in a clear plastic box with wires attached to his body to monitor his vital signs. The staff efficiently accommodated any intentions to access the boy’s body. The top came off the box, and the front panel dropped down.

His grandparents looked on over my shoulders as I bent forward to palpate his tiny neck. My sensitive fingertips revealed to me what I had expected to find: a few of the muscles in his neck were in spasm. The second vertebrae of his tiny neck was slightly twisted and had lost the ability to move freely. I knew what to do. I put aside the working diagnosis of aspirated fetal meconium and secondary infection. I knew that this child was suffering from a neck injury received during his birth. Ever so carefully, I turned his head with my left hand. With my right second fingertip, I contacted that second vertebrae and gently pushed, adjusting that bone in order to restore mobility of his neck and free the damaging effects on his tender nervous system. After, I kept my fingertips against the muscles of his neck to assist the relaxation of muscle spasms.

As Mary and her parents watched, little Thomas started taking longer breaths, the spasmodic heaving of his belly faded. I knew that his life was saved. He did not need antibiotics or other medications and did not need the isolation mandated by the observation and monitoring of the incubation chamber. He just needed no interference.

I left the hospital that day knowing that this world was better because chiropractic exists, and grateful for my growth.