Joseph “Blake” DeLoach, a dental patient of Dr. Marianna Kaufman in Wellington, Florida, is a 30-year-old Iraq and Afghan war veteran who sustained numerous, severe, battle-related injuries and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He was seriously injured when an IED (improvised explosive device) blew up 10 feet from him in Iraq. During his recovery, he started experiencing PTSD symptoms. But that didn’t stop him. Blake reenlisted in the Army to do a second tour in Iraq so he could help new recruits when they arrived. When he’d first arrived in Iraq, he had no idea what to expect, so he was determined to help new arrivals better prepare for what they might face.
His next tour of duty was Afghanistan, where he and his unit were ambushed. A rocket propelled grenade (RPG) landed and exploded inside their vehicle. Blake lost his sight, suffered a collapsed lung and fragmented jaw (losing 15% of it as well as 8 teeth) a
mong other life-threatening wounds. During rehab therapy, Blake was taking 26 different medications, mostly narcotics, to which he became addicted. On one particularly depressing day, he “took a bunch of painkillers and alcohol,” which led to a seizure. It would be two years before he could break his addiction, at which point he started going to a gym to stay away from drugs and alcohol. He ended up becoming a competitive power lifter, and accomplishing a list of other feats you would never think a blind man could do.
When Blake became one of Dr. Kaufman’s patients and she learned that he had a phobia about dentists, she introduced him to NuCalm, which she regularly uses in her practice. Using NuCalm, he was able to undergo three cavity fillings, cleaning, and other procedures. After learning everything he’d been through, Dr. Kaufman wanted to find some way of “giving back” to Blake. As a Certified NuCalm Provider (CNP), she contacted Solace Lifesciences, who teamed up with her to gift Blake his own personal NuCalm system (photo) to help him better cope with and heal from addiction and PTSD. Both addiction and PTSD keep the brain in a high state of stress, which NuCalm has been proven to relieve.
Solace Lifesciences started this “CNP Giveaway”program with its CNPs after hearing similar stories from the dentists who offer NuCalm during dental treatment. The program offers a way for those practitioners to gift a system to patients who would benefit from its regular use, and to raise awareness about how their practices differ from other dental practices. Another dentist, Dr. Andrea Stevens of Ottawa, Quebec, gifted a system to her patient James Thorne, who also served and was wounded in Afghanistan, and then became a military policeman in the National Investigation Service (NIS). James investigates cases of child abuse and child pornography as a digital forensic examiner. He’s “put a lot of bad people behind bars,” but has had to endure looking at millions of images and spending thousands of hours watching the most horrific videos. He says he has seen things that “you could never imagine in your own mind.” He suffers from PTSD from this experience, haunted by the pictures and thinking about all the children he has not been able to save. Therapy and sedatives at bedtime to minimize his nightmares have not helped much. After his first session with NuCalm, he felt refreshed and more relaxed than he had in a “very, very, very long time.” Dr. Stevens noted that James’ help in rescuing children from the grip of abuse and pornography is some of the most important work anyone can do in society.
Dr. Judith Snook, a pediatrician in Chaska, Minnesota, received a NuCalm system from her dentist and CNP, Dr. Kevin Bril. He had her try it in his office after she told him she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy, as well as experiencing the associated anxiety and restless sleep. He told her “It will put your body into deep restorative mode, which is so important, especially after surgery and aggressive chemo.” Her reaction to her first session—lower blood pressure and a sense of calm—motivated Dr. Bril to choose her to receive a NuCalm system as part of the CNP Giveaway Program. He noted that she’d been caring for children in their community for more than a quarter century and it was time to give back.
David Poole, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Solace Lifesciences, Inc., says “The people who are receiving these are blown away by the generosity of the clinician gifting a $4,300 technology to them. This is a way that clinicians can make a difference in their community in addition to helping people live better. With an average pool of 2,000-3,000 patients, every dentist definitely treats someone who’s suffering from cancer or chronic disease, PTSD, or some type of catastrophic loss. Selecting recipients who are in desperate need of help recognizes that you are not just a dentist, but a healthcare provider who cares.”
Solace Lifesciences has been working with CNPs to help people in their community for the last eighteen months. They plan to gift half a million dollars in giveaways in the next year, or about 125 NuCalm systems. For more information on the NuCalm system, click here. To watch the media coverage of Dr. Kaufman’s and Dr. Bril’s presentations of the systems to their patients, click here and here.