Medicine: Do Nothing Whenever Possible
Born three and a half months prematurely, Derek Paravicini is blind but has literally become an Autistic Concert Pianist. But with perfect pitch, innate talent and a lot of practice, he became a concert pianist by the age of 10. Here, his longtime piano teacher, Adam Ockelford, explains his student’s unique relationship to music, while Paravicini shows how he has ripped up the “Chopsticks” rulebook.
Derek Paravicini weighed half a kilogram when he was born, prematurely at just 25 weeks. Growing up blind and with severe autism, Paravicini had trouble communicating, but was fascinated by sound. He began teaching himself how to play the piano and, by 4-years-old, had taught himself an incredible catalogue of songs that he played with unusual technique. Soon, Paravicini began studying with Adam Ockelford, a teacher at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London, who saw in him the marks of a highly inventive musician. Paravicini gave his first concert at age 7 and, two years later, played the Barbican Hall.
Once a child prodigy, he’s matured into a creative musician, able to reimagine songs in ways few can. Now in his thirties, Paravicini has continued to grow as a performer, with the ability to reimagine complex pieces of music even after only hearing them once. He was featured in the series Extraordinary People in the United Kingdom and, in the United States, on Stan Lee’s Superhumans, which verified his musical ability and confirmed his savantism. Paravicini has also worked with composer Matthew King. The two have played improvised pieces on BBC Radio and collaborated on Blue, the first concerto ever composed for someone with learning impairment. Autistic Concert Pianist indeed!
We’ve all heard of the tumult going on over head injuries, concussions, traumatic brain damage, the NFL; but, there is little specific information helping parents about their children and sports.
I’m told that during the war the brits had difficulty accepting that their wounded “chaps” with belly wounds shouldn’t be given tea to drink (it causes peritonitis) because doing so was such a national “tradition”—such is American football!
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We’ve explained that it’s the politicians and their meddling which has so far prevented medical research from delineating the truth about medical uses of marijuana, when it was clearly used hundreds of years ago for “medical purposes”—so-called: medical marijuana.
Misguided and incompetent laws have even prevented and delayed the finding of ways to remove the “drug’s” psychotropic side effects and make it safe for use!
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Perhaps most, if not all, of you think of gangsters, terrorists, drug dealers and low-life “users” when you think of the word marijuana. And, with all the idiocy going on by politicians over “legalization” you might also think of societal breakdown, corruption, destruction of families… loss of moral values.
Or, after being beaten into a frazzle by the constant bombardment of so-called “do-gooders” on the media, you may be starting to feel guilty for living the life you’ve always lived trying to do right, knowing what you know about human nature and thinking what you think about the good and evil you’ve seen all around you during your life.
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Yea, I know there have been some reports about possible “benefits” of smoking Marijuana but you have to realize that I’m from THE generation where Leary convinced millions of gullibles to indiscriminately use drugs of all kinds with the sweeping generality: “look man, it don’t hurt nobody if I do it!”
That was looooong before the goofball that told me that had absolutely ANY proof of what he was saying… one way or the other. NOW we do!
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I’ve written before about appendicitis and the research going on to find the best type of treatment. A big part of that research is to make double-dog sure that it keeps people safe because this thing used to kill people right and left!
Contrary to what the charlatans on the internet try to get you to believe, NOT EVERYONE is safe waiting to see if antibiotics are the only treatment needed; and, not every doctor is bad just because they recommend surgery.
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Let’s talk head lice for a moment. When I trained it wasn’t too difficult to diagnose or treat. THEN things began to change and the darn things started to become resistant to the medications we used to do them in—that, and the fact that there was found some degree of neurotoxicity which made us all nervous and VERY careful.
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The featured photo is not quite what I mean by the title of this post – it says: foreign bodies found “In” children, not “On” children. Oh well.
I have taken probably more foreign objects out of people than the average pediatrician in my career. Mostly because our Naval base hospital didn’t actually have “pediatric” gastroenterology Read more→
Ok, ok, ok! I’ve been informed more than once this week that two other bugs have an affinity for human flesh and are seen just as often, at least in the warmer climes. I admit I had forgotten about the more, let’s say: “winter challenged” (equatorially inclined) portions and desert areas of this great world where both ticks and fleas flourish.
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There are lots and lots of things that cause rashes in children and we’ve spoken about them several times before. There are fewer problems that cause rashes that itch and less caused by things that bite— although that’s still more than in a world I would create… if it were me.
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