10/20/55 Verbal report by Mrs. Harrell:
"When the baby [
3603] was about six months old it was noticed
that she would only stand on the right foot. Eventually it
was discovered that she could not use her left arm. The
doctors in Trinidad suggested that she be brought to
Richmond, Va., to Dr. Graham, a polio doctor, which the
mother did.
"I didn't see [
3603] until she was about nine. She had just
come back from the hospital - she had been at death's door in
a Roanoke Rapids, N.C. hospital. Her fever had been higher
than any that they had a record of, for anyone to still live,
and the doctors could not determine why. She was
hemorrhaging from the intestines and they couldn't account
for it. The doctors had no idea what caused this nor as to
what she had.
"After this experience the mother took the child to Richmond,
Va., and there the doctors seemed to be just as nonplused as
ever, offering no hope, etc. This brought the case up to the
age of thirteen, when I again came to know something of the
facts through the mother.
"Through a neighbor doctor [
3603] was taken to N.Y. and put
through a clinic, in a mental hospital. The doctors there
said there was nothing that could be done for [
3603] - that
it was prenatal - except to give her something to keep her
quiet. Then they suggested the use of Phenobarbital, that it
would keep her quiet. So she began taking 4 tablets a day -
1 before each meal and 1 before going to bed.
"She had always been very religious and kept a large picture
of Jesus over her bed with a light shining on it. She became
interested in the Catholic church and wanted to join, so her
mother let her. The priest got her into a Catholic school in
Chicago where they dealt with subnormal children. She would
go there and stay a while and then come back home. One of
the sisters at this home or school told the mother that while
[
3603] was there she never had a tantrum and that she was
wonderful with the children - and they taught her to act as a
beautician to the younger children. She was continuously
taking this drug Phenobarbital, and that seemed to keep her
from having convulsions.
"She didn't go beyond the 9th grade in school. After she
began taking the drug she became even more dull, and the
mother took her out of school. It was after this that she
was sent away to the Catholic school. She would get homesick
and come back from time to time.
"The reason the mother wanted the reading was that she had
spent so much money on doctors, etc., that she wanted to know
whether or not there was any use, or hope. At the time she
was living with her sister who had several children. During
this time [
3603] would go into tantrums that would involve
the mother, and much force and violence. [
3603] would take
clothes and destroy them. This kind of thing would come
about just over being told she should not take a fourth or
fifth helping of food, etc., and the mother could not control
her by force or otherwise. This kind of thing did not seem
to build up to a convulsion. [
3603] would always know when a
convulsion was coming on, and no matter where she was she
would sit down. All the blood would seem to drain from her
face and she would lose consciousness. She would come to
shortly thereafter but her color would not come back for
about two hours.
"Just recently I saw her. She looks like her mother but is
just the opposite in size. Her father was a big man and so
is [
3603] - she is almost as big as GD, and her mother is
tiny. As time went on and she continued in the Catholic
church, although her mentality is very subnormal even today,
she has become sweet, and has the voice of an angel - or a
voice like music. She still walks with a limp, and her left
hand never developed normally, and she still prefers to be
around young children.
"Through the years her mother has taken care of her as if she
were an infant, hundreds of times staying with the child when
it said 'I don't want you to go.' The mother would then
undress and stay-with the child. This dependence became more
noticeable after [
3603] became an adolescent, and after she
started taking Phenobarbital. Her mother has devoted her
entire life to this child, and the doctors in N.Y. told her
that she had done a near-impossible thing, to deal with a
child of the daughter's mentality so effectively and over
such a period of time.
"She doesn't have convulsions any more that I know of, and
doesn't have the tantrums."
7/60 Dr. W. N. Pahnke, in his breakdown of 96 cases of
epilepsy from the Edgar Cayce records, classified Case [
3603]
in Group 2.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation