Increasing quality of life and yielding miraculous results for children of all ages with disabilities or illnesses

Only one kind of patient is seen at the facility where Bobby Doscher, DC, ND, performs her wonders: the severely sick child or the child with a disability proclaimed beyond help by just about everyone else. “We’ve always been considered the place of last resort,” says Doscher, president and CEO of Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center in Oklahoma City, a nonprofit enterprise that has been delivering miracles for hundreds of such kids each year since its founding in 1962, and celebrating its 40th anniversary this August.

Perhaps Oklahaven ought to be considered a care provider of first resort, Doscher suggests, considering that children diagnosed with such diverse conditions as cerebral palsy, asthma, growth disorders, and learning disabilities, including autism, “have all shown an improved quality of life after receiving chiropractic treatment here.”

Baby Magnet
The challenge of treating Oklahaven’s young patients is borne primarily by Doscher. Aiding her are about a half-dozen local private practice chiropractors and alternative medicine specialists who volunteer a few hours each week. But possibly the hardest working members of Doscher’s team are the kids themselves and their parents.

“The child who really gets well is the one whose mother sees him or her as a spiritual being and never stops believing that he or she will improve, despite repeated setbacks,” she insists. “A mother who is truly connected to her child will discipline herself and her child to work hard at getting the child well. So, no matter how severe the child’s condition, if the mother is dedicated, and the child works hard, that child is going to get well here.”

Oklahaven accepts children of all ages, from newborns to high-schoolers. Many show up in wheelchairs for the first visit. “We won’t send them home in that wheelchair after they’ve completed the course of treatment,” Doscher says. “For example, I have one 16-year-old [female] patient with rods in her hips. She came to us from Kentucky, strapped in a wheelchair, couldn’t move her head, couldn’t move anything. Today, that child is crawling, she’s getting healthy, her mind is beginning to come alive. That’s typical of the results we see here.”

Six-year-old patient Isabella, who was unable to walk when she first came to Oklahaven from Mexico in March 2002, shows Doscher that she is determined to fulfill her dream of becoming a ballerina.

It Takes a Village
Children brought to Oklahaven arrive in the morning and remain there all day. Their mothers (and, in some cases, fathers) are present alongside them the entire time. Each child receives an average of 40 minutes of treatment, three times a day. In between those sessions, they are given plenty of rest and a mix of mentally stimulating activities. Doscher and her team work with approximately 10 kids per day. Usually, each child is seen a minimum of three times per week.

“The goal is to restore children to health, to bring back the power in their lives,” Doscher explains. “Our basic premise is that the life-force—the innate power, if you will—within the body has the ability to heal and maintain good health. When that power is not flowing over and across the nervous system, then the body can’t function at the level it needs to. As a result, we see neurological glitches. In concert with these glitches, we see sensory problems. Autism is a classic example of this.”

Doscher is convinced that the sharp rise in the incidence of autism and other neurological disorders among American children today can be blamed on harmful health habits that nowadays begin almost at birth. “Parents have been conditioned to believe that there is always a pill that [will] make things right,” she says. “But what these parents don’t understand is that drugs deaden the life-force in their children. Children today are virtually born into drug-care. In their first year of life, they will have as many as 11 different vaccines administered. Later, they will be given toxins as food. As a result, these children’s bodies will not be able to function at their optimal power—and they wonder where all the autism and dyslexia and attention-deficit disorders are coming from.

“Here at Oklahaven, we throw away the drugs, make sure they eat properly and [receive] chiropractic care. So, when we adjust these children, the power comes back on. We also have them creep and crawl on the floor in order to reorganize their disorganized bodies; these movements help them develop organized function. From there, and for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, the senses begin to kick in and the children begin to gain in intelligence. We capitalize on that with programs to encourage the development of intelligence.”

Describing in greater detail the basis of her chiropractic approach, Doscher explains that a child’s body must operate at a certain “velocity and vibration” in order to be healthy. “It’s like a spinning top,” she says. “But with enough insults to the body, that spinning top slows down and begins to wobble. Eventually, it falls and when that happens, the body turns in on itself. Our aim is to restore the body’s energy so that the top can spin at the right speed to hold itself upright. With enough time and effort, we can get that top spinning to the point that health is restored and body function is at its optimal level. For most of my patients, this takes between 3 to 6 years of treatment.”

The Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center staff: (clockwise) Bobby Doscher, DC, ND, president and CEO; Phyllis Libby, director of neurodevelopment; Michael Richards, ND, RN (obstetrics and gynecology); LaCinda Daugherty, office manager; Leah Sullivan, receptionist; and Paula Barnes, president of Oklahaven Parents’ Support Group.

By Way of Haute Couture
Doscher was recruited to Oklahaven in 1977 fresh out of Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa. “I agreed to work here for just 5 years, but I fell in love with the children and ended up staying 20 more beyond that,” she says. “And I know I won’t be leaving any time soon.”

The love Doscher feels for her patients arises at least in part from her ability to empathize with their plight. Once a sickly child herself, Philadelphia-born Doscher spent the first year of her life in leg braces. She eventually grew into an athletic teen, but remained prone to health problems.

In Her Spare Time...

In addition to her work at Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center in Oklahoma City, Bobby Doscher, DC, has been involved as a leader in many women’s groups and numerous professional and civic organizations. These include Sigma Phi Chi Sorority (she is a past-president of this long-standing chiropractic organization) and the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association. She also served on the board of the Ronald McDonald House of Oklahoma City, was a member of the Long Range Planning Committee for the Girl Scouts of America, held a post on the advisory board of a YWCA shelter for battered women called Passageway, and was on the board of Sugarcreek Camp (an organization that sends inner-city children on recreational adventures in the countryside). The achievements and accolades do not end there. In 2001, she was presented with the Dr. Larry Webster ChiroPediatric Lifetime Achievement Award for her “dedication and commitment to helping thousands of chiropractors adjust millions of children.” She was a 1999 finalist for “Best of the Best” honors in the Oklahoma Governor’s Conference for Women in Business, and for the chiropractic profession’s centennial year, she was chosen by the World Congress of Women Chiropractors as the “Woman Chiropractor of the Year”—not to mention one of the 12 greatest women in the history of chiropractic. In 1996, Doscher, who also is a doctor of naturopathy, received the Dr. Mabel Heath Palmer Award to honor her as the “Outstanding Lady Chiropractor of the Year.” In 1992, the state of Oklahoma honored Doscher with a proclamation designating a “Dr. Bobby Doscher Day” in recognition of her commitment to providing natural, drug-free health care for children. When not caring for the children of Oklahaven, Doscher lectures at chiropractic colleges, conventions, seminars, and organizations throughout the United States. Twice a year, Doscher travels abroad to places like Mexico and Jordan to share her expertise with those countries’ chiropractors and other health care providers.

As a young adult in the late 1960s, Doscher underwent a knee surgery that was unsuccessful. When told a second surgery would be necessary, she balked. At that point a friend suggested she try chiropractic. “Chiropractic gave me the health and strength that was missing,” she says.

Doscher, a former international flight attendant, was employed at the time as a special representative for a fashion house in New York City. The trappings of the job included a glamorous apartment overlooking the south side of Central Park, a personal maid, and a chauffeur. She decided to forgo all that to enroll at Palmer College of Chiropractic, so eager was she to become a chiropractor. “Chiropractic changed my life,” she says. “It made total sense to begin a career in that field.”

Doscher arrived at Palmer in 1973. It was there she met her future husband, William Doscher, DC. Oklahaven was celebrating its 15th anniversary when Doscher came aboard. It was founded by a volunteer group of six chiropractors and originally was known as the Children’s Chiropractic Health Center of Oklahoma. “The doctors added the name Oklahaven a short time later,” says Doscher. “They thought it would offer a more concise title to recognize the organization because the facility was a haven for the restoration of health.”

In 1979, Doscher and her husband assumed responsibility for Oklahaven’s daily operations. Two years later, Oklahaven gained a new facility, a gift bequeathed by Orville Witt, DC, and his wife, Ruth Witt, DC. In 1993, Oklahaven purchased a larger building, where it is now located. “The advantages of this current site are that we’re now more centrally located, and we have room for future expansion to serve even more children, conduct research, and educate people about the benefits of natural, drug-free health care and the chiropractic way of life,” says Doscher.

Parents come to Oklahaven from throughout the state, but increasingly from all across the nation and beyond. They find out about Oklahaven mainly through word-of-mouth or from the Internet. Some receive a referral from a chiropractor or other health care provider.

Gifts of Life
Oklahaven is a nonprofit organization, which has proved to be beneficial to the facility. Doscher tells. “Insurance doesn’t begin to cover the costs of care for our patients,” she says. “A typical policy covers 12 chiropractic visits a year—we exhaust those in 4 days. So, in order to keep the lights on, we have to rely on donations.”

For 40 years, Oklahaven’s philosophy has been that chiropractic should begin early in life, and prevention is the key to successful care. Doscher works with patient Sunny who has colic, digestive, and nursing problems.

Indeed, much of the income originates with small gifts from caring individuals. Other benefactors are chiropractic colleagues and chiropractic equipment vendors who have learned of Oklahaven’s financial needs through contact with Doscher at various professional conclaves and symposia in and out of the state. “We are deeply indebted to these supporters; without them, we couldn’t have lasted as long as we have,” Doscher acknowledges.

Desiring to attract more supporters and referrals, Oklahaven recently produced a video to tell, with images as well as words, the story of how the power of chiropractic is helping the center’s children. The video plays a key role in one of Oklahaven’s newer grassroots fund-raising activities, an event known as “Have-A-Heart,” which is held during Valentine’s Day week.

“What we do is ask chiropractors to show the video to patients in their offices and then ask for a donation to keep Oklahaven open and helping children,” says Doscher. “Patients who donate have their name put on a paper heart that is then displayed in their own chiropractor’s clinic. This gives chiropractors the opportunity to increase awareness of pediatric chiropractic within their practice, while at the same time, supporting an internationally recognized nonprofit organization.”

Doscher takes pride in the center’s refusal to seek or accept government funding. “There are always strings attached when you take money from the government,” she says. “We’ve declined to go that route because we don’t want the government involved in the running of Oklahaven. Also, this is an opportunity for parents to take back their reponsilibity.”

However, a source of disappointment for Doscher has been the decided lack of interest shown toward Oklahaven’s needs by local private businesses outside the field of chiropractic. She was particularly dismayed by the actions of United Way, as Doscher describes it, “tried three times to shut us down because they said we were not part of ‘the nonprofit community.’”

An increase in contributions, says Doscher, would be welcome not only to allow the center to do more, but also to permit the opening of satellite offices where support groups could gather.

“The future is the parent support group made up of our mothers who have done the journey,” she indicates. “This support group is willing to work with any mot her who needs help, to encourage one another, to continue a proper diet for their children and themselves, to work diligently at home with their child, and to extend the benefits of the amazing power of chiropractic that we’ve been able to achieve here at Oklahaven.” CP

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.

Bobby Doscher, DC, ND, can be reached via Oklahaven’s website: www.chiropractic4kids.com.