Dear Joanna,

I may have not introduced myself. My name is Alexandra. I am the
mother of a severely Lead poisoned 8 year old girl.I have been dealing
with this for nearly 7 years. That goes to show despite how active one
is in this realm it is still hard to find other people to talk to
about this.


In almost every US state MD's will NOT put children through any form
of chelation unless their blood lead Levels are above 45 ug/dL
(micrograms per deciliter)their are lots of smaller clinics and
practitioners who will do "outpatient" chelation, but I do NOT
recommend it.

The product used to "chelate" or remove Lead is know as EDTA or DMSA
aka Succimer. It has been around since the 1940's and only truly works
for Lead removal despite it's recent use by many for attempted removal
of Mercury in some cases of Autism.

Some MD's will do oral chelation depending on the patients Lead level,
but ANYTHING done should be done in a medically controlled
environment. I say this because as I am a person who leans more
heavily towards natural and alternative medicine, I have heard and
seen many sad stories of well meaning parents taking their kids to
private respected clinics and MD's and kids winding up with more
health issues such as severe Kidney damage and worse because the
chelation was done improperly. That said, you really need to see if
you can gain ANY access to the boys medical records. Any Lead level is
bad depending on the person's susceptibility. If the children already
had a known history of low IQ's any Lead level will have an effect on
an already hindered intellect. In the US the old "safe" level was <10.
It is NOW <5.

I have been through 2 rounds of hospitalized chelation with my
daughter and 2 rounds of oral chelation following release, however the
damage was done anyway. Chelating agents act like a magnet to draw the
Lead out of the body and "encapsulates" it so it can pass safely out
of the body through the excretory organs. The process cannot remove
Lead from bone, only the bloodstream, which is where it can still do
damage. It must be done slowly, carefully and monitored. My daughter
was hooked up to a slow IV drip for 10 hours a day at the Cleveland
Clinic, although some places still do injections in the legs (which is
outdated and not as carefully controlled)

Do you have IQ and medical records for the children? The Lead level
could be at 14 now in the one child, but if it was much higher at one
point that could have been what impacted the IQ. You really need a
baseline to know what you are dealing with. It IS possible that the
Lead could have had some neurological effects on his behavior now.
Also as you mentioned there was obviously some problems in the home
the boys were in. That too could have radical effect. The parent(S)
behavior and treatment of the boys and if there was known Leaded paint
or DUST in the home...(my daughter was poisoned from the microscopic
Lead Dust particles that manifested as Asthma for 10 months BEFORE we
found out she had Lead poisoning. Being a Clean freak that cause me to
have my own mental depression for quite awhile...)

The 12 year old who acts like a 6-7 year old, has that child been
classified as mentally challenged?

Really sounds like these poor kids need Neuro-Psychcological
evaluations done by bot ha neurologist and a psychologist. the
neurologist can order labs and do testing to see if there truly are
neurological problems. the Psych can evaluate for Autism, ADD, abuse
issues etc. sounds daunting, but it may be what's needed. Are these
children in protective custody? that may be an issue of getting these
tests paid for then...


I really hope I could help.

Alexandra in Lakewood






--- In LeadedKids@yahoogroups.com, "jwright2" <groupie2@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Angie,
>
> I am not looking for legal or even medical advice, but I would like
> to know if chelation can stop the continued damage caused to a
> child's brain.
>
> From what I have read, as long as a child's lead level continues to
> remain above the threshold of 10, neurological damage continues. I
> also read on WebMD that there are 7 peer reviewed medical articles
> and that they are trying to lower the threshold to 5.
>
> If so, then what steps should a parent take to have the lead
> removed? We are presenting solutions to the court but none of our
> team are lawyers, so we are simply looking for solutions.
>
> I know the chelation will not undo the damage that has been done, or
> from what I have read, lead causes permanent, neurological brain
> damage, primarily retardation. That would lead me to think that if
> the lead stays in their system, the damage would continue.
>
> We do not know what we are working with until the lead is gone... I
> think.. <:o) That is why I joined this group because you all appear
> to be parents who are dealing with real life problems caused by lead.
>
> If anyone can give me some info, I would greatly appreciate it.
>
> Joanna
>
>
>