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Local Amish Community Hosts
Burn & Wound Seminar in Easton
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal November 17, 2021
The local Amish community in Fort Fairfield and Easton hosted a Burn & Wound Seminar at J&J Mini Barns in Easton on Wednesday, November 10.
They invited caregivers, John Troyer and John Borntrager to present the John Keim method of burn treatment during the day-long event.
John Keim created a burn and wound treatment in the 1970s and perfected it over thirty years. The treatment consists of a proprietary salve called B & W Ointment containing olive oil, comfrey root, aloe vera gel, bees wax, and myrrh, among other natural compounds. The salve is applied to simple burdock leaves, which grow in abundance in most places in the U.S., which are then applied to the burn or wound helping to heal the skin faster and better than the artificial chemicals and procedures used by establishment western medicine today.
Recently, a local Amish man had a severe saw mill accident which mutilated his hand. He received treatment from Dr. Robert Bassett MD, at Cary Medical Center in Caribou, to reset the bones in his hand and the hospital allowed his family to use the B & W ointment and burdock root combination to dress the wound and speed healing.
Dr. Bassett spoke at the seminar and was amazed at the speed and recovery of the wound using the all natural formulation. “This is a wonderful outcome of a terrible problem and the B & W wound care was an essential part of the healing,” said Dr. Bassett. “The results were spectacular. They were dramatic - you could say they were miraculous - they were really not expected. The healing was so quick, so profound and so healthy. There was no infection and the skin healed with normal skin.”
One of the primary ingredients in the B & W ointment is Comfrey root. Comfrey, also known by our ancestors as “knit bone” contains phytochemicals which skin and bone cells use in the healing process to speed growth and recovery. The ointment also contains myrrh, which is a powerful antiseptic and disinfectant which has been used for thousands of years—even back to the days of the Old Testament—as an effective antibiotic treatment. Pharmaceutical companies have chosen not to use these ingredients in their products because they cannot patent them and make obscene profits as they are derived from plants that are essentially weeds that grow abundantly in many places of the world. The same goes for burdock leaf, which grows for free pretty much everywhere.
According to Phyllis and James Balch’s book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing (2009 Avery books), burdock has been found to have powerful antioxidant properties and has antibacterial and antifungal properties. Burdock has been used successfully to treat blood poisoning and restoring liver and gall bladder function. Burdock may also help prevent cancer by helping to control cell mutation. Again, western medicine doesn’t promote burdock use because there is no money in it since it is a weed that grows in great abundance.
Troyer and Borntrager gave a presentation on how to properly clean the burn or wound using simple gauze and olive oil. They taught from a workbook, which was available at the seminar, on the process of treating and dressing burns and wounds. The ointment is applied to a burdock leaf which has been scalded in hot water. The leaf is then applied to the wound and wrapped with gauze. They said there also appears to be a pain relieving effect derived from the leaf after it is applied to the wound. Changing the burdock leaf dressing every two hours is recommended as the burdock leaf seems to draw out toxins and foreign particles from the wound as the ointment stimulates healing of the skin and muscle cells.
The two then demonstrated the proper way to dress and wrap wounds on various parts of the body.
Also speaking at the event were Mark Stoll, from Alymer, Ontario, who presented the introduction to the seminar; and Dan Schwartz, from Linesville, Pennsylvania, who spoke on the beneficial effects of oil and massage therapy and how volunteer caregivers working in shifts can help in the healing process. “I, a lot of times, look at it like an old fashioned barn raising. But, instead of a hundred guys for one day, we need one guy for a hundred days,” said Schwartz. “Volunteers has not been our problem. The people walk up in a line and say put my name on Tuesday, put my name on Wednesday. We have not had a issue getting volunteers.”
Schwartz said with the oil therapy, they are actually doing three types of therapy: skin therapy, physical therapy and emotional therapy. He said emotional therapy is just as important as the former two. “At this point, a burn patient like that pretty much feels worthless. They’ve created all these bills, they’ve went through all this pain, the trauma—I don’t think I could grasp. But, by everyone taking the time to go over there and show them that we care, we love them; massage, visit, that is probably one of the bigger benefits of oil therapy.”
Throughout the seminar the various presenters emphasized the need to take a victim to a higher level of care immediately, such as a local hospital, whenever necessary since the caregivers they train are not doctors or nurses.
Some hospitals, like Cary Medical Center, have embraced the idea of working with alternate therapies and allowing them to be integrated in the healing process where applicable.
For more information on obtaining the Burn Therapy Workbook, write to Sunrise Plain Communities Service, 205 Graves Road, Mills, PA 16937.
This writer has, with the presenters’ permission, recorded video and audio of the seminar and will be producing a multi-part documentary to be posted on YouTube and censorship-free Rumble in the near future. Part 1: Introduction has already been uploaded to YouTube. It has been Age-restricted to over 18 for graphic wound images, so you will have to sign in to YouTube to watch it. Future links will be published in Fort Fairfield Journal as they are uploaded.
The Burn & Wound Ointment discussed here is available in the Northern Maine area from Noah Yoder, 681 Forest Avenue, Fort Fairfield, Maine 04742.
