Peeling the Onion: Reversing the Ravages of Stroke

A Father/Daughter Journey Through A Revolutionary Medical Treatment For Stroke

There is new hope for the seven hundred thousand people who are crippled by a stroke every year.

"Peeling the Onion: Reversing the Ravages of Stroke" follows a father/daughter journey through the description of a revolutionary new treatment for stroke. The book is a combination of a poignant narrative about the author’s father’s recovery while undergoing therapy and observations from neurologist William M. Hammesfahr, M.D.

Recovery has occurred in ninety-four percent of the thousands of patients he has treated. No patient has gotten worse, an astounding record for any physician. Dr. Hammesfahr was nominated for the 1999 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his "pioneering work in the area of closed head injury and stroke."

This enormous breakthrough in medicine uses common FDA approved medicines. It is simple to understand and non-invasive.

The author kept a meticulous daily journal while her father, Dr. Edward W. Robinson (Woody) was treated by the Hammesfahr Neurological Institute. Woody suffered a devastating stroke eight years previously and was in constant pain. He wanted to die.

In the first three weeks of treatment her father lost the excruciating pain that made him cry himself to sleep at night. His wit and personality returned as did his peripheral vision and sense of taste and smell. He also began singing, loudly, again. His arm relaxed and he could bend his knee. He wanted to live.

Her father’s experience was not an isolated case. At the Hammesfahr Neurological Institute people enter in wheelchairs and leave on foot. They enter mute and leave talking.

Families, caregivers and stroke patients will find this book important as it can change the course of ruined lives. There is hope where there was once resignation.

Robin Robinson has written for newspapers since the early 1960’s. She wrote a weekly bicycle column for the Chicago Daily News called "Ride On." Shortly after that she began a weekly column for them called "Parent and Child Together." It was syndicated by Princeton Features and ran for ten years in more than one hundred newspapers as "Robin’s World," illustrated by Kay Chorao. Since then she has written travel stories for the Chicago Sun Times and other media. She taught high school Advanced Placement writing courses and a four-year Theater Major program for thirty years. She recently retired.

William Hammesfahr, M.D., is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Honors Program in Medical Education. He did his residency at The College of Virginia in neurology and neurosurgery and is Board Certified in Neurology and Pain Management. In 1989 he founded the Hammesfahr Neurological Institute in Clearwater, Florida. Dr Hammesfahr was nominated for the 1999 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for advances in the treatment of brain injury and stroke.

He is an examiner for Social Security in the State of Florida and a reviewer of the Peer Review Board for Grant Funding by the U.S. Department of Education with Special Expertise in credentialing for Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Disability Rehabilitation. He was named Reviewer and Chief Reviewer.

He received commendations and recognition for his work with the following organizations: Disabled Police Veterans Assoc., National Stroke Assoc., Brain Injury Assoc., Vietnam Veterans of America, American Police Hall of Fame, and the State of Florida Department of Labor and Employment Security, Office of Disability Determinations.