Hands of Care, Inc. 
When children are born with special needs, diseases or handicaps, no one can truly describe or understand what the families are going through in their specific situations. But Drs. Ray and Mary Marshall, founders of Hands of Care, Inc., reach out to those families not only as doctors but as parents who were also once given a grim prognosis and no hope.
“We don’t pretend to know what every situation is like for all of the families we minister to,” Dr. Mary says. “But we do know what it is like to feel hopeless and rejected. Hands of Care, Inc., a 501(c)3, isn’t about giving away free care because of financial need. It’s about divine assignments from our Heavenly Father—being connected to the families who need the most help with what we have to offer.”
A neatly packaged, one-sentence description of Hands of Care is almost impossible. What they have to offer is living, breathing testimonies of hope, starting with their own miracle child.
“Our eldest son, Isaac, who just turned 16, experienced a traumatic birth,” Dr. Mary says. “After 37 minutes with no oxygen and no heartbeat, the doctors told us he would not live. After 12 days in the NICU, they sent us home with a bottle of Phenobarbital, said there was no chance of recovery and please don’t come back because there is nothing we can do. As for any first-time parents, being physicians or not, what we went through and experienced isn’t really describable.”
Today, Isaac can speak, walk with assistance and has no mental or emotional challenges. Despite being diagnosed with 19 neurological disorders, all of them incurable, he overcame them all except mild cerebral palsy and requires no medications.
In light of Isaac’s recovery, the Marshalls bring genuine life experience not just medical training to their Hands of Care treatments. “What we offer cannot be learned in a classroom or from a textbook, and it cannot be bought,” Dr. Mary says. “Our motto is ‘Pioneering Recovery from the Incurable.’ Isaac’s recovery is truly miraculous! We can share that hope of recovery with other parents because we have actually experienced it ourselves.”
With Hands of Care’s help, other parents and children are also experiencing their own miraculous victories.
Take baby Harper, diagnosed with torticollis (a twisted neck with the head tipped to one side). The back of her skull was deformed and because she had no head control, she was not developing. The usual treatment of physical therapy was not working, and in extreme cases, the other option is surgery. Therapy did not help her, but after treatments from Hands of Care, Harper made a full recovery and recently took her first steps.
“First steps are a milestone for any family,” Dr. Mary says, “but especially precious for this family. Without the treatments, Harper would most likely end up with developmental disabilities. But God had another plan.”
As mentioned above, the treatments truly are divine interventions. Dr. Ray Marshall says the Lord led him to design and patent equipment for the treatments, specifically for children with special needs, allowing for very gentle, specific alignments around the brainstem with consistency and accuracy.
“The results many, many times are miraculous,” Dr. Mary says. “I have personally seen with my own eyes, children walk out of wheelchairs, blind eyes begin to see, children speak their first words, and seizures stop to never return.”
However, results aren’t guaranteed, and there are times Dr. Mary has held the hands of parents when nothing happened, and the child left in the same condition in which they came, but that doesn’t stop the Marshalls from persevering. They have seen too many recover.
“It’s not really possible for another person to look you in the face and tell you not to give up hope when they have never overcome anything themselves,” Dr. Mary says.
With one in every 12 children in the U.S. receiving disability benefits, Hands of Care is doing its part to reduce that statistic. “The rising cost of health care for these families is overwhelming,” Dr. Mary says. “Again, Hands of Care isn’t based upon financial need, but being able to help reduce the cost of medical care is certainly a blessing to most families. What matters most of all is the children get better and recover.”
The children they assist may be receiving the healing and recovery, but the Marshalls feel they get as much out of each experience as the kids. “We can’t wait to see how each kiddo is doing and celebrate their recovery,” Dr. Mary says. “We learn so much from each family. Recently, we had a mom named Lori. Her baby had a tracheotomy. She wasn’t going to be able to hear his voice anymore.
“She told me, ‘Instead of mourning the loss of hearing his voice, I celebrated because I could hear his heartbeat.’ Sometimes the greatest treasures in life are found in a thankful heart.”
At the time of this interview, Dr. Mary received a text from a mom who needed some encouragement. “We are going to make a house call this afternoon,” she said. “The seizures have started again… and [the mom] sounds like she could use a Starbucks and a hug.”
Truly multi-faceted in its duties, that’s Hands of Care at work.
For more information about Hands of Care, Inc., call (918) 272-1888.
