Folk "Remedy"

Coin rubbing puzzles M.D.s

It looked like a clear case of child abuse. The youngster had bruises on back and chest, apparently the result of a severe beating. Horrified observers reported the case to authorities, who prosecuted the bewildered Vietnamese refugee parents. But the trial ended soon enough when a physician testified that the child was only the "victim" of an old folk remedy: coin rubbing.

The widespread custom, called cqo gio (Vietnamese for "scratch the wind"), is used for everything from colds to convulsions. A medicated oil or ointment is rubbed into the skin, which is then firmly stroked with a coin, comb or spoon until contusions appear. The practice seems harmless, says Pediatrician Gentry Yeatman of the Tacoma, Wash., Madigan Army Medical Center, who became familiar with the massage technique during a 1975 stint at a refugee camp in Indiantown Gap, Pa. In a report published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Yeatman warns that most American physicians are unfamiliar with the remedy and apt to mistake its signs for battering. That possibility, as well as doctors' skepticism about the value of coin rubbing, has caused many immigrants to avoid needed medical care.

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