Part 1: HOW MODERN MEDICINE KILLED MY BROTHER

[Guest guest]

(The following article was written by Dr. Blaylock, a board-

certified neurosurgeon. He tells the story of the untimely and

unnecessary death of his brother due to the flawed thinking of our

current medical society. Though this story pertains to CANCER, I

know that MOST of us can certainly identify with some of the idiocy

that went on..we have experienced some of this ourselves as thyroid

patients!! And we are forced to form groups JUST like this one to

educate each other. Janie)

Earlier this month, I traveled to Monroe, La., to bury my dear older

brother, . was not only a wonderful brother, but he

was a man with a heart of gold who always put the needs of others

and his family before his own. , unfortunately, began smoking

when he was in law school, something I warned him about repeatedly.

Approximately four months ago, I noticed that he was getting hoarse.

He brushed it off and continued his hectic schedule. When I again

visited him a month later, he was still having the hoarseness. I

advised him to see someone about it. He took my advice and saw a

local physician group. The doctor was actually too busy to see him

and had his nurse see him.

Before he went to the doctor, I told him it was critical that he

have the doctor examine his vocal cords. The nurse looked in his

throat, but wasn't trained to examine his vocal cords.

Two more weeks passed during which his doctors assured him that it

was nothing more than bronchitis. They treated him with steroids and

antibiotics, but no one examined his vocal cords.

Misdiagnosis After Misdiagnosis

I pleaded with him to see an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, but he

trusted his doctor. For the next two and a half months, he was

treated with steroids and antibiotics. Finally, he developed

pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital, what was supposed to be

one of the best hospitals in the area.

At the time, I was on vacation in North Carolina. He told me the

doctors told him he had a bruit in his carotid artery, a sign of

atherosclerosis, and that they wanted to do an arteriogram. I

advised him against it, suspecting he, in fact, had a cancer and

attempting an arteriogram on someone with such poor pulmonary

function would be disastrous. The arteriogram was cancelled. Still,

no one had examined his vocal cords.

When I arrived, I called a friend of mine I had gone to medical

school with, and asked him to see . Prior to this, I asked

the doctor in charge of his respiratory care to add vitamins and

magnesium to his IV. While he promised he would, he didn't. Every

attempt to get ' laboratory studies was met with obstruction

based on the Patient Privacy Act. He soon signed the necessary forms

and finally I was able to see this closely guarded data.

When I asked his doctor why the magnesium had not been added to his

IV, word was sent back to me through the nurse that she had never

heard of using magnesium. I sent copies of selected articles showing

the immense value of magnesium on pulmonary and cardiovascular

function. Still there was no response from the doctor. Not once did

this doctor call me, or answer my pages.

Finally, The Diagnosis is Made

My ENT friend did a very good workup and discovered had a

large cancer in his left lower lung that was impinging on the nerve

to his vocal cord, causing one cord to be completely paralyzed. At

that point, a pulmonary physician did a bronchial biopsy and

diagnosed a poorly differentiated lung cancer, with no evidence of

spread. Once the diagnosis was made, an oncologist was naturally

called, who wanted to start a complete course of chemotherapy drugs.

I advised my brother against it, knowing the cancer would not

respond and the toxic drugs would dramatically increase his

breathing difficulties, hastening his death. He took my advice.

Then, a radiation oncologist suggested radiating the tumor to shrink

it. I wasn't supportive of this treatment, but my brother wanted

something done.

Soon afterward, he started five and a half weeks of radiation

treatment. At that point, I started him on a nutrition program and

he began to feel better, his breathing improved and he was able to

go back to work.

However, the oncologist told he was losing too much weight

and he needed to eat more bread, pasta and even sweets to gain

weight. , at the time of his diagnosis, was grossly

overweight and needed to lose the weight. I told him that losing the

weight would make it easier for him to breath. I had given him a

copy of my book on the nutritional treatment of cancer and told him

it was critical he follow the advice exactly.

Unfortunately, decided he didn't like the taste of the

blenderized vegetables and would do what the oncologist suggested.

He began to eat ice cream, cookies and other items that cancer

patients should never eat. Once he finished the radiation

treatments, he developed fever, severe shortness of breath and had

to be admitted to the hospital.

The " Evidence Based " Physicians Take Over

Sadly, he chose a hospital that was even more rigid in its control

of the patient than his previous hospital. It was a local hospital

affiliated with the Louisiana State University Medical Center.

was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he had to be

intubated and placed on a respirator.

Again, I was out of town, in fact, giving a talk at the Westin Price

Conference in Washington, D.C., on nutrition. As before, I could not

pry any information about my brother concerning his laboratory test,

chest x-rays or the reason he was deteriorating so rapidly. His

doctor refused to call me, despite numerous attempts by my sister

and me to have her call.

In all my 26 years of neurosurgical practice, I have never seen a

situation where a doctor treating a gravely ill patient would not

discuss the case with a family member who is a physician. It was as

if my brother belonged to the hospital and his physician and the

family was to be kept in the dark.

Finally, I was able to speak to one of the consulting doctors, who

told me my brother had a very low hemoglobin count. I asked him if

he was giving him blood.

After a long pause, he answered, " No. " I responded, " Well, with him

unable to breath, don't you think it would be a good idea to

increase his oxygen-carrying capacity by giving him blood? " He

mumbled in agreement. I told him that I wanted my sister and her son

to give the blood and that they were in the process of doing that as

we spoke. He agreed. Yet, before my sister could have the blood

transferred to , the doctors had already given him blood from

unknown donors.

I rushed to my brother's side and found him awake, on a respirator

and very frightened. He was receiving no magnesium in his IV and was

getting a tube feeding-formula that contains significant doses of

glutamate, something known to cause pulmonary deterioration. Again,

his doctor never heard of that.

An Incredible Admission

At that point, was lapsing into a coma. Still his doctor had

not contacted me or communicated with me in any way. Disgusted, I

told the nurse to have her come to the room and I didn't want any

excuses. I asked to speak to her in private. She insisted a nurse

remain with her. I told her of my absolute amazement that a treating

physician would not speak to the family, especially when one of the

family members was a doctor. She denied she had ever gotten a

message, which was a bold-faced lie.

I then told her that I wanted my brother to have certain supplements

that had been shown in careful medical studies to improve lung

function. She had never heard of them, but agreed to give them if

her superior, the Chief of Medicine, agreed. Therefore, I gave her a

stack of medical abstracts and told her to let me know if there was

a problem.

Within five minutes, she returned and stated that he would not agree

to it and responded that the Chief of Medicine told her that he

would not agree to change the treatment based on abstracts. I told

her I wanted to talk with him that minute.

He arrived, looking very arrogant and self-important. I decided that

I would try to calmly discuss with him my brother's case and why he

needed the supplements. Again, I asked for a private meeting. He

wanted ' doctor to be present.