The Doctors Were Prepared to Let Him Die!

Last night on the TV program 60 Minutes here in New Zealand there was a well documented case about the experience of a New Zealand farmer who contracted a bad case of swine flu. For some unknown reason he got extremely sick and had to be put on a life support system.

The need for this was due to him being unable to breathe because his lungs were so congested. They showed x-rays of his lungs showing a ‘white out’ because of all the fluid. In order to keep him on the life support equipment they had him in an induced coma. This went on for many weeks during which time they diagnosed him with hairy cell leukemia.

During this period he was in the intensive care unit of Auckland Hospital. The family was called together for a ‘conference’ at the hospital and were informed that all the experts had considered his case and were unanimous that there was no hope of recovery, and they could not do anything further and that they planned to turn off the life support system on Friday and let him die. That was on the Wednesday.

Fortunately, for the farmer, he had three adult sons who were somewhat ‘persuasive’ with the doctors and insisted that the doctors had NOT tried everything they could to save their father and that they wanted to try some high-dose intravenous vitamin C.

NOTE: I have often written about the benefits of high-dose vitamin C for certain ailments but in an intravenous form only. The benefits of high-dose vitamin C taken orally for a normal healthy person is debatable as it can be a pro-oxidant.

Back to the story…

When the sons suggested that they try intravenous high-dose vitamin C they met stiff resistance from the doctors and the medical staff. They all said that it would not work and refused to do it because it was ‘not proven’. We have all heard that one before from the medical establishment, haven’t we?

Anyway, the sons pushed the point… what is there to lose? He was definitely going to die on Friday when they pulled the plug on the life support system. Apparently the meeting got pretty heated which is to be expected but the ‘officials/experts’ still refused to do it and the sons had to be ‘escorted’ out of the meeting.

The next day, someone on the medical committee had a pang of conscience and informed the sons that they were going to give it a try and started that morning with 25 grams of intravenous vitamin C and again that evening and again on Friday morning.

Now, as I mentioned Friday was the day that they were going to pull the plug and let him die and they were still intending to do that. As a preliminary to ‘pulling the plug,’ they did another x-ray and found that the lungs were starting to clear… so, the life support system was left on.

The 50 grams a day of intravenous vitamin C continued for another few days and he continued to improve and they were able to disconnect the life support system as he was able to breathe on his own.

He continued to improve for the next week and then had a relapse and started to deteriorate. The family was horrified to find that the doctors had stopped the twice-daily infusions of the vitamin C because they were still not convinced it had contributed to his recovery.

They maintained that the reason for his recovery the previous week was because they had made him ‘prone’. In other words, they turned him over onto his stomach. No explanation why they had not done that before. Anyway, after his sons got ‘on the job’ again the intravenous vitamin C was resumed, and he started to recover again.

A couple of weeks later he was well enough to be transferred to a hospital closer to their farm which is when a new battle began. The doctors there refused to give him the intravenous vitamin C based on the premise that ‘it was not proven’. The doctor in this case was adamant that it would not help and therefore they would not give it. He crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling and refused to budge.

This time the family engaged a top lawyer from Wellington who threatened high court action if the vitamin C infusions were not resumed. So, the hospital began it again. Net result is that not only did the farmer make a 100% recovery but all signs of the hairy cell leukemia also vanished. He is back to flying his own plane on his farm and fishing from his boat and is now in great shape… although he was supposed to be dead according to all the experts.

I tell you this story because this is a situation that happens all the time in hospitals throughout the world, where families lose their loved ones through the arrogance of doctors/experts who refuse to budge from their pharmaceutical mindset. They believe unless a therapy revolves around a patented drug that it is of little value.

I find it hard to understand how highly educated and intelligent people can be so ignorant to allow their minds to be so closed to the possibilities of an alternative solution, or as in this case a cure.

Unfortunately, not all patients have sons or a family member who is able to be so forceful in ensuring that their father is given a decent chance of living. They are labeling the farmer as a miracle man… but, he is not… he is an individual who is fortunate in having sons who were strong enough to defy the combined ‘wisdom’ of the ‘experts’ who were prepared to condemn their father to die.

In my opinion, these bigoted ‘experts’ who refuse what could be lifesaving therapies and lose patients who could possibly have survived should be tried for ‘murder’.

One final comment! What saved this farmer was several hundred dollars worth of a natural substance when other drugs which cost tens of thousands of dollars failed.