I wrote on DU last week that my husband
was in Hospice. He passed away three days ago. Here is a letter my son wrote but is still trying to figure out where to send it for the greatest impact.. He doesn't want to name names or specific doctors.
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My father died yesterday. Although he had cancer, I believe he did not ultimately die from it. He died from poor quality, mismanaged healthcare in Central Florida and from his physician-prescribed treatment to cancer. Like sheep led to slaughter, the current state of healthcare, and the sanctioned treatments for cancer only hastened my father’s death. I assume this is widespread.
I have learned two important things from this experience. First, the standard treatments for cancer do not work for the great majority of patients and, two; do not solely trust your doctor to make the critical decisions that will cost you your life.
This is what happened to my Dad. My Dad had a bout with skin cancer two years ago in which he received surgery and radiation. Although, the surgery disfigured his face, he was assured they got all the cancer and that the "margins" were good. After the procedures, there were no additional pet scans or tests to determine if the cancer was contained. Not until he starting losing his balance last summer, and underwent an MRI, was he diagnosed with 3 brain lesions. We should have realized before this point that a pro-active approach to monitoring his cancer should have been prescribed. What was the doctor thinking? Was this standard procedure? We should have cried malpractice!
When the vital information was not forthcoming from the doctors we should have asked many crucial questions. Such as what specific cancer does he have? What stage is the cancer? What is the prognosis? What are the treatments? What are the success rates for the treatments? What other alternative treatments are there? The doctors did not disclose any vital information that my father needed. There was a surreal sense of nonchalance. They didn’t even mention the word cancer…perhaps the word lesions sounds less dire? This whole dance around the truth seemed protocol.
I am pretty sure most people simply go along thinking that their doctor knows best but there were no viable answers- only more horrible treatments. After the cancer spread unchecked for two years, the doctor ordered lethal doses of radiation that quickly shut down his body.
When his body failed and he entered the hospital, the quality of care did not improve. When he stopped eating food at the hospital, someone of authority (not GOD) decided not to let him eat or drink. This was not even discussed with our family nor would it have been my father’s decision. He was in the fight of his life and he was determined not to lose. After my father told my sister that he was starving, she demanded that they immediately implement a feeding tube. The nonchalant delay of a week had passed without food and his condition worsened. We were met by the doctor’s nurse practitioner who simply rolled here eyes and said that it was "criminal" to feed him! Why she was even involved at this point will anger me forever.
From there, he entered into hospice and was very well taken care of at Tuscany House in Summerfield where he died on Wednesday March 27th. The people at this facility had a great deal of compassion. As epidemic levels of cancer patients arrive at hospice, I can only imagine what they may think is going on with healthcare in Central Florida…
If anyone studies the survival statistics of various cancers treated with the sanctioned treatments of radiation and chemotherapy, they would be flabbergasted. They would find that radiation and chemo treatments for many people only hasten their death. The number of cures is slim to nil. They say hindsight is 20-20, but if I knew this earlier I would have researched and attempted an alternative cancer treatment. Alternative cancer treatments appear to have major potential with none of the negative side-effects of of radiation and chemo. Big Pharma and Government have such a strangle-hold on OUR healthcare due to the gigantic revenue streams that researching alternative treatments are purposely suppressed. Thousands of lives are at risk by suppressing this truth and subsequently these companies, the government and the healthcare system as a whole are complicit. When 1 out of every 2 males and 1 out of every 3 females develop cancer in their lifetimes, this is a great travesty.
In memory of my Dad, I have put these thoughts to paper for the sake of humanity with the hope that I can help at least one person if not more. In summary, for the sake of your own long-term health (and that of your loved ones) please understand that big phama, and by proxy- your doctors do not have your best interest at stake. Consider your doctor’s advice only in context to your own research for your own course of treatment. And please don’t get sick in Central Florida.
Rough Draft 3-29-13
= new reply since forum marked as read
No words. 
Such a devastating loss.
I try to concentrate on the positive things in my life
I send to you my sympathy to you and your son. It is very hard to lose a loved one and even harder when you know they were not given the best care.
Not sure where you can send it, just wanted to say how sad we are to hear of this.
I am so sorry for what you and your family suffered. I am so sorry for your loss. The letter your son wrote should be read by everyone in Congress. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank your son so much for writing such a compelling expose on the Health Care System in Central Florida(sounds Horrendous).. and his Excellent Advice regarding "..consider your doctor’s advice only in context to your own research for your own course of treatment".
Best of Luck getting it seen by as many people as possible!
We've lost two members of our family to cancer. My oldest sister twenty years ago to brain cancer and my brother in law six years ago to pancreatic cancer - both in Central Florida.
In both cases the family found that they had to be proactive and not to wait for the doctors and medical personnel to provide information or answers. Someone in the family has to be a pit bull about going after the needed information. In our family's cases, it was my older sister who was the advocate for both relatives. She researched the cancers, the various treatments, the quality of care at the available facilities, the individual doctors, and every aspect of possible care.
It's absurd that the time that should be spent with your loved ones when they most need you is instead spent doing the job that our expensive health care system should be doing.
to your family.
& the American Cancer Society. I could feel your son's love for his father in his words. I'm sorry for your & your son's pain.
My mom had breast cancer in 2000 at age 69. She had a good surgeon who performed a double mastectomy, but after her first chemotherapy treatment, she became deathly ill the following day. She almost died & was sent by ambulance to the hospital. She refused to have another chemotherapy treatment & the cancer never came back.
I suspect the surgeon's work was that good, but I also attribute her good fortune to the fact that he referred her to an oncologist who monitored her on a monthly basis for the first year; every three months following that, until the visits waned to every six months, then was eventually dismissed as "cancer-free". While under the oncologist's care, Mom had to have chest x-rays on a regular basis.
I have a feeling that, as a result of your son's letter, an investigation is in that Florida hospital's future in regard to your husband's treatment.
I wish you & your family the best; hoping for strength & comfort for you all.
before she died. but luckily, she still had all her faculties, so she filed a complaint with the management on the behalf of all the residents of the skilled nursing facility. and we started going to see her in the middle of the night to make sure she was taken care of. it broke my heart to see her in that place
and she was like a sister to you. it's a very difficult to lose a contemporary, and someone who has been in your life for such a long time. yes...we can grieve for each other, and honor each others' grief. i still cry like a baby on the anniversaries and milestones. you did a very nice thing by honoring your sister-in-law and expressing your love for her.
I wish he had gotten better care so you and your son could be at peace with such a terrible loss.
Please accept my condolences on the loss of your beloved husband. What your family has been through is no less than criminal. Your son is a real credit to you and your family, and I wish for you all peace and comfort in the memories you share of Mr. spartan61.
K&R
He had Hodgskin ...not non-Hodgkin which is more difficult to to cure. My son did Chemo and radiation and was declared cured by Christmas. 
)))
So I hope your husband has the same good fortune. Sending you all healing vibes.
I want you to turn this over in your mind:
Survival rates for cancer are determined like this: From the time of DIAGNOSIS to the time of DEATH. Think about that. They don't talk about "cures" for cancer. They talk about survival rates, and once again, remember: Survival rate is determined by time of DIAGNOSIS to DEATH.
Now, if you know that your treatments for a disease do NOT work, and do NOT prolong survival time, what would you do, if you don't want to change those treatments, because you make a lot of money from them, but you want to INCREASE "survival"?
Come on, now, think about it. It's pretty simple--you can't stop people from dying from the disease because your treatments don't work. But there's one thing that you CAN do: Encourage EARLY DIAGNOSIS.
This has two effects: it increases the money you make from diagnostic tests, AND it increases survival time, because survival is defined as time from DIAGNOSIS to DEATH. Got it?
Now, let's talk about cancer treatments--they are THE most toxic treatments in the world, and they haven't changed much in fifty years. In fact, most chemo drugs are KNOWN carcinogens. Haven't you ever noticed how people who "beat" cancer once usually get it again? Radiation, same thing--carcinogenic.
Now, let's talk about some basic biochemistry. Remember the Krebs Cycle and the electron transport chain (oxidative phosphorylation)? You should have learned about this process in your first biology class. It's the process by which you derive energy from your food. Remember ATP? Adenosine triphosphate? It is the cellular currency for energy and every cell must make it, because every cell must have it to live.
Through the process of oxidative phosphorylation, ADP is turned into ATP. This starts out with the cleaving of glucose in the cytoplasm, which produces four molecules of ATP, but uses two molecules of ATP, so the net yield is two ATP and two pyruvate. In a cancer cell, everything stops right there. Bam, you're done.
Have you ever seen a cancer patient in cachexia? Cachexia is a big word for wasting. The cancer patient is wasting away, not because they don't take in enough nutrients. They do. But because the process by which they get their ATP is stopped at glycolysis, which takes place in the cytoplasm. This process yields four molecules of ATP, but two are used up in the process and the net yield is only two molecules of ATP, period. Not a very efficient process, so no matter how much food you take in, you're going to starve, because you're not using it efficiently.
Now, normally, the pyruvate from glycolysis goes into the mitochondria and through the process of aerobic respiration, produces 38 to 39 molecules of ATP. But, in a cancer cell, the process stops before it can get into the mitochondria. In a cancer cell, the mitochondria are turned OFF. Not only can they NOT perform the final function of turning your food into ATP, but they do it efficiently, producing 38-39 molecules of ATP. And, not only can they NOT efficiently produce this cellular currency for energy, but the mitochondria contain the instructions for cell death. NORMAL cell death. Cells are programmed to die when they are no longer viable. But cancer cells are immortal; they do not die even when they cannot perform their proper function. Because they don't have mitochondria that function properly; their mitochondria are turned OFF.
Think about that. And then think about what you could do to cause the mitochondria to turn back on. It's pretty basic. The answer is obvious: Increase pyruvate levels in the cell.
I'm not talking about anything world-shaking here. This is basic biochemistry. Very basic. Something you should learn in high school, if not your first year of college. Glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, aerobic respiration--all of it is taught early on.
As for the difference between a cancer cell and a normal cell, Warburg won the Nobel Prize for medicine way back in 1931 writing about this. The processes by which cancer is diagnosed, in fact, uses this fact--that cancer cells make their ATP by using glycolysis instead of oxidative phosphorylation--to image tumors.
WHY haven't we cured cancer then? I'll tell you why: Because cancer is an industry. That industry does not profit from cures; it profits from treating cancer as a chronic disease. I'm not talking about some massive conspiracy; I'm talking about a system that refuses to acknowledge anything except what it benefits from. That includes research, education of physicians, drug formulation and development--everything involved in the treatment of this disease, is geared towards profit, not a cure.
Recently, a doctor out of Johns Hopkins, Young Ko, found that a form of pyruvate, 3-bromopyruvate, killed cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. She is no longer at Johns Hopkins, and her work has been taken from her. 3-bromopyruvate is a very cheap, unpatentable (it's older than 20 years as a chemical) compound. It would cost less than twenty cents a day to treat a cancer patient with it and the result would be a complete cure within less than two weeks. But her collegues at Johns Hopkins filed the patent on her compound and they are now trying to "reformulate" it into a new compound that is patentable. Why would they do that, knowing that people are suffering and dying from this disease every few minutes? Well, because you can't make money from an old compound; and if you can change just a tiny piece of it, you can patent the "new" compound and make millions.
Will we ever see ANY form of pyruvate used for the treatment of cancer? Probably not in my lifetime, your lifetime, your children's lifetimes, your grandchildren's lifetimes, your great grandchildren's lifetimes, your great grandchildren's lifetimes, if ever. Why is that? Because the companies that make the toxins used to treat cancer right now just change one little molecule on their compounds whenever the patent is due to run out and come up with a "new" drug every twenty or so years!
Now, you can read this and think that I'm some kind of conspiracy nut. That's fine. Or you can read this and think that I'm some kind of nut who thinks that they've found a cure for cancer. That's fine, too. But neither of those things are true, and if you want to find out the truth, just look it up for yourself. There's nothing here that you can't research for yourself.
In the end, it's your loved ones who will die if you do nothing. Cancer rates are increasing in this country (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/246061.php "Cancer rates expected to increase by 75% by 2030" . There's a reason for that, but I'm not going to go into it here (hint, hint: the increased glycolysis might very well be a response to the increase in glucose in our diets). In the end, it's you and your loved ones who bear the pain, and the loss.
Educate yourself. Then, DO something.
Hopefully others will give good advice as to where to share. It needs to be shared.
For now, I only have
for you and your family.
condolences to you and yours, spartan61. Though you expected this, I know how difficult going through the death of a loved one is.
Your son wrote a heck of a letter; please thank him for me.
and for all the terrible things you were all put through. Your son is a very powerful writer. Strength, peace and much support to all of you.
They took out a tumor in his colon and told him to go his merry way and did not check him for another year. At which point the cancer was back and had spread.
I blame the doctors for his death too. It is a horrible feeling to know you have been victimized by our "great" health care system.
it is a great one. But you have a wonderful son who wrote a great letter. Not only that, but he has learned a lot during this ordeal, and that will serve him well.
His letter should be seen. I don't know where the most visiblity for it would be.....USA Today editorial? New York Times editorial? I have no idea whether they would print it, but I would try. He is very smart and I am sure that he will do well.
Lean on each other. Your hurt can be shared.
My condolences and a big to you and your family.
My thoughts and prayers go out to your family.
and I'm sorry to hear your family had to suffer through this trauma. It horrifying. Reading the other accounts similar to yours is very alarming.
Peace...
