old news part 3 - history of the medical establishment

[Guest guest]

Old news:

 

03:00 AM Jul. 18, 2000 PT

 

 

And though Crystin died two years after her antineoplaston treatment,

her father says the long-term effects of radiation that she had

received prior to Burzynski was what killed her.

 

Burzynski said he had no records of how many patients have survived

their brain tumors under his care. But anecdotal accounts abound.

 

 

There's 2-year-old Tori Moreno, whose parents credit Burzynski for

saving her life.

 

And 9-year-old Dustin Kunnari -- a boy diagnosed with the same cancer

as Thomas Navarro in 1994 -- who is alive today, his parents say,

because of Burzynski.

 

" He's going on five years (without cancer). I would say that he's

cured, " said Dustin's mom, Marianne Kunnari, from her home in Aurora,

Minnesota.

 

Dustin is an unusual case, because his parents managed to thwart the

FDA's recommended medical treatment guidelines and skip traditional

treatment altogether.

 

Marianne Kunnari says when her child's oncologist told her that even

with prescribed radiation and chemotherapy he would live no more than

five more years -- and only then in a wheelchair, with a loss of IQ,

and with damage to his heart and kidneys -- she knew she had to do

something else.

 

Kunnari is not alone among parents when she says treatment comes down

to choice.

 

But Christina Schlank, author of Medicine & Money: Why Some

Treatments Are Insured & Others Aren't, said the FDA has to act

conservatively in cases like these, or risk persecution in the media

if an experimental treatment goes wrong.

 

" The more information you get, the more chances are that you're going

to find someone that's going to help you, " she said. " You might see

some wacky website put up by someone in Omaha, Nebraska saying 'I

have this disease.' "

 

Donna Navarro thinks a different agenda is at work.

 

" They're not protecting us, it's all about money and politics, " she

said, pointing out that the estimated $150,000 it would cost to have

her son treated by Burzynski is mere " peanuts compared to

chemotherapy and radiation. "

 

Her would-be doctor agrees.

 

" I am sure this was a pure political decision, " Burzynski said. " It's

sad that a child should die because of politics. "

 

And preventing Thomas Navarro's untimely death is ultimately what

this story is all about. According to the National Cancer Institute,

an estimated 1,600 children will die from some form of pediatric

cancer this year.

 

Donna Navarro just wants to keep her son from being one of them.

 

" All I want is a happy, healthy child, " she said.