A True Oasis of Hope
Cancer is a multifaceted disease characterized by immortal cells that have a complex system of survival mechanisms. It also has a host of vulnerabilities that often stem from those very things that make it immortal and protected from our bodies own substantial immune system. One of those is heat. For more than a century there were anecdotal reports that very high core body temperatures could defeat cancer. Efforts to develop techniques to raise core body temperature that would serve as the magic bullet to kill cancer cells largely failed. But what didn’t fail is the recognition that hyperthermia could be one of many tools in the war against cancer that applied in the right way can give the cancer patient hope for a long and healthy life.
This story is not about the nuts and bolts of the array of different things that can be used in a coordinated effort to defeat cancer. It is about a unique oasis of treatment among a desert of the routine oncology centers that still view treatment in terms of the five year survival rate that arose from the announcement of the “War on Cancer” more than 50 years ago. Fifty years after that announcement the public health institutions, universities, and pharmaceutical companies in the United States continue treating cancer much as they did in 1971 when the War on Cancer was begun. The greatest achievements in that “war” have occurred in two areas; the early diagnoses of cancer that allows for early treatment and changes in life style that reduce the risk of developing a cancer but not from advances in treatment. Fifty years after the beginning of the War on Cancer oncologists in the U.S. are still speaking to patients in terms of the “Five Year Survival Rate.”
This article is about an oasis of patient care and treatment in the desert of largely failed disease treatment and impersonal patient care. It is about people treating people that have cancer and not treating a person as the ‘breast cancer in room 230’. This is about an oasis of care that has a demonstrated rate of success that far exceeds the norm in the U.S. and gives cancer patients reason for hope and not despair.
This is my wife in a bed used primarily for hyperthermia treatments it is also used for ozonation of her blood which is another tool in the arsenal used at the Oasis of Hope to undermine cancer’s protective shield.
And this is my wife in a plastic suit, underneath a insulating coverall prepared to have a hyperthermia treatment. The treatment begins when the patient lies down on that bed, monitors are attached, and with her uncovered head outside the shell ( I referred to it as the Easy Bake Oven), the top is brought down and the heating begins. It is a daunting, angst filled procedure that elevates a person’s core temperature to more than 106 degrees F where it is held for up to an hour.
The doctors who monitor the patients while they are being treated are there to ensure that the patients are as comfortable as possible, that nothing goes south, and that they can do everything possible to reduce the patients anxiety. Everything includes Medazolam (Versed) and, in this case, one of the doctors retrieving a guitar and serenading my wife and the others who were undergoing hyperthermia treatment.
It was a remarkable act of compassion.
Remarkable acts of compassion and sincere attention to the patient who is not just another metastatic breast cancer but a person who is to be treated with respect and dignity, and compassion are the hallmarks of Oasis of Hope Hospital.
This is the Oasis of Hope Hospital, an integrative oncology center in Tijuana, Mexico that employs a patient focused “total care approach”.
How did this happen? How did it come to be that this cancer hospital became a center that treated cancer by providing “…physical, emotional and spiritual resources to help patients experience true and total healing.” (1)
It happened because Dr. Ernesto Contreras, the founder of Oasis for Hope came to understand:
“…that modern medicine failed because it focused solely on the patients’ bodies. Doctors were essentially trained to to be body mechanics. But God had created humans as triune beings where our three parts—body, mind, and spirit—are one. Doctors got caught up in science of medicine, and had lost the art of healing. He decided that he would provide physical, emotional and spiritual resources to help patients experience true and total healing.” (1; p.11)
So is the hype reality? Judge for yourselves. Visit the web site and you will find this:
And this:
And when Oasis for Hope was the second treatment option for lung and colorectal cancers:
Of equal importance is not just your survival but how you survive. Do you live your life feeling well for as long as possible or do you live constantly sick because of a treatment that is toxic and harsh? What is the point of “killing the cancer” if the patient dies in the process or is miserable until they do?
While many elements of the treatment program at Oasis are available in the United States (notice, I did not write readily available) some essential elements are not. But as we learned from the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 experience our public health agencies and our healthcare delivery system in conjunction with the U.S. pharmaceutical industry have no problem conspiring to withhold safe and effective treatments to increase profit and power.
To be sure, there are patients who may turn to Oasis for Hope as a last resort. Oasis is not the Magic Kingdom it is an oncology center and its staff are not wizards with magic wands they doctors and nurses and sometimes their best efforts are simply not enough but at Oasis for hope that is exception and not the rule.
This is the last word from Contreras and Kennedy:
The only reason Oasis of Hope exists is to help you. Oasis of Hope will do all that is possible. Our main objectives are to:
Inspire a victor’s mentality (to) extend life for as long as possible
Maintain the best quality of life possible
Do all that is possible
Trust God to do the impossible.
This holistic, comprehensive treatment approach is The Art & Science of Undermining Cancer.
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible , but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26. (1)
(1) The Art and Science of Undermining Cancer: Strategies to Slow, Control, Reverse. Contreras, F and Kennedy, DE, 2020.
Baja, Tijuana, Mexico
Union, KY, USA
11 June 2022