Carrying their last hopes, ill Americans cross border
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-061030024...
By Dahleen Glanton
October 30, 2006
TIJUANA, Mexico -- The mood on the morning shuttle crossing the border is almost always somber. The American passengers, most of them stricken with
cancer, have come here seeking a miracle cure from injections, elixirs and salves that are illegal in the United States.
For many, the journey to an alternative cancer clinic in Mexico is their last hope. Some still wear bandages from a recent surgery. Some are weak from
chemotherapy or radiation. But others appear healthy--the result, they said, of unorthodox treatments that have struggled for decades to gain
acceptance from the U.S. health-care industry.
Every three months, Norberto Fanuele, 57, and his wife, Alice, 56, of Fernley, Nev., drive to the border town of San Ysidro, Calif., staying at a Best
Western hotel where they receive a discounted rate and a free shuttle to the cancer clinics across the border.
Fanuele decided to forgo surgery and chemotherapy for his prostate cancer and go instead to the Bio-Medical Center, the only clinic that offers the
Hoxsey therapy. After checking in at 9 a.m., he and about a dozen other patients sit for hours in the lobby in hospital gowns, waiting for X-rays,
blood work, ultrasounds and a visit with the doctor at the end of the day.
They talk about their experiences, have breakfast at a small lunch counter that has everything from hamburgers and fries--which they cannot have--to
salads, beans and brown rice, which they can. They walk on the well-kept grounds of the converted mansion that sits on a cliff overlooking the slums
of Tijuana. A bird sanctuary that sits in the middle of a circular drive flanks the entrance of the house, once owned by a Mexican drug lord.
`I feel at peace'
"When I come here, I feel comfortable. I feel at peace," said Fanuele, whose father and grandfather both died of brain cancer. "I have been in the
hospital in Nevada and I didn't feel secure. Maybe I didn't trust the doctors."
There was a time when the lobbies of these cancer clinics would overflow with people. By 1978, experts said, more than 70,000 Americans had traveled
to Mexico for laetrile treatments alone. In 1980, actor Steve McQueen died in Mexico while undergoing laetrile treatments.
But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed that. The number of cancer facilities in Tijuana dropped from an estimated 70 in 2002 to about 25 today.
Business at the clinics, which suffered from the general slowing of travel after the attacks, was further damaged after civil rights activist Coretta
Scott King died of complications from ovarian cancer in a Rosarito clinic in February.
Mexican officials shut down Santa Monica Health Institute, which was run by an American with a record of fraud allegations against him in the U.S.,
and clamped down on others.
The Hoxsey Clinic, as it is commonly called, was the first American-run cancer facility to open in Mexico in 1963 and remains one of the most popular.
Doctors labeled the Hoxsey treatment the worst cancer "quack" of the 20th Century, a title that still stands in some circles.
"Where is the real data from a clinic that has been operating for 40 years? There isn't any," said Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who
operates the quackwatch.org Web site. "And why are they in Mexico in the first place? The answer is because most of them would not last long in the
United States because what they are doing is not legal here."
While most conventional cancer treatments are covered by health insurance, patients pay for their own alternative therapies. And they don't come
cheap. One clinic in Germany charges $250,000 up front, said Ralph Moss, president of the watchdog group Cancer Communications Inc.
$3,500 for initial visit
The Bio-Medical Center's advertised charge is $3,500 for an initial visit that includes refills of the 16-ounce bottles of Hoxsey tonic for as long as
needed. But additional costs can bring the bill up to $5,000.
Fanuele, a factory worker, is thinking about selling his home to pay his bill, which after just two visitsstands at $4,300. But that is not important,
he said, if his cancer is cured.
At the end of the long day, Fanuele got the news he had been waiting for. For him, and just about every patient there, the doctor had good news. The
ultrasound, he said, showed that Fanuele's cancer had shrunk after three months of treatment.
"It's nice when you know you're improving. When you get good news, it gives you a lift," Fanuele said. "I will definitely be back in three months. I
have high hopes for this clinic."
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