Calling of an Angl: Rene Caisse and Essiac Tea--2by Dr. Gary L. Glum |
|
CHAPTER TWOAlmost immediately after the Toronto Star newspaper article, Rene was deluged with people who needed her help or wanted to do business with her. A Toronto businessman named Ernest H. Ashley had a contract drawn up that offered Rene her own clinic, $20,000 within the first year of signing, an annual salary of $2,000, and $100,000 in operating capital and stock in the corporation to be formed-if she would "assign and set over all her right, title and interest in the said formula above referred to." For a woman who used to laugh that she never had $100 she could call her own, the offer must have been tempting, at least for a moment. Those were big dollar figures in 1932. But Rene turned him down, stuck the unsigned contract in her files and left it there to gather dust. As Rene treated an increasing number of patients, the word about her work continued to be positive, even in some official circles. On June 17, 1933, she received a letter on official stationery from the Deputy Minister of Hospitals for Ontario. He wrote: "Through a friend of mine here I have learned of your wonderful treatment for cancer, and I should greatly appreciate a letter setting forth briefly the nature of your treatment. Please state how long you have been using this treatment, approximately how many cases you have treated and with what results, and whether you have any testimonials or press clippings endorsing your work. If you have copies of the latter I should be glad to receive them and will return same as soon as possible. This letter is purely personal, and not official, so please feel free to write me fully." About that same time, one of the most prominent doctors in the Bracebridge area, Dr. A. F Bastedo, agreed to let Rene treat one of his patients who was considered to be terminally ill with bowel cancer. When the patient recovered, Dr. Bastedo persuaded the Town Council of Bracebridge to turn over to Rene for $1.00 a month rent-the British Lion Hotel for her use as a "cancer clinic," if she would come back to her home town to practice. The British Lion Hotel, on one of the main streets in town, within walking distance of the Municipal Building and directly across the street from the jail, had been repossessed by the village for back taxes. In 1935, Rene opened the doors. Rene: "The Mayor and Council were very enthusiastic and with their aid and the aid of friends, relatives and patients, I furnished an office, dispensary, reception room and five treatment rooms. Here I worked for almost eight years with a large `CANCER CLINIC' sign on the door. Doctors sent or brought their patients to me. Doctors from many parts of the United States came to watch me treat, to examine patients and observe results. Patients came from far in ambulances, but after having a few treatments, were able to walk into the clinic by themselves. They came from far and near. Here, for almost eight years, I treated thousands of patients." Rene's account is true. The older people in the Bracebridge area still have vivid memories of Nurse Caisse and her clinic, and all the patients coming from far and near. They still talk about friends or neighbors or aunts or uncles or parents who were saved or at least helped and relieved of pain by Nurse Caisse. They speak of her with great fondness and respect-even reverence, in many cases. One local woman now in her 60s remembers when she was 12 years old watching Nurse Caisse in her white uniform chasing the woman s parents down the street. Her father had stomach cancer, and he'd left too much money behind after his treatment. Nurse Caisse's green eyes were flashing. She said, "Don't you ever dare do that to me again." She made him take his money back. To this day the woman still remembers her mother and father joyfully dancing together because the treatments by Nurse Caisse had taken his pain away. Based on contemporary newspaper accounts and their own interviews with eyewitnesses, Homemaker's, a Canadian national magazine, later described the scene in the 1930s: "Dominion Street took on an atmosphere reminiscent of the famous Shrine of Lourdes, as hopeful pilgrims sought a new lease on life. Cars were parked solidly along its shoulders. People from all walks of life waited patiently to enter the red brick building. Some were carried. Others were pushed gently up the steps, while the rest managed on their own. Occasionally, an ambulance would shriek its arrival as it double-parked. Rene would be seen coming quickly down to it to treat a stretcher case. Always with a doctor standing by, she injected scores of patients every day."
About the time Rene opened the clinic, her 72-year-old mother was
diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the liver. Four local doctors said she
was too weak for surgery. But Rene called in one of Ontario's top
specialists, Dr. Roscoe Graham. He confirmed the diagnosis and, in Rene's
account, said: "Her liver is a nodular mass." Rene replied: "I'm certainly going to try, Doctor." She asked Dr. Graham, "How long does she have to live?" Dr. Graham said he thought it was only a matter of days. According to Rene, she didn't even tell her mother she had cancer. Instead, Rene gave her daily injections of Essiac, saying it was a tonic prescribed by her doctor. Many years later Rene reminisced: "To make a long story short , my mother completely recovered. She passed away quietly after her 90th birthday-without pain, just a tired heart. This repaid me for all of my work-giving my mother 18 years of life she would not have had without Essiac. It made up for a great deal of the persecution I have endured at the hands of the medical people." With a nurse now openly treating large numbers of cancer patients, in her own "cancer clinic," subsidized partly by the town of Bracebridge, the political battle started to heat up. On September 14, 1935, the Ontario Minister of Health, Dr. J.A. Faulkner, wrote to Rene saying that if she expected the government to take measures to see that her remedy be put into use for all cancer patients in the Province of Ontario, she would have to turn over her formula. "It is necessary that a full statement be submitted," he wrote, "indicating the exact nature of the materials suggested for use , the manner in which they are to be used including dosage and the experience which has attended their use, with such detailed reports on pathological diagnosis, treatment and present condition of patients as exist." Eleven days later, Faulkner wrote to Rene again. He said that he had "chosen an outstanding scientist to investigate your treatment. If you will submit the information desired it will be referred to him for investigation and report." Rene wasn't about to turn over the formula. She was wide open about her work; she welcomed physicians who wanted to visit her clinic and investigate for themselves what she was doing. She wanted doctors to examine her patients, talk to them, and look at the records. But until the medical profession gave official acknowledgment that Essiac had merit, Rene was determined that the formula itself would remain secret. Meanwhile, public pressure was building in support of Rene. In a remarkable display of grassroots political action, the local residents of the Bracebridge area rounded up thousands of signatures on petitions demanding government backing for her work. The petitions were presented to Dr. Faulkner. He also received another petition with only nine signatures-but they were all physicians, including seven who hadn't signed the original petition back in 1926. This brought to 16 the number of licensed physicians who had staked their reputations on an endorsement of Rene and Essiac. By 1936, the Canadian press was paying close attention to the story. Articles-and letters to the editor-began to appear with some regularity throughout Ontario. There were many accounts written by people who said they had received Nurse Caisse s treatments and had been cured of cancer. This was really the beginning of the notion that Rene Caisse was preaching that she could cure all cancer. She wasn't. She was saying that Essiac caused regression in tumors, prolonged life, relieved pain and-in the right circumstances with patients whose organs weren't already destroyed-could cure cancer. But the heartfelt tributes from grateful patients tended to simplify the message. As far as they were concerned, she cured cancer and that was all there was to it. Typical of the letters to the editor was one signed by Herbert Rawson and published in the spring of 1936. Rawson said that he was a middle aged man who had been getting sicker and sicker and seeing various doctors, to no avail. Finally an X-ray showed cancer. The doctors advised an operation. "I had seen so many others that have had operations that I just refused," Mr. Rawson wrote. "They sent me to Miss Caisse. That was a year ago on the 20th of April. About three weeks ago two of the best doctors examined me well and to my great joy, they told me I was a free man from that dreaded disease, cancer. These were their words: `You will never know what you owe that girl: So I can say that I feel in the best of health and have gained weight. No doubt Miss Caisse will be surprised to see this letter. I would sincerely ask everyone who can to help her in this great work." Rene's results continued to impress others. One of her patients shortly after she opened her clinic was a man named John Tynan. A few years later, Tynan would testify under oath before a Canadian parliamentary commission investigating Essiac that he had been diagnosed by four different doctors as having cancer of the rectum and been given, in their estimate, about three weeks to live. "I went to the operating room again," Tynan testified, "and they didn't do anything because they couldn't, and they put me to bed and they said, you may have a few days in bed and then you may as well go home." Tynan testified that when he left the hospital he went to Rene's clinic and took the first of 27 regular treatments. Within 24 hours, he began to feel relief. Within four days, he felt "a wonderful change," and after the first few treatments he was able to drive himself to the clinic. Four years after the treatments, he had gained 39 pounds and felt in good health. One of the people who was familiar with the Tynan case was Dr. W. C. Arnold, the physician who had first been sent by the Minister of Health to arrest Rene. What he saw must have made a deep impression on him because buried in Rene's files is a long, handwritten letter to her from Dr. Arnold, dated February 5, 1936. In it, he discusses the pressures upon her to release the formula, urges her to let him begin testing Essiac, and then he says: "If I can get one case to respond as John Tynan did, I'll throw in with you 100% and drop everything else."
By now, the local politicians were getting involved. The mayor of
Bracebridge, Wilburt Richards, visited the office of Dr. Faulkner, the
Minister of Health, with a group of prominent citizens and a petition with
2,700 signatures asking that the government accept and officially
authorize Rene's treatment of patients. "I should think the public Health Department would be back of anyone who would try to help suffering humanity. Instead of this, I find you putting every obstacle in my way." Rene offered this challenge to the Minister of Health: Let her send some of her patients-and their case histories, X-ray plates, and so on-for examination by doctors. "And then if you are not satisfied, I will give up this work. I could not be more reasonable than that, could I?" The political pressure on Rene's behalf appeared to be paying off. On July 10, 1936, a headline in the Toronto Evening Telegram stated: "Assure Bracebridge Nurse Aid in her Cancer `Cure'. Miss Rene Caisse, With Big Delegation and One-Time Patients, Sees Faulkner." The story reported that Dr. Faulkner had agreed to give Rene Caisse his cooperation in determining the merits of Essiac. "If Miss Caisse has confidence in her cure," the story quoted Faulkner as saying, "she will have a chance to prove it. If it is proved, the government will certainly get behind it." Dr. Faulkner told the press that he would arrange for Rene to discuss her treatment with Sir Frederick Banting. That was perceived to be a major breakthrough for Rene. Sir Frederick Banting was one of the medical heavyweights of the 1930s, publicly credited as the co-discoverer of insulin, and with his own research facility, The Banting Institute, at the University of Toronto. Faulkner's announcement of Banting's entry into the Essiac controversy made headlines in newspapers all through Canada. Later in July, 1936, Rene-accompanied by five doctors who supported her work-had her meeting with Dr. Banting. He offered her the facilities of his laboratory and invited her to work there under his supervision performing tests on animals. "You will not be asked to divulge any secret concerning your treatment," Dr. Banting wrote to Rene on July 23. "All experimental results must be submitted to me for my approval before being announced to anyone, including the newspapers, or published in medical journals." But there was a catch in Dr. Banting's offer. He wanted Rene to prove the merit of Essiac on the lab animals before she treated any more humans. She would have to give up her work at the clinic for months, or even years, while she injected mice again. Rene regretfully turned down Sir Frederick Banting. On August 4, 1936, she wrote to Dr. Faulkner explaining her decision: "I have just written to Dr. Banting to tell him that it is impossible for me to accept his kind offer. My relatives and friends do not approve of my going back to animal research, when I have already proven the merit of my Cancer Treatment on human beings. "Therefore they absolutely refuse to help me financially, and since I have not been able to charge my patients for treatment, I have been at my wits ends to meet the expense of the materials I use. I have never had a hundred dollars I could call my own, therefore it is utterly impossible to do what I haven't the means to do, isn't it? I will just have to go on as I have been doing, and next year I will bring more proof and more names on a petition and we Il make it a political issue. "I appreciate the fact that you are doing what you think is best for me, and to please you I wish I were in a position to accept this offer, but there is a saying, that you can't get blood out of a stone, and that is my position at the present time." Dr.Banting wouldn't budge from his position, that Rene could only work on animals in his lab-and nothing else. On the same day she wrote Dr. Faulkner, Dr. Banting wrote the mayor of Bracebridge: "In my opinion it would be impossible for you to adequately test Miss Caisse's cancer treatment in Bracebridge. As I explained to Miss Caisse, I would personally not take any responsibility for work done outside of the laboratory. The whole matter was previously discussed with the Honorable Dr. Faulkner, and we are still prepared to test Miss Caisse's treatment under the arrangements set forth in my letter to her." Rene wouldn't budge from her position, despite the advice from some of her old allies in the medical world that she might be well advised to consider the offer. Dr. W C. Arnold wrote to Rene: "I have just read your letter from Banting, and I think it is fair enough. It is the same proposition I made to you many years ago when we put the mice into the Christie Street lab." While Dr. Arnold agreed that he understood Rene's objections and had some of his own, he wrote that the offer "was, perhaps, as much as you could have expected." Dr.Banting tried to talk Rene out of her decision, but failed. On August 11, 1936, he wrote her one last time. Implicit in his letter is the belief that her lab tests might well have led to favorable results and his valuable endorsement: "I think you will regret that you have not availed yourself of the offer made by this laboratory. However-if at some future time you again decide to have the treatment investigated, I am sure that Doctor Faulkner and myself would reconsider the matter." What Dr. Banting really believed about Essiac is nowhere on the record. Rene always maintained that he had told her that what he had seen of Essiac showed more promise than any other cancer treatment he had ever encountered. She said until the end of her life that Dr. Banting had been particularly impressed by one of her cases in which the patient had cancer and diabetes. Since no one knew how Essiac would mix with insulin, the patient's doctor-Dr. J.A. McInnis-had taken the patient off of insulin while the Essiac was administered. The diabetes didn't worsen. According to Rene, Dr. Banting had been familiar with this case since 1926. He had examined the records and X-rays taken during the Essiac treatments and told Rene that Essiac must have somehow stimulated the pancreatic gland into functioning properly. But only Rene's account of these conversations with Dr. Banting is available today. More than 40 years after her rejection of Dr. Banting's offer, Rene reminisced to reporters from a Canadian magazine: "He was very kind, but he made it clear I'd have to give up my clinic if I went to work with him. I felt it was inhuman for them to ask me to give up treating patients while I showed them whether it would work on mice. I'd already done work on mice. "There was a big uproar about it because the patients were terrified I would leave them, but many doctors said I should jump at the chance to work with Dr. Banting. I said I'd be willing to, but I'm not going to let people die while I do it. It was an agonizing decision, but I refused his offer." Two weeks after Rene turned down Dr. Banting's offer, two New York City cancer specialists arrived in Bracebridge to investigate Rene s work. They liked what they saw, and almost immediately Canadian newspapers carried stories saying that Rene might take her treatment across the border. On August 27, 1936, the Montreal Monitor reported that Rene, "who has become nationally known through her research and interest in the cause of cancer cure and prevention will shortly receive a very attractive offer from American physicians with regard to a position in the United States." On the same day, the Huntsville Forester, decrying this threat from the Americans to steal Rene Caisse away from Canada, editorialized: "If the work of Miss Caisse is the cure of cancer, as is claimed for it, not only should it be welcomed greedily by the medical profession, but it should interest most actively the heads of our health departments of government. "Evidence of the effectiveness of the treatment given by Miss Caisse seems to be conclusive. Several known cases in Muskoka have been cited where cancer was the professional diagnosis, and where apparent cures have been effected. The patients themselves are the best evidence Miss Caisse can present. "But instead of a serious attempt being made to capitalize on the discovery of Miss Caisse, the official and professional approach to this matter has been discouragingly technical, skeptical and indifferent. Now, there is a possibility that Bracebridge and Canada may lose Miss Caisse to the more discerning and less rigid medical profession of the United States." There were other offers from the U.S., and after sorting through her options, Rene finally announced to the press in October, 1936 that she was going to a Chicago university to demonstrate her cancer treatment on some of their patients. On October 19, the headline in the Toronto Globe read: "Cancer Remedy Claimed in Bracebridge Goes to U.S.A." The story reported that Rene was going to be working with a former diagnostician from the Mayo Clinic. The arrangements had been made by a University of Toronto anatomy professor, Dr. B. L. Guyatt, who later became an important supporter in Rene s political fights. Dr. Guyatt was one of those who visited Rene's clinic to do his own investigation. He wrote in his report: "In most cases distorted countenances became normal and pain reduced as treatment proceeded. The relief from pain is a notable feature, as pain in these cases is very difficult to control.
"The number of patients treated in this clinic are many hundreds and the
number responding wholly or in part I do not know, but I do know that I
have witnessed in this clinic a treatment which brings restoration through
destroying the tumor tissue, and supplying that something which improves
the mental outlook on life." There were angry editorials in newspapers all through Ontario. And Rene was skillful in her dealings with the press. She was always good for a juicy quote, a quick few lines that would inspire the growing public indignation with the way she was being treated by the Canadian government. One paper quoted her as saying: "I have been begging the Ontario authorities for thirteen years to give me a chance. I wanted to keep this discovery Canadian, but there seems no chance of bringing out anything of benefit here. I am simply forced to go over to the other side to get recognition." But she promised that she would never abandon Canada and her patients. She would go to the States only every other week, while maintaining her work at home the rest of the time. "I can assure you that there will always be a cancer clinic in Bracebridge," she told the reporter. For the next several months, Rene somehow managed the stress of working on both sides of the border. Under the supervision of Dr. John Wolfer, the director of the Tumor Clinic of the Northwestern University Medical School, Rene commuted almost weekly between Chicago and Bracebridge. While keeping her clinic open, she was treating 30 terminally ill patients in Chicago. Five Northwestern doctors were working with her on the project. In later years she told friends and reporters that the workload during that period was a nightmare. She treated her Bracebridge patients on the weekends, stopped in Toronto to treat a few patients there, then went to Chicago and back to Bracebridge to start all over. She was staying up most of the night in Bracebridge cooking and preparing new batches of Essiac. At one point she had to beg off her duties in Chicago. She'd made herself sick trying to satisfy everyone's needs. On February 26, 1937, she wrote to Dr. Wolfer: "I am really ill. I treated two hundred patients here at my Clinic a week ago, went on to Toronto and treated fourteen more, then on to Walkerville to treat again more. "When I took ill, my brother-in-law from Ferndale, Michigan came after me in a car and took me to my sister who had her family doctor see me. He said it was my heart and over-nervous strain and that I need two or three months absolute rest. "But tomorrow I must start on my patients here again. I wanted to please you, but it was unfair of you to have me spend about a hundred dollars besides risking my health to go there and treat six patients, for you, as I did last time I was there. Tell me candidly if you have lost interest." He hadn't. He wrote Rene back on March 13, 1937, saying he was slow to respond because he'd been out of the country, and he was still "in hopes that we might be able to carry along our work at the Clinic for a sufficient time to provide us with some evidence to enable us to make up our minds relative to your treatment." Before long, Rene was feeling well enough to return to Chicago and carry on as before. On March 25, she wrote Dr. Wolfer to say she would be back on April 4. He wrote her back immediately saying he was glad to hear the news and would make the arrangements. Rene's return was brief. She soon got sick again and decided she'd better stay in Bracebridge. But one of the doctors in Chicago, Dr. Clifford Barbouka, had seen enough to be a believer. He offered her facilities at Chicago's Passavant Hospital if she wanted to move there. But she chose to stay at home in Bracebridge. When the news that she was too ill to travel reached her patients in Chicago, at least one of them was alarmed enough to write directly to Rene. On May 14, 1937, May Miller of Chicago wrote to say she hoped Rene was recovering from her latest illness and to say she hoped shed be seeing Rene again. "The first time I came to the Northwestern University Tumor Clinic to receive your arm injections," Ms. Miller wrote, "I had been for several weeks previous, suffering such acute agony in my shoulder, back of my neck, and up in the back of my head, that my doctor had given me a narcotic to enable me to rest some at night. "So when, shortly before the fifth injection, I realized that the terrible head pain at the back had subsided and that though I still had pain, it was in such a lesser degree (I have to take anidon (sic) pain tablets for it) and I was starting to get some sleep at night, I was mighty thankful to God because of your coming to this Clinic here. "Miss Case (sic); since I was starting to feel much better of my pain, wouldn't I have felt practically none pain by now, if it had not been that you were stricken with your two severe illnesses and so could not give us the benefit of your injections? "About three weeks ago my neck swelling suddenly began to pain considerably. It makes me hope we'll be seeing you soon again, for I am sure I was being helped." By now, the Canadian press was making a political issue out of Rene Caisse and Essiac. At the beginning of 1937, with Rene's work on both sides of the border getting attention, the Toronto Evening Telegram set the tone for the coming debate with an editorial comparing the government's treatment of Rene with the hostility Louis Pasteur had faced in an earlier century. "It is to be questioned whether today the medical profession has brought a sufficiently open mind to it's fight against cancer." Saying that Rene was "reported to have attained astonishing results," the Telegram knocked the medical authorities for their attitude of "Put your formula on the table and we will tell you whether we will help you." Dr. Banting, the paper said, "did not place insulin on the table until he was satisfied with the results of his research....If it is a fact that a clinic has been provided in Chicago and refused in Ontario, it is necessary that there should be an explanation of the reason for the refusal here. Results are more important than medical etiquette." Angry letters from citizens began to pour into the offices of the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister of Ontario, Mitchell Hepburn. Typical of the mail Hepburn was receiving was the letter he received from a nurse in Peterboro, Ontario, who was caring for one of Rene's patients and had seen the benefits of Essiac. The patient, Mrs. Oliver, had been operated on in November, 1936. The surgeon had found a cancerous growth on her colon, which he couldn't remove. "Nothing could be done for her, just a matter of time, possibly six months," the nurse wrote. "Meaning another life gone. When she came home from the hospital hardly able to walk across the floor and suffering from such severe pain that she could neither sleep nor rest was when I came to care for her." Mrs. Oliver's husband had heard of Nurse Caisse and as the only chance, they took Mrs. Oliver to Bracebridge. "She has now had 4 treatments & improving all the time. Everyone marvels at the change in her. Now Hon. Premier Hepburn, does it seem fair to you to make it so that Miss Caisse may no longer give treatments when hundreds of outcast patients from the foremost hospitals and noted doctors are at the present depending on her treatments for life? Does it seem fair to you that the formula should be taken from Miss Caisse to experiment on guinea pigs when it has been tried and proven successful on hundreds of human beings? Who is foremost in this Prov. of Ont., human beings or guinea pigs? When Drs. admit that they are unable to cure or do anything for patients why take from someone that which is proving successful?" Passions were running high. The government was being forced into a position where it had to do something. They had to put Rene out of business, arrest her, get her formula, or finally authorize her to practice medicine. On March 8, 1937, the Toronto Evening Telegram reported: "Matters soon will reach a final stage in the efforts of Miss Rene Caisse, Bracebridge nurse, to obtain Canadian medical recognition for her cancer treatment methods." The story said that next week a large deputation from various locations in Ontario would be calling on Premier Hepburn and Dr. Faulkner and other cabinet members. They would urge that she be given the right to practice medicine, and they would be carrying a new petition-this one with 14,000 signatures. The deputation, the paper reported, would include several doctors, notably Dr. B.L. Guyatt of the University of Toronto, Dr. W C. Arnold, Dr. Herbert Minthorn-the associate coroner of two Ontario districts-and Dr. J.A. McInnis. A few nights before the group left for Toronto, the mayor of Bracebridge organized a town meeting to rally support. The high school gymnasium was packed. The mayor told the crowd that the vast sums of money spent on cancer research had produced no recognized cures. He said he didn't know if Rene Caisse had a cure, but he did know that people who were suffering from cancer before they went to Rene were well today. Dr. Edward Ellis told the crowd that he had seen interesting results from Rene's treatments, but that "science creeps slowly. We can only think so much and say little as doctors, although as private citizens we are right behind a beneficial treatment." Dr. Minthorn stood up and said that he had seen Rene's work three times four weeks apart. He was skeptical at first. "But Miss Caisse is doing a good work and has ample proof." Rene's long-time supporter, Dr. J.A. McInnis, told of his acquaintance with Rene, dating back to when only a few people knew what she was doing. "Personally," he told the crowd, "I am absolutely convinced that Miss Caisse's methods will arrest pain, reduce cancer growth and prolong life, and I say that very guardedly." Some of Rene s patients told their own stories. Jack Vanclieaf walked to the platform and said: "Here I am alive today, while I would have been dead years ago had it not been for Miss Caisse. Two good doctors told me I had only two months to live. I went to Miss Caisse and within three days the intense pain was relieved and with more treatments I kept on getting better. Hon. Dr. Faulkner told me I hadn't cancer, but all I've to say is, what is the difference between being eaten by a wolf or eaten by a bear? The doctor said he couldn't cure me and that I would die. Miss Caisse cured me in six treatments." The deputation that went to the government offices in Toronto consisted of local officials, 40 doctors and 18 of Rene s patients. They were carrying a petition that now had 17,000 signatures. Things were moving fast. There were more front page headlines throughout Ontario when the Minister of Health, Dr. Faulkner, and Dr. R. T Noble of the College of Physicians and Surgeons met with the group. Later in the day Sir Frederick Banting met with some of them. After the meetings, Dr. Faulkner told the press: "We are considering introducing legislation that will give all the people who have the idea they have a cure for cancer an opportunity to submit their cures to test and they will receive such encouragement that will put beyond doubt the nature of the treatment." That was the first time a public official had mentioned legislation to deal with the situation. Public pressure was great enough that the battle was now working its way toward the Canadian parliament. In July, 1937, with an election coming up in a few months and the letters pouring in from Rene's patients and supporters, Premier Mitchell Hepburn agreed to meet her in his Queens Park office. Rene told the press the Premier had been encouraging. Talking about Rene and her supporters, Premier Hepburn told the press: "These people are sincere, clear-thinking people, and it seems to me that something must be done to make this treatment available to all people suffering from cancer. "The onus is now on the medical profession. They must now either prove or disprove Miss Caisse s claims, and I do not believe they can disprove them. I am in sympathy with Miss Caisse's work, and will do all in my power to help her." He stated publicly that if he had to, he would see that a bill licensing her to practice would be passed in the legislature. Politically, that put Hepburn way out in front of cautious politicians and skeptical doctors. No such bill allowing one private citizen without the proper medical credentials to practice medicine had ever been passed in the history of Canada. But Hepburn had seen enough mail and heard from enough of Rene's patients to know that the public was solidly behind her. He knew where the votes were. At the same time, a group of American businessmen from Buffalo, New York, had become familiar with Essiac and they drew up a contract and presented it to Rene. For the right to represent Essiac in the U.S., they promised to pay her at least $100,000 in the first year, $50,000 in all succeeding years, plus 50% "of all sums received" from the use of Essiac. In a separate letter to her a few weeks later, their lawyer, Ralph Saft, sweetened the offer by promising a $1 million "donation" to her work. Rene had meetings with them and extensive correspondence. But she gradually became convinced that they were only out to make a fast buck. She was afraid they would exploit the rich and make Essiac prohibitively expensive for the poor. She turned them down and stuck their contract in her files, alongside the one she'd been offered by the businessman from Toronto. By mid-1937, hundreds of people a week desperate for Rene's help were flocking to her clinic. She was treating as many of them as possible, still staying up half the night in her kitchen brewing the Essiac, but she was now beginning to face a new problem. An increasing number of patients were arriving without a signed letter from a physician stating a diagnosis of cancer. Some doctors-fearful of offending Canada's powerful College of Physicians and Surgeons-were refusing to put into writing this release Rene was required to have before treating anyone. This new obstacle caused scenes and dramatically added to Rene's stress, as she dealt with how to prod the doctors into action, how to stall the frantic patients, even how to treat people without the necessary documentation and still avoid jail. But the hostility of much of the medical establishment didn't prevent the most solid citizens from seeking out Rene. The president of the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper sent one of his own staffers to be treated by Rene. A lawyer in Des Moines, Iowa, wrote to Rene saying that his college roommate s wife had been cured of breast cancer by Essiac and the lawyer now wanted to make arrangements for Rene to treat another friend of his, an Iowa Supreme Court Justice. A woman physician from Los Angeles, Dr. Emma Carson, who had heard accounts of Rene's successes, traveled from southern California to Bracebridge in the summer of 1937 to see for herself. She later told reporters that she had been skeptical, even though her friends who had told her about Rene were reliable people. Intending only to stay in Bracebridge for a couple of days to satisfy herself that there was nothing to the story, she ended up staying almost a month and becoming a good friend of Rene's. In Dr. Carsori's first interview, with the Huntsville Forester a week after her arrival, she could barely contain her enthusiasm. "I am simply amazed at what I have found in my already brief investigation," she said. "The farther I investigate, the stronger becomes my conviction that Miss Caisse has made a cancer treatment discovery of world-wide importance." Dr. Carson said that she had found "some amazing cases." She called upon the government to recognize Rene Caisse s work. "If in view of what I have seen with my own eyes, the Ontario Medical Council remains indifferent, it will be a crime against civilization." She said that when she finished her investigation, she would go directly to Prime Minister Hepburn's office and give him her report. Dr. Carson never changed her mind about Rene Caisse and Essiac. She kept up her correspondence with Rene for years after she returned to Los Angeles, and when she had concluded her investigation she wrote a five-page report and released it to the press. Several newspapers quoted all or much of what she had to say. "The vast majority of Miss Caisses patients," Dr. Carson wrote, "were brought to her after surgery, radium, X-rays, emplastrums, etc., had failed to be helpful and the patients were pronounced incurable or hopeless cases. The progress obtainable and the actual results from Essiac treatments, and the rapidity of repair were absolutely marvelous, and must be seen to be believed." As she reviewed case histories and interviewed patients, she wrote, "I realized that skepticism had deserted me." In November, Hepburn's Liberal Party won the elections, and Rene received a friendly note from Hepburn's secretary saying that if Rene would like another meeting with the Prime Minister, please just advise them by telephone. In less than three years, Rene Caisse had gone from being an obscure nurse in the northwoods treating those people in the area who'd heard of her by word of mouth to a national figure in Canada, with an open door in the office of the Prime Minister of Ontario. She was the center of a major political controversy. Her thousands of backers were passionate about her cause, especially those who had been her patients. From the beginning, the people who had been treated with Essiac were the ones who spread the word, wrote the press, wrote the politicians, sent Rene more patients, and pushed the government to legalize her practice. All through Rene's files are testimonials from her patients , dating from the 1920s to the 1970s. They are anecdotal and written by laymen with no medical training. But there are so many, from every level of society in the U. S. and Canada, and the people who wrote them were so deeply affected and so passionate in their belief, that after reading through all of them, they become impossible to ignore. Many of these statements are so categorical that if they are even close to portraying accurately what happened, they alone should be enough to prompt serious scientific curiosity about this herbal blend called Essiac. As 1937 ended, Rene's supporters were rallying for the big push in 1938. Politically, 1938 would tell the tale. The cause had reached parliament, and the legislators were going to have to face the issue of Essiac, one way or the other. In the course of organizing their campaign, several of Rene's former patients took the step of swearing their stories under oath. One of those testimonials is an affidavit sworn on December 7, 1937, by a man named Henry J. Hneeshaw To confirm part of what he said, Mr. Hneeshaw submitted a letter from the Mayo Clinic, signed by George B. Eusterman. "At the time you were here we found you to have an inoperable gastric carcinoma," the letter said. "Roentgenoscopic examination showed extensive involvement, including the upper third. Gastric analysis disclosed an anacidity and other evidence of involvement of the upper third of the stomach. We would not recommend surgical exploration." Mr. Hneeshaw attached to the letter what he swore as true. Here's what he said: For a year, he suffered stomach discomfort and severe loss of appetite. On May 25, 1937, he went to his doctor, who examined him and suspected cancer. After examination by four other doctors in a cancer clinic, Mr. Hneeshaw was told that he had cancer of the stomach. On June 4, he went into surgery. "But after opening me they decided not to operate as the growth was right into the diaphragm and operation would be fatal. They gave me three months to live."
He went home and was losing weight rapidly. At the end of July, he went to
the Mayo Clinic after hearing that they could do wonderful things for
cancer patients. After five days, they told him nothing could be done. Every day, statements like that were arriving in the offices of legislators and the Minister of Health. and the Ontario Prime Minister. They were running in the letters to the editor columns of newspapers. The politicians knew that this was not going to be an easy matter to deal with. Rene Caisse was hopeful that 1938 would be the year that Essiac won the official acceptance and legal authorization that she and her supporters-passionately believed it deserved. But whatever was going to happen, she was going to make one hell of a fight of it. Introduction I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 All of the events and characters depicted in this book are non-fictional This is a crazy world. What can be done? Amazingly, we have been mislead. We have been taught that we can control government by voting. The founder of the Rothschild dynasty, Mayer Amschel Bauer, told the secret of controlling the government of a nation over 200 years ago. He said, "Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes its laws." Get the picture? Your freedom hinges first on the nation's banks and money system. Freedom is connected with Debt Elimination for each individual. Not only does this end personal debt, it places the people first in line as creditors to the National Debt ahead of the banks. They don't wish for you to know this. It has to do with recognizing WHO you really are in A New Beginning: A Practical Course in Miracles, an informational study. Disclaimer - The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (attributed to Voltaire), but certainly embodies what the 1st amendment of the constitution refers to as the freedom of speech Bill of RightsAmendment 1Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
|
|
For Email Marketing you can trust
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Queen
Victoria
