This week I post a story that was on of two that earned me the Feature Writer of the Year Award from the Texas Press Association. It is a story of a family and a controversial treatment for cancer containing hydrazine sulfate, a medicine some say is a miracle cure while others dismiss it as hollow hope . You can draw your own conclusion.
Please share this story with anyone you think would enjoy reading it.
This story is reprinted as it appeared in 2001
Stranger helps Aledo family in fight with cancer
Christopher Amos
It sounds like a fairy tale; a loved one is dying of cancer after all treatments have failed, a stranger comes to the home and offers a mysterious homemade elixir, and then everyone is healthy and happy ever-after.
But to get to the fairy tale part, one must first go back to when Brian and Jackie Capers of Aledo, Texas were told their son was going to die.
“He was walking along beside us and leaning on me like he was being lazy and tired,” Jackie explained as we visited at their modest home. “I kept telling him to straighten up. Later on, he just flat-out fainted.”
Caleb Capers was diagnosed with an accelerated brain stem cancer called astrocytoma. The life-degenerating growth in the back of the three-year-old’s head blocked fluids, hindered normal body functions and was quickly spreading its roots deeper into the child’s brain.
“The doctors said we can let the tumor grow and watch what happens – basically, watch our son die – or try a new high radiation thing called gamma-knife,” Jackie said. The family decided on the dangerous but possible life-saving operation.
The following brain operations, five in all, were experimental last-ditch efforts to extend the child’s life. Then came the staggering news that destroyed what little hope the family held. The child now had two separate tumors.
The family was told the child would die shortly after Christmas and he was medicated and released so he could enjoy his final Christmas at home. However, Brian was not their normal son when he returned home. With much of his brain affected by cancer and conflicting medications pushing his life a month further, the child was almost out of his mind.
“His brain was frying. He was seeing bugs crawling all over the wall and he had to have everything in a certain place. He had horrible dreams. I just couldn’t see him like that,” Jackie said. “That’s when we called the guy.”
A relative had seen a small classified ad offering possible help for cancer suffers, and the desperate but skeptical parents reluctantly called.
He was a very simple man, the parents recall, and he came to their home in an older model white pickup truck. He put two bottles of clear liquid on the table with homemade labels and told the family his own son died of cancer before he discovered this medicine and he was now seeking parents who would try the remedy. He boldly told the couple that in three days Caleb would begin to act like a normal kid again.
“I hate to say it, but I flat told him to his face that he was full of it,” the mother recalled.
The bottles contained hydrazine sulfate, a controversial substance that has been both praised and buffooned for decades. The man left instruction for doses to be taken with fruit juices over two weeks.
“It must have tasted bad because we had to watch Caleb to make sure he took all of it,” Brian said.
“Three days after giving my son hydrazine sulfate, he started bouncing around the house like a normal boy,” the father recalled. “He started playing with his brother and running around. He was Caleb again.”
Brian said he later learned hydrazine sulfate, although used as a treatment for some cancers in a few countries, is not approved in the U.S. by the FDA and is normally available only in highly diluted forms as a dietary supplement. Some articles written by hydrazine sulfate supporters offer a “Big Brother” theory, surmising that a medicine which may be effective against some forms of cancer would tumble the nation’s multi-billion dollar cancer industry. Other articles on the internet flatly stat the elixir is a hoax.
At this point, the conversation is suddenly interrupted by a now ten-year-old Caleb as he bounds into the room shadow boxing and kicking as he makes “pow-pow” noises with his mouth.
“I like to exercise,” the aspiring super-hero exclaims as he takes more swings at an invisible opponent before leaping abruptly into his mother’s lap.
“It cost us nothing!” she exclaimed as she struggled to contain the bundle of energy squirming in her lap. “The man charged us nothing. He gave it to us for free! I feel bad that we can’t find him now, but look – I have my son.”
Jackie said the mysterious man returned once a few weeks after his first visit to check on Caleb, told the family to “enjoy your life,” and left.
Caleb still sees his doctors and his cancer is classified as being in remission. His parents report the doctors now schedule him for less frequent visits to monitor his progress.
“They were totally against it back when we told them we were giving him the stuff and they were very serious about it,” the mother said of Caleb’s doctors. “After a while they were like, ‘Whatever you are doing, just keep doing it.’”
Jackie reflects on what might have caused the drastic improvement of her son’s health.
“We can’t honestly say if it was the new medicine or God’s will,” she said. “We were praying for him and we had others praying for him and we gave him this stuff. Now look at him!”