The Thomas Navarro Story, Part Two

Pat Smith
Bulletin Staff

During the almost two-years since they were told Thomas had brain cancer, the Navarros have lost their house, spent every penny of their savings and even shut down their business to devote themselves full time to their quest to get Thomas the treatment they feel is best for him. James still shakes his head in amazement when they thinks about what has happened to his family.

"How can a federal agency with no constitutional basis for police authority freely interfere with our right to make informed choices about medical care for our child?" he asks. "When you ask them where they got their authority, they show up with truckloads of paper and say, `Here. It's in here somewhere.' They bury you with legal speak and mumbo-jumbo while they're in the back room making the law giving themselves the authority to do anything they want." Last Christmas, as Thomas's condition continued to deteriorate, the Navarros struck a bargain with the FDA.

If they agreed to put their son through three rounds of chemotherapy, the FDA would agree to allow the boy into Dr. Burzynski's antineoplaston trials.

Reluctantly, James and Donna agreed. Through the course of the chemotherapy, Thomas steadily declined as the drugs attacked his blood, his kidneys and his liver.

At one point, doctors at New York's Beth Israel hospital where Thomas was undergoing treatment told James and Donna their son had just a few hours to live. His white blood cell count had been knocked so low by the chemotherapy that the doctors did not think the boy would recover.

Donna went back online and found some other families who had been through the same thing with their children and discovered that administering a high dose of a particular form of Vitamin A could jump start the production of white blood cells. Donna put four drops under her son's tongue and within a few days, he was sitting up in his bed and asking when they could leave the hospital.

Once Thomas was discharged, the Navarros contacted the FDA to find out when they could take Thomas to Houston to begin his antineoplaston treatments, but FDA authorities reneged on their promise to the family and once again refused to issue permission for Thomas to get the treatment his parents' wanted for him.

At this point, the family was near the end of their emotional and financial resources. They contacted U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) who researched their story and decided to take up their cause.

He introduced the Thomas Navarro Patient Rights Act in Congress, a bill which would guarantee Americans freedom of choice in their medical treatments. A filibuster ended the bill before it passed, but Rep. Burton plans to reintroduce it this year.

Finally, the Navarros appealed to Rep. Burton for help in making the FDA adhere to its promise to them. They are not quite sure what he did or who he called, but suddenly, miraculously, permission was granted.

Two months ago, Donna flew to Houston with her two sons so Thomas could begin his treatment. The latest MRI shows signs of tissue death in all but three of the many tumors clustered in Thomas's brain and along his spinal column. The three unaffected tumors are the smallest and newest, so the Navarros feel confident that the antineoplastons will begin to shrink those tumors also.

The family is happy to be out of hiding, but they are still fighting medical discrimination. Thomas just spent almost two weeks in Texas Children's Hospital because an imbalance in the electrolytes in his blood sent him into a seizure.

Most of the doctors there seem unhappy with the course the family has taken, but as Jim says, "We will do anything we believe is necessary to help our son win his battle against cancer."

The biggest battle the family has now is financial. They have depleted all their resources and are basically living on occasional donations from friends and family.

Al and Judy Allen, a Houston couple who have helped the families of many cancer patients, have set up a fund for the Navarros at Wells Fargo bank. If you would like to help the family with a donation, the account number is 6472924544. Make your check payable to either Jim or Donna Navarro.

If you would like to learn more about the Navarros' fight to get antineoplaston treatment for their son, visit www.cancerbusters.com .