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APPENDIX 11
TOUTLE, WASH, March 19, 1980.
Hon. CLAUDE PEPPER,
Chairman, Select Committee on Aging,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR SIR: I understand that beginning next week, you will be listening to hear-
ings and testimonies on the controverisal drug, Dimethyl Sulfoxide, better known as
DMSO.
Please find attached, my own personal testimony and experiences with the drug,
its founder and advocate Dr. Stanley Jacob, and the many people whom I have
shared them with.
I sincerely hope that you might take the time to read this paper, and that it will
in some small way, help you to reach a favorable decision on whether or not to
legalize it, subsequently making it available to the tens of thousands of people who
will become victims to head or spinal cord injuries within the next year, according
to present statistics.
The only other thing that I could wish from you, would be a chance to meet my
son Bill, whose own experience inspired me to write this, for I know you would love
him immediately, and be as proud of him as I am. But, as I state in the testimony I
have given, I know that also, you would become a believer after having seen the
miracle provided my son, through the DMSO; and even more directly, the miracle
provided by God.
Your time and attention on this matter will be more greatly appreciated than you
can ever know.
Very truly yours,
DMSO THE FACTS FROM A MOTHER'S EYES
CLARA M. Fox.
Almost since time began (or time as we know it), there have been happenings or
events that have had no explanations, so therefore, have been put on record as a
miracle. According to Webster's Collegiate dictionary, a miracle means: to wonder
at; an extraordinary event manifesting a supernatural work of God; an extremely
outstanding or unusual event, thing or accomplishment; a divinely natural occur-
rence that must be learned humanly.
Under this apt definition, I feel that the story and/or events that I am about to
put down here today, fit totally and completely in the above mentioned category. To
me, they are nothing short of what we might term a "Modern Day Miracle", with
all or most honors for them going to God and to Dr. Stanley Jacob, a professor at
the University of Oregon Health and Science Center in Portland, Oregon.
On September 15, 1979, our son was in a very devastating accident which left him
completely paralyzed. Through a series of moves after the actual accident, he finally
ended up at the above mentioned facility in the surgical intensive care unit, where
he immediately received medical attention and care from Dr. George Greccos.
Dr. Greccos met us coming into the hospital, showing us Bill's x-rays and explain-
ing everything to us, leaving nothing at all out. He was very forward and direct
while he told us of the possibility of our son not making it, but that he had put him
on a purely experimental drug known as DMSO, hoping to avoid this happening. He
said that most of the reason Bill had even made it that far was due to his excellent
physical and mental condition. He did add however, that if Bill did make it, he
would undoubtedly be paralyzed for the remainder of his life, from the point of
injury in his neck on down. I would like to point out at this time that I later
realized that if DMSO is administered within the first hour to even possibly two
hours after injury, that that injury can and will be totally reversed, and that our
son did not receive it until approximately six to seven hours after his injury. Dr.
Greccos then tried to prepare us for our first confrontation with him.
We followed Dr. Greccos into the S.I.C.U., and that first picture will be forever
etched into my mind. It really is quite a shock to see anyone, let alone your child,
whom just hours before had been a fun loving and vibrant young man, now just
lying with his head cleanly shaven and ugly (but necessary) steel tongs drilled into
his head to keep it immobilized and at the same time, thin ropes and pulleys with
weights attached to stretch the neck at the crucial point, in. order for it to come
back into place and hopefully heal. He was to remain in traction for the next six
and a half weeks. I might also add, that it was at this time that we first smelled the
strange odor which we came to know and recognize immediately through the
following days and weeks as the one of only two of the unpleasant effects of DMSO.
