Latest News: SV40 Letter to Congress
June 7, 2003
(MS Word document)

 

Our Alexander. In memory of our son, Alexander Horwin

Alexander, June 1998

“First do no harm
"Primum non nocere"

Hippocratic Oath

We have created this website to tell our son's story and to share with other parents the information we have found about pediatric brain tumors and about childhood vaccinations.

This information is designed to help parents exercise informed consent and make intelligent decisions regarding their child's health, especially when their child has cancer. For us, this information represents what we wished we had found when we feverishly searched for information on pediatric brain tumors in the fall of 1998.

While we focus on cancer and chemotherapy, we also discuss childhood vaccinations because there is substantial medical literature to suggest a potential link between vaccines and the rise of various cancers including brain tumors in children.

On August 10, 1998 at age two, our son Alexander Horwin was diagnosed with the most common pediatric brain tumor, medulloblastoma. After Alexander endured two brain surgeries my husband and I located the best non-toxic therapy that had proven successful in treating brain cancer. However, on September 21, 1998, the FDA denied Alexander access to this potentially life-saving treatment.

The oncologists told us that without their "state-of-the-art" chemotherapy, the cancer would soon return. We knew nothing of the history, efficacy and actual danger of chemotherapy but instinctively knew it was a poor choice for therapy. However, now that the FDA had denied Alexander his best chance of survival using a non-toxic therapy that had saved other children, we had no other treatment options left. Reluctantly we started chemo on October 7, 1998. The protocol was entitled CCG 9921 which consisted of intravenous administration of four chemo drugs: vincristine, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide (also called cytoxan), and VP16 (also called etoposide). Alexander completed his third month of chemotherapy in December 1998 and died on January 31, 1999. He was just two and a half years old.

 

After our loving, bright, happy and handsome son passed away, we wanted to know why. The doctors were unable to provide us with a single lucid answer regarding any of the following questions. Why did our son have cancer at the age of two? Where did it come from? Why is this particular cancer in children increasing? Why did he die while on chemotherapy and only one quarter of the way into the protocol?

Since both my husband and I had worked in the medical field we knew where to look for answers. We spent a year reading everything that we could find on the subject of cancer in children. We expended thousands of hours pouring over medical literature, communicating with doctors and scientists, and speaking to parents of children who were permanently disabled or killed by vaccines, and parents of children who were dead as a result of cancer or its treatment. This research provided a number of insights.

For example, the so-called "state-of-the-art" chemo protocol that the oncologists had administered to our son had proven its ineffectiveness in pediatric brain tumors many years before. In fact, in 1994, the exact same chemo drugs Alexander received in 1998 had been administered to children the same age with the same brain tumor (medulloblastoma) as Alexander. This experiment proved so unsuccessful that tumors spread within five months and the oncologists terminated the protocol. It was incredible to us to discover that chemotherapy that had already proven so ineffective that it required termination was being presented to parents as "state of the art" years later. We were never informed about the failure of this therapy. We also discovered that we weren't the only parents being purposefully misinformed. Today, parents are still being misled and children with brain cancer are still getting these same toxic drugs that have proven their ineffectiveness in the past. But even if you are informed that orthodox therapy does not work you still may not have a choice. When we hesitated to bring Alexander in for chemo the oncologists were already gearing up to take him from us by court order.

We have written to more than 30 Members of Congress about our findings and have provided written testimony to congressional hearings. (The documents are posted on this site.) By sharing our son's lethal encounter with the medical industry, other parents can take heed, learn and perhaps prevent the same horror from happening to their child.

We encourage parents to exercise informed consent before agreeing to any medical intervention for their child. Informed consent means that you know and understand the truth about all of the risks and benefits. This may require you to conduct your own research; read books, medical articles, etc. One excellent resource is available on the Internet: Medline includes over nine million citations of indexed and searchable articles on hundreds of medical topics taken from the world's best peer-reviewed medical journals. Another source of information is the manufacturer's insert that comes packaged with every single drug or vaccine. It's a good idea to read it before the drug/vaccine is administered to your child.

 

 

 


"Mommy, Daddy and Alexander
the Team!"
— Alexander's favorite saying



 



Alexander's Experience

Chronology of Alexander's life in pictures before and during chemotherapy

UCLA Medical Center

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Burzynski Clinic

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

 


About Pediatric Brain Tumors

"War On Cancer" : Why Does the FDA Deny Access to Alternative Cancer Treatments? This nationally acclaimed article and winner of the 2002 Scribes Award was originally published in the Fall 2001 edition of the California Western Law Review. It discusses the folly of allowing the federal government to make medical decisions for millions of cancer victims especially children, the fallacies in the government's reasoning, the actual reasons for this centralized control, and the death and injury that results.

Informed Decisions: Approaches to making informed decisions when your child is diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Chemotherapy in Pediatric Brain Tumors: This document cites the medical literature and demonstrates the toxic failure of chemotherapy in treating malignant pediatric brain tumors over the last 25 years. It also discusses how the FDA did not permit Alexander have access to a potentially life saving therapy — a policy decision that sentences many children with cancer to death. This document was provided to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform as written testimony for a congressional hearing that took place on June 7-8, 2000 in Washington D.C. The hearing was entitled: Integrative Oncology: Cancer Care for the New Millenium. (Witness lists for Day One and Day Two.)

Interview about pediatric cancer and Congressional hearing

Increase in Pediatric Brain Tumors: This article summarizes recent medical literature that demonstrates the rise of pediatric brain tumors.

Law Firm now focuses on protecting the rights of children who have been injured or killed by toxic and ineffective cancer treatments administered by oncologists.

 

About Childhood Vaccinations and
Simian Virus 40 (SV40)

Request for Congressional Investigation: (MS Word document) June 7, 2003 Letter to The Honorable Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Human Right and Wellness, to Demand a Congressional Investigation and Hearing on the Introduction of Simian Virus 40 (SV40), a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, into the American Population From Contaminated Polio Vaccines

State of the Vaccine Nation: One hundred years ago, children received one vaccine. Forty years ago, children got five vaccines routinely by two years of age. Children now receive 52 vaccines, in the form of 15 shots, by the time they are six months of age if they receive all the recommend shots. Vaccines contain mercury, which has been associated with neurological disorders in children including ADD learning difficulties, Autism and speech delays.

Cancer & Vaccines: This 16 page letter was sent to Congressman Dan Burton regarding the U.S. House Government Reform Committee hearing "Vaccines: Finding the Balance Between Public Safety and Personal Choice". It discusses the potential links between pediatric cancer & childhood vaccination.

Interview about the potential dangers of childhood vaccination

Ensuring Safe, Effective And Necessary Vaccines For Children This article was originally published in the Spring 2001 edition of the California Western Law Review. It explores the financial forces and conflicts of interest behind the ever increasing numbers of vaccines mandated for children.

Information About Simian Virus 40 (SV40): “The discovery in 1960 that a DNA tumour virus, designated simian virus 40 (SV40) was an inadvertent contaminant of rhesus monkey cells, and consequently the poliovirus and adenovirus vaccines that were made in these cells...confronted the scientific and regulatory community with the very problem they had sought to avoid in vaccine development...namely the presence of an occult tumor virus in viral vaccines.” - From Simian Virus 40 (SV40): A Possible Human Polyomavirus, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Jan. 27-28, 1997

For more information on childhood vaccination go to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)

 

Recent News

Chemo versus nutritional therapies:
Is a conflict of interest compromising fair
evaluation of alternative cancer treatments?

NaturalHealthLine.com 3/1/03

"Court says county cannot force chemotherapy for sick child":
Associated Press 12/2/02

"4-year-old girl fighting illness like a champ"
Reno Gazette-Journal 11/26/02:

Forcing Choices
Health Sciences Institute 11/6/02

FDA Reform
free-market.net 10/23/02

How To Kill A Child (FDA-style)
Wired
10/16/02

 

Disclaimer: We are not physicians and therefore we can not offer advice or recommendations concerning any medical procedure or intervention. The information on this website simply reflects the story of our personal experience and the information we have uncovered from medical books, journals and other sources — information written by physicians, clinicians and medical researchers.

Copyright: © 1999 - 2003 Raphaele and Michael Horwin; All rights reserved. The documents on this website are for personal use only. No part of the documents may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the written consent of the webmaster.

Contact:
info@ouralexander.org