Woman’s seven terminal cancers miraculously cured
Press release from Cadillac News - Cadillac Michigan - April 2007
At first glance, Elaine Hulliberger doesn’t look like a fighter. She can’t weigh
more than 100 pounds and she has an easy-going manner. When first diagnosed with cancer in 2005, she quietly followed doctor’s orders.
She went home to die.
She had her best suit cleaned to wear in the casket. Still grieving the death
of her husband, who died at her feet of a sudden heart attack three months earlier,
she made plans for her own funeral. Three oncologists and a surgeon confirmed
her fate and offered no treatment. “I had cancer pretty much everywhere,” she
said, naming them off like an alphabet of doom — colon, liver, kidneys, bone,
lymph nodes, blood, and a tumor by her aorta.
Seeing her despair, downstate family members urged Elaine to try the Karmanos
Cancer Institute in Detroit. A doctor there confirmed her diagnosis. “He told
me I was going to die but said he could give me a little more time.” That speck
of hope transformed Elaine into a ferocious warrior ready to battle for her life.
Angry with doctors who gave her no hope, she was determined to prove them wrong.
Two years later she is cancer free. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation
at Karmanos and then journeyed to New York City to try a new form of radiation.
And thrown into the mix, she started taking a dietary supplement called Protocel® that a cousin told her about.
“I didn’t have anybody to talk to about it,” she said of the alternative treatment.
“I was alone and I was dying. Finally, I thought, what could happen? I’m going
to die anyway.” She started taking Protocel® and before her next round of chemo, lab work showed her blood count was up —
it was normal.
Soon she was driving herself back and forth to Detroit for her chemotherapy.
She was gaining strength. She refused a second round of chemo and opted to try
a new form of radiation offered at the Cabrini Medical Center in New York City.
“They chose the three areas that were most likely to kill me,” she explained.
“The tumor by my aorta and the tumors in my colon and liver. The doctor felt if
he could give me some help with those three it would lengthen my life. But he
agreed with everyone else and told me I would never get rid of this cancer.”
After 11 treatments in New York, she came home last September with a CAT scan
that showed she still had her tumors. She decided that was enough treatment.
“I put myself in God’s hands and kept taking Protocel®.”
In January an MRI showed the liver cancer was gone. After a PET scan, her physician
in Reed City, Dr. John Dennis made a startling claim: “You are not dying anymore.”
All of her cancers had disappeared except for the tumor in her colon. They decided
to have it surgically removed by Dr. Khatchadour Hamamdjian in Detroit.
While doing the surgery Dr. Hamamdjian took a look at her liver. “He came to
see me in the hospital,” she recalled. “He said that in 25 years he had never
seen anything like this — not only was my liver clear of cancer but it was healthy.”
After closing down her business for two years while she battled cancer, Elaine
has reopened her shop, Woodland Embroidery and Design in Marion. She believes
her miraculous cure was the result of the combination of all her treatments and
her faith in God.
Now that she has her life back, her purpose and passion is to give hope to those
diagnosed with terminal cancer. “I’m not saying everybody can be saved,” she acknowledged.
“But you don’t know until you fight and you have got to fight with every ounce
of strength you have.”
Elaine said she doesn’t know why God spared her life. But now she intends to
use that life to “help those with cancer.”
Another Press Release
6-year-old beats odds after brain surgery
By Jose de Wit 252 | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 25, 2007
Pompano Beach - When doctors found a lemon-sized tumor shoving at Felicia Guajardo's
brain stem, they said the 19-month-old would not make it. Doctors gave her a 10
percent chance of surviving five years.
That was in late 2002. Five years later, there's no sign of the medulloblastoma
that nearly took Felicia's life and the lightly freckled 6-year-old is all giggles.
Her survival took an operation, a leap of faith and plenty of defiance.
First, in October 2002, came brain surgery to remove the tumor at Joe DiMaggio
Children's Hospital in Hollywood.
Felicia's oncologist recommended following up with chemotherapy. But chemo would
increase her chance of survival only to 20 or 30 percent and make her miserable
with excruciating side effects, said her mother, Lisa Guajardo, 32. She and her
husband, Gerry, 37, sought other options.
A relative opened a trust fund to help pay for Felicia's medical expenses. After
the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published a series of articles on Felicia, the
fund grew to about $25,000, Lisa Guajardo said.
The Guajardos expected to use those funds for cutting-edge treatment at the Burzynski
Clinic in Houston, but the Food and Drug Administration turned them down, saying
Felicia first needed chemo and radiation therapy.
In the end, the family opted for an alternative treatment that combined a special
diet with immune system boosters.
The Guajardos put Felicia on Protocel, a bitter, molasses-colored syrup reputed
to turbocharge the immune system. Protocel is FDA-approved only as a dietary supplement,
but its makers say it helps the body get rid of unwanted cells.
A nutritionist in Idaho custom-made a special diet for Felicia. Gerry Guajardo,
a chef, concocted dishes with ingredients such as tabbouleh with mushroom extract
and grapeseed oil on toast.
"The big thing was trying to get more vegetables in her diet," he said. "So I'd
take her vegetables, purify them, cook them up, scramble them up in eggs."
The diet and the Protocel worked. Post-operation exams showed no trace of her
tumor. MRI and PET scans afterward came back clean until, finally, in December
2004, Felicia received a clean bill of health.
Felicia remembers little of that scary year.
"Some days she says she remembers, other days she doesn't remember a thing,"
Lisa Guajardo said.
Either way, cancer left an imprint on Felicia much deeper than the scar on the
back of her head. The first year, it was nightmares and a deep fear of doctors.
"Now she has this incredible interest in medicine," said Lisa Guajardo, who is
a midwife.
Science and physical education are Felicia's favorite school subjects. She likes
to dance and watch over her sisters, Lydia, 5, and Vivian, 3.
Guajardo is confident her daughter has left the worst behind, though she still
takes precautions. The Guajardos keep a keen eye out for telltale signs that the
cancer could be back, such as slurred speech and erratic motor skills.
Dr. Ziad Khatib, Felicia's oncologist, said it's possible the tumor could return,
especially because Felicia didn't receive chemo or radiation therapy. Khatib said
he understands and respects why the Guajardos decided against traditional treatment,
although he still thinks it's the best option for other patients.
"There was a 20 percent chance for recovery without chemotherapy or radiation,
and Felicia was within those fortunate 20 percent," he said.
Felicia knows exactly how fortunate she is, her mother said. "She's in awe, she
feels special. She takes her MRIs to show-and-tell," Guajardo said. "I've taught
her not to be embarrassed of her scar. She knows it represents a miracle."
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