Cheating Death (31 page)
2
. International Association for Near-Death Studies website,
http://www.iands.org
.
3
. Raymond Moody,
Life After Life
(Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1976).
4
. Sam Parnia in interview with the author.
5
. Parnia, interview; Desmond Smith’s case is described more fully in Parnia’s book
What Happens When We Die?
(Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006).
6
. Parnia,
What Happens When We Die?
7
. Parnia,
What Happens When We Die?
8
. Bruce Greyson and others, “Failure to elicit near-death experiences in induced cardiac arrest,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
25, no. 2 (2006): 85–98.
9
. Jean Potter, a woman we met through an Atlanta group affiliated with the International Association for Near-Death Studies,
in an interview with the author’s team.
10
. Dirk de Ridder and others, “Visualizing out-of-body-experience in the brain,”
The New England Journal of Medicine
357, no. 18 (2007): 1829–1833.
11
. Strassman has written extensively about this theory, most completely in his book
DMT: The Spirit Molecule
(Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2000).
12
. Andrew Newberg and Eugene D’Aquili,
Why God Won’t Go Away
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2001).
13
. Kevin Nelson in interview with the author’s team.
14
. Moody,
Life After Life
(2001 ed.), 16.
15
. The author explored this subject in detail for CNN’s 2006 documentary
Sleep.
16
. Kenneth Parks was acquitted of murder on May 26, 1988. The case was widely covered at the time.
17
. Anahad O’Connor, “The Claim: Blind People Do Not See Images in Their Dreams,”
New York Times,
December 15, 2008.
18
. Kevin Nelson and others, “Does the arousal system contribute to near-death experience?”
Neurology
266, no. 66 (2006): 1003–1009.
19
. In addition to medical science at high altitude, the authors explored extreme cold-water swimming for CNN’s 2004
Life Beyond Limits
documentary.
20
. Jeffrey Long and Janice Miner Holden, “Does the Arousal System Contribute to Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences? A
Summary and Response,” available at
http://www.nderf.org/longholdenremintrusion.pdf
.
21
. Jeffrey Long in interview with the author’s team.
22
. Pim van Lommel and others, “Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands,”
Lancet
358, no. 9298 (2001): 2039–2045.
23
. Pim van Lommel in interview with the author’s team.
24
. Pim van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” available on the website of the International Association
for Near-Death Studies,
http://www.iands.org/research/important_studies
.
25
. Michael Sabom,
Light and Death
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).
26
.
http://www.myspace.com/pamreynoldslive
. Along with a personal account of her NDE, the website includes music tracks from
Side Effects of Dying
, a 2005 CD she released as half of the duo Reynolds Robinson.
27
. Nelson, “Does the Arousal System Contribute to Near-Death Experience?”
28
. Susan Clancy,
Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens
(Boston: Harvard University Press, 2005).
29
. Larry Squire in interview with the author’s team.
30
. Post-traumatic stress and other intense memories were examined in the 2005 CNN documentary
Memory
.
31
. CNN’s
Memory
.
32
. Pamela Wedding in interview with the author’s team.
33
. Nelson, interview.
34
. William Kuchler, a near-death experiencer who was introduced to me by Dr. Sam Parnia, in interview with author’s team.
35
. Van Lommel, “Near-death experience.”
36
. Van Lommel, interview; Van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness.”
37
. Van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness.”
38
. The so-called AWARE study (Awareness during Resuscitation) was announced at a United Nations symposium, September 11,
2008.
CHAPTER FIVE: WHAT LIES BENEATH
1
. Unless otherwise noted, the information on Mark Ragucci’s case came from the following: interviews by the author and his
team with Dr. Stephan Mayer and Dr. Mark Ragucci; “Against All Odds,”
NYU Physician
(NYU in-house magazine), Summer 2008; and Thomas M. Burton, “In a Stroke Patient, Doctor Sees Power of Brain to Recover,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 23, 2005.
2
. We chose not to identify the hospital where Mark Ragucci was initially treated, due to the sensitive nature of his story.
3
. Donald McRae,
Every Second Counts
(New York: Putnam, 2006).
4
. McRae,
Every Second Counts
.
5
.
The Mohonk Report
(2006)
6
. Joseph Fins in interview with the author’s team.
7
. Jerome Groopman, “Silent Minds,”
The New Yorker,
October 15, 2007.
8
. Groopman, “Silent Minds”; “Man Speaks After 19-Year Silence,”
CNN.com
, July 8, 2003.
9
. Nicholas Schiff in interview with the author’s team; Henning U. Voss, “Possible axonal regrowth in late recovery from the
minimally conscious state,”
Journal of Clinical Investigation
116, no. 7 (July 2006): 2005–2011.
10
. Fins, interview; Schiff, interview.
11
. Unless otherwise noted, the information on Zeyad Barazanji’s case comes from the following: interviews with Stephan Mayer
and Zeyad Barazanji, and Barazanji’s medical records.
12
. A note on names: As is common in Syria, Raoua has officially kept her maiden name, Sadat. However, she frequently uses
the last name Barazanji; and that is what I’ve used, for the ease of the reader.
13
. Anderson Cooper, “Awakening,”
60 Minutes
, November 25, 2007.
14
. Matthew H. Davis and others, “Dissociating speech perception and comprehension at reduced levels of awareness,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
104 (2007): 16032–16037.
15
. Voss, “Possible axonal regrowth.”
16
. Gary Greenberg, “Back From the Dead,”
Wired
, September 2006.
17
. N.D. Schiff, “Behavioral improvements with thalamic stimulation after severe brain injury,”
Nature
448 (2007): 600–603.
18
. Mayer, interview.
19
. K.J. Becker and others, “Withdrawal of support in intra-cerebral hemorrhage may lead to self-fulfilling prophecies,”
Neurology
56 (2001): 766–772.
20
. Claude Hemphill III and others, “Hospital usage of early do-not-resuscitate orders and outcome after intracerebral hemorrhage,”
Stroke
35 (2004): 1130–1134.
21
. Justin Zivin in interview with the author’s team.
CHAPTER SIX: CHEATING DEATH IN THE WOMB
1
. Michael Harrison, “The University of California at San Francisco Fetal Treatment Center: a personal perspective,”
Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy
19, no. 6 (2004): 513–24
2
. Unless otherwise noted, descriptions of the early fetal surgery program at the University of California at San Francisco
are based on interviews with Michael Harrison by the author and his team.
3
. I first reported portions of Anders’ story on the CBS
Evening News
, February 28, 2007. Unless otherwise noted, the story told here is based on interviews with the following people: Sally (Grogono)
Wiley, Jay Wiley, and Dr. Louise Wilkins-Haug.
4
. Children’s Hospital website,
http://web1.tch.harvard.edu/clinicalservices/Site457/mainpageS457P5sublevel6.html
5
. Denise Grady, “Operation on Fetus’s Heart Valve Called a ‘Science-Fiction Success,’ ”
New York Times
, February 25, 2002.
6
. Scott Allen, “A Medical First Helps Baby Girl Beat Odds,”
Boston Globe
, January 28, 2006.
7
. Michael Harrison, “Personal Perspective,”
Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy
.
8
. Hanmin Lee in interview with the author’s team.
9
. Michael Harrison, “A Randomized Trial of Fetal Endoscopic Tracheal Occlusion for Severe Fetal Congenital Diaphragmatic
Hernia,”
New England Journal of Medicine
349, no. 20 (2003): 1916–1924.
10
. Lee, interview.
11
. Monica J. Casper, “Fetal Surgery Then and Now,”
Conscience
, September 22, 2007.
12
. Monica Casper in interview with the author’s team.
13
. Michael Harrison in correspondence with the author.
14
. “Surgery in the Womb,”
Time
, August 10, 1981.
15
. Mark J. Bliton, “Parental hope confronting scientific uncertainty: a test of ethics in maternal-fetal surgery for spina
bifida,”
Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology
48, no. 3 (2005): 595–607.
16
. Associated Press, “Kansas Governor Signs Abortion Ultrasound Bill,” March 28, 2009.
17
. Neela Banerjee, “Church Groups Turn to Sonogram to Turn Women From Abortions,”
New York Times
, February 2, 2005.
18
. Harrison, interview.
19
. Sabin Russell, “First Fetal Surgery Survivor Finally Meets His Doctor,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, May 5, 2005.
20
. Michael Harrison, “Personal Perspective,”
Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy
.
21
. Casper, interview.
22
. Pedro del Nido in interview with the author’s team.
CHAPTER SEVEN: WHAT IS A MIRACLE?
1
. Unless otherwise noted, information on Matthew Pfenninger’s case comes from interviews with Jack Pfenninger and Matthew
Pfenninger, conducted by the author and/or his team.
2
. There are numerous studies to this effect. Not only do Americans pray a great deal, according to a 2004 National Institutes
of Health Survey of more than 31,000 people, prayer is the most commonly used “alternative medicine.” (
NIH newsletter
,
http://nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2005_winter/prayer.htm
)
3
. Herbert Benson and others, “Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer… ,”
American Heart Journal
51, no. 4 (April 2006): 934–942.
4
. Adam C. Randolph, Erin M. Tharalson, and Nooman Gilani, “Spontaneous regression of heptocellular carcinoma is possible
and might have implications for future therapies,”
European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
20, no. 8 (August 2008): 804–809; Nooman Gilani in interview with the author’s team.
5
. Gilani, interview.
6
. Jeanne Lenzer, “The Body Can Beat Terminal Cancer—Sometimes,”
Discover
, August 21, 2007
7
. Alcides Moreno’s brother Edgar died in the same incident.
8
. David Gorski in interview with the author’s team.
9
. Not uncommon for a blog, Respectful Insolence has changed its archiving process a number of times and it would not be surprising
if it changed again. Rather than post a full link, anyone interested in reading the posts on medical miracles and Abraham
Cherrix is encouraged to go to the main page,
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/
and run a search for the topic of their choice.
10
. Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxsey_Therapy
11
. Michael Hardy, “Kaine Signs Bills, Including ‘Abraham’s Law,’ ”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
, March 22, 2007
13
. Unless otherwise noted, information on David Bailey’s case comes from the following: interviews with David Bailey and
Dr. Henry Friedman conducted by the author and/or his team, and correspondence with David Bailey.
14
. Darrell Bigner in interview with the author; Dietmar Krex, “Long-term survival with glioblastoma multiforme,”
Brain
130, no. 10 (2007): 2596–2606.
15
. Henry Friedman, interview.
16
. Krex, “Long-term survival…”
Brain
, 130.
17
. Henry Friedman, interview.
18
. The most dramatic evidence of extended survival comes from trials involving a vaccine that targets a substance EGFRvIII,
produced by the tumor cells. It’s discussed in more depth, a bit later in this chapter.
19
. National Cancer Institute,
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/treatment/brain/malignantglioma
20
. Roger Stupp, “Radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide for glioblastoma,”
New England Journal of Medicine
352, no. 10 (2005): 987–996.
21
. Henry Friedman, interview.
22
. John Sampson in interview with the author.
23
.
Journal of Clinical Oncology
, 2008 ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings (Post-Meeting Edition). Volume 26, Number 15S (May 20 Supplement). Abstract #2011.