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LOS ANGELES -
Cancer is a scary word -- especially when it's stage four. What would you do to save your life?
One woman decided to do something drastic to win the battle against stage four cervical cancer.
Aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments didn't work for Phyllis Brickert. The cancer came back, so Phyllis went to Mexico... and drank rattlesnake blood. KTLA went with her, and here's her story:
Phyllis Brickert was looking forward to a long retirement in Montana -- she had been the first female Sheriff's Deputy in Chelan County, Washington and spent 20 years on the force. But at only 55 years old, Phyllis heard the words no woman wants to hear: stage four cervical cancer.
Phyllis went through months of aggressive chemotherapy treatments along with simultaneous radiation treatments. Those treatments nearly killed her, but they didn't kill the cancer -- a couple of months later, a CT scan showed the tumors were back.
Phyllis knew she was terminal and refused further chemotherapy, deciding in favor of quality of life over quantity. Her oncologist told her she had about three months before the tumors would completely block her intestines.
The doctor was setting up hospice for Phyllis, and told her they would concentrate on managing the pain.
She wasn't ready to die, but surrendered to the fact that there was nothing more she could do. That's until a family friend suggested she go to Mexico where they use rattlesnake to treat cancer.
So Phyllis took a road trip to a remote village near Cuautla, Mexico where people drink rattlesnake blood and eat the sun-dried meat... and where just about everyone has a story about how the rattlesnake saved a loved one's life.
Phyllis admits that she "didn't think it would work." But one morning along the way in the state of Durango, she was able to buy some dried rattlesnake.
She munched on it in the car like it was beef jerky. And by mid-afternoon, she felt something: "I ate the dried snake meat and within a few hours the pain was gone so I thought 'wow!' maybe this is going to work, it's doing something."
So when she got to the small village, where a small number of people live without running water or electricity, a man named Pablo told her he had two large snakes for her -- one for that day, and another for a few days later.
As Pablo tried to pull the first large Neo-Tropical rattler from a canvas bag, the snake tried to strike. It was scary for everyone watching, but Pablo was finally able to get the snake safely out of the bag. He cut off the head just below the venom sacks, and quickly, they drained the blood into a glass.
The amount of blood was surprisingly small -- about a shot glass full -- and Phyllis said, "I thought here's to good health, and I drank the blood."
She said it tasted like nothing, it was "like drinking water."
KTLA asked Tarzana based Medical Doctor Michael Hirt about the rattlesnake treatment. He said he hadn't heard of it, but suspects the rattlesnake oxygenates the blood -- and cancer can't live in an oxygenated environment.
Dr. Hirt says more than 90 percent of cancer patients are using some form of alternative medicine, and that it makes sense. "We are using venoms from many different plants and animals in medicine. We think that these venoms that we purify in western medicine and use raw in alternative medicine, like rattlesnake venom, have specific qualities that target cancer cells."
The rattlesnake certainly seemed to be working for Phyllis -- by the time she arrived in Los Angeles, she was off her pain medication completely.
Phyllis remained in L.A., and immediately began receiving Qi Gong treatments from Master Zhou Ting-Jue. Master Zhou says, "The goal of the treatment is to increase overall blood circulation and increase the person's immunity."
Qi (chi) means energy and refers to the life force that flows through the body. Master Zhou uses his own Qi energy to create different levels of heat. This, he says, is the healing energy.
"The first thing I do is replenish the person's energy, then increase blood and energy circulation, then I use a different energy projection technique to target specific organs."
Phyllis saw Master Zhou daily for three weeks -- she then returned home to Montana and had another CT scan. The tumors were gone.
"My doctor was stunned," Phyllis says. "And he just said I want to know what you're doing, I want to know what you're doing because you're so improved. So I explained it to him and he said I've never heard of any of that, but keep doing it because it's working."
Phyllis says, "Before I started all this I was getting worse every day, now I'm getting better everyday."
It's been nearly six months since Phyllis doctor told her she had three months to live. And, as far as quality of life -- when she returned home to Montana, she went cross-country skiing.
For more information:
Master Zhou: www.remarkablehealings.com
Dr. Micheal Hirt's website: www.drhirt.com
One woman decided to do something drastic to win the battle against stage four cervical cancer.
Aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments didn't work for Phyllis Brickert. The cancer came back, so Phyllis went to Mexico... and drank rattlesnake blood. KTLA went with her, and here's her story:
Phyllis Brickert was looking forward to a long retirement in Montana -- she had been the first female Sheriff's Deputy in Chelan County, Washington and spent 20 years on the force. But at only 55 years old, Phyllis heard the words no woman wants to hear: stage four cervical cancer.
Phyllis went through months of aggressive chemotherapy treatments along with simultaneous radiation treatments. Those treatments nearly killed her, but they didn't kill the cancer -- a couple of months later, a CT scan showed the tumors were back.
Phyllis knew she was terminal and refused further chemotherapy, deciding in favor of quality of life over quantity. Her oncologist told her she had about three months before the tumors would completely block her intestines.
The doctor was setting up hospice for Phyllis, and told her they would concentrate on managing the pain.
She wasn't ready to die, but surrendered to the fact that there was nothing more she could do. That's until a family friend suggested she go to Mexico where they use rattlesnake to treat cancer.
So Phyllis took a road trip to a remote village near Cuautla, Mexico where people drink rattlesnake blood and eat the sun-dried meat... and where just about everyone has a story about how the rattlesnake saved a loved one's life.
Phyllis admits that she "didn't think it would work." But one morning along the way in the state of Durango, she was able to buy some dried rattlesnake.
She munched on it in the car like it was beef jerky. And by mid-afternoon, she felt something: "I ate the dried snake meat and within a few hours the pain was gone so I thought 'wow!' maybe this is going to work, it's doing something."
So when she got to the small village, where a small number of people live without running water or electricity, a man named Pablo told her he had two large snakes for her -- one for that day, and another for a few days later.
As Pablo tried to pull the first large Neo-Tropical rattler from a canvas bag, the snake tried to strike. It was scary for everyone watching, but Pablo was finally able to get the snake safely out of the bag. He cut off the head just below the venom sacks, and quickly, they drained the blood into a glass.
The amount of blood was surprisingly small -- about a shot glass full -- and Phyllis said, "I thought here's to good health, and I drank the blood."
She said it tasted like nothing, it was "like drinking water."
KTLA asked Tarzana based Medical Doctor Michael Hirt about the rattlesnake treatment. He said he hadn't heard of it, but suspects the rattlesnake oxygenates the blood -- and cancer can't live in an oxygenated environment.
Dr. Hirt says more than 90 percent of cancer patients are using some form of alternative medicine, and that it makes sense. "We are using venoms from many different plants and animals in medicine. We think that these venoms that we purify in western medicine and use raw in alternative medicine, like rattlesnake venom, have specific qualities that target cancer cells."
The rattlesnake certainly seemed to be working for Phyllis -- by the time she arrived in Los Angeles, she was off her pain medication completely.
Phyllis remained in L.A., and immediately began receiving Qi Gong treatments from Master Zhou Ting-Jue. Master Zhou says, "The goal of the treatment is to increase overall blood circulation and increase the person's immunity."
Qi (chi) means energy and refers to the life force that flows through the body. Master Zhou uses his own Qi energy to create different levels of heat. This, he says, is the healing energy.
"The first thing I do is replenish the person's energy, then increase blood and energy circulation, then I use a different energy projection technique to target specific organs."
Phyllis saw Master Zhou daily for three weeks -- she then returned home to Montana and had another CT scan. The tumors were gone.
"My doctor was stunned," Phyllis says. "And he just said I want to know what you're doing, I want to know what you're doing because you're so improved. So I explained it to him and he said I've never heard of any of that, but keep doing it because it's working."
Phyllis says, "Before I started all this I was getting worse every day, now I'm getting better everyday."
It's been nearly six months since Phyllis doctor told her she had three months to live. And, as far as quality of life -- when she returned home to Montana, she went cross-country skiing.
For more information:
Master Zhou: www.remarkablehealings.com
Dr. Micheal Hirt's website: www.drhirt.com
