ï§.gð/§lâüghţërðäý: February 2014

Rock's Sammy Hagar begs FDA for drug to save wife of band's drummer | WashingtonExaminer.com

Rock great Sammy Hagar and members of Van Halen, Night Ranger and Deep Purple, are begging a reluctant Food and Drug Administration to let the dying wife of Hagar’s drummer to receive experimental treatment for her brain tumor.

In a passionate letter accompanied by one from California Gov. Jerry Brown’s top health official, Hagar, Van Halen’s Michael Anthony, Night Ranger's Jack Blades and Joe Satriani of Deep Purple called the drug a “flickering flame of hope” and life-saver.

They added that continuing to deny the use of the experimental treatment on Liza Cozad-Lauser, wife of drummer David Lauser, was a misuse of power.

“There is no decision more personal than a decision about one’s personal health, particularly when it involves matters of life and death,” they wrote to the FDA. “When government becomes a barrier to hope itself, it has exceeded its mandate.”

Antineoplastons are currently being texted and there isn’t the needed evidence yet that they work.
Still, said Dr. Ron Chapman, Brown’s director of public health, “in the case of terminal cancer, and the patient’s and family’s willingness to consent to the administration of experimental treatment by a licensed medical clinic already involved in trials of this treatment with FDA approval, permitting treatment may provide some benefit to the patient. Please grant a compassionate waiver and honor this request for a single patient protocol.”

A former pro tennis player, Cozad-Lauser was diagnosed last April with a brain tumor within her brainstem that’s inoperable.

According to reports, the FDA is allowing some to use the drugs, but put a hold on the use by new patients, prompting the rock stars and California Department of Public Health to go public this week with their campaign to get it for Cozad-Lauser.

“For Liza and David, the belief that the antineoplastons treatment could be effective is the flickering flame of hope that drives them in the battle against the cruel enemy that is cancer,” the musicians wrote.