If you are thinking of doing your cancer treatment at the Issels Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico, here is a brief description of one experience written by one of our patients and their companion to pass on to you so you will know what to expect. This was shared with us by Rita Possehl and Teryl Springstead in October 2016.
Thank You Messages from Patients
We received the following messages from other patients and are reprinting them here with their permission:
From Kari Patrick [May 2019]:
Good morning! I just wanted to give you an update on Zehntner Gay. He just had labs done, labs are good and he’s doing great!!! He still gets Vitamin C infusions every other month, but he is doing so incredible! He’s like… a 20 year old boy! He’s currently on a fishing trip in the Keys. I could never thank ISSELS enough!!! Just wanted to give you an update and if you ever need a testimony for a patient we would be happy to tell his story. It’s funny when I try to tell doctors about it, they think I’m crazy!!!
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From Tammy H. [May 2019]:
Everyone here has gone beyond the call of duty. The food is way better and quite good. They kindly tweaked my menu and are very flexible with any changes. Victor is super nice and supportive. And explains my program in detailed. I can’t say enough about Dr. Torres and the internal medicine doc whose name just slipped my mind. They are awesome! And care about our well being. I will be meeting Dr. Arce today. I think. Any how just wanted to give you an update. 🙂
Thank you for all your support and kindness. I am happy to be here!
Tammy
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From Erich A., MD [May 2019]:
I am glad to tell you that my dad is doing fine. He had another dose of LAK and dendritic in Tijuana last month. His circulating tumor cell from 7 in January is now down to 0 as of his last treatment. He is doing fine. Lots of juicing and IV supplements like vitamin C.
Erich
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From Marjo Woodhull [February 2019]:
I want to thank everyone on the team for taking such good care of me during my time in Mexico last week. I am in awe of the wonderful care and attention that your patients receive. Every member of your team is so considerate and professional and I truly appreciate all the wonderful treatment I have received from all of you!
Thank you so much,
Marjo Woodhull
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From Claudia Paige [July 2018] : Watch Claudia’s Video Testimonial regarding her mother’s treatment.
Transcript of the video:
Now this might have deterred some people. People might be skeptical about going to Mexico for treatment and I’m sure they have good reason for being concerned about it. But my mother said, “I’m going. What do I have to lose, I’m dying anyway?”
“Right on, let’s go.”
The Issels Clinic made all the arrangements to take us to Hospital Angeles to their program there, where she would receive her own vaccine for cancer. They provide a shuttle to pick you up from your home—or if you’re flying to San Diego, they’ll pick you up at the airport—and transport you directly to Hospital Angeles. And that’s what they did for my mother and me. I accompanied her to the hospital. I don’t know what to say to you about Hospital Angeles, except to say it’s a beautiful hospital. It’s huge. It’s clean. It’s modern. The rooms were so spacious and private. We kept thinking we were in a luxury hotel. We could not believe we were in a hospital. The staff spoke fluent English. We could understand everything they were saying to us. They went to great lengths to explain to her what the treatment was all about, what they they’re going to do, how they were going to help her. The Issels doctor came to see her every single day, three times a day. He spent a long time to us explaining to us how the treatment works and what they would do to make her blood recognize her own cancer. Her own antibodies would be trained to seek out and destroy her own cancer. It didn’t seem possible. It seemed like a miracle. When I was hearing what he was saying, it seemed like science fiction to me.
Sure enough, it happened. They gave her infusions to build up her blood. They gave her a special diet menu. I could have actually stayed in the room with her where there was a sofa that can be converted into a bed. I opted to stay into a hotel nearby so I could let her have her privacy, and I can also have my privacy.
At this point I want to say that Tijuana is an absolutely love city. It’s nothing like what you might imagine. It’s a thriving, prosperous, business-like city. Beautiful parks. I walked around by myself all the time, during the day and into the early evening sometimes. I never felt afraid. I felt safe there. It’s nothing like you might imagine. My mother was there from Saturday to Saturday. After they took a big blood draw from her and while they were working on engineering her blood to fight her own cancer, we were free to go about to do whatever out to do. We left the hospital. We went out to lunch. We walked around. We went to the coast. We enjoyed looking at the stores and the coastline. We can see our home looking across the water towards San Diego.
The shuttle took us back home to San Diego. We were scheduled to go to Issels Clinic in Santa Barbara for the rest of the treatment. After the blood draw, when the results came in, we went to see the doctor. He told my mother at that time that the bloodwork came back so good, so healthy. This was five days after she was in the hospital in Mexico. There were no cancer markers in her blood. There were no tumor markers at all. Five days later, the cancer was gone. He sent us home from the hospital with a very big supply of her own serum that was manufactured while we were in Mexico. The serum was to be given to her in her arm and my brother, sister and I took turns to give the injections with her own serum, which contains the ingredients to fight her own cancer.
After Issels treated my mother at Hospital Angeles, her body killed its own cancer.
My mother is now—three years later—still cancer free. In fact, about a month ago her doctor in Palm Springs called out a PET scan of her whole body just to make sure that there was nothing that we should know about that we didn’t know about. Apparently she had a blood draw and there was a slight chance there was a cancer marker tumor marker, and the PET scan proved negative for any sign of cancer.
Now my mother is completely free of cancer still. Today she is up in her farm, enjoying herself, enjoying watching her wild rice. Every day is a celebration for us of her life, her health, and her having survived her cancer. Thank you to Issels Clinic.
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From Linda Goranson [April 2017]:
Hi Dr. Issels,
Here I am just a little over a year since I spent February in Mexico and Santa Barbara. My PET scans have been clear since one month after my treatment at Issels. Yay! Coming there was one of the best decisions of my life. Today I enjoyed gardening, walking and Pilates. Steve and I are traveling just like before. Thank you for giving me my life back.
Much gratitude,
Linda
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From Ana Rosa Peterson [March 2017]:
Dear Mrs. Issels
Now that I have been back home for some days and have settled in, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for all your help. Since the first time I spoke with you on the phone, I felt you sincerely wanted to help me and that immediately made my family and I more at ease in a most difficult time I don’t have words to express my gratitude to you for allowing me to take part in your health program I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. The doctors and all the staff in Los Angeles Hospital were very warm and knowledgeable. Thank you.
My transition to Santa Barbara was very smooth. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Issels and Dr. Kim. They helped me to better understand how to monitor the cancer, what to look for, and most importantly what to do to reverse it! I am very hopeful. Some of the IV treatments in SB were a little harder than what I thought especially because my veins were not cooperating, however the nurses were very dedicated, patient, and warm, always very ready and determined to help each one of us get what we needed. Truly, a level of professionalism I have never seen. And one I will always be grateful for.
I’m happy to say my experience with Issels was a positive and pleasant one. I was very overwhelmed and touched by all the kindness shown to me. On my family’s behalf and mine I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you, Dr. Issels, and all your wonderful staff. It is the wonderful actions of others that help us to keep going.
Sincerely,
Ana Rosa Peterson
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Rita Possehl and Teryl Springstead talk about their experience at Issels in October 2016:
We received one pleasant surprise after another in our visit to the Issels Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico. Here’s what to expect when you go for immunotherapy for cancer treatment.
Medical Visits and Comfort:
Rita and I have spent time visiting and being patients in various hospitals. Usually, all night long, nurses wake patients to check their blood pressure or check something. At the Issels Medical Center Hospital in Tijuana they come into the room around 7:30 AM or 8:00 AM in the morning to take blood pressure; they take the last blood pressure at around 9:30 PM or 10:00 PM and then leave the door shut so you can SLEEP all night long.
As you can see, food is served FREQUENTLY. Between all of the meals and snacks, and all of the friendly visits and changing of Rita’s bed once day and bringing fresh towels, we also got the daily visits from Dr. Lara and sometimes Dr. Arzola Cruz (we couldn’t meet with Dr. Arce because she had a cold). Sometimes these visits were more than once a day. With the visits and the other medical things that went on, we BARELY had time to go for our normal 45-minute to 1-hour walk each day. Some days we could walk for only 15 or 20 minutes.
They bring all of the bottled water you can drink.
As we left the hospital to return home, they even packed us a lunch that they were sure would not be a problem getting across the border. They were right. In many ways we felt pampered and taken care of.
Meal and Snack Information:
Here’s the schedule we followed–
8:00 to 8:30 AM – Breakfast for patient and companion
11:00 AM – Protein drink for patient
1:00 to 1:30 PM – Lunch for patient and companion (usually the largest meal of the day)
4:00 PM – Snack for patient only
6:00 to 6:30 PM – Dinner
8:00 PM – Snack for patient
The impression we’d had was that the companion would receive standard hospital food with no choice as to what to eat. The main difference as explained to us was that the food for the patient was organized and the food for the companion was not.
Everything we ate tasted so fresh, and most of it was DELICIOUS. Evidently they get their fruit and veggies from a nearby farmers’ market. We wrote several rave reviews of the food.
At first I (the companion) decided to eat a vegan diet so as not to have Rita experience envy if meat was served. The portions were small compared to what I was used to. For the first two or three days I was hungry most of the time. I had even considered ordering food from the cafeteria in the other building where the doctors have offices. But signs all over the hospital indicated that we were not allowed to bring food into the hospital, not even from there.
Between the receptionist and the translator, they arranged to add some dairy AND to make my portions larger. But what really blew our minds was that a nurse told us that, within reason, we could order food for the companion to be delivered to the room at almost any time of day! When they realized that I was still hungry they brought me wonderful mushroom sandwiches around 9:00 PM at night!
Also, we’d had the impression that the companion’s food preferences would not be considered. Happily that was untrue. The nutritionist took careful notes. 95% of the time BOTH of our requests for omissions were honored.
Each dish we received was covered TIGHTLY with food wrap. That not only kept it warmer but protected it from germs. They took the time to serve the food in creative and artistic ways.
Entertainment:
The “public relations” department will lend patients DVDs to watch on their big-screen TVs. There is no charge. We borrowed two but had time to watch only one. They will also arrange outings for which one pays. We can’t imagine when a patient would have TIME for outings!
Staff:
The staff was warm and friendly. But there were so MANY. We began writing down names and brief specialty descriptions. When we reached 21, we gave up keeping track. They all wear name tags and announce themselves as they walk into the room.
Leaving the Hospital Grounds:
We were nervous, at first, about walking outside the hospital grounds. But we did so nearly every day. The receptionist printed out a map and marked it with a yellow highlighter to show us where it was safe to walk. We experienced no incidents. We were surprised when crossing the street. A flashing red hand means it’s OK to go ahead and walk. Some irritated motorists waved us on until we realized what was going on.
Personal Effects Storage and Room:
Storage is on one wall between the door to the room and the door to the bathroom. It’s in a cluster with 3 levels
A. High. Unless you are 6′ 6″ tall, don’t bring much with you. They do NOT have a dresser as such. Our room had some storage cabinets that were so high we would have needed a ladder to reach them. I put our two suitcases up there but then could no longer reach the one in the back. Our receptionist told us about the clothes hanger trick for pulling it toward the front and then catching each case as it falls down.
B. Low: Three built-in storage drawers required bending over, close to the floor. Some patients may have a difficult time with that.
C. Middle height storage was limited because of the TV and DVD player.
D. NARROW closet held 8 to 10 hangers worth of clothes at the maximum. Initially our closet had only 3 hangers. We later learned that you are expected to bring one set of clothes and send the rest of your time in pajamas! But we asked a very helpful young man to bring us more hangers.
E. Next to the hospital bed is a night stand. It has a top, a small drawer, and 2 or 3 shelves inside a cabinet underneath the drawer. But they almost always have a stand with wheels in front of it for holding drips for IVs. So, it’s difficult to access that night stand in the daytime.
F. At our request a helpful young man also brought us an extra rolling table, the kind they put over the patient’s hospital bed. That was great. I could use it as a desk for my laptop and to hold my meals on a tray when we ate.
H. The room had a safe similar to those in hotels. We appreciated the fact that it was low enough so that someone with a wheelchair could use it. But we set a blanket on the floor and got down on our knees to use it to save our backs.
I. Cot/Sleeper Bed: when we read that there would be a cot for the companion, we were concerned. It’s actually a couch with a two-layer foam pad on top. The slanted back cushions are lightweight and easy to remove. The first night we were there we kept wondering if someone would make the couch into a bed. After we asked they brought some sheets, pillows, and blanket.
Cleanliness:
My goodness that room was clean and it was cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. We were puzzled when, after a walk, we returned more than once to find that the toilet seat had been cleaned with a chlorinated solution that was left on the seat with the top down. In other words, when you lifted up that seat cover the seat itself was wet. We learned to check for that and wipe it off before sitting on the seat.
Ventilation:
Each room has individual AC, heat, and fan that occupants control. When we arrived we said, ‘We guess there isn’t any fresh air.” To our pleasant surprise there was a two-inch deep, screened opening under (yes, under) each window. The screened portion faced DOWN so no rain could fall inside the room even if the vent were left open. The weather was mostly cloudy, drizzly, and cool. We ended up using ONLY the ventilation most of the time. We loved it and knew it would also be better for our health.
The room itself was larger than we’d expected but with Spartan furnishings. There was a big recliner next to the narrow couch/bed. Other than the bed, the night stand, and the built-ins, that was it. The bathroom was surprisingly large and good-looking.
The hospital has a link on its website to the US Customs and Border patrol website. We were nervous about how the vaccine would come back into the USA. They put it in little vials. Those vials–and some terrific, long-lasting blue ice go into a little red soft-cloth cooler. The cooler is about 6 inches by 6 inches by 6 inches square with a strap for carrying. The cooler sits prominently displayed in the middle of the back seat of the van that drives you across the border. NO PROBLEMS with border patrol.
The things that stand out most in our minds are the warm, friendly staff first and the wholesome, delicious food second.
We would recommend that hospital to other medical tourists.
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