NORTH OAKVILLE TODAY – Frank and Colleen Caicco had nothing left to lose.

Colleen’s Multiple Sclerosis was rapidly progressing. After living with the disease for 14 years, her cheeks were turning blue, she had
lost all feeling in her legs and she was not far from having to go on

life support.

Now Colleen’s condition is improving since returning from Costa Rica where she recently underwent an experimental treatment called
‘Liberation Therapy,’ a treatment not available in Canada.

“Once the procedure was done and I saw the changes immediately in her, I just felt the weight of the world lifted off me,” said Frank. “I
wasn’t going to lose my wife and she was going to get better.”

“I was going to die,” said Colleen, whose speech is getting better but is still laboured.

Frank and Colleen lived in Glen Abbey with their two sons Dave and Brian for close to 25 years but recently had to move to a more
wheelchair accessible home in Hamilton.

Frank first learned of ‘Liberation Therapy’ from an article in the Hamilton Spectator.

The article told the story of an MS patient and her husband who made the trek to Costa Rica to have the procedure.

Frank contacted the couple and, after speaking with them about their experience and the positive outcome of their treatment, he decided
he needed to get Colleen to Costa Rica as soon as he could.

“I said, ‘Colleen, we’re going to do it no matter what. We can’t go on like this because who knows how long you’re going to last.’ She was
getting to the point where she couldn’t even function anymore,” said

Frank.

The next month, on October 22, they were on a plane to Central America.

Frank contacted Passport Medical, a company that acts as a go-between for international healthcare options. The procedure cost
$13,000, which included the hospital stay, hotel stay, transportation

and medication. Frank said it was worth every penny.

“It was the most unbelievable experience of my life,” said Frank. “I could not say anything bad about it. I have to give high praise to
the whole situation all the way around, from the company that arranged

it to the doctors and the nurses down there. It was just unbelievable.”

‘Liberation Therapy’ is a treatment for MS developed by Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a vascular surgeon from Italy.

Zamboni theorizes that a constriction of the veins flowing from the brain, a condition he calls Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency
(CCSVI), causes blood to back up into the brain and results in

accumulation of iron within the brain, triggering MS.

The treatment uses angioplasty to widen the veins and encourage blood flow in blocked or tightened veins.

Zamboni claims that CCSVI is the cause of MS is yet to be substantiated. The MS Societies of Canada and the U.S. are currently
funding studies regarding CCSVI and its connection with MS.

“It’s true that there is a lot of research that seems to be pointing in different directions,” said MS Society of Canada
spokesperson Stewart Wong. “It is very difficult to verify one way or

the other. So we’re hoping that the studies that we’re funding will

provide more definitive answers.”

The results of these studies will not be available for nearly two years and the timeline for a possible treatment in Canada gets cloudier
after that.

“It’s hard to put a time on it,” said Wong, “but I think the first step would be research results, and if the research results warrant it,
then clinical trials. And if a clinical trial shows really good benefit

and safety, that’s when you would talk about public healthcare system

funding.”

But Frank takes exception to that.

“The medical field has to study to make sure they are not endangering somebody’s life by having the procedure, and I can see
that,” he said, “but if a patient is willing to do it even with a chance

of losing their life instead of living the way they’re living, well why

not do it? They have nothing to lose.”

According to Frank and Colleen, the procedure changed both their lives.

“I was down, I just had nothing left because my spouse, my wife could have died,” he said. “I just felt helpless; I couldn’t do anything
for her. The doctors up here weren’t going to do anything because they

say it’s not a vascular disease.”

The MS Society recommends that treatment and testing of CCSVI only be done in the context of a research protocol. “That’s where we have the
safeguards and the follow up to protect a person’s health and safety,”

said Wong.

For Frank, Colleen’s improvements after the ‘Liberation Therapy’ speak for themselves.

“She’s gotten a lot back since the procedure,” he said. “She has feeling in her legs, her toes. The colouring’s coming in her legs, the
tremors are less, her voice is getting stronger again. Her eyes are not

watering as much.”

Colleen’s recovery will not be an easy one. The next step is a regimen of physiotherapy to try to regain some of her lost muscle tone.

According to doctors the most noticeable improvements take place within the first four to six months after the treatment.

“I felt bad for Frank before,” said Colleen, her voice cracking, “and now I don’t have to because everything is good.”

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