According to The Vancouver Sun, Mostic died of complications after he traveled, twice, to a private
Costa Rica hospital for the controversial “liberation treatment” to

relieve blocked veins in his neck, which, some doctors and legions of

patients purport, relieves some symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Those who have been drawn to our blog in the past by my conservative outlook on this treatment would expect me to herald this as proof positive that clinics and
hospitals offering MS patients liberation treatment should be closed

down post-haste.

That is not the case.

While I still hold firm to my status as a hopeful skeptic of the procedure and do not think enough evidence is yet amassed to prove the
therapy beneficial beyond its risks, I will not use the passing of one

of our own to press my point (yet).

Rather, I am sad about the whole state of affairs and just wanted to bring his name and plight to your mind.

Mostic’s treatment, it appears from reports, was flawed from the get-go.

His disease had progressed significantly in the past few years. His friends and family helped him raise thousands of dollars to make the
trip and pay the expenses of the Central American hospital where he was

treated.

Doctors are quoted as saying that they recommended against the radical measures required to open his veins – as his blockage was said
to be so significant as to require stenting, which even the founder of

the CCSVI theory warns against.

It is said that there was some improvement in Mostic’s condition for a short period before he began to decline rapidly and significantly as
blood clots began to form around the stent.

Here’s where things go terribly and unconscionably wrong!

His friends say that he could find no doctors in Canada who would help him correct the complication. “I’m sorry; you left the country for
that procedure. We’re not touching that one…” What the hell? When did

it become acceptable to turn away a patient because “we didn’t start

it…”?!

After another round of fundraising (reportedly $30,000 US total), Mostic traveled back to the hospital and subsequently died when
medication to dissolve the clot did so in a fashion which (likely)

caused massive internal bleeding. Doctors in Canada, interviewed by the

CBC, were quick to condemn their Costa Rican counterparts for such

treatment.

I’m wondering who’s condemning the Canadian medicos who refused to treat the blood clot in the first place.

Even the Canadian Medical Association (their equivalent of the AMA) seems at odds with itself over the issue sating that “physicians have a
duty to provide care in emergency situations but in non-urgent cases”

If a blood clot hanging in one’s veins, inches from the heart where it could be pumped directly to the brain isn’t an emergency situation,
I’m not sure I understand the concept of “emergency situation”!

At this point, the clinical evidence for or against CCSVI being a factor in multiple sclerosis is vague if not downright contradictory.
That is not the issue for me today.

If any of us were visiting a foreign country and had a medical procedure because of need and there were complications upon our return,
would we be compelled to return to the country of original treatment for

follow-up?

If a Canadian breaks his ankle in Greece and returns home but needs needing pins and screws removed months later, must she fly back to
Greece?

I know there is controversial around CCSVI– some would say I’ve been one to fan said controversy. I don’t,
however, think there should be ambiguity about making sure that people

don’t DIE!

MS medical professionals, some of whom have seen adverse aftereffects, may use this case to push the debate one way or another.
Some day, I may as well. Not today.

Today, I am sad that another person living with MS has fallen through the medical cracks and I am sad that he will not be the last.

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers

Trevis

http://www.everydayhealth.com/blog/trevis-life-with-multiple-sclerosis-ms/was-ccsvi-treatment-the-cause-of-this-ms-patients-death/