My Letter To Family and Friends
Dear Friends,
Many of you have questions about Bob’s death. (March 23, 2010) It all happened so suddenly and some wonder if he should have been on medications, and maybe that would have prevented his unexpected death, … and others wonder why Vivix and other Shaklee supplements were not more effective. His death just didn’t make sense to so many of you…. nor to me.
I have been devastated by what happened to Bob and I am trying to deal with so many emotions, but I feel that it is best to explain to you, all that went on with Bob and his health.
Yes, Bob did have artery problems which, we can guess, came from genetics?, too much sugar?, smoking early in his life etc. And to a greater or lesser degree, just part of the aging process. He had carotid artery surgery 4 years ago, and with this event he became much more serious about turning things around. His vascular surgeon said that the yearly ultrasound tests showed no measurable advancement in the past 4 years, which was very encouraging … we felt we were going down the right path and making the right changes. He had lowered his cholesterol by 100 points and had gotten his blood pressure into a normal range without the use of drugs. It was important to me that Bob make the “drug” or “no drug” choice himself. I would support his decision and do whatever I could to help him.
Then in December of 2009 his PSA tests were somewhat elevated and he discovered that he was in the early stages of Prostate cancer. Again, he did not want to go the route of drugs or surgery … at least not until he had tried other approaches. We researched many alternative approaches. He started juicing and drinking a quart a day of fresh, organic vegetable juice, added to changing his diet even more, taking a Tablespoon of Vivix twice a day and he increased his other supplements, especially those impacting his immune system. After doing this his comment was that he “felt better than he’d ever felt before”.
In our quest for Cancer help we found the use of Ozone Therapy to be of interest. Oasis Of Hope hospital in Mexico had been in business for over 40 years and we had heard good things about them. We checked this out with various health care professionals including his medical doctor, all of whom felt it would be a good and safe option for Bob. Bob and I had a peace about proceeding in this direction.
Since prostate cancer is usually very slow growing, Bob decided not to panic and waited until he had gone on a scheduled golf outing in Texas. The end of February he left for his golf trip, playing 36 holes of golf every day for 4- 5 days, and according to his golf friends, he did not appear to have any problems keeping up. He was home just a short time when we left for Mexico for 12 days of treatments at Oasis of Hope Hospital in Mexico. We were extremely optimistic. We almost felt guilty that we were there for treatments, as most of the people who we met were in advanced stages of cancer and Bob was so healthy in comparison.
After a couple days of receiving the treatments (several hours of IV fluids every day) he started to experience chest pains. We were very concerned and expressed this concern. Keep in mind that this is a regular hospital where they do surgeries etc. and they had all of Bob’s records showing that he was a heart patient and we specifically discussed his heart history. They gave Bob an EKG and they claimed it was within the normal range, and went on to say that pains of this type were normal … explaining that chest pains can be felt by some patients with this treatment.
Well, the chest pains continued and we continued to be concerned and voiced this concern, but again the comment was, “his EKG was fine and this can be a result of the treatments!” Bob, went downhill fast and by the end of our stay he was not leaving the room or eating. I was beside myself with concern and finally, at my insistence, they had another Doctor come and examine Bob and discovered fluid on his lungs and prescribed a diuretic! I had to insist before we left for the plane ride home, they have a doctor check his vitals as he was having breathing problems and was extremely weak. It’s a miracle that Bob made the trip home! It’s amazing that any reputable Doctor would allow Bob to leave for a long plane ride in his condition.
Bob needed the help of a wheel chair and upon arriving home he was having serious breathing problems and it was obvious that he needed oxygen. We went home and, after calling his primary care doctor, went immediately to Methodist Hospital Emergency Room. One of the first tests that they ran was an enzyme test which showed that he was having a heart attack.
After his bypass surgery the doctor told the family that Bob had had several recent heart attacks that had severely damaged 50% of his heart!! Why did Oasis not do this test immediately, on a known heart patient, before half of his heart was destroyed ?? This is extreme negligence and there is no excuse for this. The many chest pains were in fact “heart attacks”!!
One of the head doctors from Oasis called me during Bob’s bypass surgery and made the comment that the heart attacks were probably a result of the excess fluid that he was given with the treatments! He did not hesitate to give this analysis. Why, oh why, did they not take this serious and do the appropriate tests right away? This is so WRONG!
And yet, Oasis will not take any responsibility … they will not admit that they did anything wrong! I asked for Bob’s records and it took forever for them to email this to me and then it was very incomplete and carefully crafted to represent “their facts”.
I have felt so guilty over all of this … my heart is so sad. I will forever miss my very special friend and sweetheart. Bob deserved better than this!
I just want his friends and family (including our Shaklee family) to know the true story about what really happened. And my prayer is that this never happens to anyone else, but I fear that it will unless Oasis is willing to make serious changes. Should you feel led to contact Oasis and express your thoughts, this would be very helpful. If they hear from enough people, perhaps they will change their ways and this will not happen again. But, if this is just shoved under the rug and they see no consequences, it’s unlikely that anything will change.
In His Love,
Lorri (Kreuscher) | 
To our family, our lives are forever changed. His young grandchildren will never get to know their very special, loving Grandpa. He will never be able to teach them how to play ball or go to their games and programs or see them marry. My kids no longer have "Dad" to call for advice or help with a project or no longer will they witness their Dad give of himself gladly to help others. I will never take another trip with my best friend, we'll never see another sunrise or sunset together, here on earth ... my house is empty, no more hugs from my sweetheart, no more conversations with the person who has known me for over 46 years. I could go on and on ... the loss is beyond anything I could have imagined.
