A Letter from DIANE RUCH HOST

A Founder of

The Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation

Dear Reader,

Re: My personal observation of heparin therapy in burned persons.

During the recent incendiary period (near Los Angeles), as fires were raging close to my son’s home, the need to improve burn treatment was much on my mind when I met Dr. Saliba. I was astounded by the benefits of adding heparin that he revealed to me in a video and brochure. I viewed Website: http://www.salibaburnsinstitute.org I was amazed at the fine results in the seriously burned persons. I couldn’t believe they recovered in 1/3 usual time at a tenth or less of current costs. My experience may interest you.

I am Mrs. Diane Ruch Host. My daughter Alisa succumbed to burns 36 years ago from a barbecue explosion-fire. She was 8½ years old. My son David was also burned. His life was spared, thank God, and after 11 plastic surgeries, all excellently performed, he still has scars. I know well the ills and costs of burns by my past work in 2 burn foundations.

I repeat, what I saw was astounding. The patients’ burns were barely visible. Having a friend from Missouri and knowing about the Show-me State, I requested and insisted that I must meet these people in person if I would take the evidence seriously. Dr. Saliba offered contact-information of doctors, including those shown in the Website, who I could contact. And he arranged for General Surgeon Dr. Alberto Reyes, MD, the Burn Center Director in the General Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, the nearest such burn center, to show me videos of the treatment and the results, and to meet some of the patients in person. I traveled the 130 miles to La Jolla. Dr. Saliba escorted me to the border. Dr Reyes met us and took us to the General Hospital Burn Ward.

I met five patients who had been seriously burned. I viewed the full treatment videos of those patients, four of which I had previously seen in the C-D, color brochure, and website. I sat next to each recovered patient and touched their former wounds, which verified what I saw. There was some difference in skin coloring where the burn had destroyed the skin pigment at the bottom of the skin; but there was no irregularity in the surface of the skin that is expected with burns. The patients told me they did not suffer pain. The heparin was applied to the surface of the wound into final healing. And, the skin did not contract which also commonly happens in burns. The skin grows back. These patients had no surgery. I was told, “Surgery can be performed when necessary or when it shortens healing and reduces hospital time.” I saw additional videos of burned patients with similar fine results who were treated with heparin by Dr. Reyes with La Jolla Burn Consultant Dr. Saliba.

Dr. Saliba said, “Although used extensively abroad, heparin is not widely used in our United States. Our USA orientation is to surgically remove the burns at the earliest time. This necessitates immediate skin grafts and blood transfusions to replace the blood loss. Then many additional surgical procedures are utilized. The costs are horrendous and the results less than ideal.” I think this highly technical and costly method would not be feasible in many countries. I believe heparin would be. “Of course,” Dr. Saliba added, “patients with a contraindication to heparin use are not treated with it. Burns can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. And acts of terrorism involve explosion-fires that are thermal disasters, with many persons simultaneously burned. Heparin has been shown to be effective in a thermal disaster in Mexico and two in India. The pain is promptly relieved and treatment started.”

If I were burned, I would want heparin to be added to my treatment to obtain the amazing results which I personally saw. I believe you would too. I know the first responders, our fire-fighters would agree. The Los Angeles Fire Department, Dr. A Richard Grossman, Director of his Burn Center, and I were the Founders of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, over 35 years ago. www.aarbf.org Our funds support Burn Prevention, Burn Camps, and limited financial assistance for patients. I hope doctors in the United States and more foreign countries accept and use heparin in their treatment of burns.

As we finished our trip, Dr. Saliba warned me that I “might hear very negative statements and rumors, stated without evidence, about heparin therapy and that money was the motivation of the Institute. The statements and rumors are false. All of the studies worldwide that have tested heparin use in burned persons have produced positive beneficial results. There are no published negative studies of heparin use in burned humans. The disparaging comments may come from well-intentioned burn doctors who”, perhaps, as I initially couldn’t, “just can’t believe and won’t believe that heparin could possibly result in such improvements. They therefore in good conscious refuse to add heparin administered onto the patient’s burn surface even once. If they did they would observe that heparin promptly relieves the burn surface pain and blister pain and initiates therapy. This usually convinces them.” he concluded.

I view this to be worthy work. I will meet with you and or talk by telephone, whenever you suggest, with or without Dr. Saliba.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Diane Ruch Host.

Los Angeles, CA 90036.