October 2009 eBook all pages (free PDF, 36.6 - Latitude 38

Page 20 • Latitude 38 • October, 2009
www.holmatro-usa.com
holmatro
rigging hydraulics
integral adjusters
cylinders
boom vangs
control panels
mast jacks
505 McCormick Drive
Glen Burnie, MD 21601
USA
T 410-745-2652
LETTERS
⇑⇓"MMS KILLED MY WIFE"
The following is an excerpt from a group email sent to me by
Doug Nash of the Dana Point-based Spindrift 43 Windcastle,
who is a veteran of the '04 Baja Ha-Ha. It's about the tragic
death of his wife Silvie Fink at Epi Island, Vanuatu. She died
12 hours after taking MMS, a so-called alternative medicine
prophylactic and remedy for malaria and many other diseases.
It was sold to her by another cruising couple. The 76-yearold
Nash and his wife Silvie, who was from Mexico, had been
cruising the South Pacific for several years.
"My life during the past five weeks has been a nightmare,
but I've been supported by many people in the cruising community
here and abroad, plus all Silvie's friends and relatives
back home in Mexico and in the States. The outpouring of
grief has been overwhelming. But no one else can answer all
the questions people have asked about what happened to her,
so I must do that. Here is a summary:
"While in Port Vila, Silvie decided to purchase some MMS
that she'd heard about from a cruising couple. The guy is from
Belgium and his wife is from California. I was not happy about
her wanting to try the stuff, but I didn't interfere because I
knew nothing about it at the time. Besides, she was a grown
and savvy woman with lots of experience with all kinds of
good and bad medicines. She'd even done a little internet
research on MMS over several weeks before trying it. Neither
of us thought she would be in any danger from taking it. How
dreadfully wrong we were!
"We left Port Vila on August 4, and sailed 90 miles north
to Epi, which is another island in the Vanuatu group. We
anchored at Lamen Bay the day after their annual canoe
race festival. Having decided to stay an extra day at the nice
anchorage, Sylvie decided to try MMS. Its proponents had
told her that it would prevent malaria, which is prevalent in
this part of the world.
"From almost the moment Silvie drank the mixture of MMS
and lime juice — which she'd brewed up according to the
instructions of Jim Humble,
the principal proponent of the
stuff — things went wrong.
She became nauseated, and
was soon both vomiting and
suffering from diarrhea. But
since the MMS literature
emphasized that this was a
normal reaction, she assumed
it would pass. It didn't.
"It turned into a day of
torture, with Silvie gradually
getting worse, to the point
of having severe abdominal
pains, then urinary pains. I
helped her all day, bathing
Let the buyer beware — not all
supplements are approved by
the FDA and some have been
known to kill.
her, comforting her and trying
to get liquids into her. But she
couldn't keep anything down.
About the time it started to get
dark, she began to feel faint.
That's when I became fully alarmed. She fell into a coma while
I was on the VHF calling for assistance.
"With her unresponsive, I put out another radio call, this
time for immediate emergency care. Fellow cruisers rushed to
our boat within minutes. For over an hour we administered
CPR and oxygen. But neither they, nor an adrenalin shot
administered by a physician from the village, were able to
revive her. Sylvie died aboard Windcastle around 9 p.m., just