"I don't want to set myself up as a medical expert", explains Dick Leahy, but "my battle has been finding a doctor". Leahy, a retired aerospace engineer and 74-year old prostate cancer survivor, has been waging war on medical orthodoxy since 1999. During a recent telephone interview with CR4's Steve Melito (Moose), Leahy described how "from Day 1", he heard things from his doctors that he just didn't believe. Leahy also discussed his 2002 book, Prostate Cancer Survival Decisions: What you don't know CAN hurt you, a free publication that you can download by clicking here.
The Engineer as Patient
"In 34 years as an engineer," Leahy writes in Prostate Cancer Survival Decisions, "I had to overrule experts too many times to regard them as infallible". During a long career that included product design, project management, and aircraft accident investigations, the Michigan native learned to return to the data when "expert" conclusions didn't make sense. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer eight years ago, Leahy applied this same methodology to his own treatment. His doctors, however, had different ideas. First, Leahy was told that "it was best to leave the tumor in" if the prostate cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. Second, Leahy learned of the medical profession's prevailing wisdom that "there was no proven survival benefit to early treatment" for prostate cancer.
The Difference Between Doctors and Engineers
Although Leahy's cancer had not spread to his lymph nodes, it had metastasized - spreading to his spine and other bones. Pathology samples missed this grim reality, however, and Leahy's doctor agreed to perform a prostatectomy. The surgery represented a victory in Dick Leahy's battle with cancer, but his war with medical orthodoxy would continue for years to come. In discarding his doctors' glossy brochures in favor of his own medical research, Leahy considered something very fundamental: the difference between how doctors and engineers think. Doctors, Leahy told CR4, use deductive reasoning to diagnose disease. Once a disease is diagnosed, however, medical personnel must follow "standard protocols" that provide licensing and liability protection, but offer "little flexibility" in terms of treatment.
Unlike doctors, Leahy explains, engineers are trained to "respond to a problem". They don't start by performing diagnostics, and aren't saddled with protocol-based constraints. In Leahy's case, his first step was to respond to the problem of conflicting reports. The solution was to apply what he learned during a 34 year engineer career: follow the data when the conclusions don't make sense.
Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part story. Part 2 and Part 3 are now on CR4, too.
Steve Melito - The Y Files
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