Prologue - Why Self-Advocacy Is So Crucial!

After his initial diagnosis of Philadelphia Chromosome positive ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) Eric spent the next eight months being blasted with lethal doses of the most toxic chemotherapies known to man, and almost dying several times as a result, before he figured out that none of these treatments had any chance of curing him. It wasn't until the doctors told Eric that nothing more could be done for him and referred him to hospice care that he realized that they never intended on trying to cure him from the beginning.  They actually did not have any potentially "curative" treatments at that medical center.  They obviously had not been transparent about the fact that no patient with his diagnosis had ever been cured with radiation and chemotherapy alone, and that the purpose of the treatments he was receiving were simply to experiment on him, collect data on the efficacy of these chemos, then send him home to die if he actually survived the treatments.  Eric also realized that if he did not take the bull by the horns and advocate for himself, he would never survive!  Eric tells this incredible story himself in his keynote TED talk at the Netflix headquarters auditorium. 

Eric Drew: Crowdsourcing to Give Hope, Save Lives and Reduce Suffering | TED Talk