Living in southwest Florida is a man some have simply called "snake man." He is Bill Haast, a researcher and herpetologist. I first became acquainted with him when I was a teenager in Miami and he owned the Miami Serpentarium.
He became renown for injecting himself with Cobra venom and the venom of other deadly serpents eventually developing a near immunity to those fatal bites. In his heyday he was flown around the world to hospitals where people who were bitten by rare snakes would have died without his blood. Over the years, he developed antivenin serums that were shipped world-wide and have saved countless lives.
Bill's biography, Cobras in His Garden is now out of print. A check of eBay minutes ago discovered one copy for sale for $119.
I recall sitting with him, in his lab, many years ago as he spoke about cancer. He was explaining to me how he had been able to separate various components from the venom of a Cobra. He noted there was a component that causes necrosis of the tissue. A common occurrence in venomous snake bites.
Ever inquisitive and always the researcher, he expressed the possibility of injecting this component into cancer tumors. The logical response he thought would be the necrosis or death of these cells. A simple cure? It seems the reasoning behind this notion makes sense. Yet, I cannot find where anyone is pursuing such a radical idea.
In the 1970s, along with his friend, respected physician Ben Sheppard, Bill distributed PROven, a venom based serum. Sheppard gave injections to his patients with Multiple Sclerosis with reportedly great success, even 60 Minutes reported on it. But the FDA shut it down and banned the drug saying it had not been properly tested for humans. Such is the case with other drugs he was instrumental in developing that were used in many countries except, the United States.
According to one reputable organization there are 1,500 cancer deaths per day. The National Cancer Institute spent more that $311 million dollars in 2009. And that's just one entity. It's estimated we as a nation spend a little less than $1 billion dollars a year. And the money goes to reputable institutions and individuals with various degrees and initials after their names.
Maybe that is part of the problem. Bill Haast, who was born in 1910, doesn't have the academic degrees to support his theories. Even though he is a respected researcher. His mind and his passion has saved countless lives but his simple notions of what could be probably won't be because he's still seen by many as the "snake man."
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