Doctor finds hope in alternative medicine

Some of his patients are startled by the first question Dr. Leonard Wright asks them: "Why do you want to live?"

It's more than rhetorical. When patients come to him with a diagnosis of terminal illness, he wants to know what will make them fight for their lives.

"To hold yourself in this realm, you have to have an anchor," he said, "and you have to hold on for dear life. I want them to have an anchor, and I want them to identify with that anchor and say, 'Yes, this is why I want to be alive.'"
Some say he doesn't know what it's like to face death. He tells them he does.

Seventeen years ago, Wright was diagnosed with a brain tumor and told he had three, maybe six, years to live. But he wasn't ready to die, even though Western medicine -- his own profession -- offered no hope.

"I was tied to conventional medicine," he said. "This was almost like a curse."

He didn't abandon all he'd learned in his years of medical education, but he sought help and hope in Eastern medicine, meditation, visualization and other alternatives.

Now, as medical director of the Wege Institute for Mind, Body & Spirit at Saint Mary's Health Care, he offers his patients a similar holistic mix of choices.

He promises no miracle cures, only hope. It's not about giving terminally ill patients false hope, he said.

"Hope can never be false," he said. "Hope is a longing or desire. How can you have a false longing or desire? To take that away from someone is a disservice to the patient. It's a huge source of energy that we're wasting.
source:www.mlive.com