Wash. woman treated cancer with Native ceremony

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2003

Brittany Hess was 19 when she was told she had alveolar soft part sarcoma, a rare cancer. She was told she would not live to 30, and might even die within months.

But after a co-worker at Chili's told her about an "all-night Native American healing ceremony," she checked it out because conventional treatment wasn't working. "Basically, we sat up for 12 hours singing with a drum and rattle," she told The Seattle Times. "It was the most incredible experience I have ever felt in my entire life."

Within months, the cancer all but disappeared and has not returned. "I must say that in the cancer world, you take whatever works," Dr. Ernest Conrad, one of Hess' doctors, told the paper.

Get the Story:
Bellevue woman turns to Native American healing ceremony (The Seattle Times 5/14)