The Silver Wand 165
the history of medicine that we could start at least one type of growth at
will. I was afraid of beginning a clinical program that might seize the
public's fancy and be applied on a large scale before we knew enough
about the technique. If disastrous side effects showed up later, we could
lose momentum toward a revolutionary advance in medicine. I decided
that if I carefully explained what we proposed to do, with all its uncer-
tainties, and let the patient choose, then ethically I'd be doing the right
thing.
As to the infection, for several years we had been looking for a way to
stop growth. My experiments with Bassett on dogs back in 1964 sug-
gested that just as we could turn growth on with negative electricity, so
we could turn it off with positive current. If true, this obviously could
be of great importance in cancer treatment. Because ours was always a
needy program, trying to do more than we had grants for, we couldn't
afford the expensive equipment needed to test the idea on cancer cells.
We had to settle for bacteria.
In preliminary tests we found that silver electrodes, when made elec-
trically positive, would kill all types of bacteria in a zone about a half
inch in diameter, apparently because of positive silver ions driven into
the culture by the applied voltage. This was an exciting discovery, be-
cause no single antibiotic worked against all types of bacteria. I thought
that if I inserted the silver wire into Jim's nonunion and the area became
infected, I could as a last resort make the electrode positive and perhaps
save the leg a while longer. Of course, the positive current could well
delay healing further or actually destroy more bone.
I explained all this to Jim and said that, if he wished, I would do it. I
wanted him to know the procedure was untested and potentially dan-
gerous. With tears in his eyes, he begged, "Please try, Dr. Becker. I
want my leg."
Two days later, Sal and I operated through a hole in the cast. The
fracture was completely loose, with not one sign of healing. We re-
moved a little scar tissue from the bone and implanted the electrode.
The part in between the bone ends was bare wire; the rest, running
through the muscles and out of the skin, was insulated so as to deliver
the minuscule negative current only to the bone.
The infection didn't spread, and Jim's spirits improved. As I made
my daily rounds three weeks later, he said, "I'm sure it's healing. I just
know it!" I was still nervous when, six weeks after surgery, it was time
to pull out
the electrode, remove the cast, and get an X ray.
I needn't
have worried.
Not only did the X ray show a lot of new bone, but when
I examined the leg myself, I could no longer move the fracture! We put