It all started about two years ago. Up to that time my life was in an excellent state of health. Indeed feeling like 20. I even stopped taking supplements.

Auburn Memorial Hospital, some talk negative some positive. No one in this world is perfect. On the positive side I would like to publicly thank Auburn Memorial Hospital and the medical community for their diligent attention to my problem. I owe my life to them in particular the team: the clinic, the medical doctors, the hospital staff as well as my friends who worked in harmony to rescue me from the point of imminent death, a lethal condition, an enlarged aortic root aneurism. Normally no warning signs precede death from a burst aneurism. I was lucky.

I had developed a persistent cough of unknown origin and night sweats. A friend of mine, Jerry Sroka, urged me to go to the hospital clinic since I had no regular doctor. I hesitated but Jerry persisted. I went several times. The cough still persisted it got worse and finally I was diagnosed by Dr. Barbara Connors, at the Fingerlakes Clinic, on Mon. Feb. 27, 2006 with a blood infection that caused a powerful murmur.

Under the insistence of Dr. Connors, my brother-in-law Jim Roschick, picked me up at the clinic and drove me to the emergency room where I waited from 6 p.m. to midnight while blood tests were underway to determine what room would be best for me. From then on, it was a race against time to put my person back on my feet. Solutions were offered, I deliberated: my opinions were honored.

Some I declined (open heart surgery) others I accepted (blood transfusion/antibiotics) and I began applying a strategy that we at Genome call Targeted Nutrient Therapy (TNT) to cure the aneurism. Never seen before, the life-threatening aneurism shrank. It took teamwork but we did it. So I thank all of you for being patient diligent and worthy of the title of Columbos of the medical field, for giving me another Christmas to enjoy. And do enjoy the holiday season yourselves.

Peter Kotzer

Auburn