Article April 30, 2001 Issue

What would you do if you heard you had only six months to live?

Freed from a death sentence 35 years ago

By W. Riley Seay

During the time that the Vietnam War was beginning to get noisy, Uncle Sam came along and tapped me on the shoulder. And I went to Denver for a physical. And during the day the doctors asked me to step out of line and go have a second X-ray.

At the end of the day, they said there was something wrong. And that was all they said to me. I was to call back the next day. And at that point they said, "This is a very serious situation; you should get yourself to a chest specialist immediately." I just thought it was one of those things where it was a cold that just wouldn't quit. I was probably 50 pounds underweight, very thin. But actually, I had tuberculosis. And I did go to several doctors, and eventually ended up with a doctor that I was later to discover was probably the world authority on diseases of the lungs.

Well, the doctors started a battery of tests. And after a couple of weeks I went to this specialist who was sort of overseeing this whole thing. He broke down while telling me that I probably was not going to live much more than six months. That if I got myself into a sanitarium where I could have immediate care and bed rest, I probably would still not live much more than two years.

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