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‘CELEBRATED HEALER HELD ASTHMA AT BAY’

I never had the good fortune to meet Dr Alexander James, a legend of this city who fought the petty bureaucrats and upstarts of the medical profession to have his asthma treatment methods recognised.

He must have been quite a man. When I came to Wollongong 18 years ago, the 87- year-old Russian Cossack seemed to be at war with the world. Some of our more influential politicians and doctors of the day thought the old man was a fraud.

Despite their vitriol and slanderous attacks, a groundswell of community support stamped Dr James as one of Illawarra's favourite sons.

Parents by the score came forward to thank Dr James for saving their children. Many people in this city, and many from beyond our boundaries, adored the doctor and they were quick to indulge in public manifestations of their feelings.

Dr James believed in a drug-free method of treating asthma. During the past few weeks I have been wondering about the late Dr James, trying to ponder how he would have reacted to a front page story in The Sydney Morning Herald recently which was headed: "ASTHMA: WHY IT'S NOW KILLING MORE PEOPLE THAN AIDS".

That story was quite frightening. It said NSW was bearing the brunt of a national epidemic of asthma which was killing 15 people a week and that 314 had died from it last year.

It occurred to me that it might not be a bad idea if I were to contact some of those children Dr James had almost brought back from the dead in the late 1960s and early '70s.

I phoned Nina Marzi, daughter of the late Dr James, a woman of vigour and commitment who is carrying on her father's work. In no time Mrs Marzi had arrived at the Mercury office with two large green files which carried stories and pictures of Dr James' work.

I told Mrs Marzi I wanted to contact some of her father's patients of many years ago. "Read through the files, there are so many that he saved and helped," she said "I have letters, newspaper clippings, testimonials, anything you want."

And so I started to glance through the files.
I stopped at an Illawarra Mercury story dated July 25, 1971, which told of the case of Steven Vadla, 7, of Coniston.

The Illawarra Mercury at the time asked Dr James to treat Steven, who was a severe case. The boy could not walk home from school. He was emaciated and sick and would start gasping for breath on minimal exertion. He had undergone numerous treatments. They had all failed.

His parents had even sent him to Greece for 12 months to get relief. The editor of the Mercury at the time was John Richardson. He fathomed that if Dr James could cure Steven, the value and worth of his drug-free methods would be placed beyond dispute. Steven Vadla became a Mercury asthma guinea pig.

After the first treatment the child's condition began to improve. Then Dr James suffered a heart attack. One of his first visitors in hospital was Steven, who arrived at the doctor's hospital bedside with a bunch of flowers. I don't know what role John Richardson played in that but it was a heart-warming photograph. And Dr James himself was a troublesome patient because he insisted that he leave hospital for 30 minutes every day to treat Steven Vadla.

The Mercury files record how Steven recovered to beat the other boys home from school and how he became a star in the local soccer team.

I wondered about Steven today. Yesterday afternoon, after receiving some information from Mrs Marzi, photographer Neil Mclean and I went to Wonson Ave, Coniston to meet Steven.

I met a 24-year-old Telecom technician, a sturdily built, relaxed and confident young man who had only vague memories of his early childhood and Dr James.

I showed Steven a few old photographs. Yes, he had slight recall on the flowers and hospital. And yes, there was some recollection of the treatment and all the good it did him.

But more importantly, how is Steven Vadla today? Well, I can tell you he is jumping out of his skin. He is a leader of the scouting Venturers and is a leading light in the Rovers.

If you are wondering what they do, then imagine a group of husky young fellows abseiling, canoeing down the Shoalhaven, bushwalking, exploring canyons and climbing challenging hills. Imagine that and you have a fairly routine weekend in the life of Steven Vadla. It is difficult to imagine that such a sickly child of six could grow into such a robust, tanned and fit young man. But it happened.

"I will never know, I suppose, how much Dr James helped me. He died before I could go back to him for more treatment." Steven said yesterday.

Steven's life has not been totally free of asthma since the days of Dr James. About nine years ago he had a serious attack which put him in hospital. "But nothing like that has ever happened since." he said. Steven has one great regret in life. He feels he has acquired a totally unnecessary addiction to the Ventolin spray.

"I wished I had never seen one." he said.
"They should outlaw those things. Whenever I think about asthma and the spray I find myself using it. But when I go away on the trips at weekends I never use them because I never think of asthma."

Steven said he was an avid believer in the drug-free method. Steven got out some of his abseiling gear and posed with it when we asked him for a picture. He kept insisting he was not as fit as he looked but I wouldn't have a bar of that. Yet this young fellow, the person who was at death's door when Dr James intervened, told me of hikes through the Blue Mountains and similar feats of endurance which would be well beyond the reach of your average Wollongong weakling.

I could have imagined what Dr James would have thought had he met Steven Vadla yesterday. The old Russian doctor would have been tickled.

Incidentally, guess what Steven is doing tomorrow? He's heading off to a spot somewhere down south to take a group of Venturers up a 9km canyon, a fairly nasty one too, I am led to believe.

Did you hear that, Dr James? I think I might chase up a few more of the James children next week and give readers a progress report on their condition. Mrs Marzi has been kind enough to supply me with a list of names and addresses and phone numbers.

Well, find out about them next week. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, doctors are puzzled by the sharp increase in asthma deaths. "Too many people are dying." said Professor Stephen Leeder, of Sydney University.

A respiratory specialist at St Alfred Hospital, Dr Peter Bie, said: "We are admitting many more children, blue and choking from asthma attacks. The cases we are seeing are more severe." I suppose it would be below the dignity of these eminent medicos, or any other for that matter, to flick through the files of Dr Alexander James, the old Russian who shuffled off this mortal coil on August 1, 1976.