"Of Medicine and Miracles" - Tribeca Film Fest Review
Of Medicine and Miracles lacks flair. There are no cutesy editing choices or dramatic reenactments. The film lays out the story of the Whitehead family and Doctor Carl June quite plainly. These may sound like criticisms of the film, but they’re praise. Director Ross Kauffman understands that this remarkable story deserves to be told without bells, whistles, or distractions.
Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was five years old, in 2010. Tom and Kari, Emily’s parents, were optimistic when they first got the news. They were informed that 85-90% of children who receive this diagnosis are able to be fully cured. In Emily’s case, she relapsed on two separate occasions. The family bounced between two hospitals, one in Hershey and one in Philadelphia, for two years as they fought for Emily.
Dr. June has been researching cancer treatments since before Emily was born. Most of his career was at the United States Naval Academy, where he founded the Immune Cell Biology Program. In the 1980s and 90s, Dr. June’s focus shifted to T-cells. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated entire communities, Dr. June’s research became more urgent. What he learned about T-cells during this period led to a treatment called CAR T-cell therapy.
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When CAR T-cell therapy was approved for clinical trials in pediatric patients, it was 2012 and the Whitehead family had exhausted all other options. They joined the Phase I trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Emily became the first pediatric patient to receive the CAR T-cell therapy treatment. The results are miraculous, and Emily has now been cancer-free for ten years.
The Whitehead family has spent the past ten years traveling and speaking internationally about the CAR T-cell therapy, and they’ve created the Emily Whitehead Foundation to raise money for further research. They took a terribly traumatic two years and turned it into a means of educating people about available treatments for children with leukemia.
Of Medicine and Miracles comes at a time when society should be placing its faith in science and medicine. Instead, people are actively turning away from the individuals who have their best interest at heart. The Hippocratic Oath, which all doctors must swear to, is guided by the principle of doing no harm. It’s a principle that Dr. June exemplified, and the care he put into his research shows that this is more than simply a career to him.
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