Paw Paw Man
Reporter: Tim Noonan
"I'm about to put my hand in boiling water! People think I'm crazy. It's 100 degrees Celsius as you can see. I've used myself as a human guinea pig to prove a point." The point is, Tom McArthur might just be a miracle maker. And he puts himself in harms way to prove it.
"It's now throbbing. I've cut myself, I've burnt myself, I've made myself ill. It takes about four to five seconds and the pain just dissipates.""People can be very sceptical about things like this because it's very, very hard to believe and you really have to witness it." says Pam.
For years he's been laughed at by sceptics, yet praised by thousands of sufferers."It's just miraculous. It's a very special gift he has." says Pam.
"Most people that have had anything to do with Tom think he's a miracle man, they think he's a miracle worker." tells Norm.He could be the last hope for people with diseases and serious wounds such as third degree burns that modern medicine can't cure."This could be a breakthrough in wound management for millions of people around the world." says Professor Michael Woodward.
From life-threatening wounds to cosmetic complaints, patients around the country claim Tom's creams and tonics have cleared up everything from eczema to arthritis and even baldness."We've seen cellulite disappear in 24 hours, we've seen ulcers that have been classified as stage four and in twenty minutes then said to be stage two. We've actually had quite a few cases where they've come in with skin cancer and yes, we've got rid of it." he claims.
It all sounds like the spiel of a snake-oil salesman, fruit extract that heals when pharmaceuticals fail.He's cured hundreds and helped thousands, the evidence so compelling some of Australia's top professors are now becoming believers, commissioning intense scientific and medical research into Tom's secret formulas.Now, he's ready to tell the world.
Diabetic, Gerard clinch, is dancing once again. No small miracle considering the bad blow life dealt him."Doctor told me they wanted to amputate, they wanted to amputate. I didn't know who to turn to."Having already lost three toes to gangrene, he was about to have his left foot amputated. Then, Gerard met Tom."It went from the whole of his toe into his pad."After just two treatments, the results were remarkable."Healed, totally healed in nine weeks, without scars. Gangrene, I mean that's supposed to incurable." Tom says."The docs could not do what Tom could do." says Gerard. "Got me back on my feet and I can think positively now and put a smile on my face!"
"I'm not scientifically trained, I'm not a doctor." Tom explains.With only a high school education, Tom McArthur spent decades making natural medicines in his kitchen - using fruit in ways no one could imagine."If nature has created the disease, I do believe that nature will also provide the cure." he thinks.His love of experimenting with lotions and potions began in the 60s in the jungles of Borneo serving in the British army. He witnessed the villagers using natural medicines, namely pawpaw, to heal their wounds."I started thinking good God, if we could unlock the liquid gold out of this one we'd be on a winner, we could help a lot of people."He then chemically modified pawpaw extract using simple ingredients from his local supermarket like baking powder and lemonade.
"What I was looking for was a way of changing the molecular structure to produce something that wasn't there."Incredibly, after decades of trial and error, he struck. He called it, Opal-A."Why didn't you become a doctor yourself?" asks Tim Noonan."I haven't got the brains! No, I chose a different path, I became a diesel mechanic!"But to Tom, fixing people is as simple as fixing machinery.Doctors told Pam, nothing could be done about the age-spots appearing on her face."Probably after four or five days it was reduced to barely, barely a shadow." she claims.
Darren suffered debilitating migraines.I just thought for the rest of my life I'm going to be living off pain killers. Definitely for the last 20 years I had them, one day to two days a week. Sometimes it's a lot worse at different times."He took eight headache tablets a day to keep the pain at bay until Tom arrived with a special pawpaw-based cream."I put it on, gave it a go! It's been now four weeks since I've had a headache. I've done nothing different, the only thing that I've done different is put the cream on."
Norm had psoriasis, a severe skin disease on his face."At first I was a pure sceptic and I said no, nothing bloody works and it didn't. But Tom's did.When he put his lotions on me, the darn thing, you could see it, it broke up on my face, this one big, red mass on the side it just broke up into three or four pieces. So that's the thing that really shook me and I've had absolute faith in the man since."Barbara had lost hope over a skin graft that refused to heal.
They don't realise just how good it is until they start using it. The colour is coming back into my leg and it's joining up with the rest of my leg. Saved my leg, yes!Professor Michael Woodward is a clinician and researcher for the University of Melbourne's School of Medicine and Austin Health."I've seen some remarkable individual success stories but then I apply my scientifically rigorous mind to make sure that the product actually works. It's very promising from what I've seen."
A world expert in wound management, he's hoping "opal-a" will help cure chronic wounds - a national epidemic he dubs the elephant in the room."This is a product that could lead to wound healing to those who are otherwise destined to have their wounds for ever and ever."So hopeful, he's decided to head up a double-blind clinical trial into Tom's secret formula at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne.
"So double blind trials provide the most rigorous scientific evidence. We have people who are being treated with the active product and people who are being treated with the inactive product - what we call the placebo. The patients we are using this study have had wounds often for many, many months. We are only allowing people into this study if their wounds are hard to heal.""There's millions of people out there with ulcers, bad leg ulcers and Tom's product can heal them, can actually heal them." thinks Norm.
All eyes are now waiting on Professor Woodward for medical proof."It might work on increasing blood supply and that's why we rub it to the skin around the ulcer, it might also work on changing the various chemicals that are responsible for delaying wound healing or promoting wound healing. As all scientists as all clinicians, I need to see evidence before I believe that a treatment works but I'm not going to be putting my finger into boiling oil to see whether this product can actually heal a burn!""You find anyone else that's got the guts and conviction of their own product to stick their hand in boiling fat and burn it and then put it into his own liquid to cure that burn." tells Norm.
"I double-dip, just to make sure it is burnt." says Tom.It's not the first time. He's deliberately burnt his fingers in a deep fryer 14 times."You can see the blister forming below.""A lot of people will look at this footage and say it's a shonk, it's a scam." says Reporter Tim Noonan"I can guarantee that! I get that all the time, I just smile and say, you'll see.""It is amazing that natural products have so many ways of working. I guess that's why they've been around for hundreds of millions of years." believes Professor Woodward.While clinically, there's still a way to go before opal-a is proved to be the real deal, a therapeutic cream containing the formula, Optiderma, will be released later this month. A cosmetic range, only papaya, has already hit the pharmacy shelves.
"If you speak to Tom, it's not the money. I have offered, but he won't take money." tell a few of his patients.But Tom says sometimes mending souls is more important than mending wounds."People that are unhappy try and make them happy. If they're in pain try and get rid of the pain. That's what it's all about." thinks Tom.
80-year-old, grandmother, Mona, is just glad he cared for her."Up until 48 hours ago, I used to wear long pants, I was embarrassed about my legs but now, brilliant!"Her legs were permanently bruised and scarred until Tom came along."Now, this was all black and now it's pink, look."Tom's retired now, living all alone in Hervey Bay, Queensland. Sadly, his wife and co-inventor, Lynda, passed away just ten weeks ago. But in her memory, Tom will continue on.
"I'll do this until I die. I don't call myself a miracle maker, I'm not Jesus Christ or anyone else, I just believe it's a miracle that I found it.""This product, OPAL-A could be a breakthrough that leads to improvement of the health of many many millions of people around the world." thinks Professor Woodward.Tom says "I believe antibiotics will fail in the future because the viruses are getting stronger and immune to what we're producing now so eventually we'll still have to go back to the jungles and the forests to find a replacement. We've only unlocked the tip of the iceberg."
CONTACT INFORMATION
To contact Tom McArthur, please email: tom@myljs.com.au
For OptiDerma and OnlyPapaya:
www.optiderma.com.au
www.onlypapaya.com.au
If you have hard to heal leg ulcers, pressure ulcers/sores or venous ulcers that are not responding to traditional treatments, you can volunteer at The Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital to be assessed for the clinic trial with Associate Professor Michael Woodward.
Please contact Kristin Cooper for further details:
03 94 964 232
kristin.cooper@austin.org.au
