On Saturday morning, we all met again at the specified location at 8 am.  At that time, we learned that on Friday evening, Lance (another client) spoke with Dr Garcia, and he said the stem cells hadn’t arrived.   A phone call to Dr Garcia that morning got us the same reply, but he said they could arrive at any time.  We were basically stuck in the hotel all day Saturday, as we called Dr Garcia every 2-3 hours hoping for treatment, and he repeated that the stem cells hadn’t arrived but could arrive at any moment.  My sister-in-law called the clinic (she speaks Spanish and I don’t) and was told that Dr Garcia was going by airplane to Mexico City to pick up the stem cells, and we could be treated as soon as he returned.  She was also told that Dr Garcia’s son was ready to come pick us up in the van as soon as his father returned with the cells.  About 30 minutes later, she spoke to Dr Garcia, who said that the stem cells hadn’t arrived.  He would not reply to the question of whether or not he had gone to Mexico City to get them.  On a later phone call, his son said that Dr Garcia was going out of town for the weekend.  On another phone call, Dr Garcia pretended he couldn’t speak English.  Tim and I screamed at each other repeatedly, and Sam slept through the whole thing.

Sunday morning, Dr Garcia said the stem cells had not arrived and wouldn’t arrive on a Sunday.  He told us he had no way of contacting anyone in Switzerland.   

We attempted to contact the office in Switzerland all night Sunday night (Monday morning their time) but got no answer.  Not aware that it was a holiday, we believed they had stolen our money and were chilling on the Riviera somewhere.  Tim and I, still screaming.  Monday morning, Dr Garcia said the stem cells still hadn't arrived, but we also learned that it was Labor Day in Europe, which made us feel a little better.  At least there was an explanation for there being no one in the office in Switzerland. 

Once more, we moved our plane reservations.  At 11 pm Monday night we were finally able to contact Switzerland, where we learned that Dr Garcia himself had signed for the stem cells the previous Friday.  That totally threw us - we couldn't figure out why he would lie to us, but certainly there is no positive explanation for it.     

Though several conversations, we determined that he was basically holding us all hostage, while he tried to get money from the main office.  At this point, we hadn’t slept in about 3 days. 

Lo and behold, Dr Garcia then contacted us and said that the stem cells had arrived and he could treat Sam.  He wasn't aware we had been on the phone with the office in Switzerland all night, and figured we were still believing him.   

As much as we wanted this treatment for Sam, we couldn't do it under these circumstances.  Sam has been through enough at the hands of doctors we thought we could trust; certainly, we couldn't hand him over to a doctor we already knew had no integrity.

I spoke again with Switzerland and told them that we  were not willing to have this man touch Sam.  We made arrangements to leave San Diego, and we got home on Tuesday night after traveling all day.