This two-part series on the Bradley family spun out of a 12-month investigation by Lundstrom, in which she first revealed in July 2012 that two University of California, Davis, neurosurgeons had sidestepped university policies and federal regulations to conduct experimental treatments on dying brain cancer patients. The doctors, theorizing that infection might stimulate a patient’s immune system, had intentionally infected three glioblastoma patients with bowel bacteria in the hope that a raging infection might also bring relief or even a cure. While Lundstrom’s series of stories initially focused on the doctors’ conduct and the university’s and government’s responses, Lundstrom was determined to hear what the patients and their families had to say. Known only as Patients 1, 2 & 3 in public documents, all had died by the time Lundstrom began her work. Eventually, though, the veteran reporter located the family of the mysterious second patient – the doctors’ so-called “success story” – and spent time with her daughters, who had been forced to make an agonizing choice about their mother’s end of life.
