Norma A. Vera
P.O. Box 660801
Miami Springs, FL  33266
Thursday, May 8, 1997

Mrs. Betty Martini
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Email: bettym19@mindspring.com

Betty,

During 1984 I was had a Medical Secretarial Office.  In order 
to supplement my income and acquire new business contacts I 
was working temporary placements for Advantage Personnel 
Services located at that time at 7861 Bird Road, Miami, Florida  
33155 with telephone (305) 261-4561.   That same year I was 
placed for at least four months at the offices of G. D. Searle 
International at approximately 2500-2700 Douglas Rd. (SW 37th 
Avenue) in Coral Gables.  After a couple of weeks doing general 
secretarial work I was asked to assist a Dr. Ortega with some 
urological translations that needed to be reviewed.  We (Dr. 
Ortega and I) worked together correcting these translations for 
a while.  When these were completed, he told me they were 
expecting another set of translations and he wanted me to 
assist with these as well. 

I recall we waited for a few weeks because the translations 
were coming from Argentina and Mexico.  When the aspartame 
translations arrived, Dr. Ortega and I worked constantly for hours 
in his office trying to make sense of what had been translated.  
He finally decided to send for the finally "double blind" studies 
and translate them directly from the Spanish originals.  To my 
best recollection, these studies had  been conducted in 
depressed sections of Mexico, Argentina and a third country 
which I believe to have been Guatemala.

I clearly remember the three groups were a combination of male 
and female subjects and the majority were young people.  We 
only had the numbers, no names.  There were intermittent 
numbers with no history or information next to them.  Although, 
the majority had complete histories and information.  I seem to 
recall that, these subjects as well as all of us in the Searle 
offices were in the belief that the substance aspartame was a 
derivative of the papaya fruit.  

It was believed to be a naturally occurring, safe, sweetener 
extracted from the papaya fruit.  As a matter of fact, there was 
a female physician - can’t recall her name, but she did have her 
M.D. - who was taking the aspartame by the spoonful, in everything 
she ate or drank!   She kept insisting that I use it, that it was 
better than the refined sugar I used.  I think the reason she never 
convinced me -before the translations were completed- was that 
one of my brothers had previously (1973) had disk surgery where 
the orthopedic surgeon had fumbled, broken the disk and dissipated 
the particles down my brother’s cul-de-sac.  Since he was unable to 
dig into the cul-de-sac to get these particles, offered a new, 
"revolutionary" treatment which would dissolve the disk without 
any more surgery .... chemopapain ... a substance derived from 
the papaya fruit! ...  we decided to call a neurosurgeon friend of 
the doctor for whom I worked.   But, ten years or so later, I made 
a the mental connection:  If the chemopapain dissolved disks... 
how could it not be dangerous?  Nah, I would not take that sugar 
substitute.  Thank GOD!

There are only a few instances that have remained in my mind as 
clear and painful as the first time I translated those studies and 
are as follows:

  1)	A young pregnant woman after a number of weeks in the 
        study began to bleed profusely, miscarried and was taken out 
        of the study.

  2)	A young man who had seizures resembling grand-mal.  
        He had never had seizures before was also taken out of the study.

  3)	Another young man had been taken out of the study because 
        he had been involved in some type of fight where he had been 
        stabbed to death.

  4)	The recurring description of tumors, astrocytomas & glyomas.

  5)	Seizures very similar to both grand-mal and petit-mal, but 
        yet they were never described as epilepsy.

  6)	Headaches, migraine-like.

  7)	Tremors in the muscles.

  8)	Vertigo, disorientation, loss of balance, loss of memory.  
        These were linked with some type of CNS involvement.  I don’t 
        clearly recall what it was, but my description of it, since then, 
        has always been that it makes the brain cells like mush.
 
Betty, the above are the awful memories & recollections I have 
had to live with since I translated those studies on aspartame 
in 1984.  Since then, I have warned family and friends of the 
dangers of using aspartame; some believed me and some did 
not.  For the longest time I thought I was the only person in 
the world with this burden.  Your persistence has brought me 
out in the open; there is only the most respectful gratefulness 
from me to you.  I still carry much more of this information in 
my subconscious mind; but, I will remember the names of the 
villages and the departments who conducted these studies.  


Norma A. Vera

Sworn to and subscribed before me  Jean Oliver, Notary Public of the State
of Florida, County of Dade this 8th day of May, l997

Official Notary Seal, Jean Oliver, Notary Public State of Florida My
Commission expires May 23, l997