MD, PhD, MAE, FMedSci, FRSB, FRCP, FRCPEd.

legal action

1 2 3 18

The Amercian Medical Association (AMA) recently published a lengthy article on naturopathy in the US. Here are some excerpts:

There are three types of health professionals who offer naturopathic treatment:

  • Naturopathic doctors. These nonphysicians graduate from a four-year, professional-level program at an accredited naturopathic medical school, earning either the doctor of naturopathy (ND) degree or the doctor of naturopathic medicine (NMD) degree.
  • Traditional naturopaths, who have obtained education through some combination of a mentorship program with another professional or at an alternative clinic, distance-learning program or classroom schooling on natural health, or other holistic studies.
  • Other health professionals such as chiropractors, massage therapists, dentists, nurses, nutritionists, or physicians who practice under a professional license but include some naturopathic methods in their practice and who may have studied on their own or taken courses on naturopathic methods.

At least 24 states and the District of Columbia regulate the practice of naturopathy. In order to be licensed, naturopaths in these states must earn an ND or NMD from an accredited naturopathic program and pass the Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Exam. Three states—Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee—prohibit the practice of naturopathy. In states that neither license nor prohibit the practice of naturopathy, traditional naturopaths and NDs alike may practice without being subject to state regulation.

Postgraduate training is neither common nor required of graduates of naturopathic schools, except in Utah … less than 10% of naturopaths participate in an approved residency, and such residencies last only a year and lack a high degree of standardization.

… naturopaths are required to get at least 1,200 hours of direct patient contact, physicians get 12,000–16,000 hours of clinical training…

ND programs emphasize naturopathic principes—for example, the healing power of nature—and naturopathic therapeutics such as botanical medicine, homeopoathy and hydrotherapy. Coursework in naturopathic therapeutics is combined with, and taught alongside, coursework in sciences. But there are no specifications around the number of hours required in each area … naturopathic students may lack exposure to key clinical scenarios in the course of their training … naturopathic students’ clinical experience is typically gained through outpatient health care clinics, as naturopathic medical schools typically do not have significant hospital affiliation. This means there is no guarantee that a naturopathic student completing a clinical rotation will see patients who are actually sick or hospitalized, and they may not be exposed to infants, children, adolescents or the elderly. It has been said that naturopaths tend to treat the “worried well.”

… Naturopaths claim they are trained as primary care providers and, as such, are educated and trained to diagnose, manage and treat many conditions, including bloodstream infections, heart disease and autoimmune disorders. Yet their education and training falls several years and thousands of hours short of what physicians get.

…The AMA believes it is the responsibility of policymakers to ensure that naturopaths’ claims that they can treat a broad range of conditions are backed by facts—facts that include the specific education and training necessary to ensure patient safety.

________________

The AMA is clearly cautious here. A less polite statement might simply stress that naturopaths are taught a lot of nonsense which they later tend to administer to their unsuspecting patients. On this blog, we have repeatedly discussed the danger naturopaths present to public health in the US and elsewhere, e.g.:

Claims that naturopaths are a viable alternative to evidence-based medicine are wrong, irresponsible and dangerous. Regulators must be reminded that they have the duty to protect the public from charlatans and should therefore ensure that no false therapeutic or diagnostic claims can be made by naturopaths.

The 29th of February is an unusual date, and I will do something fittingly unusual today – something that I have never done before: I will with a heavy heart resign from an organisation of skeptics.

After I had observed the self-destructive debates within the GWUP for almost one year without saying a single word about it (hoping they would soon dissolve into thin air), I published a comment a few days ago. Soon after, I was aggressed, defamed, wrongly denounced as an anti-Semite, and blackmailed by leading members of that organisation.

Confronted with these events, it was inevitable that I would have doubts about my previous plan to remain a member until the upcoming general assembly in May. While I was contemplating, I received a Tweet on 27/2/2024 from someone under the pseudonym Endgegner der Kommentarspalten; it included this sentence:

Einer der verschwörungsideologischen Clowns, die seit gut einem Jahr Kulturkrieg in der GWUP mit rechtsextremen Talking Points spielen und Märchen von einem “woken Putsch” herbeiphantasieren?

My translation:

One of the conspiracy ideological clowns who have been playing culture war in the GWUP for a good year with right-wing extremist talking points and fantasising about a “woke coup”?

Next, I watched a long discussion on youtube between the new chair of the GWUP, my accuser (Bartoschek) and Sebastian Hirsch. There I learnt that the latter is, in fact, nobody else than Endgegner der Kommentarspalten. He was recently put in charge of Twitter account for GWUP by the chair.

At this point, I lost the hope that the GWUP might be saved. It seems to be in the hand of thugs who call not me personally but their opponents ‘ideological clowns who have been playing culture war’. They claim that they want to keep politics out of the GWUP, yet almost all they do is engaging in politics.

Since the former formidable chair, Amardeo Sarma, left and the rift started, the GWUP has done nothing wothwhile, as far as I can see. On the GWUP website, we are told that (my translation):

  • The GWUP aims at promoting science and scientific thinking.
  • The GWUP investigates parascientific theories according to the current state of scientific knowledge and reports publicly and comprehensibly on its findings.
  • The GWUP aims to disseminate scientific and critical thinking and scientific methods, explain them in a generally understandable way and clearly distinguish real science from parascience. The GWUP thus wants to contribute to reducing society’s susceptibility to parascientific ideas and promises.
  • The GWUP is an internationally orientated society. It is happy to work with like-minded individuals, organisations and institutions.

GWUP stands for ‘Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften’ (Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences). The people currently in charge claim to be scientists but most of them are not (talking about science or publishing books for the lay reader about it does not, in my view, make you a scientist!). The leadership of the GWUP, it seems to me, is currently dominated by small-minded inward-looking guys with no international perspective who are in the middle of a mega-ego trip.

Instead of fighting parascience, they feel entitled to fight their colleagues. Instead of doing their job, they open the door to parascience. Instead of being scientists, they are using skepticism as an excuse for their machinations. Instead of running a scientific organisation, they turned it into a veritable kindergarden. In a nutshell: to the utmost delight of German parascientists, they have completely lost the plot.

I do not believe that the general assembly can turn things around. More likely, matters will get worse and it will come to a complete split. Personally, I cannot – not even until May – remain a member of an organisation where the man officially put in charge of the Twitter account feels entitled to collectively call his opponents ‘ideological clowns who have been playing culture war’. This remark in itself might not be all that significant but, for me, it is the ‘last straw’ and a symptom of a deep and irreversible rot.

So, I have come to the conclusion that I can do my work better without any further GWUP-hindrance. Therefore, I will now email my resignation as a member of the GWUP.

Guest post by Ken McLeod

This week a Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich resumes [1] in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Meanwhile, pending the outcome of Inquests and other investigations, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission has imposed interim prohibition order on Mr Soulore Solaris, ‘….a Counsellor who facilitates Ayahuasca ceremonies.’

Under section 41AA of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993 (Act), Mr Solaris: “….must not under any circumstances provide, or cause to be provided, any health services, either in paid employment or voluntary, to any member of the public.” [2] This applies until 11 March 2024, when the matter will be reconsidered.

So what is all this about? To go back a while, Mr Antonovich died from a perforated oesophagus after consuming ayahuasca and kambo frog toxin in October 2021, at the age of 46, while attending the ‘Dreaming Arts festival’, a six-day retreat at Arcoora near Kyogle in northern New South Wales. At the festival he had consumed ayahuasca and participated in a “Kambo” ceremony, involving secretions harvested from an Amazonian tree frog.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic substance made from boiling plants that is used in ritualistic ceremonies in the Amazon basin. [3] Ayahuasca contains chemicals of concern, such as N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a highly psychedelic substance and a Schedule I drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Ayahuasca is illegal in many countries, and it is illegal to sell, import, produce and possess it in Australia. [4]

Kambo is made from secretions harvested from an Amazonian tree frog. Kambo is usually used in a group setting, called a Kambo circle or Kambo ceremony. Wikipedia lists a whole smorgasbord of dangerous consequences, including tachycardia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, psychosis, SIADH, kidney damage (including acute renal failure), pancreas damage, liver damage including toxic hepatitis, dermatomyositis, esophageal rupture, seizures, and death. [5]

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has listed it as a schedule 10 poison, in the category for “substances of such danger to health as to warrant prohibition of sale, supply and use”. [6]

Earlier in the Inquest we heard that:

  • – While Jarrad Antonovich‘s condition worsened there was resistance to calling for an ambulance. An ambulance was finally called at 11.30pm and took an hour to arrive because of the remote location.
  • -One ambulance officer reported that a female told them to “move away from Jarrad because it was affecting his aura” and no one told them he had consumed Kambo. [7]
  • -The event organiser Soulore “Lore” Solaris described Jarrad Antonovich’s death as ‘beautiful.’ [8]
  • -Fred Woller, the site manager at Arcoora, was unaware those running the event did not have any medical training. [9]
  • -Soulore “Lore” Solaris said Mr Antonovich ”…. had good support, a couple of kinesiologists with him and they couldn’t find anything wrong,” [10]
  • -Mr Antonovich “was surrounded by people who loved him and an Aboriginal elder called Uncle Andrew who was chanting sacred songs and calling the spirit out of his body” and “the koalas were making a special sound that is known to the elders when the land accepts a spirit”.
  • -“Mr Solaris has stated that he has plans to leave Australia for Brazil to visit his teachers.” [11]

We will keep you informed.

REFERENCES

  • 1 Court Lists http://tinyurl.com/3fzjd6uy
  • 2 Health Care Complaints Commission http://tinyurl.com/yh76rzc6
  • 3 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/328manjt
  • 4 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_ayahuasca_by_country
  • 5 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_(drug)
  • 6 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/2s398psy
  • 7 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/328manjt
  • 8 ABC http://tinyurl.com/5n7ejydy
  • 9 The Guardian http://tinyurl.com/59wa3rmn
  • 10 ABC http://tinyurl.com/5n7ejydy
  • 11 Byron Bay Echo http://tinyurl.com/44n78s2w

The French ‘National Assembly’ has yesterday adopted a major law aimed at reinforcing the prevention and combat against sectarian aberrations in France. This marks a significant step forward in strengthening the protection of citizens against abuse and manipulation by charlatans, gurus and other sectarian movements.

This bill, the result of particularly fruitful work and debate in both chambers, reflects the Government’s commitment to meeting the expectations of the victims of these sectarian movements.

Some of the key measures voted through by parliamentarians include:

  • The enshrinement in law of the powers of MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Combat against Sectarian Aberrations);
  • The reinforcement of the penal response with the creation of the offence of placing or maintaining in a state of psychological or physical subjection;
  • The creation of an offence of incitement to abandon or refrain from treatment, or to adopt practices which clearly expose the person concerned to a serious health risk;
  • Support for victims, with the extension of the categories of associations that can bring civil action;
  • Information for the judiciary, with the introduction of an “amicus curiae” role for certain government departments in legal cases relating to cults.

Despite sometimes heated debates, particularly around article 4, fuelled by the opinion of the Conseil d’Etat, the adoption of this law by the National Assembly bears witness to a shared desire to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals while providing better protection for our fellow citizens against sectarian aberrations.

This bill is part of a multi-annual national strategy for 2023-2027 resulting from the conference on sectarian aberrations held in spring 2023. It is a major step towards strengthening the penal arsenal and protecting victims.

_______________

Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, Secretary of State for Citizenship and Urban Affairs, commented:

“Long-awaited by victim support associations, this text aims to strengthen our legal arsenal in the fight against sectarian aberrations. I’m delighted that all the articles have been adopted, particularly Article 4, which creates an offence of incitement to abandon or abstain from treatment. There have been some passionate debates in the Chamber, but I’d like to reiterate the basis of this bill: the State is not fighting against beliefs, opinions or religions, but against all forms of sectarian aberrations, these dangerous behaviors which represent a threat to our social cohesion and put lives at risk.”

_______________

Obviously, we shall have to see how the new law will be applied. But, in any case, it is an important step into the right direction and could put an end to much of so-called alternative medicine that endangers the health of French consumers.

Other nations should consicer following the Franch example.

We have often asked whether the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) is fit for purpose. A recent case bought before the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) of the GCC provides further food for thought.

The male chiropractor in question admitted to the PCC that:

  • he had requested the younger female patient remove her clothing to her underwear for the purposes of examination;
  • he then treated the area near her vagina and groin with a vibrating tool;
  • that he also treated the area around her breasts.

After the appointment, which the patient had originally booked for a problem with her neck, the patient reflected on the treatment and eventually complained about the chiropractor to the GCC. The PCC considered the case and did not find unprofessional conduct in the actions and conduct of the chiropractor. His the diagnosis and treatment were both found to be clinically justified.

According to the GCC, the lesson from this case is that the complaint to the GCC may have been avoided if the chiropractor had been more alert to the need to ensure he communicated effectively so that the patient was clear as to why the intimate areas were being treated and, on that basis, given informed consent. Patients often feel vulnerable before, during and after treatment; and this effect is magnified when the patient is unclothed, new to chiropractic treatment or the work of a particular chiropractor, or they are being treated in an intimate area. Chiropractors can reduce this feeling of vulnerability by offering a chaperone and gown (and recording a note of the patient’s response) as well as taking the time to ensure you have fully explained the procedure to them and obtained informed consentStandard D4 of the GCC Code states registrants must “Consider the need, during assessments and care, for another person to be present to act as a chaperone; particularly if the assessment or care might be considered intimate or where the patient is a child or a vulnerable adult.”

Excuse me?

I find this unbelievably gross and grossly unbelievable!

It begs, I think, the following questions:

  • What condition requires treatment with a ‘vibrating tool’ near the vagina (I assume they mean vulva)?
  • What condition requires treatment with a ‘vibrating tool’ around the breasts?
  • Is there any reliable evidence?
  • Was informed consent obtained?
  • What precisely did it entail?

About 15 years ago, I was an expert witness in a very similar UK case. The defendant was sent to prison for two years. The GCC is really not fit for purpose. It seems to consistently defend chiropractors rather than do its duty and defend their patients.

My advice to the above-mentioned patient is not to bother with the evidently useless GCC but to initiale criminal proceedings.

The so-called ‘Miracle Mineral Solution’ (MMS) – bleach for you and me – is a SCAM that keeps on giving. On this blog, we have featured MMS several times before, e.g.:

Now,it has been reported that a New Zealand anti-vaxxer has been jailed for selling more than $100,000 worth of an industrial bleach as a “miracle” cure for Covid-19. Roger Blake, who describes himself as a “human man”, was sentenced to just over 10 months’ imprisonment after being found guilty at trial of 29 charges in the Hamilton District Court.

Blake advertised and sold MMS products, claiming it could treat, prevent and cure coronavirus. However, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health had not approved the product, and detailed that when ingested became chlorine dioxide – a bleach commonly used for water treatment, bleaching textiles and paper.

The court heard Blake had marketed the product as a cure in New Zealand from the start of the pandemic between December 2019 and December 2020. Medsafe, the health ministry’s safety authority, said Blake’s company had sales of NZ$160,000 in that period – with sales spiking in March when the country was placed in lockdown.

Judge Brett Crowley said Blake’s behaviour had been “utterly disgraceful”. He added that Blake had “seized upon the tragedy” of the pandemic for financial gain. Before selling MMS as a “cure” for the coronavirus, Blake had marketed the product as a preventive of other diseases and illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and HIV.

Medsafe prosecuted him under the Medicines Act, with compliance manager Derek Fitzgerald saying the “fake cure” Blake spruiked presented a “significant public health risk”. “He targeted the vulnerable, preyed on public fears and exposed people to harm”, he said. “This decision sends a strong message that people who engage in selling so called ‘miracle cures’ will be held to account and face fines or imprisonment.”

The website which sold MMS in New Zealand was registered to US-based Mark Grenon, who set up the “Genesis II Church of Health and Healing”. As reported previously, Grenon and his three sons were jailed in October for several years in the US for selling more than US$1m of the product. Michael Homer, an assistant US lawyer who prosecuted the case, said at the time the family targeted people suffering from life-threatening illnesses. The Grenons poisoned thousands of people with their bogus miracle cure, which was nothing more than industrial bleach,” he said.

Medsafe warns: “Drinking MMS is the same as drinking bleach and can cause dangerous side effects, including severe vomiting, diarrhoea, and life-threatening low blood pressure. We strongly encourage people to only go to trusted sources, such as your doctor, to get reliable information”.

Medsafe received three reports of people requiring hospitalizations after drinking MMS. “His conduct presented a significant risk to public health, and that is why Medsafe acted. His actions were in stark contrast to the requirements of the Medicines Act 1981, which is public welfare legislation designed to protect the public” said Mr Fitzgerald.

This review aimed to investigate and categorize the causes and consequences of ‘quack medicine’ in the healthcare.

A scoping review, using the 5 stages of Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, was conducted to retrieve and analyze the literature. International databases including the PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science and also national Iranian databases were searched to find peer reviewed published literature in English and Persian languages. Grey literature was also included. Meta-Synthesis was applied to analyze the findings through an inductive approach.

Out of 3794 initially identified studies, 30 were selected for this review. Based on the findings of this research, the causes of quackery in the health were divided into six categories:

  • political,
  • economic,
  • socio-cultural,
  • technical-organizational,
  • legal,
  • and psychological.

Additionally, the consequences of this issue were classified into three categories:

  • health,
  • economic,
  • and social.

Economic and social factors were found to have the most significant impact on the prevalence of quackery in the health sector. Legal and technical-organizational factors played a crucial role in facilitating fraudulent practices, resulting in severe health consequences.

The authors concluded that it is evident that governing bodies and health systems must prioritize addressing economic and social factors in combating quackery in the health sector. Special attention should be paid to the issue of cultural development and community education to strengthen the mechanisms that lead to the society access to standard affordable services. Efforts should be made also to improve the efficiency of legislation, implementation and evaluation systems to effectively tackle this issue.

The authors point out that, in the health systems, particularly those of developing countries, a phenomenon known as “Quack Medicine” has been a persistent problem, causing harm in various branches of health care services. They define quackery as unproven or fraudulent medical practices that have no scientifically plausible rationale behind them. Someone who does not have professional qualification, formal registration from a legitimated institution, or required knowledge of a particular branch of medicine but practices in the field of medicine, is a quack, according to the authors’ definition. Finally, they define quack medicine as a fraudulent practice of quacks claiming to possess the ability and experience to diagnose and treat diseases, and pretending that the medicine or treatment they provide are effective, generally for personal and financial gain.

The authors rightly point out that, in some countries, there may be a lack of willpower, determination and effort among political leaders to deal with and prevent fraud and charlatanism in various fields, especially in the health system. This can be due to conflict of interests, corruption network, or insufficient infrastructure and resources, such as financial capacity and human resources. In some cases, they stress, policy makers may choose to tolerate small levels of unproven medical practices if the cost of prosecuting and correcting the situation outweigh the financial benefits. This can lead to a cycle of continued fraud and a lack of effective interventions to address the issue. In many countries laws against quack medicine do exist. However, their effectiveness depends on proper and strict implementation. More efforts and measures must be taken to implement the existing laws. Inadequate enforcement of laws and approval of pseudo-medicine can result in people receiving improper care.

The authors recommend that the healthcare systems, prioritize addressing economic and sociocultural factors in order to effectively combat this issue. In developing solutions, attention must be given to cultural development and community education, and efforts should be made to strengthen mechanisms that provide access to affordable, standard healthcare services for all. Lastly, it is crucial to enhance the performance of systems responsible for legislation, implementation and evaluation of laws and regulations related to quack medicine.

The NZZ recently published a long and horrific report about a natural health clinic and its doctors. Here is a  version translated and shortened by me; perhaps it makes a few people think twice before they waste their money and risk their health:

It is a narrow mountain road that they are racing down on this spring evening. Over the green Appenzell hills, towards Herisau hospital. Kathrin Pfister* is fighting for her life in the car. At the wheel is Thomas Rau, internationally renowned practitioner of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and director of his own luxury clinic, the Biomed Centre Sonnenberg. Three days later, Kathrin Pfister is dead. The most likely finding according to the experts: Pfister was injected with a drug that was not authorised in Switzerland at the time, the side effects of which killed her.

Pfister is not the only woman to have lost her life following treatment at the Sonnenberg. Other experts accuse Rau of serious breaches of duty that led to the death of a patient. Rau and another doctor are thus being investigated for involuntary manslaughter.

The events remained hidden from the public for over two years. It’s not just about one doctor, not just about one clinic. The events are politically explosive for Appenzell Ausserrhoden. The canton is the centre of alternative medicine in Switzerland. SCAM doctors are an important economic factor in Ausserrhoden. Wealthy people from all over the world fly here for therapies that most conventional doctors just shake their heads at. Treatments lasting several weeks with a hotel stay cost five-figure sums.

The 73-year-old Dr Rau is the star among Swiss alternative medicine practitioners.He describes himself as the “Mozart of medicine”. The Biomed Centre Sonnenberg is “Mozart’s” last big project. The clinic has a hotel and gluten-free vegan restaurant from the Tibits chain. Even the feather pillows are replaced with bamboo ones. All for the “detox” that Rau praises.

Kathrin Pfister’s case began in mid-April 2021, just four months after the Sonnenberg centre opened. She is actually healthy and comes to the clinic anyway; because of some digestive problems and headaches. The hospital records show that Pfister received infusions. Initially only those containing vitamin C and homeopathic remedies. Then one with artesunate, a preparation against malaria. And finally, on a Friday, Pfister was injected with a solution of alpha-lipoic acid into his bloodstream. The infusion is used in Germany for long-term diabetics with nerve damage. It was not authorised as a medicinal product in Switzerland at the time. According to the forensic experts, it was this substance that was “ultimately causally linked to the death”.

A few hours later, Pfister had severe abdominal cramps. Then pain throughout the body. The number of platelets in her blood drops dramatically. Anxiety sets in at the clinic. The intensive care doctors in Herisau and later at the cantonal hospital in St. Gallen can do nothing more. Pfister had a massive blood clotting disorder. Her liver and kidneys were no longer functioning.

Mary Anne Hawrylak meets Thomas Rau by chance at the clinic that weekend. She too is a patient, recently flown in from the USA. Hawrylak had massive side effects after infusions that Friday. “When I told him about it, he turned white as a sheet, like a ghost,” says Hawrylak. “Doctor Rau told me in horror that I had received the same infusions as ‘Kathrin’ and that he had to test my blood.” The tests showed that her blood platelet count had also dropped, says Hawrylak.

The forensic experts point to a central fact: Alpha lipoic acid can cause blood clotting disorders.  They come to the conclusion that this is “most likely a lethal side effect of a drug”. The use of drugs that are not authorised in Switzerland is legal if they are authorised in a country with a comparable procedure. However, there is no real reason to inject this medication into the bloodstream of healthy people. It was authorised in Germany for diabetes patients with nerve damage. So, Pfister did not have this authorisation.

Experts refer to such applications as “off-label use”.  Off-label treatments should only be carried out “on the basis of valid guidelines, generally recognised recommendations or scientific literature”. The guidelines also require that patients are given comprehensive information about off-label use. This counselling session should be documented in writing. None of this can be found in the clinic’s files. No written consent, no documented risk-benefit assessment, no reference to the risk of blood clotting disorders. The forensic experts state: “The scant documentation from the Sonnenberg Biomed Centre does not contain any corresponding information document.” The question arises as to “whether the medical treatment at the Sonnenberg Biomed Centre was carried out with the necessary medical care”.

Patient Hawrylak also says: “I was not told exactly what was in the infusions. I was never told that the medication was not authorised in Switzerland or that its use was off-label. I spoke to Dr Rau about what had happened to ‘Kathrin’ because I was worried about myself,” says Hawrylak. “He said to me: ‘I don’t think it was the infusions. I think it was the Covid vaccinations.” He only justified this with his “intuition”.

The Pfister case triggered an investigation by the public prosecutor’s office. But what hardly anyone knew at the time was that it was not the first questionable death at the clinic – not even the first in a month. Ruth Schmid*, a 77-year-old Swiss woman, had died just three weeks earlier. In this case, the forensic pathologists accused Rau: He had made mistakes that not even a medical student should have made, thus causing Schmid’s death.

Schmid was also in the clinic for a kind of cure. When she was about to leave, she began to tremble violently and had extreme stomach pains. She screamed “like an animal”, her partner said during the interrogation. Ultrasound examinations were carried out at the clinic and Rau gave Schmid painkillers, including morphine. According to the partner’s statement to the public prosecutor’s office, he asked Rau whether Schmid needed to be taken to hospital. Rau said no. Schmid stayed in the hotel room overnight. The next day – according to Rau, she had been feeling better since the previous evening – she travelled home. According to Rau’s confiscated notes, “she was to report closely” and return in four days. At home, Ruth Schmid fell into a coma-like state overnight. Admitted to Zurich University Hospital in an emergency, Schmid died there of cardiovascular failure due to septic shock.

The Zurich forensic pathologists performed an autopsy on Schmid’s body. Their findings: Schmid had suffered from intestinal paralysis. As a result, bacteria entered her body and poisoned her blood, leading to a heart attack. “From a forensic medical point of view, it is incomprehensible why the attending physician, Dr Thomas Rau, did not carry out appropriate diagnostics.” The irritation of the forensic experts is evident in almost every line. There had been several warning signs of intestinal paralysis. The forensic experts wrote: “This knowledge is taught in medical school and is considered basic knowledge in human medicine.” Rau’s behaviour was “a breach of the doctor’s duty of care”. With timely treatment, the prognosis for intestinal paralysis is excellent. The sad conclusion: Ruth Schmid did not have to die.

During questioning by the public prosecutor’s office, Rau denied any guilt. Schmid had left in “good condition”. There was no causality between what happened in the clinic and the death. The findings and conclusions of the Zurich forensic pathologists were wrong. Schmid did not have intestinal paralysis or septicaemia. He had been able to rule out intestinal paralysis because intestinal noises had been audible in the morning. The dose of morphine had been very small, so that it had had no effect. There were no indications of a serious condition. Rau testified that he had acted professionally, as would be expected of an internal medicine doctor.

In the Kathrin Pfister case, the doctors treating her also deny any culpability and question the forensic medical report. The doctor’s lawyer writes that the criminal investigation will show that there was no breach of the doctor’s duty to provide information. Alpha-lipoic acid was not responsible for the death. The expert opinion is not convincing in terms of method or content: “When analysed in depth, it contains no justification that the use of alpha-lipoic acid was in any way causal for the patient’s death.”

During the hearing on the Pfister case, Rau said that restricting the use of alpha-lipoic acid to diabetics was “a joke” and far too narrowly defined. He claimed that Pfister had polyneuropathy, a complex nerve disease. However, there is no mention of this in the files of Rau’s clinic.

The criminal investigation is ongoing in both cases. But did more happen on the Sonnenberg? A former hospital employee, who independently reported to the police, told the public prosecutor about other hair-raising incidents. During the interrogation, she testified that she had seen a young woman being carried out of the clinic extremely weak after an infusion. Days later, she had overheard parts of a telephone conversation between Rau and the patient’s angry husband which made it clear that the woman had died. The former employee also recounted a conversation with Rau’s wife, who is a trained nurse. She said that she had driven a patient to a hospital in Zurich in a private car with Rau because Rau was determined to take her to a particular specialist. The patient was so unwell that she was afraid the woman would die on the way. If this is true, Rau would have travelled past several hospitals with a seriously ill patient.

Hawrylak has one last memory of Appenzell etched in his memory. The departure. She was just leaving the clinic when Rau wished her good luck: “I could only say to him: I wish you good luck too, Doctor Rau. I think you’re really going to need it.”

*Names were altered.

2003 has been marked by many terrifying things, but perhaps the most surprising of the 2023 horrors was … eye drops. ArsTechnica reports that the seemingly innocuous teeny squeeze bottle made for alarming headlines numerous times during our current revolution around the sun, with lengthy lists of recallsstartling factory inspections, and ghastly reports of people developing near-untreatable bacterial infectionslosing their eyes and vision, and dying.

Recapping this unexpected threat to health, the Food and Drug Administration released an advisory titled “What You Should Know about Eye Drops” with this stark pronouncement: No one should ever use any homeopathic ophthalmic products, and every single such product should be pulled off the market.

The point is unexpected, given that none of the high-profile infections and recalls this year involved homeopathic products. But, it should be welcomed by any advocates of evidence-based medicine.

In the US, these products are marketed as legitimate treatments and sold alongside evidence-based treatments (though consumer advocates are trying to change that). The reason this is allowed for now is because of a regulatory quirk: Based on the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, homeopathic products are generally considered exempt from pre-market FDA safety and efficacy reviews as long as the active ingredient in the product is included in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia.

In recent years, the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission have cracked down on homeopathic products, though. And it seems from today’s advisory that the FDA is not holding back on homeopathic products for the eyes. The regulator notes that any products meant for the eye “pose a heightened risk of harm” because the eyes are an immune-privileged site in the body. That is, innate immune responses are restrained in the eye to prevent damaging inflammation, which could threaten vision. “Any drug used in the eyes must be sterile to reduce the risk of infection,” the FDA said.

But whether or not homeopathic eye drops are labeled as sterile doesn’t seem to matter to the FDA. The regulator cautions:

Do not use ophthalmic products that are labeled as homeopathic, as these products should not be marketed.”

SAY NO MORE!

 

Carola Javid-Kistel is a German medical homeopath who states on her website that “homeopathy is a very powerful yet gentle medicine with no side effects, which accompanies me as a doctor for the rest of my life. Thanks to homeopathy, I was completely cured of my ailments…” (my translation).

She is famous in Germany – not so much for her devotion to homeopathy but for repeatedly breaking the law and evading justice.

Now, finally, the doctor from Duderstadt has been arrested. The Göttingen public prosecutor’s office confirmed that she was handed over to the German authorities by the Swiss judiciary in Constance. She has been charged with issuing false medical certificates for exemption from the obligation to wear a mask.

Carola Javid-Kistel has since been released from custody. As a condition, she had to pay 30,000 Euros bail and surrender her passport and identity card. She also had to report regularly to the Duderstadt police station.

According to the Göttingen public prosecutor’s office, the 57-year-old physician was arrested on arrival at Zurich airport. Javid-Kistel had fled to Mexico last year to avoid a criminal trial that had already been scheduled at the Duderstadt district court. She was due to stand trial there for issuing false certificates, among other things.

Further charges from the Göttingen public prosecutor’s office could include:

  • Incitement to hatred, defamation and insult.
  • At a rally in Herzberg, Javid-Kistel had claimed that the coronavirus measures were “worse than the Holocaust”.
  • She also accused a fellow doctor in a video of “vaccinating patients sick and to death”.
  • Furthermore, she is alleged to have said to police officers and officials during a search of her practice: “This is fascism, you’re all crazy.”

The date for her new trial has not yet been announced.

Sources:

Dr. med. Carola Javid-Kistel (naturheilpraxis-duderstadt.de)

Ärztin aus Duderstadt in der Schweiz festgenommen (aerzteblatt.de)

Flüchtige Corona-Leugnerin Carola Javid-Kistel gefasst | NDR.de – Nachrichten – Niedersachsen – Studio Braunschweig

1 2 3 18
Subscribe via email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

Recent Comments

Note that comments can be edited for up to five minutes after they are first submitted but you must tick the box: “Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.”

The most recent comments from all posts can be seen here.

Archives
Categories