(74)    Sat 26 Jul 97  8:42
By: David Bloomberg
To: All
Re: Quacks Kill
St:
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@EID:441f 22fa4540
@MSGID: 1:2430/2112 7de14392
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To: healthfraud@ssr.com
From: celr@mcn.org (Phoebe Graubard)
Subject: Debbie's death

My dear friend Debbie died last week, in Portland, Oregon of breast cancer:
a victim of quack medicine.

When conventional medicine might have saved her, she rejected the advice of
her oncologist and went to a so called "naturopath" who abused her
horribly. When lymph nodes swelled in her armpit, the naturopath told her
that it was merely the effect of the herbal remedies he was giving her.
Unfortunately the cancer was spreading throughout her body.  In the last
weeks of her life the naturopath gave her a preperation which was supposed
to draw the tumor out of her;  this stuff caused an ugly open sore on her
breast. She was feeling really awful by this time; the cancer had got to
her liver. The naturopath told her she was feeling bad as a rusult of the
medicine and to get more sleep. Worst of all, when she finally was unable
to get out of bed and it was evident she was dying, the naturopath said
that the reason she'd taken a turn for the worse was that she'd "given up."
Talk about blaming the victim!

I know that Debbie chose to go to the quacks; but she was worried and
afraid. I always found her to be an intelligent woman. She was obviously
snowed by the arguements of the alternative medicine types. However this
does not absolve the fakes who exploited her fears and took large amounts
of her savings. I don't understand why she continued to ignore the advice
of some of her oldest friends; she was a Kaiser nurse and should have known
better. For some reason she seemed to ignore good sense consistantly.
Perhaps there's a psychological explanation.

I don't know what can be done about these vultures. I understand that
"natropaths" have some kind of protection in Oregon, but I cannot believe
that whatever agency oversees them allows them to get away with such fraud.
If it does, then perhaps the law should be changed. Is there some agency I
can complain to?

Her name was Debbie Benson and she died at Hopewell House, a hospice, in
Portaland on 15 July 1997. She was 55, an young and active person.


Ken Spiker & Phoebe Graubard
Fort Bragg, CA
celr@mcn.org


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