It is very unusual because homeoquacks are very quick to prescribe antibiotics if they see that an infection is not “being successfully treated by homeopathy” (a.k.a. spontaneous remission), to send the patient to another doctor or simply disappearing (not answering the phone/not returning calls), making the patient look for an ER.
The problem appears when the homeoquack is too incompetent to see that things are getting out of control or really believes in what he is doing (my opinion is that most don´t). That´s when deaths happens.
This is a sad case, but by no means a first. Homeopathy is a very loosely regulated"profession”. There are osteopathic doctors (DO’s) who are trained in both traditional medicine and homeopathic medicine. They complete 4 years of medical school and the same residency programs that MD’s go through (usually side by side). These doctors mostly practice traditional medicine once they get out but some incorporate homeopathic techniques into their practice. On the other end of the spectrum are practitioners like the one in the story above who have no medical training and either took a mail order course or read a few books and then hang out a shingle.
I will never forget the night a 25 year old woman came in to the ER and died when I was a intern. She was a beautiful young girl with a bright future who had been sick for several weeks. She worked in Manhattan and a friend referred her to a “doctor” she had been going to who specialized in Chinese medicine and homeopathy. This doctor diagnosed her with some unknown ailment and treated her with Ink of Cuttlefish ( ????). As the days went by she got sicker and sicker, and he had her continue this therapy. Finally her friend brought her to the ER. When she came in she had a fever and her blood pressure was barely detectable. She was clearly in shock. Blood cultures which usually take 24-48 hrs to grow, grew out staph bacteria in only 6 hours. Further tests indicated the woman had Lupus which no one had ever detected during her illness. Despite large doses of IV antibiotics and round the clock efforts by the ICU team this poor woman succumbed to overwhelming septic shock and multiple organ failure by the following morning.
I think this experience more than any other is why I tend to lose my cool sometimes when I come across people who promote homeopathic nonsense,and why I bristle when I hear someone say “what harm could it do”. It can do a lot of harm.
It is very unusual because homeoquacks are very quick to prescribe antibiotics if they see that an infection is not “being successfully treated by homeopathy” (a.k.a. spontaneous remission), to send the patient to another doctor or simply disappearing (not answering the phone/not returning calls), making the patient look for an ER.
The problem appears when the homeoquack is too incompetent to see that things are getting out of control or really believes in what he is doing (my opinion is that most don´t). That´s when deaths happens.
When a small child gets an infection, by the time the homeoquack realizes that the treatment is not working the child may be dead. It doesn’t take that long for a small child to be overwhelmed by some organisms due to a combination of small airway, an immune system that is not completely formed, as well as limited reserve.
I am becoming the official poster of child death stories.
It isn’t only anti-scientific religion of parents that children must fear.
This one is old news. Check out this website if you really want to get angry… http://www.whatstheharm.net/index.html
I heard an Australian doctor on a podcast recently mention that they just had their first whooping cough death since 2000 due to the Jeni Barret/McCarthys of the world’s uninformed scare tactics. Keith Olbermann just made Andrew Wakefield his “worse person in the world” for his faked autism studies linking MMR with autism, thus singlehandedly starting this whole absurd blight.
...Keith Olbermann just made Andrew Wakefield his “worse person in the world” for his faked autism studies linking MMR with autism, thus singlehandedly starting this whole absurd blight.
I find it amazing how many of these crazy mothers are not aware that the original data was faked by Wakefield.
And that Jenny McCarthy kook has a new book out stating that not only do vaccines cause autism, but you can CURE your child of autism with a special homeopathic/naturopathic diet. Apparently, she claims that removing things from the child’s diet like milk, wheat, and HFCS while also giving special herbs and vitamins will cure your child.
Jennie McCarthy’s excuse for not vaccinating to her children was that Mercury (thymerisol) was the second most toxic poison known to man. But here ( http://inyourface.freedomblogging.com/2009/03/12/jenny-mccarthys-botox-secret/4235/ ) she was waxing poetic ad nauseum about how she loved her BOTOX which is made of the MOST TOXIC POISON KNOWN TO MAN!!
For a woman who has said publicly that she is anti-science, she sure seems to be enjoying the advances in botox and breast implants. I suppose we should take away her hair dye as well.
For a woman who hs said publicly that she is anti-science, she sure seems to be enjoying the advances in botox and breast implants. I suppose we should take away her hair dye as well.
Ha, Ha, Ha—and her cell phone, computer, GPS and auto. We can remove her flat screen TV and washer/ dryer too~ etc etc….. and take her right back to the dark ages where she resides in her mind!
Jennie McCarthy’s excuse for not vaccinating to her children was that Mercury (thymerisol) was the second most toxic poison known to man. But here ( http://inyourface.freedomblogging.com/2009/03/12/jenny-mccarthys-botox-secret/4235/ ) she was waxing poetic ad nauseum about how she loved her BOTOX which is made of the MOST TOXIC POISON KNOWN TO MAN!!
And as an aside, mercury isn’t even in the same league of toxicity of a whole raft of other materials, nerve gasses for example. If I had to guess, I’d say we could probably come up with a thousand other materials that are far more toxic than mercury.
And as an aside, mercury isn’t even in the same league of toxicity of a whole raft of other materials, nerve gasses for example. If I had to guess, I’d say we could probably come up with a thousand other materials that are far more toxic than mercury.
Occam
True, perhaps I should have said ‘naturally occuring toxin’, but I’m not sure where the castor bean would fall….anyway, isn’t it ironic that someone that would risk her child’s life by refusing to vaccinate, and uses ‘toxicity as an excuse, would inject an even more toxic material than the one she imagines is in the vaccine.
You’re right, ricin is another far more toxic material that mercury. And while we’re at it, I’d far rather be forced to ingest mercury than an equal amount of thallium or the radioactive elements like radium, uranium, polonium, curium, etc.
You see, “All Natural” isn’t always great! No matter what the supermarket labels say!
That’s what I keep telling my friends….every one of the many allergies I have are to 100% natural things! Not one man made chemical in the bunch! (excepting one, and I’m allergic to a ‘natural’ component).
For a woman who has said publicly that she is anti-science, she sure seems to be enjoying the advances in botox and breast implants. I suppose we should take away her hair dye as well.
