WHY LEGAL PROTECTION IS NECESSARY FOR A HOLISTIC AND INTEGRATIVE HEALTH CARE PRACTIONER
When a chronic diseased patient comes to an integrative physician, he-she usually has had multiple mainstream treatments, many of which have embedded risks and side effects. In addition, most chronic diseases are difficult disease to cure and much depends on the patient’s lifestyle and will to live. Moreover, most innovative and integrative medicine procedures are not without some risks and side effects, albeit much less than mainstream allopathic procedures. And many innovative procedures lack documented data and governmental approval. There are therefore many circumstances and risks and unknowns that the integrative physician can not control, including, but not limited to the "grief-anger" phase that many of the deceased patient's entourage experiences.
Among other cases we study in our workshops, hereinafter are a few illustrations of both the physician's and the patient's risk in using holistic medicine.
FIRST CASE
Charell v Gonzalez (New York)
In Charell v. Gonzales, a physician used hair analysis and nutritional care to diagnose and treat a cancer patient. The jury found that the physician had departed from accepted medical practice, which departure caused the patient injury. In denying the physician's motion to set aside the verdict, the court stated that "no practitioner of alternative medicine could prevail ... as ... the term 'non-conventional' may well necessitate a finding that the doctor who practices such medicine deviates from 'accepted' medical standards."
This view is hardly unique: courts historically have treated nonbiomedical therapies as suspect in cases where fraud or lack of due care has not been proven. Since using a complementary and alternative therapy invariably deviates from the standard of care, physicians cannot undertake a responsible, measured integration of such therapies in clinical practice without risking malpractice exposure. The definitional conundrum leaves the physician, who uses complementary and alternative medicine but lacks support through consensus standards, at risk of liability irrespective of any actual lack of due care in selecting or utilizing the nonconventional treatment.
SECOND CASE
Schneider v. Revici (New York)
In Schneider v. Revici, the patient sought integrative oncology treatment for breast cancer. Following the treatment, the tumor spread. The jury found Dr. Revici liable for malpractice on the basis of not having sufficiently used the main standards of care which are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and hormonal theray. As in many other medical malpractice cases, the central plaintiff argument was that there existed a "loss of chance" from which the patient could have benefited. But did not given the physician's preference for a non recognized approach based on holistic medicine.
THIRD CASE
Abraham Cherrix vs Accomack County Department of Social Services et al, July, 2006
Parents charged for reckless negligence
After three months of chemotherapy, Abraham was so weakened that he could barely walk. He and his parents thus refused a second round of chemotherapy when he learned that his Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, was active again. He chose instead to go on a sugar-free, organic diet and take herbal supplements under the supervision of a clinic in Mexico. A social worker then asked a judge to require the teen to continue conventional treatment. In his order, Judge Jesse E. Demps found the parents neglectful for allowing Abraham to pursue alternative treatment. He required them to continue sharing custody of Abraham with the Accomack County Department of Social Services, as he previously had ordered.”
FOURTH CASE IN POINT
A sauna revitalization retreat organizer charged under the manslaughter theory.
The Yavapai County sheriff's deputies arrested Ray at his attorney's office in Prescott, Ariz., and bond was set at $5 million. Ray was being held in a county jail in Camp Verde.
Investigators contend that on Oct. 8, Ray told participants of a sweat lodge ceremony held at Angel Valley Retreat Center to remain inside the sweltering structure even though some of them complained of feeling ill, began vomiting and even passed out.
In an interview published last week in New York magazine, Ray responded to reports from witnesses who said he was aware of the vomiting.
"I may have mentioned that I had been told by many shamans that the body purges and there's only certain ways that it can purge," Ray told the magazine. "Obviously, you know the bodily functions, so there's only certain ways to exit the body."
Witnesses said Ray also told the group, "You're not going to die. You might think you are, but you're not going to die."
Three people – Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn.; James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee; and Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y. – died and 18 others were hospitalized.
On his Web site, Ray has maintained his innocence, and, in a statement, his lawyers contended that charges in the matter are not necessary.
"The charges are unjust and we will prove it in court," said the statement from Munger, Tolles & Olson, the firm representing Ray. "This was a terrible accident – but it was an accident, not a criminal act."
According to The Associated Press, the five-day retreat cost more than $9,000 per person, and Ray promised that it would be an intense experience.
Ray, the retreat organizer, click below for recent article.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/guru-james-arthur-ray-charged-in-sweat-lodge-deaths/19344157
FIFTH CASE IN POINT:
SIXTH CASE IN POINT
Son's parents convicted of criminally negligent homicide
OREGON CITY, Ore. (Feb. 3) -- An Oregon couple who practice faith healing testified they did everything they could for their 16-year-old son before he died, but a jury decided it was not enough, especially just months after the death of their granddaughter.
Jeff and Marci Beagley were convicted of criminally negligent homicide on Tuesday after prosecutors argued they failed in their duty to get medical help for their son, Neil, in June 2008.
The teenager died of complications from a congenital urinary tract blockage that doctors testified could have been treated up until the day he died.
The Beagleys' 15-month-old granddaughter, Ava Worthington, died in March 2008 of pneumonia and a blood infection that also could have been treated.
Instead, Neil and Ava were anointed with oil while the family prayed and laid on hands.
The toddler's parents, Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington, were acquitted of manslaughter last year after a trial that tested a change in Oregon law in 1999 resulting from a public outcry over a series of child deaths among members of the Followers of Christ Church.
Brent Worthington, however, was convicted of criminal mistreatment and served two months in jail.
The Beagleys and their daughter, Raylene, and son-in-law, Brent, are all members of the small church with roots in Kansas but now is based in Oregon City. Followers of Christ avoid doctors in favor of faith healing.
Family and church members packed the small courtroom where Clackamas County Presiding Judge Steven Maurer read the guilty verdicts delivered after less than two full days of deliberations.
Some gasped and others held back tears while Marci Beagley cried quietly.
Now she and her husband face a possible 16 to 18 months in prison under state sentencing guidelines, although defense attorneys plan to ask for probation. The Beagleys remain free pending their sentencing on Feb. 18.
Brent Worthington said just after the verdicts that the family had no plans to comment on the trial.
But one of the defense attorneys, Wayne Mackeson, insisted the trial was about the care they provided as parents, not about their beliefs.
"It's never been a referendum on the church. This case involves parents who didn't understand how sick their child was," he said.
Mackeson and fellow defense attorney Steve Lindsey argued during the two-week trial that Neil Beagley had symptoms more like a cold or the flu, and his parents responded by making sure he rested, was fed and drank plenty of fluids.
But doctors testified the urinary tract blockage let those fluids and toxic waste build up inside the teenager's body, virtually destroying his kidneys and eventually causing his heart to stop.
Doctors, including a deputy state medical examiner, said it was the first such death in their experience because the problem is usually spotted before a child is born, or shortly afterward. But Neil Beagley had never been taken to a doctor, and his mother did not see any doctors before he was born.
Maurer ruled early in the Beagleys' trial that prosecutors could introduce some evidence from the previous trial of the Worthingtons, and prosecutors frequently referred to the death of Ava Worthington.
In closing arguments, Greg Horner, the chief deputy district attorney who also prosecuted the Worthingtons, said the Beagleys "ignored the lesson that cost their granddaughter her life."
District Attorney John Foote said his office would have no comment until after sentencing.
"The jury's verdicts of guilty are extremely important for this community," he said. "However, the cases are still not complete."
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