Doctor who tried to cure cancer with psychology and chamomile sentenced
A Turin court convicts Dr. Germana Durando to a two years and six months prison term for manslaughter of a 53-year-old female patient. She claimed that cancer is cured "with herbs and words"
"No drugs to cure cancer. Psychology and homeopathy are sufficient". This was the motto of Dr. Germana Durando, who was a follower of "hamerian therapy" in her Turin medical practice, therapy created by German physician Rike Geerd Hamer, who is barred from medical practice. Now a Turin court has sentenced her to two years and six months for wrongful death or involuntary manslaughter by causing the death of a patient, Marina Lallo, who had a malignant melanoma on the left shoulder of 5 millimeters.
For nine years she was convinced by Dr. Durando that she could cure it with chamomile and "psychological" sessions. In her opinion, the melanoma had been caused by a psychological trauma, following the breakup of Marina with her boyfriend. "The fight against cancer must be a struggle against your psychological problems," Germana Durando keept telling Marina. She was so convincing to patients that they called her "Saint" Germana Durando. When Marina Lallo finally went to a hospital, she was operated on for melanoma - a 14-centimeter mass - but it was too late. Soon after, he died, at age 53.
Prosecutor Rossella Salvati had asked for a 4-year jail term for Dr. Germana Durando, who defended herself before the judge by saying that her patient "Marina had a phobia about conventional medicine, chemo and radiotherapy." His lawyer, Stefano Castrale, has defended "the freedom of cures available to a patient, of which the right not to be cured must also be recognized."
Charlatans
This is not an isolated case. The Hamer method has caused at least 140 deaths in Europe, several in Italy. Although Hamer, a former internist, is barred from medical practice, he has been convicted several times for abusive practice of the profession and fraud. Hamer developed his theory after the death of his son, because of a bullet shot from the carbine of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, who was the pretender to the throne of Italy, during a fight in the island of Cavallo in Corsica.
A year later, Hamer suffered testicular cancer which was cured thanks to a surgical intervention. According to him, the tumor was caused by the trauma of his son's death. Later, when his wife also became ill and died of cancer, following Hamerian therapy, he confessed: "It seems that my wife did not believe totally."
In Italy there are also many people who continue to put their trust in methods that have nothing to do with science, like the charlatan claiming to be an oncologist who stated that the tumors are a fungus curable with bicarbonate. The magistrate Raffaele Guarinello, who has had to open numerous cases against these charlatans, explains this way to the "Fatto" this phenomenon that abounds greatly in Italy: "The timings of justice don't match up with those of medicine. And, in the meantime, the elements of fascination with the "new" therapies become inscribed in a system of beliefs that feed on themselves and become resistant to reality.
