Another sad story of alternative “medicine” causing harm.
This story was covered on Channel 7s Sunday Night programme, the same one that covered the death of Dana McCaffery and the anti-vaxers back in April. You can read my previous blogs about this here and here.
In this case, a 10 year old girl Tamar, was recently diagnosed with liver cancer which required immediate and aggressive chemotherapy. But her parents have shunned conventional treatment in favour of “mud” therapy. A team of oncologists at Princes Margaret Childrens’ Hospital advised that a seven week course of chemotherapy would give Tamar a 50-60% chance of survival. Despite the treating hospital pleading with the parents to consent to chemotherapy, eventually seeking the involvement of the WA legal system, the parents fled Australia to El Salvador.
Their preferred treatment is tea made from herbs, and red clay gathered from around the hills near their house in El Salvador. Tamar’s mother says that “Clay is basically the right medicine for any kind of illness, (it can cure) anything“. She went on to say, “..it dries up anything that is causing the illness in your system“. Twice a day, every day for a minimum of three hours, the clay is wrapped around the girl’s torso.
Her father says, “I don’t want to do this to my daughter but if it’s God decision then so be it.” He claims his daughter doesn’t want to lose her hair or get sick from the chemotherapy and has seen the research for herself, so she is therefore capable of making a decision to use natural therapies. He also claims she is eating normally and has gained weight. The parents claim the proof for the efficacy of mud therapy therapy is a book “written by a doctor” about the curative effects of herbs.
You can watch the full video here.
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