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This man saves lives!

Daughter

New Blood
Joined
Mar 28, 2012
Messages
19
Lordy, where do I begin?

I am literally in a fight for my mother's life. She has dementia (and mobility problems, lots of falls), and I finally had to throw in the towel and put her in a care center. It's been rough. I'm an only child, and it's always been Mom and me.

She has siblings, and most of them are morons. One in particular has been hooked up with a quack chiropractor who does very little chiropractic. He does all kinds of other things, most of it involving what I call the laying of hands.

This sister is fighting me (I have medical POA) to get mom out of the nursing home, back home, and to this doctor. She has literally asked me if I was trying to kill my mother. (By not taking her to Dr. X anymore)

It's a nightmare and a soap opera and the worst mess I've ever known of.

But let's talk about Dr. X.

This sister is into things like anti vaccine, mercury fillings, etc. I'm sure she's a birther, too. (You know, Obama's fake birth certificate?) And she found Dr. X, got her husband (an optometrist) and daughter into it. Then my mom, who is 80 now. Mom insisted I go as well, and I tried to be open minded.

My open mindedness lasted about ten minutes.

But I kept going, because my Mom was so sure he'd cure me of anything. I wanted to learn more about what he does. hahaha.

I also sat in on some of Mom's "sessions."

At one point, I asked what all this was, and Dr. X's wife, who runs the clinic, gave me a brochure on NeuroEmotive Technique. Except what he does is nothing like any YouTube videos (which are weird enough).

Sometimes he has you march and count backwards, 99, 97, 95, etc. Then he taps you on the head, says he's resetting your brain, or causing chaos. (I don't know, I regret not recording every session...I recorded one, where he removed Djinn, a genie in a bottle, from my body)

He presses on various places on your body and says things you can't understand. When you ask him what the heck, he talks very quickly and softly and you have no idea what he just said. He has said he's telling your body to heal itself. (I'm HEALED!)

He had a box of tiny bottles, and would hold them next to your chest, then say things. He would always tell you some body part was only functioning at two percent, then he'd lay hands and it was up to 80 percent, and next time he planned to get it to 100. Liver, pancreas, kidneys, heart, etc.

Once he diagnosed me with meningitis (who knew? I didn't feel sick) by pricking my neck with a tiny thing, putting a piece of gauze on it, and then said it was meningitis, but he removed the virus.

I'm going to start a part two, because this is a mile long already...the best stuff is yet to come.
 
Part 2

He also of course sold overpriced supplements, and when I told Mom's sister I could order direct from the company or via Amazon and save money, she blew a gasket and said not true. Uh, okay. Maybe she gets a cut. I don't know.

And there were the "drops." Magic drops. Drops to cure liver flukes. Drops to cure my fuzzy brain. Drops to "reset" Mom's troubled bladder (incontinence, bless her heart).

And there were "stroke drops." After mom had some TIAs, first off her sister said no she didn't, all a big scam from the hospital to get more CT scans, because they love to do CT scans. But Dr. X said these stroke drops would protect her from more strokes. And he said he had many patients who had full strokes, took the drops, then NEVER had another stroke.

It's all magic!

This nonsense just goes on and on. He told Mom to stop her blood pressure medication, which she did. In fact in the nursing home, she spits out her meds and hides them under the mattress. (They're aware and it's all very sad)

He told ME to stop all my medications, including my thyroid med. I also had some surgeries he told me to cancel: one for a shattered toe that was so damaged, all they could do was remove a crushed joint and wire the pieces together. The other was to cut out a seven-year MRSA infection. Both surgeries were a success, but he said he could cure me.

My final two sessions were my favorite, and then I said no more, this is all too much of a scam for me. My mom cried, because she was sure I would die.

In the next to last session, he waved his hands around, then said "Whoosh," and told me he just removed 972 entities. I asked what those were, and he said a combo platter of ghosts, demons, angels, energy bits and....space aliens. I was full of Martians! OMG.

I thought it was just gas.

He also said I was an empath, but didn't know how to use that gift, so he turned my empath off until I could listen to a series of CDs he wanted to sell me and learn more about it.

When I told my mom and her sister outside what Dr. X had done, her sister said these exact words: I don't understand how it works, but it works. This man cures cancer. This man....saves lives.

Uh huh.

She didn't realize I was mocking him.

And the last session he told me he was surprised I was even alive. I had seven broken hearts in me, carried in from past lives, and most people commit suicide when they have three. He removed those, and then removed a Djinn. I had him spell that, and he said it was in the Torah.

You can google Djinn, and depending on the site you read, it's a devil dog, a genie, or some kind of little demon.

You think this guy is a quack?
 
This nonsense just goes on and on. He told Mom to stop her blood pressure medication, which she did. In fact in the nursing home, she spits out her meds and hides them under the mattress. (They're aware and it's all very sad)

He told ME to stop all my medications, including my thyroid med. I also had some surgeries he told me to cancel: one for a shattered toe that was so damaged, all they could do was remove a crushed joint and wire the pieces together. The other was to cut out a seven-year MRSA infection. Both surgeries were a success, but he said he could cure me.



This bit right here?
This should be illegal. It will cause physical harm to the people who place their trust in him.
 
I hate to ask, but this seems so insane that I have to, but is this for real, or is this a sock puppet account/prank post? Are you a Poe?

Assuming the answer to be no (not that it would be anything but no anyway :) )...
Does this guy have any qualifications whatsoever? If he is any sort of accredited doctor, contact the appropriate licensing board (even chiropractors have licenses in many states) and tell them what he is up to. If he's not accredited and playing doctor, he may be breaking the law as well. Do whatever you're able to do to get this clearly dangerous person out of the medical business. We don't know where you are at all, so there's not real way to even suggest what the best approach might be (or if there is any sort of legal approach) but someone offering dangerous medical advice while posing as a doctor is likely to be doing something fishy. I don't know if it would do you any good, but you could try contacting your state Attorney General Office if you are in the US to file a complaint or see whether you have any other sort of recourse. Is he also charging your/your mother's insurance? With what he's doing, depending on what he is telling the insurance company it might constitute insurance fraud. I'm willing to bet that your insurance doesn't cover djinn removal.

A second, immediate suggestion is exercising your medical POA. Depending on where you live and the type of POA you've got, you may have the authority to withdraw consent for your mother to visit this guy entirely. If that is the case, use it. You have it for a reason, as your mother is apparently no longer able to care for herself. She's made a destructive choice here and you need to intervene. You're going to make your aunt mad, and you're going to make your mother mad, but you'll stop her from being hurt further physically and financially by this idiot. I'd explain to them clearly your position and perhaps try to get a legitimate doctor who your mother trusts to talk with your mother about this stuff. If Aunt Mabel doesn't want to talk to you ever again, that's her problem, not yours. Assuming a lawyer was involved in the POA process, you might try contacting them and finding out how far your authority goes and how/if it can be taken away before laying down the law.
 
I'd agree with the suggestion that you contact the relevant chiropractic licensing body in your state. We may or may not generally approve of chiropractors, but I have yet to hear of one who goes as far as this guy you're describing.

...then removed a Djinn. I had him spell that, and he said it was in the Torah.

This is true. They're usually referred to as "imps" or "mazzikim."

Did he by any chance have a shofar in his office, which is said to ward them off?
 
Any alternative medicine practitioner who tells you to end all contact with traditional science based medicine is dangerous and does not have his patients' well-being at heart. Have you ever heard a traditional science based doctor tell you to not seek out additional opinions? No, they actually recommend seeing multiple doctors to the degree that "getting a second opinion" has become a common phrase in English.

Trying to cut you off from outside help is one of the first signs of a cult or cult like behavior. Get your family out of there before it is too late! The next step is often to foster distrust of friends and family, isolating the victim from anyone who might pull them out of this dangerous situation. Don't let that happen to your loved ones!
 
I'm sorry your mother has dementia. This is an irreversible process within the brain that, unless there is an immediately identifiable and reversible cause (such as B12 deficiency), is progressive and unlikely to improve no matter what you do.

Some practitioners operate on a belief system that, much like religion, is hard to reason with using provable and readily apparent factual information. I would suggest taking your mother to a qualified and board-certified neurologist, for example, for objective testing of her dementia.

If she insists on continuing to see this quack as part of her "therapy", objective proof from a separate, qualified practitioner should quell any doubts about her (lack of) improvement and help to prove that this other quack is doing nothing more than draining your wallet.

Best of luck,

~Dr. Imago
 
Daughter, I feel your pain. Unfortunately, there will be no way to change your aunt's mind on this stuff. I wish you the best of luck. And: there's been some good advice given here, please take it...
 
Hi everyone, and thank you for the great advice and compassion. I'll try to answer questions as best as I can.

I *will* report him to Quack Watch. I didn't realize they take reports. I've also been trying to figure out how to write complaint letters to the chiropractic licensing board and the state AG. (This is Missouri, btw)

He does NOT take insurance to my knowledge. It's self pay only as far as I know. I do have access to Mom's bank account and have gathered all the checks she has written to him. At least she didn't pay in cash.

I'm just trying to figure out the best way to proceed with the AG, to try and be successful. Missouri is a state with massive budget cuts, and I don't want this to slip through the cracks.

As for Mom, she does have a neurologist, and I have medical doctors on my side. I also have it in her file that NOBODY may remove her from the residence without my permission, so this keeps the aunt from taking her. (Which is why she is so furious) I don't care that she's mad, but she's doing everything she can to discredit me (telling other family members, and my mother's and my lawyer that I financially abused Mom and that I'm trying to kill her by dumping her in a nursing home, etc etc. None of it true, but she's good at convincing people of things)

The bank statements are on my side, but I can't get anyone to look at them. (Sadly, this aunt now has financial POA...Mom thought she was doing the right thing, but it appears to have been a bad mistake)

It's a huge mess, but at least while I wait for it to be sorted out legally, I can work on getting this "doctor" under investigation. I'm also considering taking it to the local news station...they would LOVE this kind of story. It's right up their alley. Frankly, many of their investigations (rip off contractors, etc.) have led to the Missouri AG getting involved. So I'm still pondering which way to go.

And wondering if I should hold off until the legal mess is more settled, or go full throttle now.

I agree that his telling people to stop medications and surgery should be illegal, practicing medicine without a license.

For the person who thought I was a Poe, lol, don't know what a Poe is (though I knew some people with the last name Poe). If I hadn't visited this guy myself, I'd have a hard time believing it myself. That's why I finally got one session on tape. Bad quality, but I'm working on transcribing it. This is legit in the sense that he does this nonsense and claims to cure cancer. He claimed to have "cured" diabetes in my mother. She didn't have diabetes. (Though he said she did, and he fixed it...bwa ha ha)

It's just kind of nice to have some people who can also see through all of this charlatanism. I'm starting to read James Randi's book on faith healers now.
 
Then he taps you on the head, says he's resetting your brain, or causing chaos. (I don't know, I regret not recording every session...I recorded one, where he removed Djinn, a genie in a bottle, from my body)

He presses on various places on your body and says things you can't understand. When you ask him what the heck, he talks very quickly and softly and you have no idea what he just said. He has said he's telling your body to heal itself. (I'm HEALED!)
I've encountered this sort of quackery before as well. The head-tapping and healing instruction thing. My wife has a son who has Asperger's, and is on disability for it. When he was in grade school, he was required to attend therapy as part of his disability program. The therapist he was sent to was a total quack, and believed in all this nonsense. She tried to convince my wife to send him to her favorite one, and got really upset when my wife refused. She then got a friend in the CPS, who is also a believer in this woo, to railroad through an authorization to remove him and put him in a treatment home where he could be subjected to this nonsense. Fortunately, my wife was able to convince the CPS board that their reasoning for the removal was specious, and got her son back home after a few weeks. His former therapist lost her license about a year or two later.

Hopefully this quack will be brought up on charges of practicing without a license at the very least; and preferably outright fraud. Not sure if there's anything you can do to recover your mother's payments to him, since your aunt has the financial POA.

I don't know about the laws in your state; but you may be able to challenge your aunt's financial POA, if you can demonstrate she's not acting in your mother's best interests. Keep a very close eye on the finances for any irregularity. Chances are you'll have to endure a court hearing to do so; one that is likely to get really ugly, really fast.

And wondering if I should hold off until the legal mess is more settled, or go full throttle now.
Absolutely put as much pressure on this guy as possible, as quickly as possible. Having him at least under investigation for illegally practicing medicine, if not outright fraud, will help with the legal proceedings. Having him legally declared to be in violation of the law can only work in your favour.
 
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No, he's not a physician. He's a chiropractor.

Luchog, thanks for the advice. I'm thinking the same thing...the sooner I can get the ball rolling the better, and it would definitely help me in court to have him at least under investigation.

Outrageous what your wife and her son had to go through.

I'm not worried about getting Mom's money back. But I am worried that this could end up in a serious court battle between my aunt and myself. I asked her one time what she would do if her husband clutched his chest, said "My heart, my heart." Would she dial 911 or call Dr. X?

She said "Why Dr. X, of course! He saves lives."

Another "funny" story: their daughter was in college (now in chiropractic school...omg) and had test anxiety. Dr. X would do phone sessions and have her sit down in the middle of campus, then tap on her own foot.

IT WORKED! It's a miracle. lol.
 
For the person who thought I was a Poe, lol, don't know what a Poe is (though I knew some people with the last name Poe). If I hadn't visited this guy myself, I'd have a hard time believing it myself.

That was me. The person your mother is being swindled by is so amazingly unbelievable that I was asking whether your original post was real or a prank. If you're interested in finding out what a Poe is, it's a term used to describe a skeptical person who is pretending to be irrational (typically something like a young earth creationist). The name comes from Poe's law, which says that "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."

I hope you don't take offense to the question. Unfortunately, your story is pretty amazing if not unique. I did try to give some helpful suggestions as well. :o
 
"Why Dr. X, of course! He saves lives."

Sure. He imagines he cures people of imaginary ailments.

I'm so sorry about your situation, Daughter. You are doing all the right things.

You've received some good advice, and are on the right track with reporting him to the chiropractic board.

I'd also take luchog's advice about the POA on board. Check if your aunt is paying the nursing home fees (if there are any). If not, that's good reason to quickly challenge her financial POA.

You might find this site useful in lodging complaints about alternative medicine practitioners:
http://www.nightingale-collaboration.org/
They do good work.

I found the link to the Missouri Board of Chiropractors at the Federal Board of Chiropractors website (linked to from Quackwatch).

Quackwatch gives this advice about lodging complaints:

* To complain to the licensing board, prepare three copies. Send one to the agency that licenses chiropractors in your state. Indicate that a copy has been sent to the state attorney general so that the board knows that an outside agency is aware of the complaint. Send the second copy to the state attorney general, but don't indicate that a copy has been sent to the licensing board. (If you do, the attorney general's office might ignore it.) Send the third copy to Quackwatch, P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105 and be sure to include your e-mail address.
* Feel free to contact me by email if you need further help. sbinfo@quackwatch.com

Hope this helps you.
 
I hope you don't take offense to the question. Unfortunately, your story is pretty amazing if not unique. I did try to give some helpful suggestions as well. :o
Amazing and unique? If you think her story was at all unusual, then I envy your limited exposure to the world of sCAM and it's fanatical supporters. Woo begets woo, and many practitioners of various sCAM treatments involve themselves in more than one particular flavour, often several. Right here where I live is one of the most prominent schools of medical quackery in the nation, Bastyr University, teaching many different types of sCAM.

And I've not only encountered relatives as nasty and obssessive about their woo; I'm related to a few. There weren't many types of sCAM that I wasn't subjected to by my parents when I was growing up; and my health has suffered accordingly.
 
^^^
My reaction as well.
Yes. Report to the Chiropracters Association.
Find out all the legal options you have for putting this obviously dangerous quack out of business.

Go full out, you have nothing to lose.
 
Frankly I'd forward on this "doctor's" name to QuackWatch and or report him to the AMA for investigation as well.

While well intentioned, I don't think the AMA has any authority over any Chiropractors. But the State Board of Medicine where Daughter lives (or is dealing with the situation) would be a different matter. I'd see if there's any recourse through them.

Also, I wanted to highlight QuackWatch, especially this page:
http://www.quackwatch.com/02ConsumerProtection/victims.html
Victims of quackery often have difficulty obtaining redress through the courts. Many are afraid of lawyers. Some are embarrassed at having been fooled. Too often the victim does nothing, simply dismissing the fraud as one of life's lessons. Health and nutrition frauds are new subjects for most attorneys. Although the same general law applies, most lawyers have had no experience in dealing with such cases. Because this practice is a specialty, dedicated, knowledgeable attorneys can be difficult to find.

The Quackwatch nework helps many victims of quackery obtain the competent legal assistance they need. It also serves attorneys as a clearinghouse for information on the latest frauds and the experts who can help them prove their cases. Help is also be available to insurance companies and law enforcement agencies. The services offered include:
  • Help in deciding what to do.
  • Referral to suitable attorneys.
  • Information unproven, fraudulent, and potentially dangerous treatments.
  • Help in locating expert witnesses.
  • Information on defense witnesses.
  • Reports on cases adjudicated, settled, and in progress.
If you have been seriously harmed by quackery, a free consultation can be obtained by contacting me:
Attorneys interested in receiving referrals or advice are also welcome to contact me.
Now, I don't know how much help they can be since Daughter here is being proactive to a threat of medical quackery, rather than already being a victim of such, but what's there to lose by contacting them? It's at most an email, or a few minutes of long distance time. Daughter, you may want to give this avenue of assistance some thought.
 
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