Canadian “Naturopath” Faces Manslaughter Charges
October 18th, 2008
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I really hope she gets the book thrown at her. (Although I don’t think she will.)
A Westmount practitioner of homeopathy and naturopathy has been released on bail under a host of conditions after pleading not guilty to charges in connection with the death of one of her patients.
50-year-old Mitra Javanmardi smiled brightly at her lawyers and her family members in the courtroom, the petite woman with frizzy black hair wearing a brown jacket and ruffled white blouse, her hands cuffed.
The naturopath is accused of criminal negligence causing death and manslaughter. An 84-year-old patient of hers died of a heart attack last June the day after getting a mineral treatment through an intravenous injection at her office in Westmount.
“This case will be very, very vigourously contested,” says her lawyer Julius Grey.
Crown prosecutor Hélène di Salvo agreed to her release, outlining a dozen conditions forbidding the accused from administering injections, prescribing medications or any other practices reserved for doctors.
“The fact that she’s not allowed to do what she used to do is for the protection of the public. And I hope the public will know what they cannot do, the naturopath, because they are not doctors and that’s important.”
he case returns to court next month.
The first thing that stands out here to me is the fact that she “smiled brightly” in the court session. While I don’t know all the details of this case, the gal of this woman is astounding. Perhaps she considers herself innocent, but a person is dead and that should be at make the occasion somber. Yes, the person was elderly, but someone has lost their father, grandfather, great uncle, friend or otherwise. It is the height of self-centered unprofessional and disrespectful conduct to see this as an event to be beaming about.
(The image to the right is not from the court session, however. It is a cached image from her facebook profile which was recently taken down.)
If a patient dies because a doctor makes a mistake, then that is malpractice and can result in dicplinary actions and lawsuits. If the doctor knew that the treatment given was not safe or was not properly prepared to give the treatment, then that can rise to the level of criminal manslaughter. For example, if a doctor offers to perform surgury on a patient, but has never preformed the kind of surgury in question and does not have the proper facilities to do so and the patient dies as a result of this, then the doctor can be prosecuted. Also, if the doctor were to use equipment that was known to be defecient or was not certified for such use, prosecution for manslaughter would also be a possibility.
This is not just limited to doctors, however. If, for example, a person offers their services repairing elevators heating systems, but neglects to mention they are not certified to do so and have no clue what they are doing, and this results in a family dying of carbon monoxide poisoning becasue the person ventilated the furnace wrong, they too can be charged in manslaughter. So too could a certified heating contractor who knew how to do the job properly but cut corners. In both cases, criminal negligence exists. In one case because the individual knew they were not capable of safely doing the job and in the other because they knew the way the job was done was not safe and proper.
Makes sense, right? When the life of someone is in the hands of a health care professional, or for that matter anyone, they should be expected NOT to do anything that they know could kill that person. It’s expected that people should be held accountable for their wrongful actions and recklessness that causes death.
Yet here we have a “naturopath” who was doing something as serious as giving Intravenous medication, something which should NEVER be done by a person who does not have the proper medical background and she is all smiles and expects to get off. In this case, the treatment, which was only reported to be “minerals” apparently overwhelmed the man’s heart and lead directly to his death, at least according to autopsy reports.
Personally, I find this just sickening. While there are sites out there trying to convince people not to vaccinate their kids because of one isolated instance of a bad reaction, the same camp will be the first to scream that this woman is being persecuted for giving someone an unnecessary and useless treatment that lead to his death. These “alternative” practicioners, however, have gotten the role of playing the victim down to an art.
Had a doctor been treating this person they would have known better than to juice him up with “minerals” and would have taken the responsibility to monitor his cardiac state during ANY treatment.
This is the definition of wrecklessness. To invite people into a buisiness, assuring them that you know what you’re doing and will care for their health safely and then giving them something that leads to their death. She belongs behind bars.
Note: I’m not singling out Canada in any way over this incident. The unfortunate situation is that this kind of crap happens in Canada, the United States, the UK, India, Australia and numerous other places. Quacks dispensing snakeoil and then all too often weaseling out of charges when it all hits the fan is all too common and is an international problem.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Quackery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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September 1st, 2009 at 12:23 am
mastafella said:
Frankly what you would or would not rather in the way of a reply is immaterial.
Your story is nothing but an anecdote, but nevertheless describes a woman devastated by the death of her husband and and having suffered from extreme stress from his frequent illnesses. She was clearly suffering from a psychosomatic condition brought about by stress that was helped by a psychosomatic cure. You haven’t told us anything new, or offered any proof that this treatment was anything more than what a good psychologist (or parish priest) could have done.
Oh and by the way I live in Montreal and if you care to discuss this with me in person, in public it can be arranged.
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September 1st, 2009 at 1:18 am
mastafella said:
Let me give you an opposing anecdote to show you why anecdotal “evidence” is not evidence at all. when I did my military service, one guy refused to wear the seatbelt in cars. Why? Becuase he ahd a relative, who had been in an accident, and someone told this relative that if he had had the setbelt on he would have died in that particular accident.
What does this anecdot tell us?
Nothing… except that this guy I did the service with was an idiot because the overwhelming statistics aboutseatbelt use means millions of lives are saved have been saved from death, or from serious injury.
Same thing here. We’re not going with vage “maybes”. That’s not how medicinal review and approval work you don’t use somthing that might help. If you are going to treat people with something, there are two conditions that must me met:
1) It must not hurt the patient.
2) It must have proved that is can help a patient.
We’re not dealing with “maybe” when it comes to people’s lives.
And even if that was the case… “maybe” does not apply to this branch of quackery. There are no mechanisms that can have any kind of effect by getting minerals shot into your body. It’s plain wrong. Whatever made him better I can bet you a hefty sum of money is wasn’t the naturopaths doings.
/Michael
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September 1st, 2009 at 1:42 am
mastafella said:
Sorry for your loss. It’s never easy losing someone close to us no matter how old they may be or what the circumstances.
mastafella said:
If her doctors did not advise her that changing her diet would be a major factor in helping her with her general health and her cardiac condition then those doctors were not competent. Diet and lifestyle is usually the first thing they tell you has to change.
In most cases, it’s not rocket science: most of us in the industrial world have a diet which is higher in daily caloric intake than optimal and is higher in fat, simple carbohydrates and cholesterol than we need.
My grandfather had a mild heart attack circa 1998. Before the heart attack he did not eat a very good diet. He loved his donuts. It took the heart attack to get him to listen to the doctors. They put him on meds but also told him he really had to cut back and eat healthier. He did and his condition improved dramatically. He lived a few more years after that. I really doubt he would have been able to last as long as he did if he had not changed his diet. (Whether he changed it enough is another thing, but at least he did some).
I’d be shocked if there were any cardiologist who did not consider diet one of the most important factors in maintaining good health.
mastafella said:
That’s not how it generally works. We don’t give a therapy on the basis that it might help and then continue giving it until we have proof that it doesn’t. First you prove that it does help and then provide it. “We can’t rule out that it is helpful” isn’t good enough.
One thing we do know is that it can be harmful. Something that we know is harmful in at least some cases must have proven benefits or it is worse than worthless.
mastafella said:
Sorry. If you don’t like your message replied to, you shouldn’t comment on an open blog. The whole point of this page is to encourage open discussion.
Sorry, but meeting is a little bit out of my way.
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September 1st, 2009 at 2:15 am
My comment was only to be heard not discussed, its a simple fact that my mother had diabetes and was taking so much medicine for high blood pressure that after the recommendation from this Doctor she was able to continue her life without visiting the pharmacy twice a week, Thanks to a Naturopath Doctor. While the other 5 experienced doctors were twiddling their thumbs and giving out false time lines my mother enjoys her life everyday.
Yes doctors gave her advise on how to improve her diet but they never expected that by following the Naturopath diet and treatments she could stop taking meds after a few months. When a doctor is surprised you start to question them
I regret posting because I know most people who reply to something that they were asked not to usually just like arguing for the sake of arguing.
I wish you all the best in your future quarrels and hope you get your title in most closed minded person in Montreal, you can find me almost every lunch at Ferriera
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September 1st, 2009 at 2:24 am
Feel free to get your own website without a commenting feature. Then you can put out information and nobody will respond to it on the site.
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September 1st, 2009 at 2:38 am
I take it you are referring to the café Ferreira on Peel? Are you sure your boss won’t mind you fighting with his customers while you wait on them?
If you want a discussion let’s make it public, say at one of the CEGEP debating clubs, I you are game mail me at dv82xl@gmail.com and we’ll set something up. College students make an ideal audience for this sort of thing. I can hardly wait to hear you tell them that you will expect them not to react to your remarks.
Who do think you are, even asking us not to respond?
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September 1st, 2009 at 2:51 am
What are we going to debate, “did her services help my mother live” If you want to talk you are more then welcome but I don’t have time to plan events for you to get your jollies off in a debate, most people are busy taking care of their families and trying to be helpful to the people around them. If you have problems with getting along with people maybe you should visit one of your recommend all in one solutions like a good psychologist (or parish priest).
By the way I am the guy your parents warned you about, the coolest guy ever
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September 1st, 2009 at 3:39 am
Michael Karnefors, did you use the word “naturist” when you meant “naturopath” or “naturopathic”?
I thought that “naturist” was synonymous with “nudist”…
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September 1st, 2009 at 4:19 am
As I though Mastafella you are all hot air. You are not fooling anyone reading this thread with your pathetic little attacks on me. Oh, and ‘the coolest guy ever’ would not be hanging out at a passé seafood place on Peel at lunch.
Peel – man you are almost a dozen blocks west from cool in Montreal.
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September 1st, 2009 at 4:52 am
George Carty said:
Hahaha!! Typo… I also accidentally wrote “his” instead of “her” above. Oh well, you know what I meant.
/Micke
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September 27th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
What can I say about all this. I’m a naturopathic doctor. You can say that I’m not but the state of Claifornia recognizes me as such. USA yes…canada I don’t know your laws and our states all very…not all states even have laws. Would love your big attitudes to sit threw my schooling.
I work as a volunteer doctor practicing conventional medicine at a local clinic as well. This is good for many reasons. But none of the MDs are worried about it as they have looked into my law and studies.
I’m not a conventional physician. I do practice and learn this type of medicine, offer such care to the underserved but I don’t consider myself a conventionial doctor…btubelieve me I’m a doctor.
NDs are not MDs, DOs or anything other then what they are. THat is enough to make al the typical conservative crowds get their underwear ina bunch. We offer a different look and different medicines…yes, I practice homeopathy….yes I claim to have seen some results (you are welcome to view my video testimonials and look at metanalysis I quickly reflect on on the relevant page at my site-holistricsolutionsdoc.com.
I don’t know what happened with this Canadian ND. But if you are not aware that “all doctors” have bad outcomes you have your head under a lot of rocks. Death happens in medicine. We as a profession have very little injury outcomes. Google death/injury statistrics for drugs herbs and so on. IV has more potential as it is more invasive. But take a look at injury rates for orthopedic surgery and consider there is, by many docs, little attention to alternatives even though there is soi much research that they should just stay with conventional practices-say physical therapy.
Have a great day…try and educate yourselvers a little.
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September 27th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
“Doctor” Joseph Dubroff said:
Well then, that’s a very bad state policy that needs to be changed. It’s not the only example of an illogical, harmful or downright stupid law. There are many. In fact, I’d bet that there isn’t a country in the world that does not have some boneheaded legislation.
“Doctor” Joseph Dubroff said:
No, I’m not swayed by testimonials. That’s called “Anecdotal evidence” which really is not evidence at all. Modern medicine is based on well documented, tightly monitored, placebo-controlled clinical studies. It does for good reason.
“Doctor” Joseph Dubroff said:
all drugs and medical procedures have risks and potential side effects. This is well known. Therefore it is up to doctors and patients to decide when the risks outweigh the benefits. There are many cases where a procedure, though risky, is far less risky than not doing anything.
The risk/benefit or cost/benefit ratio should never result in division by zero. In other words, there must always be some justifiable benefit. If there is none than any risk, even if small, is unnecessary and therefore frivolous.
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July 2nd, 2011 at 6:51 am
You obviously haven’t actually read this blog (nor can you spell favour).
Oh well, rel=nofollow has its uses (namely preventing the spammer from actually getting a better google ranking, I loaded the site just to use up a little of the spammer’s bandwidth).
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July 2nd, 2011 at 10:04 am
That was almost certainly just a bot. They get in every once in a while. Anyway, it’s deleted now
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