I wrote about the aboriginal girls “JJ” and Makayla, who were striken with leukaemia here, here, here and here. The parents of both girls stopped their chemotherapy in favour of an exclusively alternative treatment at the Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI) in Florida. One of the girls, Makayla, has since died from her disease.
It is worth noting that both co-directors of HHI (Brian and Maria Clement) are facing allegations of misrepresenting themselves as doctors and Brian Clement has been fined upwards of $3000 for practising medicine without a license. This guy is a complete charlatan who would, according to Steven Pugh, former director of nursing at HHI, tell patients “not to take their medications.”
Clement targeted First Nations communities, often travelling to Six Nations and New Credit to give talks. Makayla’s mother stopped her daughter’s treatment after Clement told her that he could cure her and although I have absolutely no evidence of this, I wouldn’t be surprised if he persuaded her to turn her decision to seek treatment at HHI into an aboriginal rights issue; it would fit his sociopathic MO.
This is a horrible situation that has subjugated the health of these young girls to politics. It is important to remember that the girls, at least Makayla, was receiving “traditional” and main stream care at the same time until Clement stepped in; no one told the girls that they couldn’t receive traditional medicine.
Now, to add insult to injury, Karen Hill, the doctor who was instrumental in persuading the judge to rule in favour of “JJ” being taken off chemotherapy and given alternative and “traditional” treatments, has received an award from The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Hill’s award is “for her dedication to bridging the gap between indigenous health values and the practice of western medicine.” The only good thing is that it appears the College is embarrassed about their choice, for Dr. Andrew Padmos, CEO of the College, made certain to state that “the nomination process took place well before that case happened and certainly before it became public, as did the selection process…”
It seems more aboriginal children will die until the aboriginal community puts a stop to this! Under any other circumstance, the doctor would be held accountable for making lethal and frankly unhippocratic choices but here, the doctor is rewarded.
via Doctor in controversial aboriginal cancer case wins award.
It’s hard to understand why they couldn’t have cancelled the award, if it was only recently awarded, since the girls’ stories have been in the news for quite some time.
That’s a good question. I bet there is no process for withdrawing awards. This sounds like the sort of thing that would suit a medical organization. Yes, I’m bitter from my experiences. 🙂
You’ve every right to be.
Good article.
I still want the indigenous people to give up snowmobiles, rifles, boats with motors and eye glasses. All the nasty
non-indigenous stuff.
We largely took away their way of life, now you wish to have ours taken away too? What’s the matter with you?
The real pissoff is that neither of these girls received First Nations traditional healing, they traded white European science for white European bullshit,