Misdiagnosing a Quackery Cure

Doctors are frequently criticized for cronyism and their unwillingness to police their own ranks. The truth is that doctors as a group are their own harshest judges, but their ability to purge themselves of quacks and charlatans as well as the misguided and the stupid is often stymied by the courts.

This scenario has just once again played itself out in Orange County. While a Salvador Dali may gain fame and fortune by painting a bent watch or a pink, one-eyed elephant, a physician necessarily must have a very limited venue for unguided improvisation when he treats patients.

Thus when a local doctor decided pretty much on his own and without the benefit of scientific backing or peer review that intravenous injections of hydrogen peroxide were an appropriate cure for cancer and his patient died, the Medical Board of California barred him from further practice. The medical community was appalled when the courts overturned that ban.

According to the Los Angeles Times “Judge Bars El Toro Doctor From Solo Medical Practice,” July 12), the judge merely required that the offending doctor stop injecting that potentially lethal mixture into patients and that he practice under the supervision of another physician.

Realistically, a physician cannot practice under the constant scrutiny of another physician 24 hours a day, unless they are joined at the hip. Suppose the next misguided, but presumably well-intentioned, decision this doctor makes is to treat cancer with injections of spinach juice or rutabaga oil and someone else dies?

The place for scientific innovation is in a well-run university center and not in solo or even supervised practice.

However, the major injury done the public by this legal decision is once again to deprive physicians, who are certainly the most qualified to judge quality of care and the conduct of other physicians, of the right to discipline themselves.

DR. ARTHUR D. SILK

Garden Grove