It is not possible to imagine the distress that the Sitkowska family must find themselves in as their child, Cristiano, has an aggressive tumor and they have been told there is no more that can be done to save his life. I look at my own children and imagine how hard I would fight to do something to change the situation.
Cristiano has been through treatment ordeals and it has not worked. The family though is now raising funds to send “him for pioneering medical treatment in America.”
Except this is not ‘pioneering treatment’. It is decades old quackery that has scammed hundreds of people out of millions of pounds. The doctor promising to treat Cristiano has been the subject of investigations and disciplinary proceedings. He was the subject of a BBC Panorama investigation and, more recently, the Texas Medial Board have put him on probabtion and fined him for his activities.
The board said,
The violations as detailed in the order, and supported by the judges’ findings, show a pattern of misleading patients at the Burzynski Clinic. These misrepresentations can lead to direct harm to the public if left unchecked. In total there were over 130 violations cited.
The family are trying to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds through GoFundMe. Burzynski likes to take huge sum of money for his urine-based treatments. And no doubt, families are also supplied with services telling them how to raise this money. The local newspaper, the Huddersfield Daily Examiner have made a front-page splash and appeal for funds without the slightest examination of whether this might be in the best interest for the child.
Burzynski was the subject of this blog six years ago after similar appeals. His henchmen threatened me and other bloggers. Burzynski lives a life of luxury founded on a model of encouraging desperate families to raised hundreds of thousands of pounds through newspaper pills and then gives them worthless treatments that often extend suffering. There is no evidence that Burzynski is in possession of any novel and innovative form of treatment worth considering.
We need to repeat the same old arguments that this scam is only made possible by lazy journalism that prefers to print and broadcast ‘tragic appeals of hope’ rather than confront the brutal ugliness of an industry that preys on the most vulnerable, tragic and desperate in our society – a vicious industry of false hope. The tired old tropes of an NHS that will not fund such ‘pioneering’ treatments are trotted out. Only the ‘entrepreneurial’ United States can save the day. What has developed over the past five or six years is the sophistication and success of fund raising sites like GoFundMe who profit from such appeals – keeping their cut of the charlatan’s cash.
I hope the doctors involved with Cristiano’s care are fully aware of what is going on and the appropriate social services can become fully engaged to ensure the best interests of the child’s are met. False hope is the last robber. There may be little that can be done to change the course of this terrible situation. But there is much that can be done to ensure this family do not endure more pain and suffering inflicted by the hands of the soulless.
Not only is the Huddersfield Daily Examiner encouraging the family to have false hope, but are letting down their readership by not inquiring into just what treatment is proposed, who is proposing it, and what the published outcomes are.
Unethical journalism in my opinion.
At present in Holland a 16-year old girl, suffering from a brainstem tumour, is ‘treated’ by the same quack as mentioned in your post. She is now about 10 months since the diagnosis and remains hopefull, as encouraged by Burzynski. Through crowdfunding she has collected about € 330.000,-. Most of it entered the pocket of this awful man. It’s unbelievable that nobody can stop this quackery.
http://www.sabii.nu/mijn-blog.html
Until we can all learn to accept that death, even of children, is a natural event and not a failure of technology, scams of this kind will continue and scoundrels like Mr Burzynski will continue to prosper.
David Amies
This poor child attends the same school as my daughter. The school has started fundraising efforts to send him to Burzynski. I have written to the headteachers to explain the true nature of the clinic. The whole case is awful. I never thought quackery of this magnitude would land so close to my doorstep.
The medical establishment has been labeling natural and alternative therapies “quackery” for hundreds of years, not because they are harmful or ineffective, but because they threaten their bottom line. It is basically a monopoly started by Rockefeller. They are the sole authority who decides what is right and acceptable. The FDA simply will not tolerate any competition whatsoever. They will answer to God for persecuting Dr. Burzynski and his clinic. He has helped thousands of people heal from very difficult cancers. He is a genius.
Any evidence to back any of that up?
Nonsense, David.