My "WTF?" of the day, woo division...

[Archae]

Diabetic Child Dies After Parents Take Him to Alt-Med Practitioner Who Advocated “Slapping Therapy”

May 1, 2015 by Hemant Mehta 89 Comments

Aidan Fenton, a seven-year-old diabetic boy from Australia, is dead because his parents took him to an alternative medicine practitioner instead of a qualified doctor.

When you hear the specifics of what that alternative doctor (below) did to him, you’re going to be horrified:

[Hongchi] Xiao had been in Sydney following a tour of New Zealand to promote his “Paida-Lajin” therapy, which involves slapping the body until it bruises to “unblock meridians and drive out poisons”.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/05/01/diabetic-child-dies-after-parents-take-him-to-alt-med-practitioner-who-advocated-slapping-therapy/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=friendlyatheist_050115UTC050520_daily&utm_content=&spMailingID=48568123&spUserID=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&spJobID=680129889&spReportId=NjgwMTI5ODg5S0

[malthaussen]

1. Wait a minute... I remember something like that from mediaeval studies...

... something about beating someone to drive out the demons...

-- Mal

[pinboy3niner]

2. They had Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber

[malthaussen]

3. Not much different from chemo therapy, when you think about it.

Fun for the whole family (I speak as one who knows).

-- Mal

[longship]

5. There is a difference.

Chemo therapy targets cancer, slapping just bruises a person, and does not cure diabetes either.

Chemotherapy is why many cancers are now survivable.

Yes, it can be tough. But when the alternative is death... Well, that choice would be easy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I think this deserves a thread title saying the 'slapping therapy' killed him

This isn't just the woo of the day, it's homicide.

From the Australian article:

Detectives questioned Mr Xiao before he left the country and spent yesterday taking statements from witnesses.

Homicide Squad police were notified of Aidan’s death but the investigation has been left to local police from St ­George local area command.
...
In the same year relatives of a liver cancer patient complained to police after they paid $A4000 to attend Xiao’s therapy sessions only for him to die three months later, ­according to reports in the Chinese media.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/aidan-fenton-7-was-made-to-fast-before-slapping-therapy-then-he-vomited-and-died/story-fnpn118l-1227329281935?nk=eb8d7aa6be3b3fe1e7e55911bfdfce69

That was a big fuck-up - he's a homicide suspect, and they let him leave the country? Shameful. He, of course, is an evil charlatan, who cons money out of gullible people to kill them or their children.

[fadedrose]

6. What a beautiful child Aidan was..

His father was so nutty about him, and I am sure his mother was too. Since she was an oriental, maybe Chinese, married to a non-Chinese, it happened that she felt more comfortable and had faith in a Chinese healer.

I see an end to this marriage. Sad, but it'll happen that they cannot console each other without blame on one or the other for the treatment and the death.

Sad, because the boy may have died anyway, but his death could have been easier on him. He suffered too much for kid.