Women convinced cancer patients to stop their chemotherapy treatments
Two women have been arrested in the Algarve where they posed as doctors and promised to cure cancer patients, having even convinced some to stop their chemotherapy treatments.
They are also believed to have prescribed “potentially dangerous medications” to their patients, which included adults, children and even newborn babies from all over Portugal, says a statement released by PJ criminal police.
CMTV has shown footage of one of their clinics in Olhão, where the fake doctors, aged 66 and 39, promised to treat a wide range of conditions.
These spaces were also used to “produce, alter, divide and store supposed homeopathic and conventional medications, some of which were injectable,” the police statement says.
The two women are also believed to have convinced cancer patients, some of whom have already died, to stop their chemotherapy treatments, having provided them “alternative therapies and medications and supplements which are not registered or authorised in Portugal and were produced or changed by the two, some of them with labels detailing potentially dangerous mixtures, especially when administered to cancer patients,” the statement adds.
Several of these medications were seized during the police operation which led to the duo’s arrest and was aided by members of national medicines authority Infarmed, the Health Regulation Authority and the Psychologists’ Order.
The two women, described as Portuguese and Austrian, are due to appear before a judge. The investigation is being carried out by Olhão’s Public Prosecutor Office.
