https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Brych wrote:Brych arrived in New Zealand in November 1968 after being accepted as a refugee. He initially found work as a laboratory technician at Auckland Hospital. After about a year, he successfully applied for a provisional medical licence on the basis that he held the equivalent of a medical degree and doctorate, claims which were subsequently found to be false.[5] According to Myrek Cvigr, who acted as interpreter for Brych upon his arrival in New Zealand, Brych initially claimed to be a psychiatrist rather than an oncologist.[6]
After completing an internship, Brych was hired by the radiotherapy department at Auckland Hospital on the basis that he had worked in oncology in Czechoslovakia.[5] A later investigation found that his supervising consultants had found that he lacked knowledge in the fundamentals of medicine, but they had not raised concerns as they believed his qualifications had were not in doubt.[6] By 1971, Brych had begun to treat patients with a series of injections which he claimed could induce remission of cancer. His claims received substantial media coverage and by late 1972 he had established a separate private practice and begun to treat overseas cancer patients from Australia and North America.[7]
Medical authorities in New Zealand were immediately skeptical of Brych's claims, as he refused to provide details of his treatment methods on the basis they might be stolen by other doctors or by pharmaceutical companies. He also refused to provide patients' medical records to the Auckland Hospital Board and begun making claims that he was being prosecuted by the medical profession.[7]
Quote:Wright's report concluded that Brych had not developed any novel treatments for cancer.[8] It also cast doubt on Brych's qualifications and criticised his "virtually complete absence of proper medical records".[9]
Quote:He eventually withdrew his appeal shortly before a hearing date was scheduled in early 1977, claiming that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Communist authorities in Czechoslovakia which had destroyed evidence of his academic and professional record.[10]
Quote:At his eventual criminal trial in 1983, he admitted that he had charged as much as $9,600 for monthly injections of drugs that had cost him approximately $10 to obtain.[9]
One of Brych's methods of "treating" cancer was based around laetrile, an extract from apricot kernels which has no medical benefit and may in fact lead to cyanide poisoning.[12] On various occasions he falsely claimed to have isolated "specific antigens, and/or specific antibodies for individual patient's individual cancers", which no researchers had achieved.[13]
Quote: The symposium's organiser Hans Gerhard Schwick [de] later swore an affidavit that Brych had not presented any papers nor participated in any discussions at the symposium, and had stated that he was unable to disclose his research as he was concerned about listening devices being planted by "gangsters organised from America who wished to steal his secret".[6]
Quote:Despite the federal government's opposition to Brych, in March 1978 Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen publicly invited Brych to set up a practice in Queensland, which he suggested could become a "world centre" for cancer treatment. Bjelke-Petersen described Brych as a "man of great skill and knowledge" and said he should be allowed to establish a self-financed clinic, subject to being registered by the Medical Board of Queensland.
Quote:Brych claimed to have studied medicine at the Masaryk University in Brno. It was later revealed that at the time he claimed to have been studying, he was in fact in prison.[1]
Quote:I was criticised in the same way for my support of cancer therapist Milan Brych... I was the only politician in Australia who said he ought to be given a chance to show his therapy worked. Like Stephen Horvath's car, his methods may yet be vindicated.
Quote from Joh Bjelke-Petersen's autobiography, 1990
Sad that the lib establishment organized so successfully against someone thinking outside the Western capitalist box just because they couldn't understand his advanced methods.