The Judiciary Police in Faro have arrested two women, who claimed to have a medical degree, for deceiving patients by promising a cure for multiple pathologies, such as cancer, and administering treatments prepared by themselves.
The two women, aged 66 and 39, are suspected of crimes such as qualified fraud, usurpation of functions and offense to physical integrity aggravated by death. They were arrested under an investigation conducted by the Public Ministry of Olhão.
Both women live in the south of Portugal, one has Portuguese nationality, while the other is a foreigner, but both will be present in court to undergo the first judicial interrogation and learn about any coercive measures.
“The detainees, claiming to be doctors or health professionals holding the corresponding academic title, had been proposing and administering treatment to people from all over Portugal, including children, some newborns, with the women claimed to be qualified in specialised pediatric therapy), and even treated some animals," said the PJ statement.
The womens treatments promised “cures for a wide range of common and serious illnesses, including oncology”, and resorted to “alternative medicine practices” that were “administered in spaces that functioned as care clinics” and where “they produced, manipulated and stored supposed homeopathic preparations and conventional medicines, some of which were injectable”.
The police operation that led to the arrest of the women led to the seizure of “an important body of evidence and various substances, presumably dangerous to health”.
The researchers were also able to “identify several patient victims of these practices, in particular cancer patients, some already deceased, to whom, in exchange for payment of sums in cash, the detainees promised the cure of their disease”, said the PJ.
The PJ statement goes on to say that “the abandonment of conventional therapies, such as chemotherapy” was suggested by the fraudulent 'doctors', and instead they proposed “therapies and medicinal preparations or supplements not registered or authorised in Portugal, manufactured or manipulated by themselves”.
Some of these compounds had “labelling alluding to potentially dangerous compounds, especially if administered to cancer patients”, added the police.
Source https://postal.pt/
