A year or so ago we did a post on a Chinese hospital that was offering stem cell “cures” for disease like Alzheimers and various paralytic diseases. Someone claiming to be from the Chinese hospital we referred to in that piece – Beijing TianTian Puhua Hospital, in Beijing (they have a great website explaining exactly how they plan to scam you) - sent us a “cease and desist” type email through our contact form. We don’t know if it really was Tian Tian Puhua. In fact, I’m hopeful for their patients sake that they can do better than an anonymous, badly misspelled email that’s only about a paragraph long. Whatever the origin of the email, our coverage of the fake stem cell practice touched a nerve with someone.
Well, all I can say is, boy it’s good to be in the US of A, where I can safely say, “Go F[ine and self regulate] yourself [better] TianTian Puhua Hospital in Beijing for taking suffering people’s money and feeding them false hope.” I really hate to get half-way to vulgar like I just did, but medical predators make me so angry.
Then, today, I picked up on , a Chinese investigative reporter who specializes in reporting on quack doctors and false hope operations. Mr. Fang got his head beaten in by lead piping by thugs as he was walking home one evening, all because he was uncovering doctors committing crimes against unwitting patients.
Could have been me, I guess.
The lessons for readers are 1) to always, always, always get more than one recommendation for a doctor when you’re in China, 2) if you’re going to have surgery in China, and you have the time to plan it out but don’t have time to hop on a plane and go back home, have a Western doctor at one of the International SOS clinics or a private, English-speaking staff hospital recommend a doctor for you to see, and 3) figure out what hospital you would want to be taken to in case of an emergency, and have it written down on something that will be on your person at all times.
As a matter of fact, follow the above advice (slightly modified for context) wherever you’re living. Bad doctors are everywhere.
And, of course, if you don’t have to, then don’t go around busting quack doctors in countries where that kind of work is quickly silenced.
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A friend of mine almost had his face permanently f#cked up by Chinese hospitals after insisting his broken jaw wasn’t broken, read the whole story , a good read, but only if you’re into reading about shocking incompetence and corruption.