This story is not about treatment failure, but more about failure to treat appropriately and honestly, as seen by the family of a patient at Klinik St. Georg: "Dear Ann, Thank you for responding to my e-mail, and for caring enough to want to hear negative feedback as well as positive. My sister-in-law Robyn had breast cancer with secondaries in her spine and lungs. Her cancer had responded only transiently to a number of different chemotherapy drugs and her oncologist here in Australia had advised against further chemotherapy because the chance of it helping was so low. Robyn was desperate for her children's sake to try anything that might extend her life and heard about the Klinik St Georg from another patient. She had 2 trips to Bad Aibling but never returned the second time. She spent 7 of the last 10 weeks of her life in a foreign country away from family and friends including her 8 year old son and 10 year daughter. Friedrich Douwes promised Robyn an 80% chance of cure with his treatments, which cost her an exorbitant amount of money, paid in advance. During the 3 weeks she spent at home after her first visit to his clinic, she became more unwell and it was fairly obvious to my wife and I that his therapy had not worked either. We were surprised that she decided to go back to Germany the second time but I suppose it is understandable knowing that she viewed Douwes and his clinic as her only hope. He explained away her deterioration as an infection and claimed that she had not received enough of his treatment to say whether it was going to work or not. Further treatment was put off by first one day, then two, then two more, until 3 weeks had elapsed with nothing happening, because of Robyn's worsening health. Douwes told her husband to "start praying for a miracle" but did not recommend they come home to spend time with their children before she became too unwell to travel. Having already said a miracle was needed, Douwes finally gave Robyn some chemotherapy. By his own implication, it seems to me that all he was doing was offering her toxicity with no realistic chance of benefit. One of the chemotherapy drugs had already proved completely ineffective in Australia, so why give it again? Robyn's condition deteriorated further, so her family flew to Germany in the hope of seeing her before she died. Despite their virtually constant availability the only time they spoke to Douwes was after making an appointment, during which he became aggressive when asked about her care. He refrained from making any eye contact with any family member and was aloof and distant. Robyn was frequently denied pain relief for the secondaries in her spine, which was understandably also a source of distress to her family. Finally Robyn's husband made the decision to try to repatriate her using a medical evacuation company. The doctors from this company felt that they could not rely on the information given to them about Robyn's condition by Douwes, and because they needed an assessment they could trust, they requested another opinion from a German doctor experienced in such evacuations. Despite the fact that this opinion was purely to allow Robyn a chance to die at home, Douwes refused to allow an outside doctor in his hospital, and she was by now too sick to move to another hospital. At this stage her father commented that he felt as though Douwes had "washed his hands of her". Douwes did not speak to the family (including Robyn's husband, who had always supported her going to Germany) in the hours before she died or at all after she died. Her father felt the most helpful person the family met at Klinik St Georg was the undertaker called after his daughter died. It is beyond me how L.M. can describe this arrogant, avaricious man as "intuitive" and "sensitive". He demonstrated a complete lack of empathy and compassion by not advising Robyn to come home when she could, even though he thought she needed "a miracle". In case you are wondering, Robyn and her husband would have been on the next flight home if he had been honest and suggested this, as she missed her children terribly. The fact that he did not suggests total indifference to her situation at the very least, and one does not have to think for long to find reasons for Douwes wanting Robyn to stay in his expensive clinic. So she died in a foreign country with a small number of relatives with her, and for that privilege her husband has paid Douwes tens of thousands of dollars that might have made the future of her children more secure. I hope you post this account on your website to give a balanced assessment of the Klinik St Georg. I also hope that no other patient or family goes through the nightmare that Robyn and her family did. Yours sincerely, Rob McIntosh May 2002 May, 2002 Letter from patient there in 2001 A nurse at Dr. Douwes' hospital responds Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.