ENDING 17. Hope Clinic 2

17. HOPE CLINIC 2

Banks of light bulbs

Hired from Hope Clinic

Carried home

Clara sits surrounded

Bored in bright light

She must sit for 30 minutes

(We all feel a little ridiculous)

Vitamin C intravenous

Jill takes note- they are

A little hygiene sloppy

Handling fluid for injecting

Doubts growing

But still

We hope

Clinic again

Clara sits in ozone therapy box

Her head protruding

Has bemused smile

Or hint of impatience

Prof Campbell proposes another procedure

Injection of some agent

Combined with the ozone baths

Further discomfort, stress on Clara’s system

By now we are making decisions about

How much more do we intervene?

How much of invasive procedures?

More for Clara to endure

But it’s to try to save her life.

Clara doesn’t like this new proposal

We happily agree, decline offer.

Clinic bills us regularly

Expensive!

Kind friends help us with bills

Meanwhile, independently

We are also consulting Doctor P.

G.P. natural medicine specialist

He gives Clara injections

Herbal concentrate Euribor

Purchased expensively from Germany

Supposed to alleviate cancer

A dear German friend helps us

But still the white blood cell count climbs.

I return to clinic

Report this to Prof Campbell

His response astounds me

“So, Doctor P’s injections aren’t working”

He says smoothly

Shifting any blame on to someone else

Taking no responsibility for effects of his treatment regime*

In that moment

I finally lose all trust in him

Weasely evasion

Covering his own arse

I know all this in an instant

As my jaw metaphorically drops

I stare at him dumbfounded

“You cunt!”

I say to myself, wish I’d said it out loud

Clara continues to steadily decline

We terminate all connection with Hope Clinic

Returning their light bulb array

Is my last contact

We leave their last bill unpaid.

*As a health practitioner myself, I know that a responsible, decent health practitioner is interested in what works, what doesn’t work, constantly curious as to the effects of his/her treatments and those of others. So the practitioner’s knowledge advances. This is scientific enquiry.

Prof Campbell is not a professor, by the way.

The following year, 2008, Helen Garner releases her novel, The Spare Room, a fictionalized account of real events in Helen Garner’s own life, when she accommodated a friend from Sydney, come to Melbourne for 3 weeks to undertake a course of natural therapies to heal her cancer.

The Hope clinic is not named, but I recognised it in Garner’s telling. Garner’s character, “Helen” is cynical from the outset. We were sceptical but willing to give it a go, willing to hope. But we came to share Helen’s cynicism in the end.

From web, dilutedthinking.com

Noel Rodney Campbell was the subject of a three-year inquiry (2005-2008) by the Office of the Health Services Commissioner, Victoria.^[1] This inquiry determined that Campbell failed to obtain informed consent from his patients, that he preyed upon vulnerable patients with terminal cancer and that patients paid large amounts of money for treatments which were largely unproven and some were treated in ways that were not conducive to their dignity or comfort.^[2]

8 August 17