Hi guys. As many of you know, I have had my share of online scuffles. Comes with the territory I suppose, being both a very social media active person, and someone who publicly espouses Homeopathy. Many of these are disputes over misrepresentations about Homeopathy or about Naturopathic medicine in General.
So recently this issue has come up again locally in Alberta. As many of you have read, two parents of a child who had died of Viral meningitis have been charged with Failure to provide the necessities of life. This case is tragic, and regardless of the outcome, this poor family has been devastated. From early reports it seemed that the couple sought the advice of a Naturopathic Doctor before going to emergency care. It was alleged that she sold them a tincture for viral meningitis, which obviously was ineffective.
However my interest in this case stems from the Media commentary. Many of us first found out about this case from Headlines over the past few days which touted something like “Crown alleges child died because couple took child to Naturopath instead of Medical Doctor”. This media line was taken up by many in the skeptical movement, and even resulted in an opinion piece published in the Calgary herald which suggested that Alberta should review its regulation of Naturopathic Doctors.
However, in the actual testimony during the trial, it came out that the Naturopathic Doctor in question referred them to take their child to emergency care immediately. The tincture was sold to a woman who entered the clinic the next day, whom the ND in question did not know was the mother of the child.
Now, this raises a good point against selling to people who are not your patients. The Profession in Alberta now does not allow this (This incident happened before regulation in 2012), but the overall media coverage of this incident has been extremely slanted. The ND, rather than making an appropriate referral and having a rather peripheral role in this case, was made central and used as an argument against the expanding scope and importance of NDs in Alberta.
What we seem to have here is a media and online community which is lying and waiting for a mistake from an ND to make thier argument about marginalizing Naturopathic medicine. Mistakes happen, individuals make bad calls, and the unforeseeable occurs, but overall NDs are incredibly safe and effective practitioners. A media push against us wont change that.
I would encourage all of my patients to speak up in favor of Naturopathic MEdicine when something like this occurs. You all, and your political awareness is the only thing that motivated regulation of Naturopathic Medicine in the first place, and is the only force holding media narratives like this to some kind of criticism.
Love to all of you!
Take care of yourselves.