Saturday 25 April 2009

Jomanda: "Millecam died because of silicon implants"


Jomanda: Millecam died because of silicon implants
by Bart Olmer

Original article here

Photo caption: Sylvia Millecam

AMSTERDAM - Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman (60), aka ‘healing medium' Jomanda, will be appearing in court in Amsterdam in two weeks’ time. She is accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm to and withholding the necessary medical care from comedian Sylvia Millecam, who died of breast cancer. Medium Jomanda has not discussed the case in public for years, but she has now broken her silence in a book, at which De Telegraaf has been given an exclusive first look.

Jomanda and her co-defendants, two other alternative healers, are being prosecuted because they allegedly convinced Millecam that she did not have cancer, but simply a bacterial infection which could be treated, and advised her against pursuing her standard treatment. The two doctors have already been disciplined by the medical community, and one of them has even been banned from practicing any form of medicine.

Alje Kamphuis, NCRV journalist for Netwerk and a former producer of the TV show 'Ook Dat Nog!' wrote a biography of Millecam in 2006, with the title ‘Op Gevoel’ (‘By feel’). A new edition of this book will be appearing soon, including extensive audio interviews recorded with the controversial healer. De Telegraaf was given exclusive access to these astonishing tape recordings. The ‘Jomanda Tapes’ are going to play a crucial role in the court case. There is even a chance that Jomanda will get a prison sentence.

Because Jomanda persistently says “Cancer was not the cause.” According to Jomanda, the silicon implants were the cause. Before her death, Sylvia Millecam attended various 'healings' of Jomanda in Tiel, out of curiosity. She believed so strongly in the medium that she even refused to play Jomanda in a sketch on ‘Ook Dat Nog!’ They became friends.

Some time later, Millecam phoned her guru Jomanda to tell her that a lump had been found in her breast. Jomanda: “She said ‘I have had very unpleasant news. A lump in my breast. Can you do anything?’” Millecam did not want to have chemotherapy. Jomanda was also not in favour of it: “Look, if I ever got anything, I would also not have chemo. There are an awful lot of people who do not want chemo. And there have been enough articles in the papers showing that chemo doesn’t help. A study in America also showed this. Chemo does not remove the cause,” declared the medium on the ‘Jomanda Tapes’. “If there are implants in that location and there is a disease there, it cannot escape. It is something that does not belong in your body. It blocks the entire circulation. Look, if you have a wad in your nose, the mucus cannot escape either. That’s the whole problem.”

Jomanda argues repeatedly that she told Millecam to also visit normal doctors, and not to simply wander around the alternative circuit endlessly. But the public prosecution department doesn’t believe a word of it. Jomanda and her co-defendants are alleged to have convinced Millecam that she had a benign tumour and that she did not need an operation. During Jomanda’s healings, Millecam [translator’s note: it says Jomanda in the original, but this would seem to be an error] was put in a group with people with a bacterial infection, rather than with cancer patients. Sylvia Millecam died on 20 August 2001, at the age of 45. She was brought to the Sint Radboud Hospital in Nijmegen two days earlier. Real doctors diagnosed breast cancer immediately, with various metastases.

Ignorance

She was buried five days later. Jomanda did not attend the funeral. In February 2004, the Healthcare Inspectorate published a damning report on the care provision to Sylvia. “Ignorant, irresponsible, misleading and harmful,” was the conclusion. The Association Against Quackery, the Skepticism Foundation and a former inspector forced the public prosecution department to institute criminal proceedings against Jomanda and her followers. On the eve of the trial, Jomanda says it is ‘a scandal’ that she is facing criminal prosecution. “It will cost the state millions. Surely they’ve got better things to do here in the Netherlands? And everything I have suffered in the past eight years. Things are written about you, that you’re a murderer and all that type of thing. The term ‘healing medium’ is, of course, what I stand for, but I was more of a friend to Sylvia. She actually knew that I couldn’t help her, that I could not heal her.” Jomanda is sticking to her controversial statement that cancer was not the cause. “If people say that the cause was cancer, then I continue to dispute that. Because cancer is never a cause. There is always a cause and an effect.” Jomanda considers the charge to be ridiculous. “Who caused grievous bodily harm to her? Sylvia chose to have the implants herself. And the doctor who put them in. What did I want to do? Remove the grievous bodily harm. They (the judges, ed.) can have a good think about that.” The final questions to her on the Jomanda tapes are “Is this trial a witchhunt then?” Jomanda: “You could call it that, yes.” “So are you the witch then?” Jomanda: “Luckily I don't have a broomstick here.” Laughter. “And I don’t behave like that either.”

'Op gevoel: Sylvia Millecams eigenzinnige strijd tegen kanker', (‘By Feel: Sylvia Millecam’s headstrong battle against cancer’) by Alje Kamphuis, updated edition including the Jomanda Tapes. ISBN: 978 90 490 2504 5

Translated from:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/3772023/___Millecam_stierf_door_siliconen___.html?p=1,2

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