‘Message of prosecution is working’

translation of
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/3989172/__Straf_Jomanda_opent_ogen_patient__.html?p=3,1

Jomanda sentence opens eyes of cancer patients
by René Steenhorst

AMSTERDAM – The number of cancer patients in the Netherlands who are turning their backs on hospitals to look for healing in the murky world of alternative practitioners has declined dramatically under the influence of the ‘Sylvia Millecam versus Jomanda’ drama.

"It’s been virtually decimated,” says psychologist Prof. Dr. Frits van Dam, who for many years was attached to the Dutch Cancer Institute/ Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (AvL) in Amsterdam. “Incidents like this one have opened the eyes of a great many people. The message which is being put out by the prosecution of Jomanda has worked: People, be careful about whose hands you put your fate in.”

According to Van Dam, this is the major benefit of the demand for a twelve-month suspended prison sentence issued yesterday by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) against Jomanda, for complicity in the death of actress Sylvia Millecam. Van Dam recently carried out research in the AvL into the number of people with cancer who follow alternative diets or who are actively involved in the alternative circuit. “Eight years ago, this was still around 12 – 15% of the patients, now this was dropped to only a couple of percent.”

Delighted

When asked, Professor Van Dam responds in his capacity of secretary of the Association Against Quackery. Together with the Skepsis Foundation, which exposes pseudosciences, the anti-quackery association brought the Jomanda case before the courts. “We are extremely delighted about this demand. Particularly because this case, which has now lasted seven years, was dropped by the PPO several years ago; at the time, it saw no reason for prosecution. And now look what’s happened! We’ve got a year’s suspended sentence out of it. And a ban on Jomanda and two alternative doctors who are also complicit, for totally inadequate care in the Millecam case. They will not be allowed to perform any treatments, healings or associated practices for two years.”

The last real cancer specialist who Sylvia Millecam consulted in the AvL was Dr. Emiel Rutgers, who is currently extraordinary professor of surgical oncology at the University of Amsterdam, specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. He does have some hesitation about the PPO’s demand: “One wonders if the demand is high enough. On the other hand, it does send out a strong signal. Neverthess, in my opinion, if you see that a fellow human being is suffering, it is your duty to help. If you know that someone has cancer - Sylvia knew this and so did Jomanda - then it is nothing less than criminal to maintain your insistence that it is not cancer, but an infection.”

Rutgers reveals that he received a thank-you letter from Sylvia Millecam after their meeting. “She was a person who kept control in her own hands. But she wrote to me that she knew that she had breast cancer, that she appreciated our treatment, that she preferred to try ‘Switzerland’ first, but asked if she could come back to us later if necessary. Of course she would have been able to do this. But Jomanda kept her away from us.”

In the criminal case against the two alternative doctors and the healing medium Jomanda, the Public Prosecutor, Birgit van Roessel, referred to Sylvia Millecam as a strong personality – “Intelligent, with a zest for life, modern and with a fiery character”.

Millecam also had another side: insecure, credulous, easily influenced and scared. According to Van Roessel, this other side must have made her susceptible to the outlooks and advice of the two doctors and Jomanda, with all the consequences this entailed.