Order naming and shaming unlicensed doctors
The Collège des médecins du Québec, the provincial order governing physicians, will be adding Trinh Huynh to its list of fake doctors, or healers without medical credentials.
The Collège has been tracking down charlatans in the health field for more than a decade. Since 2005, it has investigated, charged and fined 62 sham medics for practising medicine illegally. Huynh will be the 63rd name added to the list.
On Wednesday, Huynh was fined $128,000 in Quebec Court for pretending to be a healer in at least eight incidents.
Huynh is a repeat offender, having pleaded guilty in court in 1995 and 1997 to practicing medicine illegally. The Collège lodged complaints against her in 2005 and again in 2012. Some of the latest charges stem from an incident in June 2014.
According to the Collège, Huynh had “diagnosed” a woman and her two children at a dental clinic by taking a drop of blood from each and analyzing the blood under a microscope.
Huynh’s blood analysis determined the woman’s body contained too much “acid,”, which Huynh said affected her ability to absorb proteins. Huynh also claimed the woman suffered from back and cervical pain caused in part by a milk intolerance, plus deficiencies in calcium, iron and vitamin B-12.
The Collège said Huynh then “diagnosed” one child with light autism and a weakened musculoskeletal system, poor absorption of proteins and suggested the child suffered from repeated headaches and stomach aches. The other child, Huynh said, needed to eat “fast and often” because she was dynamic, and a future engineer.
The woman alerted the Collège. In the months following her complaint, the Collège sent an investigator to Huynh, posing as a patient. Huynh told the investigator that her liver was blocked. She saw an imbalance of iron and an articulation problem. The final diagnosis, Huynh said, was an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland.
The Collège got a Quebec Superior Court injunction in May prohibiting Huynh from performing acts reserved for licensed physicians, and from presenting herself as a doctor with a medical licence to practise.
Huynh has up to a year to pay her fines.
Anyone concerned about the legitimacy of a physician can consult the Collège website for its list of fake doctors who do not have medical diplomas and those found guilty of illegally performing acts that are reserved for the medical profession.
The list includes Pierre Coallier of Longueuil, who was fined $23,500 in June for an intervention that cost a patient the amputation of part of an arm.
Westmount naturopath Mitra Javanmardi, who was acquitted in April 2015 of involuntary manslaughter and criminal negligence in the death of an elderly man following an injection of a compound containing magnesium, has also been found guilty on several occasions of illegally practising medicine. Naturopaths in Quebec are not legally allowed to administer treatments intravenously.
Sherbrooke homeopath Nicole Ouellet, who used a pendulum to diagnose illnesses, was sentenced to two and half years in prison in 2007 for failing to pay fines related to 24 charges of illegal practice of medicine.
Montrealer Viktor Spektor was found guilty of four charges in 2006 for using electromagnetic waves to treat allergies and other ailments.