Weekly WTF: Homeopathic surgeon kills

This pushed me over the edge; I did in fact create a ‘WTF’ tag category just for this post. It’s the sort of thing that reduces me to spluttering, grunting, gaping at my computer screen:

The Arizona Republic Jul. 17, 2007 05:47 PM

“A homeopathic doctor was suspended Tuesday for his role in a botched liposuction operation earlier this month that resulted in the death of the patient… Page performed the liposuction procedure on July 3 at the Anthem office of Dr. Peter J. Normann, whose practice was restricted by the state in May after two other liposuction patients suffered cardiac arrest on the operating table and died.”

I’m not sure which is worse–that some idiot homeopath thought he was a surgeon, or that it turns out it’s actually legal in Arizona for homeopaths to perform “minor surgery”! (You can get a homeopathic ‘degree’ entirely by distance learning, BTW.)

For those of you who don’t know, homeopathy is COMPLETELY BOGUS. Anyone who has ever been forced to memorize Avogadro’s number knows it’s bogus. In many ways, it’s a medieval practice. Read Respectful Insolence’s view (as a practicing, MD, surgeon) of this:

“Yes, I said it. Homeopathy is quackery. Period. I’m tired of being politically correct and dancing around it with words like “dubious” or “unproven.”"

EDITED TO ADD: Holy Crap! Clearly, you don’t ever want to get sick in Arizona: From 2005, about the Homeopathic Licensing Board:

“A California doctor spent five years in prison for performing thousands of unnecessary eye surgeries before being allowed to practice homeopathic medicine in Arizona.

A New Mexico doctor illegally borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from more than 100 of his own patients before becoming a homeopathic physician in metropolitan Phoenix, a crime that recently resulted in felony convictions.

Over the past five years, the Arizona Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners has licensed four doctors who have been convicted of felonies in other states and six others who have lost their licenses or been disciplined elsewhere.”

Edited 7/25/07 to add more hair-raising details.