Bad MD Files · Connecticut · Consent Order 2011
Dr. Jarir Nakouzi: Homeopathy and “Bioresonance” for Late-Stage Cancer
A Bridgeport, Connecticut internist who trained in oncology told a desperate husband he could cure his wife's metastatic breast cancer. The treatment — homeopathic remedies, supplements and a skin-resistance device — cost more than $40,000. She died. Four years later the state medical board put him on probation and barred him from offering unproven cancer treatment.
What happened
In the summer of 2006 Mary Nedlouf's breast cancer came back and could not be operated on. Late that year, with her in and out of consciousness, her husband Said went looking for anything that might save her and found Dr. Jarir Nakouzi, who told him he could cure her cancer.
What followed was what Newsweek later described as about $3,000 a week for “bioresonance therapy”, “quadrant analysis” and “autosanguis” treatments: homeopathic remedies, supplements, and a device that measured the electrical resistance of the skin and was presented as both diagnosis and treatment. Over the course of it the family's bills passed $40,000. None of it worked. Mary Nedlouf died in early 2007, at 42.
A year later Said Nedlouf told Newsweek that the doctor had sold them hope that was not there, and that he had complained to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. In the same article the acting deputy director of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine said that, to his knowledge, there was no condition for which homeopathy had been proven effective.
What the board did
- 2007
Complaint filed with the Connecticut Department of Public Health. - 2010
The Department filed a Statement of Charges: deviating from the standard of care in managing a woman with late-stage cancer, inadequate informed consent, inadequate documentation, and using a bioresonance device as a diagnostic tool. A second case, involving another terminally ill breast cancer patient, was later included. - 15 February 2011
The Connecticut Medical Examining Board unanimously denied Dr. Nakouzi's motion to dismiss the charges. - 20 September 2011
The Board approved a Consent Order, with one member opposed. Dr. Nakouzi agreed to:- two years' probation, with at least 20 of his patient charts randomly reviewed by a supervising physician acceptable to the Department;
- a $5,000 civil penalty;
- stop using devices that measure skin resistance to diagnose or treat; and
- stop recommending, prescribing or administering any purported cancer treatment that is not FDA-approved or supported by science.
Why it matters in Canada
The device at the centre of this case — a skin-resistance meter sold as “bioresonance” — is the same family of machine documented in this site's electrodermal screening file, still offered in Canadian clinics. Connecticut banned one physician from using it on cancer patients. No Canadian regulator has published a comparable decision naming such a device; the regulatory tables set out the gap. Compare too the Ontario finding against Dr. Akbar Khan over unproven cancer treatment.
Whether Dr. Nakouzi completed probation and what he practises today has not been checked for this page.
Related
Sources
- Jerry Adler. “No way to treat the dying.” Newsweek, 4 February 2008.
- Connecticut Medical Examining Board. Minutes, 2011 (15 February, 16 August and 20 September meetings), Petition No. 2007-0424-001-060.
- Stephen Barrett, MD. “Jarir Nakouzi, M.D. facing disciplinary action” and “Jarir Nakouzi, M.D. placed on probation (2011).” Quackwatch / Casewatch.
- Colleen McKown and Lisa Chedekel. “Delays hamper state's doctor discipline process.” Connecticut Health Investigative Team, 16 June 2013.
- Connecticut physician licence record, as recorded on this site in 2008.
This file rests on the Connecticut Medical Examining Board's Consent Order of 20 September 2011. A consent order is a settlement; this page does not suggest any finding beyond its terms. Corrections are welcome and are recorded on the page.