Patients have threatened to sue a doctor after paying £10,000 for a stem cell treatment that did not work.
By Robert Mendick and Patrick Sawer
Published: 5 Sep 2010
Karen Galley’s dream was for her son to see her walk.
Suffering from multiple sclerosis and confined to a wheelchair, Miss Galley was prepared to try anything – and pay anything – to find a cure.
So when she learnt (learned) of a doctor who had boasted of an 80% success rate in treating MS patients by injecting them with stem cells, Miss Galley grabbed at the chance.
Friends and colleagues at the City moneybroker’s where she worked helped her raise the £10,500 needed for the treatment.
One ran a mini-marathon; another undertook a sponsored diet. By August 2006, Miss Galley and her friend Tracy Wagstaff, another MS sufferer, were on a plane to Rotterdam to be injected with stem cells by Dr Robert Trossel.
Six months earlier, on Dr Trossel’s advice that it would improve the effectiveness of the treatment, she had all her mercury fillings removed at a further cost of £2,500.
At his clinic, based on a housing estate on the outskirts of the Dutch city, Miss Galley was injected once in the arm and six times in the neck. After two hours’ supervision, she was told to go back to her hotel and then to her home in Essex.
“I was desperate. I just wanted my son Sam to see me walk,” recalled Miss Galley, “But it never made any difference except I later developed a blood disorder.”
Tomorrow Dr Trossel will appear before the General Medical Council where he faces being struck off. He has already been found guilty of exploiting vulnerable patients and abusing his position as a doctor.
He charged multiple sclerosis sufferers as much as £12,500 per injection using stem cells not designed for human use, including serum taken from the brain and spinal cord of cows.
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