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Impact Statements Released Showing The Horrors Oncologist Farid Fata Committed Against His Patients

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 03:25 PST, May 31, 2015

Some of Dr. Farid Fata’s patients never even had cancer, and others could have never benefited from the painful cancer treatments he put them through, according to the victim impact statements that have been released. Over 550 victims of oncologist Dr. Farid Fata have been identified so far. Last September, Farid Fata admitted in court that he put patients through cancer treatments even though he knew the treatments were medically unnecessary. Inquisitr covered the story after the prominent Michigan cancer doctor pleaded guilty to multiple counts of horrific medical fraud. Since then, fellow oncologists and medical professionals have called him an utter disgrace to the profession.

The authorities have released 26 pages of these impact statements describing the atrocities Lebanese-born Farid Fata subjected his patients to. Fata has been accused of ordering over 9,000 infusions or injections for no reason other than to obtain the insurance money from the unnecessary treatments and procedures. The Lebanese Examiner alleges Farid Fata planned to buy a castle in Adma, Lebanon.

He is accused of subjecting his patients to chemotherapy, even though he knew that in reality, these patients did not have cancer, or that he was subjecting them to the wrong types of treatment. Some of these patients died after being given toxic treatments that they did not need.

“My mom received her records from the F.B.I and found a new doctor… The new doctor… did not agree with the treatment that had been given… She was diagnosed in march of 2013 with MDS, which was caused from the chemo she had previously received in 2011.”

According to Click On Detroit, Fata is described in the memorandum as treating patients until they died. Those that survived describe enduring medical hardships from the unnecessary treatments ever since. Victims reported living in constant and unbearable pain because of the horrors they say Farid Fata exposed them to for no medical reason.

“I asked Dr. Fata if could get the treatments in either Kalamazoo or St. Joseph, MI as I have a small cottage in western Michigan. He absolutely refused… I had to travel 500 miles round trip.. to return for treatments. At one point I inquired if a second opinion would be advisable. His reply was, if I obtained a second opinion, do not return for his care.”

“Most nights the pain is too great to allow me to sleep. I am on lots of medicine and even with all that I take; it only takes the edge off just enough to keep me from going insane or crying incessantly,” Maggie Dorsey wrote in her victim impact statement about Fata. “I didn’t deserve to end up like this even though I am still alive with love & many thanks, some days when the pain is too great I close my yes longing for the relief of heaven…”

One of Fata’s patients recollected how the oncologist signed a letter saying he would have to take Zometa for the rest of his life. Prosecutors said that though this patient never needed the drug at all, Fata dismissed his tooth pain and now all but two of his teeth have fallen out. He suffered necrosis of the jaw bone and a hole in his gums from his mouth into his sinuses (caused by the unneeded use of the drug), which had to be surgically patched. The patient said in his impact statement that he is haunted by nightmares about his facial appearance.

Prosecutors, presenting the impact statements of Fata’s victims, said that the doctor “ordered his patients poisoned for money,” according to the Detroit News. Though Fata pleaded guilty to many counts of money laundering, participating in a kickback scheme, and fraud, the government described the horrors Fata’s went through from his deliberate lies about their medical conditions in an 86-page memorandum, which was filed on Thursday. The Detroit News says that Fata’s lawyer, Christopher Andreoff, had nothing to say to reporters, but that the rebuttal from the defense is expected to challenge the dollar amount of the fraudulent billings.

The government asserts Fata raked in over 34 million dollars from fraudulent billing. Prosecutors demanded a steep sentence. Prosecutors say that when patients and nurses questioned his methods, the prominent Michigan oncologist said that he used a “French” or “European” protocol. Prosecutors say no such protocol exists and that he fabricated the treatment protocols and even completely made up a fictitious study he used to claim was done at Bon Secours/Cottage Health Services in 2006. His treatments ruined the lives of his victims that did not have cancer and stole the chances to make dignified end-of-life choices in his patients that actually did have cancer. Prosecutors called his crimes “more heinous” than any “financial Ponzi Scheme,” according to the Detroit News.

“Fata did not just steal money, he caused cancer patients and vulnerable people he made believe were cancer patients, as props for days and weeks on end, subjecting them to unnecessary chemotherapy in order to steal more money… In many ways, he is worse than Madoff.”

U.S. Judge Paul D. Borman will use all the victim impact when sentencing Dr. Farid Fata for what U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade called “the most egregious” case of health care fraud she has ever witnessed.

[Photo by Chris Hondros / Getty Images]

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