Читать книгу Don't Fall For It - Carlson Ben, Ben Carlson - Страница 10

Morris Fishbein, an actual physician with morals who worked with the AMA, had made it his life’s work to take down hucksters and quacks, and the man at the top of his list was John Brinkley. Fishbein knew Brinkley’s ruse couldn’t last forever. The goat gland procedure was completely fabricated. There wasn’t an ounce of scientific or biological proof it could work.

The question you’re probably asking yourself is this: How the hell did it actually work for those farmers who went through this painful procedure? It could have been due to the placebo effect, but the true answer is likely simple regression to the mean. Most sick people tend to get better. In fact, it’s estimated that four out of every five physical ailments will heal themselves.^[19] So even the biggest quack in the world could “heal” most patients through the passage of time or dumb luck. Unfortunately, it was those patients who came to Brinkley in dire need of treatment who suffered the most.

The Kansas Medical Board proved that at least 42 people Brinkley treated (some of whom were not sick before he treated them) had died after undergoing one of his operations or medicine programs. This number is significantly higher than almost any serial killer in history. At least six of those people had undergone the goat gland transplant. Not only was Brinkley performing medical procedures with no scientific reasoning behind them, but he would often treat patients while drunk. One patient claimed that instead of stitching him up after a prostate operation, Brinkley used a piece of rubber from a boot heel to patch him up.^[20] The worst part about these statistics is they occurred at the midpoint of his career. He was far from completing his medical reign of terror.

Fishbein finally put together enough evidence to bring Brinkley to trial. It was during this trial that the prosecution used Brinkley’s own autobiography against him. Consistent with his personality, Brinkley’s autobiography was filled with lies and fabricated stories. Even though he never graduated from medical school, Brinkley gave the date of his graduation in the book. The prosecution pointed out Brinkley was actually in jail on that date. In his writings Brinkley compared himself to Martin Luther, Galileo, and Jesus Christ. The lies and deceit finally caught up with him. After practicing medicine in Texas and Mexico, even going so far as starting a radio show south of the border (since he was barred from broadcasting in the US), he was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1941. The malpractice lawsuits finally caught up with him and he died a year later.^[21]