Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
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mike
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by mike »

Wayne in Maine wrote:A non-believer made the point to me that Mr Girod may actually be responsible for someone's death by falsely claiming (based on only anecdotal evidence) that his salve cures cancer. Rather than getting proper diagnosis and treatment someone will use his salve (on themselves or a family member) and someone will die from a treatable disease.

There was a case of a Dentist/Chiropractor "curing" an Amish man of AIDS (acquired through a blood transfusion) This dentist went so far as to tell him that he could get married and safely have children. The Amish man, his wife and their infant child all died of AIDS.

Health fraud is not a victimless crime, and it is not a good witness for Christians to be caught up in it.
mike wrote:I know someone well who is in her late thirties and has breast cancer. A year ago, she observed a lump and went to some kind of herbalist or health practitioner who told her it was merely a cyst. She used whatever methods the herbalist prescribed for a year but it got worse and she finally went to a doctor a few weeks ago to learn that she has stage 2 cancer. Apparently it is treatable with chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation.

When I hear of these kinds of health practitioners and the false diagnoses and claims they make, and the consequences they have, it is hard not to get angry. I believe that there are such things as wrong diagnoses and wrong treatments that are a result of human error or incompetence. But there are also such things as lies and bold claims when one does not have the knowledge or tools to make a proper statement about something.
The person that I mentioned above is my cousin, wife and mother of young children. We just heard this morning that there are spots on her liver as well. The health practitioner (I'm being generous. I could think of other names.) who told her the lump was merely a cyst could well share in the blame for an untimely death. If you would, pray for her. Hopefully there is still possibility for treatment and recovery.
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appleman2006
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by appleman2006 »

I am so sorry Mike. I will be praying.
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

Mike:

I see something like this about once a month.....I am not surprised at all. Praying for you and your family.

J.M.
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JohnHurt
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by JohnHurt »

This case is making more headlines, albeit alternative news:

The Alex Jones Show:


Petition on Change.org
https://www.change.org/p/free-ky-amish- ... muel-girod

Ky Free Press:
http://www.kyfreepress.com/2017/03/upda ... rod-v-fda/

I hope for a good outcome for Samuel Girod - whatever his failings in potentially misrepresenting his Chickweed salve, I cannot see that he deserves 68 years in prison.

Rather, this case is a chilling effect on all other alternative health practitioners, including the Amish doctor who treats our family with various herbal remedies.

Both of my parents died at age 59 from cancer. They went to a mainline doctor, and died in a mainline hospital, burned from the inside out by chemotherapy, which doesn't work. It is a horrible, painful, and slow death they endured. I have been traumatized ever since. It is so bad, you cannot understand it, until you see it every day.

My wife's father had skin cancer behind his ear, which was treated with radiation, which burned his face and affected his brain. The whole side of his face drooped over his eye so that he could not see out one eye. He was "cured" but never the same, as his brain was fried. Luckily he died a few years later.

Samuel Girod's real crime was to indicate that a herbal remedy can cure cancer. "Modern" medicine only allows 3 ways to treat cancer, either radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery. If you promote any other technique, you will go to jail or must leave the country, as in the case of the Gerson Institute and many others. And your alternative cancer therapy is always labeled "quackery" - yet the results of your work in treating cancer is never tested - side by side - against chemotherapy.

But a potential 68 year sentence against an older Amish man, who did not have an attorney or witnesses, other than himself - this is a very harsh sentence. The court room proceedings were like a retarded child being beat up by a prize fighter. Samuel did not stand a chance in court - representing himself against an antagonistic judge with no knowledge of how a courtroom works.

I do pray that the judge is lenient, and that Samuel can stay out of jail.

Jail does not do anyone any good. Perhaps he will get a new trial under a different judge.

We will see if the Change.org petition gets enough signatures to be reviewed by Pres. Trump.

But there is another Judge, superior to all of us, that is full of goodness and mercy, and that is where I raise my petition for Mr. Girod and his family.

Dear God, please help this man.
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mike
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by mike »

I also hope that the judge is lenient.

The Kentucky Free Press has a lot of information but not all of it is accurate. For example, they say,
The Amish do not use lawyers as a rule and Sam did not. This is a decision made by the community, not just the accused. Apparently the Amish don’t trust lawyers. Imagine that.
This isn't true; the Amish community has not forbidden the use of lawyers.
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Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. -Heb. 13:3
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mike
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

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JohnHurt wrote:Rather, this case is a chilling effect on all other alternative health practitioners, including the Amish doctor who treats our family with various herbal remedies.
It does cause a chilling effect when someone experiences the consequences for breaking the law, whether in righteous cause or not. All "alternative" health practitioners really should take heed, especially those who make false and misleading claims that cause people harm.
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Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. -Heb. 13:3
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Josh
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

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Someone I know and spend time with has advanced cancer, caught very late. Fortunately, the chemotherapy is working, originally they would have only had a few months to live. They're trying to shrink it down so the mass will be small enough it can be safely removed. The modern chemotherapy is very targeted and the side effects are not nearly as bad as they used to be - they're still able to (mostly) function with a normal life, other than needing to go in for treatments regularly.

It's a good idea for all of us to get a colonoscopy once we're 50, and get it checked again every 5-10 years. Early detection is the key, and this is a very common cancer, particularly in our western diet that has a lot of smoked meats, etc. in it that raise our cancer risk.
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Valerie
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Valerie »

Josh wrote:
It's a good idea for all of us to get a colonoscopy once we're 50, and get it checked again every 5-10 years. Early detection is the key, and this is a very common cancer, particularly in our western diet that has a lot of smoked meats, etc. in it that raise our cancer risk.
We had a friend diagnosed with colon cancer several years ago. He was given 6 to 12 months to live & proceeded with conventional chemotherapy & I believe the radiation (he had hair loss)- because of how it was affecting him he decided to give it up. At THAT point, an onocologist advised him to go to Italy where they are (at least then) using a baking soda treatment that puts a line directly to the cancer in the body. He had 2 tumors in his colon. So off he flew to Italy and was cured in 8 weeks. Because of that, we had our dear friend, a Beachy Amish/Mennonite (former Amish) who was diagnosed with colon canceer, consider going to Italy the same way our other friend had. Ernie was getting so much advise from here & there and ended up going the conventional way of chemo- he was SO sick he couldn't work. His community held a fundraiser because he owed over $100,000 in medical bills- and of course, they don't have insurance in Beach communities. They raised over $80,000 if I remember right. Less than a year later- he died. I often wonder if he would have just flown to Italy like our other friend what the outcome would have been. Our other friend said with the flight, and being there 8 weeks and using 'baking soda' treatment was SO much less than the cost of treating cancer here.

An Amish girl in our area had cancer and was being treated at Akron Children's Hospital. She got so sick, she begged her parents not to make her go for treatments. So they quit taking her, trusting Gods will with her life. At that point the governement got involved to make the Amish girl a guardian of the state and the Children's Hospital was suppose to be her guardian in this matter- the Amish family fled the country. She was treated with some natural cure- our local paper stated that Akron Children's Hospital claimed she would die without their treatments. It's been a couple year and she is now alive and well- the family returned to our area and everything 'legal' against them was dropped from what I heard.

I suppose a case can be made for both, but when we lose our freedom to make choices like this- I think something has gone wrong?
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ken_sylvania
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by ken_sylvania »

I appreciate living in a country where we have the freedom to make choices like this - to use alternative treatments if we so desire.

I also appreciate that there are some rules in place that require a product to be tested before it can be sold as a "cure" for sickness or disease.

Bear in mind that for many years (and probably in places yet today) cow manure applied topically was the treatment of choice for an infection, because "it worked."
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

I would not put much faith in the so-called baking soda treatment:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38650739

Nor would a young Hodgkins disease patient agree with the above views expressed that "Chemotherapy does not work."

(From the american journal of hematology and oncology)

""The cure of Hodgkin lymphoma in the 20th century is another one of cancer's biggest success stories. Breakthroughs in radiation therapy and chemotherapy paired with careful clinical research transformed an invariably fatal disorder into one that is routinely cured. The impact of this success story was, however, much greater because it created optimism for the treatment of cancer in general, and demonstrated the potential for a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and management. In the vanguard, Hodgkin lymphoma investigators conducted rigorous, randomized controlled clinical trials as a means to advance therapy. Another important lesson from the Hodgkin's experience was the price of cure. The recognition of late adverse effects from radiation therapy and chemotherapy in the form of second cancers, heart and blood vessel disease, and sterility shaped subsequent research efforts to maintain or improve cure rates with fewer complications, an important goal in a disease that primarily affects individuals in their 20s and 30s. Today, as more than 80 percent of patients are cured after primary treatment, a major emphasis is now placed on survivorship.""

A good name for most "alternative news" and Alternative Medicine" is the same as "alternative facts"

In other words pure baloney.

I just hope that no one takes the kind of advice that I have seen above seriously. Lives ACTUALLY depend on it.

J.M.
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