Trial of a fake doctor: Shocking testimony of man who lost his cancer-stricken father

The first witness in the trial of the pseudo-doctor who came to Dr. Kontos to save his father from cancer burst into tears. The accused, according to the witness' testimony, allegedly told him that chemotherapy does not save lives and that doctors do it to get kickbacks..

«He told me that doctors do chemotherapy to get kickbacks»

«They introduced my mother to an oncologist in Kiato Niko Kontos who works in Switzerland and America and treats cancers with alternative therapies and herbs. We decided to call him on the phone. The first contact was between 13-16 June. I told him the situation and what the doctors have done so far. He told me that doctors do chemotherapy to get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies and abroad they do other treatments.», the witness said.

The herbs

According to the witness, the «doctor» asked the family to stop the chemotherapy treatments. He even told him about the herbs and manjunias that would help him live. «He should follow a protocol. A diet high in antioxidant fibres and some extracts and herbs that he would prepare himself that could attack the cancer cells. He told me to stop chemotherapy because the patient was becoming a wreck, while his trial method would boost the immune system. I asked him how he sees the situation and he said it's difficult but we will increase life expectancy by 80%. He told me that even if he doesn't go, he will stand on his feet until the last moment,» the witness said.

As for the money, as the witness said, the cost was only for the herbs. «He tells me about 7,200 euros and I said «what are these herbs that I should collect» and he told me that they are not simple, they are extracts and they are prepared in his laboratory. He sent me a diet plan, very demanding, with lots of liquids and juices. One of them, with beetroot and garlic, caused him heartburn and vomiting. He was telling us that the body reacts and cleans out the cancer cells.».

The persuasion

As the witness said in his testimony, the accused convinced himself that he was doing something «great» and had even used the name of Marianna Vardinoyannis, claiming that at the shelter for children with cancer, he himself was looking after children.

However, his father kept getting worse and worse, causing him to worry. She called him and went and found him. «He said come and meet me at a hospital behind Hilton and he turned up in a doctor's coat and gave me a pill to take to my father and some honey from Mount Athos. The situation was getting worse and worse. By mid-July my father needed an oxygen machine. We had discontinued the treatments at the hospital because we now had a doctor named Kondo. Although the situation was getting worse, Kontos insisted that we should increase the doses of herbs to reduce the tumors. He kept increasing the amount of fluids, which in my father's condition was not possible. From was creating tumescence, it was putting pressure on the lung».

The patient's condition was getting worse and worse, to the point where he had to have paracentesis to remove the fluid that was pooling in his lung. «We were telling him that the patient is getting worse, come and see him. He came around the beginning of August and showed us his Red Cross international ID card. After we had started decentralisation, we called him and told him that the patient cannot drink. And he told us to get a nurse to get him a herbal drip. At a certain point, his veins were being destroyed and the fluid was kind of caustic and it was giving him like eczema. The day before he died, he told us to give him soda and water to make the veins go away.».