Medical Imposters

Interesting story in the Toronto Star about a man who was practicing medicine with fake credentials. But he didn't receive a single complaint about his practice. He was only exposed when the Ontario College of Physicians did a thorough check of the credentials of all medical practitioners in the area. It recalls the case of the Great Imposter, Ferdinand Waldo Demara, who once posed as a naval surgeon named Dr. Joseph Cyr and actually performed a lung operation on an injured soldier, even though he had never had a day of surgical training in his life. The operation was a success. He was only discovered to be a fake because someone recognized his picture when it appeared in a naval newsletter.

Health/Medicine Identity/Imposters

Posted on Tue Aug 13, 2002


Comments

This reminds me of the case of a gentleman called Gert Postel here in Germany. Over a period of some time this trained postal delivery worker not only passed himself off as a psychiatrist - but got to be promoted to clinik director and was a candidate for taking up a post running part of the state health department, before his lack of credentials was discovered and criminal charges prefered.
Posted by Ron Bartle  on  Sat Feb 24, 2007  at  02:51 AM
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