'Pointless' MS treatment doctor struck off
A doctor who charged multiple sclerosis patients thousands of pounds for "pointless" and "unjustifiable" stem cell treatments has been struck off by the General Medical Council.
Robert Trossel, 56, was told his actions had done "lasting harm" after a long-running GMC disciplinary hearing into his involvement with nine MS patients who sought his help in "desperation" to find a cure for the disease.
Brian Gomes da Costa, chairman of the GMC fitness to practise panel, told Dr Trossel: "You have given false hope and made unsubstantiated and exaggerated claims to patients suffering from degenerative and devastating illnesses.
"Your conduct has unquestionably done lasting harm, if not physically, then mentally and financially, to these patients and also to their families and supporters."
Dr Trossel, who admitted he was "too enthusiastic" about the use of stem cell therapy, was found by the panel to have exploited vulnerable patients by offering them "unjustifiable" and "inappropriate" treatments.
Five were injected between August 2004 and August 2006 at his Rotterdam clinic with a substance said to contain stem cells, in a move described as medically unjustifiable, inappropriate and exploitative of vulnerable patients.
Two of the patients, along with another MS patient, were advised by Dr Trossel to undergo a treatment called Aqua Tilis therapy (AQT )- described by one as "completely bizarre" - involving "antioxidant steam" with "magnetic fields made from generators".
There was "scant", if any, prospect of alleviation of the MS symptoms by stem cell therapy and AQT, the GMC ruled.
Dr Trossel exaggerated the benefits of stem cell treatment, did not describe accurately how the stem cells would work and overstated his success in treating patients with MS, the panel said.
The doctor, who trained in Holland, had conditions imposed on his registration in January 2007 and was suspended from the medical register by the GMC in July that year.
The move followed a BBC2 Newsnight investigation into the Rotterdam clinic in August 2006.
Karen Galley, 45, from Hadleigh, Essex, one of the patients who gave evidence against Dr Trossel at the GMC hearing, welcomed the decision to strike him off.
She said: "It is the best news I have heard in a long time. It has been an awful few months. It has not been nice to face him again at the hearing.
"I think it is fantastic that they have struck him off. In my eyes, it is not enough, but we are getting somewhere. He deserves everything he gets."