In May 2017, the Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Medical Board dismissed a complaint by the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) against naturopath Anne Marie Palzer in her role as the clinical director of Birth Haven at Life Spring Midwifery. Records indicate that when a patient came to the center in active labor, a midwife consulted Palzer about signs that the unborn baby was in distress. The baby was transferred to a hospital but could not be resuscitated. DHS alleged that Palzer failed to authenticate the homeopathic medication that had been ordered for the patient every 15 minutes for several hours, and that she had failed to require communication from Birth Haven to the hospital. However, the naturopathic board declared that since Palzer ordered an over-the-counter homeopathic, authentication wasn't needed, and that she had followed proper protocol in connection with the transfer.
Commenting on the case, naturopathic whistleblower Britt Marie Hermes has said:
I suspect that some naturopaths reading this post are thinking that they would have done something differently than what Palzer did. But, my former colleagues, how can you be so sure that you would have made a different decision?- - -
The institutions that train naturopaths revere homeopathy. This veneration, in my opinion, coerces students to believe in magic. Homeopathic medicines are based on substances that are so diluted with water that none of the original material remains. It is the so-called "water memory" of the substance that naturopaths and others believe is medicine. As naturopaths, we are taught that homeopathy can do anything, given the right remedy. [Hermes B. A naturopath-midwife, homeopathy, and a dead newborn. Naturopathic Diaries, December 28, 2017]
(Consumer Health Digest #18-14)
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