Lorraine Jeanette Day (February 24, 1937 – November 10, 2023) was an American author, orthopedic trauma surgeon and Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital and promoter of alternative cancer treatments.
Lorraine Day | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 24, 1937 Alton, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 10, 2023 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Author and orthopedic trauma surgeon |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine |
| Subject | Alternative cancer treatment |
| Spouse | William Dannemeyer |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| Lorraine Day's official website | |
Day first became controversial when she began advocating that patients be tested for AIDS prior to surgery.[1][2] In the 2000s, she started to promote an alternative cancer treatment program, which has attracted criticism as being generally misleading and dangerous.
Life
editDay graduated from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine in 1969 and trained in orthopedic surgery at two San Francisco hospitals.[citation needed] She became an associate professor and vice chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital. During the mid-1980s, she received considerable media attention related to public discussions of the risks of acquiring AIDS through exposure to the blood of AIDS patients during trauma surgery. One action that she proposed was wearing the airborne protection suit that is usually worn to protect vulnerable patients from a doctor's germs.[3][4] She published a book, AIDS: What the Government Isn't Telling You, wherein she states that in 1989, she retired from surgery because of the allegedly excessive risk of acquiring AIDS.[4]
Lorraine Day was also a holocaust denier and supporter of neo-Nazi Ernst Zündel. She testified on his behalf in the matter of his health while he was detained in Canada.[5][6][7]
Day remarried later to former California congressman William Dannemeyer. He died on July 9, 2019, at the age of 89.[8] She died on November 10, 2023, at the age of 87.[9][10]
Alternative cancer treatment
editAs a promoter of alternative medicine she claimed to have discovered the cause and cure of cancer, as a result of God showing her how to recover from her own cancer with a 10-step plan.[11] According to her theory, all cancers are due to weakness of the immune system which must be cured by diet. "All diseases are caused by a combination of three factors: malnutrition, dehydration, and stress."
In 2004, she began marketing her "Cancer Doesn't Scare Me Anymore" videotape with an infomercial. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch registered a complaint about the content of the infomercial, and subsequently reported that the video had been declared to be "misleading" by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus in December 2004.[12][13]
Barrett wrote on Quackwatch, "In my opinion, her advice is untrustworthy and is particularly dangerous to people with cancer".[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Morgan, Edward H. "On the crest of a controversy". The Christian Herald. 115 (3): 42.
- ^ Smith, Sylvia (13 May 1989). "AIDS test polarises debate on surgery, safety and privacy". New Scientist. Vol. 122, no. 1664. p. 31. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
- ^ Day, Lorraine (1991). AIDS: What the Government Isn't Telling You. Rockford Press. p. 301. ISBN 0963094009.
- ^ a b Carroll, Jerry (November 13, 1989). "The doctor who's afraid of blood; Dr. Lorraine Day's scary anti-AIDS precautions". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2000-09-16.
- ^ "Lorraine Day, M.D." 3 November 2003.
- ^ "Dr. Lorraine Day: Purveyor of woo, homophobia, and Holocaust denial". 27 January 2007.
- ^ "Deanna Spingola and Dr. Lorraine Day - Zionism, the Holocaust, Aids and Vaccines". 12 May 2011.
- ^ Roberts, Sam (July 16, 2019). "William Dannemeyer, 89, California Archconservative, Dies". New York Times.
- ^ "It is with great sadness and regret, that we announce that Dr. Lorraine Day passed away on November 10, 2023". Dr. Day. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
- ^ "Lorraine Day". Forest Lawn. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
- ^ "You Have Cancer. You're Going to Die! the doctors told me..." drday.com. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
- ^ a b Barrett, Stephen (March 16, 2013). "Stay Away from Dr. Lorraine Day". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
- ^ Barrett, Stephen (December 13, 2004). "NAD concludes that Lorraine Day infomercial is misleading". InfomercialWatch.org. Retrieved 2013-12-23.