Posted on 07/10/2007 12:15:02 PM PDT by Between the Lines
A Westminster family planning doctor prescribed an exorcism to a patient seeking contraceptive advice, a medical tribunal has heard.
Dr Joyce Pratt, 44, is said to have told the woman she was possessed by an evil spirit and had "something moving inside her".
The patient - known as Mrs K for the hearing - mentioned she was experiencing pain and bleeding during an appointment for a routine contraceptive injection, the General Medical Council heard.
During the "bizarre" consultation at Westside Contraceptive Services in Westminster, Dr Pratt told Mrs K she would use her "black magic powers" to help her, the Fitness to Practise Panel sitting in Manchester was told.
The doctor allegedly made Mrs K - a practising Muslim - drink what she claimed was Christian holy water from a bottle in the consultation room.
Dr Pratt then read to her from a battered bible, said prayers over her stomach and gave her wooden crosses and stones to ward of evil, the panel heard.
Dr Pratt later bragged to a nurse at the clinic that she was a "visionary". She also told her manager, Chris Morgan, she had a special gift that had been with her since childhood.
GMC counsel Stephen Brassington said Mrs K was too "anxious and distressed" to give evidence in person at the hearing.
Dr Pratt chose not to attend the hearing or provide herself with any legal representation.
She is accused of behaving in an unprofessional and irresponsible manner that was liable to bring the medical profession into disrepute.
She is also alleged to have failed to co-operate with inquiries by her manager and the primary care trust into her behaviour.
If she is found guilty of misconduct she may be struck off the medical register.
In her statement to the panel, Mrs K said the doctor had told her normal medicine would not help her pain and bleeding.
The mother of two young children said: "When Dr Pratt felt my stomach she said that she could feel 'something moving inside' me.
"She grabbed my stomach and said that it was a flabby stomach and that it moves and it wasn't normal.
"She then said that there was black magic inside." She continued: "Dr Pratt said that the bleeding was because of something inside my stomach and that there is nothing that a doctor can do medically, but that she had the power to help.
"She said she didn't have the total power but there is a priest at Westminster Cathedral on Friday and Saturday nights after 9pm at night who would put their hands on my stomach and make it go away."
Mrs K said she had believed Dr Pratt could help her and drank the "holy water" because she seemed to know private things about her family which very few people knew.
The doctor wrote her mobile number on a piece of paper and some lines from the bible and gave it to her, Mrs K said.
Mrs K left the clinic "bewildered" and carrying the crosses and stones, the panel heard.
She said she returned home to her husband despite being told he was plotting to kill her, but then felt scared Dr Pratt would find out she had gone against her advice. That fear lasted for months, she added.
Nurse Lorrie Saunders, who works at the clinic where Dr Pratt - a locum - held the consultation with Mrs K, said the patient looked "bewildered" and "desperate to leave" after her appointment.
Dr Pratt was eager to speak to Nurse Saunders afterwards, the panel heard, and told her she was a "visionary" who could tell Mrs K had been a victim of witchcraft.
"Mrs K had recently been to some part of Asia and Dr Pratt was saying that maybe someone there had put evil spirits inside her and they had to be exorcised," she said.
Nurse Saunders told the hearing Dr Pratt said she had felt the spirits inside Mrs K and had given her phone numbers of priests who could help get rid of them.
"It was alarming to me that she was so convinced of what she was doing, that she was helping the patient and doing the right thing for them," she said.
"There was no indication that she realised that what she was doing was not medicine and not what we do in a contraceptive clinic.
"I was speechless - it seemed completely bizarre."
Nurse Saunders told the panel this was not the first time she had been concerned about Dr Pratt's behaviour, but was not asked to elaborate.
Dr Pratt denies her fitness to practise is impaired by reason of misconduct.
The GMC is expected to conclude its case tomorrow, at which point the panel will retire to consider its findings.
I almost had an exorcism once but my HMO only offered 80/20 coverage for that.
Is this another example of the benefits of having third world immigrants practising medicine in the first world, or is Dr. Pratt a local product?
Mrs VS
The hildabeest?
Paging Dr. Gere. Dr. Richard Gere.
had "something moving inside her".
That's hot.
LMAO!!!!!
“A family doctor prescribed an exorcism to a patient “
I saw a movie about this once.
I guess Father Richard Burton is no longer available.
So if you didn’t pay were you re-possessed?
Maybe Michael Moore was onto something...
This is preposterous that the only logical explanation is another bit of fabricated garbage from the Muslim Community to attack and discredit Christianity and Christians.
Get these people out!!! Send them back to the desert!!!
Sounds to me like two nuts meeting in the night.
I’ve worked in I.T., and actually worked with a woman that sprinkled holy water on the office computers. She believed that Satan possessed her “My Documents” folder as well.
There are nuts on both sides of the equation.
Remember the Muslims on that plane in the mid-west?
I would NEVER trust the word of a Non-Muslim over that of a Muslim and in that I am merely reciprocating their own practice.
But yes, there are nutjobs.
(Can Holy Water cure insomnia?)
high weirdness ping
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