‘Healer’, 50, ‘failed to help’ diabetic woman, 71, as she lay dying at ‘slapping therapy workshop at posh country hotel’
A ‘HEALER’ failed to get a 71-year-old diabetic woman help while she lay dying at a ‘slapping therapy’ workshop, a court heard.
Danielle Carr-Gomm died on day four of the ‘alternative’ healing retreat at posh countryside hotel, Cleeve House, in Seend, Wiltshire.
Hongchi Xiao, 61, of Cloudbreak, California, was leading the class in October 2016 when tragedy unfolded.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in October 2019.
The ‘healer’, who is now on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of manslaughter by gross negligence, “evangelised” Paida Lajin therapy as a replacement for insulin medication, the court heard.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the jury that Danielle, from Lewes, East Sussex, had been looking for alternatives to her insulin medication for type 1 diabetes because of her vegetarianism and fear of needles.
The told the court she had first sought Xiao’s therapy in Bulgaria in July 2016.
Mr Atkinson said: “It is said to be a method of self-healing in which ‘poisonous waste’ is expelled from the body through patting and slapping parts of the body.”
He explained that while Danielle completed the workshop in Bulgaria, she stopped taking her insulin and became “extremely unwell, starting to vomit and became hard to reason with”.
“She had to be persuaded to start taking her insulin again before she recovered,” continued the prosecutor.
“The defendant was present, spoke to her about taking insulin, and was in a position to see the effects on Mrs Carr-Gomm both of her ceasing to take her insulin and of restarting the injections.”
‘RISKING DEATH’
The court then heard how Danielle went to the defendant’s workshop in October at the Wiltshire hotel.
She failed to take her diabetes medication again and became ill.
Mr Atkinson told the jury the 71-year-old passed away on the fourth day after Xiao failed to get her medical help.
He continued: “He knew that Mrs Carr-Gomm was risking death, and he knew that he had an influence over her decision.
“In short, therefore he chose to congratulate a diabetic who stopped injecting, rather than to persuade them not to take so grievous a risk to their life.”
'SLAPPING THERAPY'
- Paida Lajin therapy involved patients being slapped or slapping themselves repeatedly.
- The name paida lajin derives from the Mandarin words for slapping the skin, while “lajin” is about adopting muscle-stretching postures.
- It is linked to the traditional Chinese medicine concept of “sha” – an idea that blood is poisoned by toxins and needs to be expelled.
- But the method has been criticised for having no scientific basis.
Mr Atkinson also told the court how a six-year-old boy had died in 2015 after attending one of Xiao’s workshops in Sydney, Australia.
The youngster had stopped taking insulin after his parents took him to the ‘alternative therapy’.
Xiao had since been prosecuted for manslaughter, the jury heard.
Mr Atkinson told the court both the child’s death and Danielle’s illness in Bulgaria “would have made abundantly clear to him that her life was increasingly in danger”.
‘CRYING AND YELLING’
During the Wiltshire retreat, the prosecutor told how Danielle had fallen “increasingly and seriously unwell”.
By the second day she “could be heard crying and yelling whilst laying on her bed”.
The following day Danielle was “vomiting, tired and weak, and by the evening she was howling in paid and unable to respond to questions,” Mr Atkinson said.
He told the jury: “She was moved from her bed to a mattress on the floor because she fell from the bed.
“Those who had received and accepted the defendant’s teachings misinterpreted Mrs Carr-Gomm’s condition as a healing crisis.
“In that period of increasing danger, the medical evidence is that Mrs Carr-Gomm’s life could have been saved if medical aid was called.
“By the time that such medical aid was finally called on day four, October 20, 2016, it was too late, and Danielle Carr-Gomm had died of diabetic ketoacidosis as a direct result of the decision to stop taking her insulin injections.
“That decision was taken in the context of Mrs Carr-Gomm’s exposure to the evangelism, the confident belief, of this defendant that insulin was poison and that Paida Lajin represented an alternative, an alternative which she sought, to injecting insulin.
“The defendant knew at first hand that it did not represent such an alternative, but rather it carried with it an obvious and serious risk of death.
“He assumed a position of leadership and control over Mrs Carr-Gomm and her care as she declined and died, and he owed her a duty, which he failed to meet, to help and care for her.”
The also court heard how Danielle, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1998, was told if she failed to take her insulin, she would die.
Her son, Matthew Carr-Gomm, had said she turned to alternative and holistic medicines to treat her diabetes.
Mr Atkinson explained: “She was, as her son put it, an obsessive vegetarian, and it was this, together with her fear of needles, that made her anxious to find an alternative to injection with insulin.”
The prosecutor added that the defendant had been an “exponent” of Paida Lajin for 10 years and had written a book on it.
He said: “He does not have medical qualifications or training.
“In a book that he wrote about Paida Lajin, the defendant asserted that the taking of insulin leads to liver and eye problems, and that in contrast the Paida Lajin was ‘safer and more reliable than existing healing practices’ which would result in ‘significant improvement’ or full recovery in 90% of cases, including cases of diabetes.”
Speaking after her death, Danielle’s son Matthew Carr-Gomm said: “She was always keen to try and find alternative methods of treating and dealing with her diabetes and was very interested in alternative and holistic medicine and therapies.
“I know she was desperate to try and cure herself of this disease. She always maintained a healthy lifestyle and was adamant that nothing would stop her from living a full life.
“In recent years, mum was in a great place with a partner, a lovely home, and was travelling the world.”
Xiao denies the charge of manslaughter and the trial continues.