Dr. Farid Fata patients, families gather at town hall for mutual support

Detroit-area doctor accused of poisoning cancer patients with chemotherapy for profit

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – Hundreds of patients and their family members packed a Rochester Hills hotel ballroom Wednesday night looking for some support and guidance.

All of them wondering what has been done to them after Dr. Farid Fata was arrested by the feds for Medicare fraud and poisoning patients with chemotherapy for profit. Right now it's a scramble for Fata's patients to get their medical records from the FBI.  It's time to find new doctors and explore what legal options they may have.

More: Trial date set for cancer doctor charged with fraud

Attorneys told the crowd of more than 500 that it will be a long, tough legal road and that the cases do not qualify for class action status. Each patient would have to have their records reviewed by medical malpractice attorneys and their consulting doctors.

The crowd also heard from an oncology nurse who turned in Dr. Fata three years ago for medical malpractice.

"Within 15 minutes of being in his office I knew that there was no way that I was going to accept a position at his office," she said.

It's a complaint she says went nowhere.

Larry Conrad brought pictures of his wife Patricia from before and after her treatment with Dr. Fata seven years ago.

"He treated her for the wrong type of Leukemia ... (she died) within 11 months," he said.

Conrad tried to sue Fata years ago and the case went nowhere. Now, all these years later it is like living through her death all over again.

"He took a life, I mean, what do you do?" Conrad said.

Then there are the living.

"I started with a perfectly healthy husband and he's a shell of that now," said Patricia Boggess.

Four years of so-called maintenance chemotherapy has left Boggess' husband beyond weak even though he is supposedly in remission. She said she asked again and again why all this was needed and was repeatedly told not to rock the boat by Fata.

More: Inside Dr. Fata fraud investigation

When the news of Fata's arrest broke, Boggess got her husband to a new doctor. The chemo finally will stop.

"I just want my husband back. I want him to be well. I don't care about the money. I don't care about what happens to Dr. Fata. I just don't want him to do this to anyone else. He's ruined our lives," she said.


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