Iridologist 'wrong to treat cancer patient'
TALIA SHADWELL
Last updated 06:55 28/08/2013

A leading naturopath has criticised an iridologist for treating a woman with a festering lesion on her head - saying she should have realised it was a case for doctors.

Te Horo iridologist Ruth Nelson, 72, should have declined to treat Yvonne Maine when first faced with the rotting, oozing lump on the Feilding grandmother's head, naturopath Phillip Cottingham told the Human Rights Review Tribunal yesterday.

By the time Mrs Maine saw surgeons about the lesion, it was cancerous and had grown so big that her brain was exposed. She received palliative surgery, but died in June 2010...

...Witnesses have testified that 16 months of Mrs Nelson's services included picking at Mrs Maine's lesion with tweezers, applying herbal poultices, and tapping her forehead while repeating positive affirmations...