The relationship between a doctor and his or her patient is a sacred trust, built on the understanding that one holds the well-being of the other in their hands. But what happens when a patient unknowingly sees a fake doctor? Sadly, it's all too easy to con trusting patients into thinking you're a physician, especially when dealing with someone sick, poor, or desperate.
The "physicians" on this list all abused the trust of their patients in some way, many through directly caring for people when they had no training, others by acting as a guru or expert. Some invented cures that didn't work, others directly killed people through their gross incompetence and negligence. Thankfully, all of them are off the street and have either been imprisoned, died, or renounced their fraudulent ways.
Here are the most blatant instances of quack doctors and doctor conmen pretending to be real. Read on to learn who they are, what they did, and what happened to them as a result of their fraudulent actions.
http://www.ranker.com/list/fake-doctors-who-conned-people/mike-rothschild,
Frank Abagnale
Made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 film, Catch Me if You Can, Frank Abagnale spent the better part of his life as a con artist, pretending to be a pilot, federal agent, and a lawyer. Among his fake identities was a doctor named Frank Williams. He impersonated a chief resident pediatrician in a Georgia hospital for nearly a year, and only left when he realized the great burden he’d put on himself treating children with no training. Even when a baby nearly died under his “care,” nobody figured him out. Abagnale was eventually captured, and after a series of escape shenanigans, went legitimate as a security consultant.
Jean-Claude Romand
Romand lived the life of a healer, working for the World Health Organization, specializing in curing heart disease. Or at least that’s the life he pretended to lead. In the real world, Romand was a grifter who dropped out of medical school after a year, and just spent time hanging out at conferences, hobnobbing with real doctors. To support his nearly two decades of scamming, he ran a fake investment scheme, bilking thousands of dollars from unsuspecting victims.
Things got dark when, needing to pay back his mistress, he murdered his wife with a rolling pin, then shot his children in the head, shot his parents and their dog, then tried to kill the mistress, failed at that, tried to kill himself, failed at that, and was arrested and given life in prison.
Leander Tomarkin
Swiss physician and chemist Leander Tomarkin gained worldwide fame for his development of Antimicrobum, a cure for pneumonia; as well as cures for typhus, tuberculosis, meningitis, and malaria. He was considered so brilliant that he became the personal physician to King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and counted no less than Albert Einstein as a patron.
Except Tomarkin wasn’t a physician or chemist, invented nothing, and was skilled at nothing more than being a con artist. His fraud was uncovered in the late ‘30s, and he died some time later, trying to develop synthetic diamonds.
Kristina Ross
At two different bars in Boise, ID in 2009, a “plastic surgeon” with the not at all made up name of “Berlyn Aussieahshowna” offered free breast exams to two different women. Fooled by her use of actual medical terms, the women consented, and one even exposed her breasts to the “doctor.”
But the number on Aussieahshowna’s business card turned out to be for a plastic surgery center – which contacted the police. It turns out that the “doctor” was named Kristina Ross, and had previously served two years in prison for battery. She was charged with practicing medicine without a license.
Ana Josefa Sevilla
Getting surgery to enhance one’s butt is a serious matter best left to the professionals. Ana Josefa Sevilla, a fake doctor busted in Miami for pumping a woman full of anesthetic and operating on her – nearly killing her in the process, is not one of those professionals.
Apparently, fake cosmetic surgery is a serious problem in South Florida, leaving an opening for enterprising grifters with some medical tools to make quick cash. Sevilla was arrested on two counts of practicing medicine without a license.
Ernest Addo
As a primary care physician at Agape Senior Primary Care, Ernest Addo saw over 500 elderly patients in two states, until quitting without notice. As it turned out, Addo wasn’t actually a physician, but had merely stolen the identity of a friend of his who was. He claimed that he’d practiced medicine in Belize, but given that Belize is not part of the United States, this didn’t make much headway with authorities. He pleaded guilty to fraud, identity theft, and practicing medicine without a license.
Keith Allen Barton
If Keith Allen Barton was the doctor he claimed to be, he’d have hundreds of physicians on staff at a clinic in Mexico, and have the ability to cure cancer and HIV. But he wasn’t. Instead, he was a grifter who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from unaware patients, and quite possibly caused the death of at least one girl with HIV who didn’t get proper treatment because Barton was “treating” her. After a sting, he was arrested and sent to prison.
Eric Perteet
A charming doctor with a tragic past, Eric Eric Perteet was dropped off by his wife every day at the Atlanta ER where he worked saving lives. One day, when he didn’t check in with her, his wife called the ER to make sure he was okay. Nobody there had an answer for her, because he didn’t work there.
As it turned out, Perteet had been arrested the night before, with a Scotch-taped badge and fake credentials. The hospital maintained he’d never had any contact with patients, so we’re left with a guy literally just wandering around pretending to be a doctor.
William Hamman
Even without medical fraud, William Hamman’s life would have been the stuff of legend – a seasoned commercial pilot Hamman was also an ace heart surgeon who spoke at conferences around the world. But the medical fraud puts it over the top, since Hamman had virtually no medical training, other than a few years at med school. He was able to keep the dual careers going for 15 years, teaching actual surgeons about patient safety and new techniques in surgery, until he was busted for not having any credentials when he applied for a grant.
Shockingly, the American Medical Association allowed Hamman to continue lecturing to doctors, but only if he made it clear he wasn’t a doctor. However, pressure from other (real) doctors forced him to stop.
Oneal Ron Morris
Going by the name “Duchess,” Morris perpetrated a massive fraud by pretending to be a plastic surgeon. Preying on trans women who wanted to enhance their curves (Morris was also trans), Duchess would show up at their homes with scrubs and a stethoscope, looking for all the world like a doctor. But she seriously wasn’t, since she would then inject these poor victims with a mix of Fix-a-Flat, rubber cement, mineral oil, and caulk.
As if that wasn’t awful enough, she closed their wounds using superglue and cotton balls. Morris was eventually arrested for killing one woman and destroying the face of another.