Doctors warn: calls for donations to promote ineffective or even dangerous therapies

American doctors are concerned: calls for donations in the network, many people can therapies Fund, which has no scientific Basis. The health, of the credibility of Crowdfunding platforms and the truly needy harm.

Individual donations in the network of and for people with serious illness and have been in the last few years, becoming more and more popular. On so-called Crowdfunding platforms, a more or less large sums of money to donate for treatment by small individual of the Crowd, so the mass to come together. In the USA, the medical Crowdfunding must often complement even the full-of-holes insurance system.

The donations have come from desperate people, whose fates are often heartbreaking. Please contact the Public because you put your often the last hope in the therapies, and the often very high costs are not covered by any insurance.

Two examples of successful Crowdfunding:

• A 15-year-old student who saved the rampage at Parkland high school in Florida, 20 other students, and with five gunshot wounds just survived, got donated within a few days, $ 120,000, after his family had asked for a modest $ 5,000 for the hospital.
• In the spring of 2018, a 4-year-old heart patient from Bavaria could be operated in the USA and saved. The call for donations to the family brought more than 500,000 euros for a treatment that could only be carried out by an expert in the United States. FOCUS Online reported on the case .

Allegation: Crowdfunding promotes dubious therapies

Despite such heart-warming stories of American Doctors are sounding the Alarm. They criticize that the donations are to be dropped calls too often for controversial or even harmful therapies. In the journal Jama, a study shows that many of the money collector to Finance dubious ask for alternative medicine and unproven therapies appeared recently. The doctors mean by homeopathic and naturopathic treatments for cancer as well as stem cell therapies for Paraplegics. In addition, the hypobaric oxygen therapy in brain injuries and long-term antibiotic treatment of chronic Lyme disease.

Alternative therapies bring less donations than expected

The Team of Ford Vox from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta was one of the years 2015 to 2017 1059 calls for donations for the above-mentioned treatment methods on four Social Media platforms. Most of the money gifts to the people, for the naturopathic approaches to treatment. The lowest sum could be retracted for the antibiotic treatment.

In General, the Crowd was less generous than hoped for: Of the 27.3 million $ 6.7 million came together as a whole. Maybe it will take the donor to the heart of what “GoFundMe”Managers advise: “Check the campaigns very carefully before you donate.” Ultimately the Internet community to stay there but left to what is donated, is the largest platform for medical Crowdfunding.

Here is the Newsletter of ‘health’ subscribe

Reports, Videos, backgrounds: From Monday to Friday, provided you FOCUS Online with the most important messages from the health Department. Here you can subscribe to the Newsletter easily and free of charge.

For his campaign, every fundraiser is responsible

Critics of the Crowdfunding platforms, therefore, to evade responsibility. Study co-author type Chaplan of the medical faculty of the NYU in New York City, says: “It is donated a lot of money on ineffective and often dangerous treatments, and without someone for the expensive and pointless approaches would have to justify.” It’s because of a lack of regulation.

Jeanette Gusko, Director of GoFundMe Germany contradicts this in an interview with FOCUS Online: “firstly, anyone who wants to start a campaign must follow a series of requirements. In addition, all are invited to give in their campaign not only information, but also as much as possible about the medical project.“ And an internal Team would check whether there is a call for donations was consistent. In case of Doubt as to the authenticity or seriousness of the campaign, you would be rejected or removed.

Portals do not check whether the therapy of a donations collector is useful

This does not, however, campaigns due to therapies to reject, which were denounced in the U.S. study. And so a furious set of type Chaplan on medical Crowdfunding remains unchallenged: “Generous donors are being ripped off and desperate patients and families to be exploited by charlatans, quacks and opaque providers.”

Two examples of the downside of Crowdfunding:

• In Australia, parents rejected chemotherapy for her six-year-old son, who suffered from an aggressive brain tumor. With the note that they did not want to expose your terminally ill child is stressful Chemo, were you in court to the end of the therapy. They launched instead a fundraiser on GoFundMe for an alternative medical treatment in Asia. It didn’t, the Boy died shortly thereafter.
• On Crowdfunding platforms, it is difficult money bodies to again and again cons: A 27-year-old Australian ergaunerte as a supposed cancer patient $ 55,000. The case landed in court, the donor got back your money from GoFundMe.

Nevertheless, the authors of The study, found in a well two years ago, about 1000 calls for donations for questionable therapies have had only a small section of the medical crowdfunding at a glance. Alone on “GoFundMe” to run each year, over 250,000 calls for donations for a therapeutic concern. The vast number of supplicant just want to be healthy, no matter what method. And the majority of donors just want to help.