Chinese national, 57, staying with her daughter in Australia died after Yun Sen Luo’s advice to cease all ‘western medicine’
A Sydney-based practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine has been found guilty of professional misconduct after a diabetic woman died after his advice to cease all “western medicine”.
Yun Sen Luo was found guilty on 30 January of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct after being prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission before the New South Wales civil and administrative tribunal.
The woman, known as Person A, had type 2 diabetes and was 57 years old at the time of her death.
She was a Chinese national who was staying with her daughter, known as Person B, in Australia. She attended Luo’s practice in Burwood, in Sydney’s inner west, specifically to see him about her psoriasis, a skin disease that causes a rash.
The commission complained that during Person A’s initial consultation on 26 May 2018, Luo failed to obtain a sufficient history regarding her “high blood sugar” and provided inadequate care and treatment by advising her to cease all western medicine, including her prescribed medication for “high blood sugar”.
Patient A did not speak fluent English, the ruling said, and communication between her and Luo during all their consultations was conducted in Mandarin.
The tribunal heard evidence that on 30 May, after receiving messages from Person B regarding the symptoms of her mother, Luo failed to appropriately assess the deterioration of the woman’s health; concede he was not suitably qualified to advise the woman about her worsening health conditions; nor did he recommend the woman be treated by a suitably qualified medical practitioner.
The tribunal was shown evidence of WeChat message exchanges between Person B and Luo, as the woman’s daughter sought advice as her mother’s condition deteriorated.
Person B said her mother “wants to vomit all the time”, “feels very weak and dizzy” and was eventually by 6 June “so feeble that she has collapsed on herself. She can barely speak.”
The tribunal heard Luo consistently prescribed traditional Chinese medicine including soups, juices and fruit.
When the woman stopped breathing on 8 June, the woman’s daughter rang triple zero. The operator advised her and her husband to administer CPR, which they continued to do until the ambulance arrived. The woman was taken to Hornsby hospital where she arrived at 1.49pm. She died at approximately 3.25pm.
The tribunal’s decision described “at 5.08pm, Person B sent the practitioner one final, poignant, WeChat message stating: Hello, doctor. There is no need for you to come over this evening.”
Luo’s registration was suspended in a hearing held on 27 June 2018.
The tribunal heard evidence that Luo had failed to apply principles of risk minimisation, contrary to the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia’s code of conduct.
The tribunal’s decision acknowledged that in an 11-day criminal trial, Judge John Pickering found Luo not guilty of circumstances amounting to manslaughter.
The tribunal will determine protective orders after a further hearing.
Prof Jon Wardle, the convener of the Public Health Association’s complementary medicine special interest group, said traditional knowledge was a “valid form of evidence practitioners are allowed to use in practice. What they’re not allowed to do is ignore other forms of reasonably known evidence.”
Dr Mariam Tokhi, a general practitioner, encouraged patients to check any healthcare advice they receive with their GP. But she acknowledged there were systemic challenges for patients from linguistically diverse backgrounds accessing services.
