Who is William Hammesfahr?

There’s this name that keeps popping up in stories relating to Terri Schiavo: Dr. William Hammesfahr. He’s been quoted in thousands of publications and programs over the last week or so, primarily in conservative outlets (such as TV preacher Pat Robertson’s 700 Club), but also in mainstream publications such as the Miami Herald, LA Times, Tampa Tribune, etc.

Hammesfahr’s notoriety has grown considerably because he’s made bold, and seemingly dubious, claims about his ability to “treat” Schiavo. As a Toledo Blade report put it:

“Her chances of getting better are excellent,” [Hammesfahr] said. “They are overwhelming, with the proper therapies.”

Among other treatments, Dr. Hammesfahr would place her in a hyperbaric chamber to force more oxygen into her blood and administer drugs to dilate blood vessels and increase the flow of blood to the brain. He would also use physical, speech, and occupational therapy and perhaps even omental transfer, in which fat from the stomach is transplanted into the brain to increase blood flow.

Dr. Hammesfahr said he has treated 250 patients this way, and 98 percent of them showed “significant improvement.”

As Hammesfahr has told numerous outlets, he believes his “treatment” can enable Schiavo, whose cerebral cortex is now primarily spinal fluid, to “communicate verbally” and use her arms and legs within a couple of years.

Unfortunately, though Hammesfahr’s ideas have been published and broadcasted repeatedly in recent weeks, there are a few pertinent details about his background that reporters have been omitting. Fortunately, Media Matters is on the case.

In February 2003, the Florida Board of Medicine ruled that he violated state law by charging a patient for services that were not provided (Finding of Fact No. 71, PDF p. 32). The board fined Hammesfahr $2,000, placed him on probation for six months, and ordered him to pay approximately $52,000 in administrative costs and to perform 100 hours of community service. While the board also ruled that Hammesfahr’s treatment of stroke patients, using a procedure he has claimed could help Terri Schiavo, was “not within the generally accepted standard of care” (Finding of Fact No. 55, PDF p. 33), it declined to rule that the treatment was harmful to his patients and noted that some patients improved after treatment.

But wait, there’s more.

Hammesfahr likes to claim (ad nauseum) that he was nominated for a Nobel Prize, an assertion that has been published repeatedly of late. That’s not quite the whole story.

An October 23, 2002, Tampa Tribune article reported that during an October 2002 hearing, George Felos, attorney for Schiavo’s husband, Michael Schiavo, questioned Hammesfahr’s qualifications, noting that he “charges cash for treatments and advertises himself as a nominee for a Nobel Prize based on a letter his congressman wrote to the Nobel committee.” An October 25, 2003, St. Petersburg Times article noted that Greer, who presided over the hearing, called Hammesfahr a “self-promoter” who “offered no names, no case studies, no videos and no test results to support his claim” that he had treated patients worse off than Terri Schiavo.

So, when Hammesfahr was on Hannity & Colmes and told viewers that Schiavo is “not in a coma” and “absolutely can be rehabilitated,” it might have been helpful to know that this doctor has been fined by the Florida Board of Medicine, charges cash, was never seriously considered for a Nobel prize, and uses techniques outside “the generally accepted standard of care.” Seems like pertinent information, don’t you think?