It may have come a few decades too late, but, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission has acted decisively in banning jailed naturopath Marilyn Bodnar from practising, permanently.
Taking effect from July 23 2018, the HCCC has issued a prohibition order against the still-imprisoned Bodnar, partly based on a complaint from Stop the Australian (Anti) Vaccination Network:
8.4 Accordingly, the Commission makes the following Prohibition Order under section 41A(2)(a) of the Act:
- Ms Bodnar is permanently prohibited from providing any health service in any capacity, either paid or voluntary. For the purpose of this order, ‘health service’ is given the meaning as defined under section 4 of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993.
Read the complete Health Care Complaints Commission Statement of Decision here. I highly recommend reading the entire nine pages.
Bodnar was sent to the big house in April 2018, as reported by the ABC:
A Sydney naturopath has been sentenced to seven months in prison for her role in starving an infant in 2015, after a judge slammed her extreme diet advice that almost killed the eight-month-old.
Marilyn Pauline Bodnar was sentenced to a maximum of 14 months’ jail but will be eligible for parole on November 4.
The 62-year-old pleaded guilty to an accessory charge of causing danger of death to a child, when she advised the boy’s mother to adhere to a strict diet of raw vegetables, fruit, and seeds.
The mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had sought advice from Bodnar on how to treat the boy’s eczema.
Those who follow the Australian anti-vaccination movement would also remember that Bodnar attended at least one of the Sydney anti-vaccination protests, in September 2015. Eyewitnesses in attendance at the protest attest that Bodnar was given a hero’s welcome by antivaxers. Her protest appearance was two months after her first court appearance:
Bodnar (centre) in pink hoodie
The Australian Vaccination-risks Network’s Brett Smith (second from left)
joins a huddle around Bodnar. Still taken from video recorded on the day.
Another of the frequent anti-vaccination protest activists, Dr Kevin Coleman – now thankfully suspended – is also a strong supporter of Bodnar. Just one week ago, Coleman posted this to his Facebook profile:
Assuredly, the HCCC prohibition order is most welcome. But, Bodnar had already started her body-count three decades earlier. Bodnar killed a woman in 1986. Her 2017 trial couldn’t include her previous penchant for death, due to sub judice.
From the Sydney Morning Herald, in 1987, coverage of Bodnar’s first kill:
As reported in August 2017, by news.com.au, Bodnar was acquitted of her first customer-death due to, basically, victim-blaming:
Her guilty plea means The Saturday Telegraph can now reveal the former nurse was acquitted in 1987 of the manslaughter of mother-of-two Narelle Niemann, 42, who died on day 63 of a water-only diet to rid her body of toxins before having another child.
Ms Niemann lost 35 per cent of her body weight, dropping from 60kg to 39kg while staying at Bodnar’s home at Heckenberg in Sydney’s southwest.
She was so weak in the last few days she had to crawl on her hands and knees to use the toilet. Bodnar was ultimately acquitted, with her lawyers arguing that she helped Ms Niemann as a friend not as a patient.
The pink hoodie of death.
Here’s a huge thank you to the NSW HCCC, for ridding a practised monster from an unsuspecting and trusting public. This is regulation done right.
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