“…The Doctor Is the Gadol Hador”
Question
My child has a disease that is life-threatening, and for many years we have been searching for a cure. There are numerous medicines available to lessen the symptoms of this condition and prevent it from getting worse, but they all have terrible side effects. They do, however, prevent the patient from entering a life-threatening situation.
For many years, we have been discussing this situation with people we trust in our community, who eventually told us about someone practicing non-conventional medicine who has reportedly helped others recover from serious illness. We were encouraged over several months to consult this practitioner.
After much frustration with the side effects of conventional medicine, we finally did. For the first few months, he treated our child along with conventional medicine. At a certain point, he said that he could not continue unless we stopped using conventional medicine entirely, promising us that with his treatment, our child would be doing much better within a year. Understandably, the medical professionals were appalled that we would even consider such a suggestion and called it dangerous.
For two and a half weeks, our child was off the conventional medicine and received only the non-conventional treatments. Then, suddenly, his situation drastically deteriorated and he almost died. He was immediately hospitalized, and boruch Hashem, there is a good chance he will recover, but no one knows what types of damage there may be from this episode.
I have a number of questions to ask the rabbonim:
How should one evaluate spiritual guidance on medical matters?
What kinds of questions are appropriate to bring to which authorities?
What is the proper way to present pikuach nefesh questions to rabbonim?
In regard to the non-conventional practitioner, can I make a monetary damage claim against his insurance company?
Thank you.
Y. K.
Rav Auerbach
As far as your first question: Seeking guidance and brachos from spiritually attuned individuals — for shidduchim, children, and any other areas of need — is entirely appropriate, and I encourage it. However, I want to tell you a principle that you and anyone else should etch firmly in your hearts and minds. When it comes to cases of pikuach nefesh, the treating physician is the gadol hador.
This is not a matter where spiritual counsel, however sincere, substitutes for medical authority. In this situation, the question should have come to someone positioned to rule on pikuach nefesh directly, and the answer would have been to follow the conventional doctors.
In regard to your third question: What is the proper way to present pikuach nefesh questions to busy rabbonim? Many people invoke “pikuach nefesh” loosely for situations that don’t actually rise to that level, which makes it harder for rabbonim to properly weigh the urgent cases. The proper approach is to come with someone who can represent the medical facts clearly, preferably someone the rov already knows and trusts, who can lay out plainly why this is, in fact, a case of pikuach nefesh.
As far as monetary damages, since we don’t have real semuchim today, we cannot apply the halachos of knasos, but you are definitely permitted to get compensation for damages and expenses incurred from what happened. If the non-conventional practitioner has insurance, then you are allowed to sue him. Even if there were no expenses that bais din would hold one accountable for, the minhag is to ask insurance companies for payment for the pain, anguish, and inconvenience caused by the situation.
As far as the general usage of non-conventional medicine, it depends. If someone uses it before he gets sick to prevent illness, that is fine. So too, if conventional medicine does not offer any cure, then one may turn to non-conventional medicine. However, if someone, lo aleinu, has a life-threatening illness and conventional medicine offers a cure or at least prevents the situation from becoming genuine pikuach nefesh, then one should rely only on conventional medicine.
I give your child my heartfelt brocha for a speedy recovery.
Rav Zafrani
I concur fully with everything that Rav Auerbach said, including the point that if the non-conventional doctor has insurance, then you may sue him. I am mitztareif to Rav Auerbach’s brocha that your child should have a refuah sheleimah.
I myself recently had a case of pikuach nefesh, and I was advised by Rav Mordechai Gross about the best doctor to go to. But he made an interesting addition to his advice: The rov said that I should go “to this doctor and not to this one.” At the time, I wondered why the rov needed to add “and not to this one” until “this one” called me up and offered to heal me without using conventional medicine. It immediately became clear to me what Rav Gross had meant.
