Desperate for a Parkinson's Cure, Judge Turned to Doctor Later Accused of Fraudulent Treatments
A municipal court judge in Missouri was so desperate for a cure for his Parkinson’s disease that he paid for a Mexican doctor to perform two transplants using stem cells harvested from placentas.
Judge Tim Donahoe of Cuba, Mo., tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the treatment was arranged by Alfred Sapse of Las Vegas, who was later accused in a federal indictment of promoting fraudulent medical treatments. According to prosecutors, Sapse claimed to be a retired doctor and touted stem cell procedures to treat multiple diseases though he knew the treatments didn’t work.
Donahoe says the transplants didn’t help him. He knew the treatments weren’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but he trusted Sapse. “You don’t think an 80-year-old man who’s nice is a con man,” Donahoe told the Review-Journal.
Sapse, who is now 85, told the Review-Journal in a separate article that he has a medical degree from the University of Bucharest in Romania. He says prosecutors should drop the fraud case against him and a local doctor who performed some of the implants. “Why does the government want to go after those who just want to help people?” he asked.
It’s not Sapse’s first experience with the legal system, the Review-Journal says. In a California case involving the payment of attorney fees in the 1970s, Sapse claimed his wife died from shock because of a process server’s actions. Later he revealed his wife was actually still alive.
