• From a creeper who tricked women into physical examinations to a man who learned
to perform medical procedures from YouTube¬¬, we count eight strange cases of ordinary people
pretending to be doctors!
8 – Fake Psychiatrist Has Mental Issues, • In the Nineties, Australian woman Nora
Zacardas made a very healthy living pretending to be a psychiatrist.
Her clients were charged thousands of dollars to hear her very questionable advice but she
was eventually caught & arrested – only to get out of jail and immediately do the
same thing again • In the late 2000s, she started telling
friends she was a medical intern.
They claimed to have no reason not to believe her because apparently her history of lying
about this exact thing didn’t count.
Nora performed physical examinations on her friends, prescribed them drugs and tricked
hospital staff into allowing her to watch procedures.
Her own doctor even promised her a job once she finished med school.
• Nora eventually came unstuck when the suspicious mother of a patient called the
New South Wales Medical Board and discovered Nora had no medical training.
She was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2011.
7 – University Dropout Becomes Doctor to Royalty,
• Leander Tomarkin was a Swiss university student dropout who told everyone he had a
doctorate in medicine, and that he HIMSELF cured typhus, tuberculosis, meningitis and
malaria • He initially gained fame when he offered
to cure Pope Benedict XV’s pneumonia in 1922 – the pope died before he could do
cure it, but it lead to Tomarkin being able to convince Albert Einstein to become a member
of his fake medical conference • Hey guys, I invented the smartphone, also
cement – and tomorrow, I’m hosting a Skype call with Barack Obama to discuss my plans
for a time machine 6 – Fake Doctor Promises Cancer Cure,
• Despite having no medical training, Keith Allen Barton from California told many people
he could cure cancer and HIV.
He claimed to have two hundred doctors on staff and surgeons located in Tijuana.
• Most would’ve ordinarily seen through his bs, but the patients who were contacting
him were desperate and willing to try anything to beat their terminal illnesses.
Keith also shared his name with an actual doctor practising in California, which made
him more convincing.
• Among his many crimes, Keith convinced a woman suffering from an auto-immune disease
to have a section of her jaw surgically removed.
He then charged her $32,000 for a treatment that had no effect.
Another woman was told that her and her two children’s HIV would be cured.
She paid him $18,000, and her nine-year-old daughter died from poor treatment.
• Keith Allen Barton was eventually exposed by an undercover officer – he was then injected
with cancer and HIV as punishment - not really, but I wish it were true
5 – Sexual Predator Fools Women into Full-Body Examinations,
• In 2015, 25-year-old Michael Camilo Precht from Malta was charged with posing as a doctor
after he fooled three models into letting him examine them naked.
• Michael told the models he was setting up a Lifeguard Academy website and that he
wanted to hire them.
He claimed his insurance company required medical check-ups – but, hey, no worries,
ladies, he happens to be a doctor and can do the examinations himself!
Convenient!
• After putting his greasy paws all over them, Michael wrote: ‘You need a boyfriend
who gives you a massage every day’ on his fake medical report.
The shocked women immediately took the note to police and Michael was jailed for two years
and fined €2,329.
He now gets all the physicals he wants from Bubba.
4 – Man Impersonates Doctor to Pick Up Women, • Two-time divorcee Tammi McCreary thought
she’d hit the jackpot when she met Eric Perteet.
Eric was a former doctor who was supposedly taking a break from practising medicine while
he got over the death of his two sons.
• After getting married, Tammi dropped Eric off at his supposed hospital job, waving goodbye
as he went in to work.
• Of course, Eric was no doctor and had never been to medical school.
He’d once watched an episode of ER, but didn’t like it very much.
In May 2008, he was arrested for impersonating a doctor.
He’d been hanging around in waiting rooms and doctors’ lounges, stealing hospital
property and hitting on women.
• Tammi also discovered that Eric’s two sons were alive and well and that her new
husband had been having an affair with a woman at the hospital.
Eric pled guilty to theft and identity fraud in 2009.
3 – Oneal Ron Morris, • Oneal Ron Morris was a transgender woman
with no medical training who specialised in giving women injections of cement and patching
it up with superglue and cotton balls • Operating under the alias ‘Duchess’,
she visited patients wearing scrubs and a stethoscope and injected a concoction of Fix-a-Flat,
rubber cement, mineral oil, and an industrial sealant.
The wounds were then closed up and somehow her illegal business thrived from 2007–2011.
• Unfortunately, the results for patients were disastrous.
One paid $3,000 to have the toxic concoction injected into her face and developed a massive
pus-filled blister.
She said she felt like ‘a monster’, was afraid to leave the house and is still permanently
scarred.
Oneal was arrested for practising medicine without a licence and manslaughter.
2 – Fake Doctor Learned to Perform Surgery from YouTube,
• Because he “loves and wants to help people”, ex-con-turned-fake-doctor Rick
Van Thiel ran an illegal medical facility out of a Las Vegas trailer after learning
how to perform surgery from YouTube videos.
• He claimed to have been studying medicine for thirty years, but didn’t bother formalising
it with an actual degree, and instead watched videos and tried to do the thing he saw – badly,
of course • He has thirty felony counts for practising
medicine without a license and was accused of performing gruesome abortions inside his
trailer.
He also a history of assault and burglary, he’s real boyfriend material, would invite
over for dinner 10/10 would not murder you in your sleep
1 – Fake Doctor Lives Elaborate Lie for Eighteen Years,
• With an intricate web of lies, Jean-Claude Romand posed as a doctor for eighteen years.
• To support his lifestyle, Romand convinced his wife’s parents to sell their apartment
and give him the money to ‘invest’.
Then stole money from his own parents and secret lover – when they asked for their
money back, he did the only logical thing possible - he beat his wife to death with
a rolling pin and shot his two children in the head.
The next day, he drove to his parents’ house, ate with them, then shot them and their dog
dead.
• Returning home, he tried escaping his predicament by taking a handful of sedatives,
setting the house on fire and falling asleep.
However, he survived both, because being a murdering lying monster surely doesn’t deserve
a firey death or anything.
• He was soon after arrested, convicted, and given a life sentence – which isn’t
that bad.