A 17-year-old diabetic boy from Tiruppur died after he stopped taking insulin injections on the advice of his acupuncturist.
The deceased, Subash had been taking insulin injections twice a day, for the past five years. Initially, he was taking insulin shots four times a day, which was subsequently decreased to twice a day following treatment.
R Balamurugan, the acupuncturist from Coimbatore, claimed that the death could have happened due to the intake of insulin injections.
Jagadeesh, the boy’s father told The New Indian Express that his son was tired of the injections and wanted to stop taking it. Their family friends advised them to see an acupuncturist.
The acupuncturist advised the boy not to take the injections and claimed that he would be healed through acupuncture. On May 20, Subash fell seriously ill and the family contacted
Balamurugan who dismissed the incident and said his health was getting better. The next day, he was found unconscious and was taken to a hospital. He was declared dead on arrival.
Balamurugan told The News Minute that his methods were foolproof and that this was a freak incident. “I do not endorse the gradual withdrawal of insulin injections. I think they must be stopped altogether. Acu touch is proven to work. So many patients who are in the same age bracket are doing absolutely fine after withdrawal,” he says. But there is, and he agrees, zero empirical proof for his claims.
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Balamurgan told TNIE, “There are numerous patients whom I have cured. This case is one in a thousand and I do not guarantee saving life. They started taking treatment only after accepting my suggestion to stop the insulin injections.”
He has been running a clinic at Ramnagar in Coimbatore since 2011. The family is reportedly yet to take any legal action.