By ELIZABETH BINNING
A grateful mother told a medical tribunal she thanked God every day for being led to Richard Gorringe, a Hamilton doctor who used homoeopathic remedies to help her son.
She said Dr Gorringe kept her son out of a wheelchair when no one else could.
The woman, whose name is
suppressed, was one of three people yesterday to praise the doctor, who is facing two charges of professional misconduct and one of disgraceful conduct.
Dr Gorringe, who practises conventional medicine in conjunction with complementary medicine, has denied the charges, which relate to the way he diagnosed and treated two patients in 1998.
Appearing for the defence, the mother told the tribunal that Dr Gorringe cured her 5-year-old son two years ago with homoeopathic remedies, when no else could.
The child was losing his motor skills and had stopped growing. Doctors at Middlemore and Starship hospitals did not know what was wrong with him.
"Dr Gorringe immediately diagnosed him with insecticide and pesticide poisoning," she said. "I believe that had [my son] not been treated by Ricky Gorringe he would be mentally retarded today ... and be confined to a wheelchair."
Other witnesses said Dr Gorringe used muscle testing - an alternative diagnostic technique - prayer and homoeopathic remedies to cure illnesses that other doctors were at a loss to explain.
The hearing, which had been set down for a week, has now been adjourned because of time constraints and will resume next month.
