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September 21, 2009

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Berlin doctor kills 2 during group therapy session

A DOCTOR leading a group therapy session gave participants drugs and other substances that killed two and hospitalized 10, Berlin police said yesterday. One person was left comatose and in critical condition.
The doctor who led the session has admitted giving the participants various substances and drugs during the meeting, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor's office told The Associated Press yesterday. It was not clear whether illegal drugs were given and whether the substances were injected or taken orally.
A police statement said autopsies have been carried out on the two dead but "the chemical-toxicological investigation will take a while."
Police said the scene of the crime was a house and medical practice in the leafy Hermsdorf neighborhood in the north of Berlin. The 50-year-old doctor who worked there was detained and a homicide division was investigating the case.
Neighbor Thomas Riebel said he had heard rumors the doctor was involved in therapies with mushrooms that create mind-altering effects.
The doctor, his 41-year-old wife, who runs a practice for alternative medicine in the same building, and 12 persons attended the session on Saturday, according to a police statement.
"During the session, which lasted several hours, he supposedly gave the patients various kinds of substance and drugs which initially led to reactions like nausea and vomiting," the statement said.
When the symptoms got worse, one of the participants called the emergency services, according to the statement.
When police and ambulance cars arrived at the doctor's practice, they discovered 12 people who appeared to have been severely poisoned.
A 59-year-old man died immediately on the scene and a 28-year-old man died that night in hospital, according to the police.



 

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