An alternative healer was jailed for 15 years, comprising 10 years’ detention and an extended licence period of five years, after being convicted of the death of a 71-year-old diabetic woman during one of his therapy events in 2016 in Wiltshire, England.
Hongchi Xiao, who was born in China, was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence after he failed to get medical help for a British woman, Danielle Carr-Gomm, as she cried for help while writhing in pain during one of his therapy events in 2016. Daniel was a diabetic who required a daily insulin shot but opted to seek alternative methods of healing due to a lifelong fear of needles.
The therapy method by Xiao involves slapping and stretching and claims to reduce the need for patients to take “Western” medicine with “poisonous” side effects. This therapy originates from China but has no basis in science.
A year before Daniel's death, a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes died at a workshop Xiao ran in Australia after he told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy’s death.