OMG! Man left with a HOLE in his head after using ‘quack’ ointment (GRAPHIC PHOTO)

by Zara Mustapha

hole

An Australian man left doctors shocked when he was admitted with an inch-wide hole in his head after he allegedly used an ointment which he thought would help treat his skin cancer.

The 55-year-old man was said to have entered a hospital with a large lesion on his right temple after reportedly using Black salve, an ‘alternative medicine’ ointment.

According to doctors, the man was believed to have been applying  the salve for four months and did not seek medical help until the ointment created a black hole in his head.

Daily Mail reports:

Doctors at Princess Alexandra Emergency Department in Brisbane were shocked when the man entered the ward in September last year.

He was using a ‘strong narcotic analgesic used to relieve pain’ to combat the agony and doctors initially believed they would have to operate.

However, he was sent home to tend to the wound with proper instructions and it healed within three months. 

The man had admitted to staff he had been applying an alternative medicine to the area, which staff believe was a type of Black salve.

Dangerous: Black salve, made form blood root, has been condemned in several countriesDangerous: Black salve, made form blood root, has been condemned in several countries

The ointment, also known as drawing salve, contains sanguinarine – derived from bloodroot – and is often mixed with zinc chloride, working as a corrosive.

The paste is used on a topical area, moles, scars and sometimes cancer, it destroys skin tissue, leaving being a black scar which later falls off.

Black salves were popular in the early 1900s to treat skin lesions, but have been listed as a ‘fake cancer treatment’ by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2004, and the organisation is actively trying to ban it in the U.S.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) condemned the ointments as recently as 2012, although they are not yet banned.

The TGA says it is ‘unaware of any credible, scientific evidence that black salve, red salve or cansema can cure or treat cancer.’

However, the warnings have not stopped the widespread use of Black salve in Australia.

‘I think it’s used a lot more commonly than we realise,’ dermatologist Dr Erin McMeniman told news.com.au.

‘Patients are often quite secretive about where they get it from, but dermatologists often end up seeing cases where there are major complications.

‘Most commonly the tumour is not adequately treated and then 12 months later it’s still growing beneath the scar the cancema [black salve] has produced.’

 

 

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