Grandpa dies of cancer after seeking treatment from quack chiropractor

A 59-year-old grandfather died of cancer after seeking treatment from a chiropractor who promised his eye tumor would just fall off on its own.

Ian Booth first noticed the tumor as a small lump near his right eye less than 12 months before he died, and oncologists recommended surgery to remove it, reported A Current Affair.

But relatives say Booth, of Queensland, Australia, was afraid of hospitals and did not want to lose the eye, so he instead sought out alternative treatments.

That led him to George Zaphir, a chiropractor who boasts of an 85 percent success rate in treating cancer patients as a doctor of integrative medicine.

Booth's niece, Belinda McIntyre, said the chiropractor assured her uncle that his cancer could be treated.

"He was told, 'You've come to the right place, and if you follow our treatment this is what will happen, the tumor will grow out and fall off,'" McIntyre said.

Booth told his family he believed Zaphir was a general practitioner -- but an investigative report found he had never held a doctorate in medicine and was deregistered as a chiropractor several years ago.

One of Booth's relatives wore a hidden camera for the TV program and sought treatment for legitimate back trouble from Zaphir -- who assured the relative that he was both a chiropractor and a doctor of integrative medicine.

Relatives have asked authorities to investigate Zaphir and other practitioners who prescribed medicine to Booth -- whose tumor did not fall off but eventually killed him.

Booth admitted to family members that he had spent about $4,000 on alternative treatments before his death.

He wrote Zaphir shortly before his death and asked for a full refund to pay for palliative care, but relatives said the chiropractor never replied.