In the early evening of March 17, the man Erica McLean had hired to cure her husband of cancer arrived at their ranch in Sunland.
David Chuah, a biochemist from Canada, carried a large brown bag brimming with pills, drops and powders, Erica recalls. Clive McLean, 60, was to take them in addition to the other therapies Chuah had prescribed during six months of treatment, she says.
On earlier occasions he had lingered comfortably, chatting, joking, sometimes pouring himself a drink -- but that night, she says, Chuah was in a hurry.
"He said, 'I'm going to leave you with a bill,' " recalls Erica, who had already paid Chuah about $18,000 for his services. As the nostrums were pulled from the bag, Clive McLean lay nearby in a rented hospital bed, his once 155-pound body withered to 95 pounds. He had been unresponsive for days.
Erica asked Chuah how to use the new medicines. Instead of answering, she says, he asked to use the McLeans' home computer, hastily typed out a bill for $120,000 and waited for Erica to write a check. He was planning to catch a flight home that evening to British Columbia, where he operated a clinic.
Stunned at the amount of money he was asking, Erica says she asked for Chuah's Social Security number. When he said he didn't know his number, her mounting frustration swelled to anger. She ordered him to leave.
"At that point it all hit me," says Erica, sitting in the now-empty living room recently, wiping tears from her eyes. "I knew this guy was a fake and that I'd never see him again. At that moment, it all made sense."
Clive McLean died March 29 of kidney cancer that had spread to his brain. The therapies for which he and his wife had paid so dearly -- using up much of their savings and forsaking traditional cancer treatments that might have prolonged his life -- were useless, doctors say.
Erica McLean says she has shared the details of her husband's experience with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Acting on her complaint, the department recently completed an investigation into the actions of Chuah and Feline Butcher, a Los Angeles nutritionist with a large celebrity clientele who often works with Chuah.
The case has been turned over to the district attorney's office for consideration of criminal charges of grand theft and practicing medicine without a license.
Chuah could not be reached for comment for this article. Butcher's attorney, Donald Etra, says no charges have been filed against her and that she is "totally innocent of the allegations."
