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Following Ms. Hill’s death, and after it received “concerns” about his methods, the BCCA suspended Dr. Katakkar with pay in late May and began a detailed examination into the files of his nearly 300 Northern B.C. patients. Two weeks later, Dr. Katakkar resigned, allegedly so he could freely discuss the case.

“I have resigned as I need to be transparent to all of you as I am responsible to you,” he wrote in a resignation letter to his patients later published by the Prince George Citizen.

Ms. Hill was diagnosed last July, but after submitting to several rounds of chemotherapy by January, a PET scan showed that the cancer had spread beyond her stomach.

“The BCCA wrote her off; they would have just had her on palliative care,” said Mr. Hill.

Dr. Katakkar arranged for a chemotherapy treatment that was outside BCCA protocols, but was permitted provided he secured alternate funding. Then, he proposed a unapproved vaccine therapy that he had first developed in the early 1990s.

“[With] death knocking on the patient’s door I told of my research to the patient,” wrote Dr. Katakkar in his resignation. “So with her full consent and her husband’s full consent I proceeded and made the vaccine.”

“He made us aware at the time that he could obviously be in trouble for this because it wasn’t something that was approved by the B.C. Cancer Agency,” said Mr. Hill.

The ex-MP added that he has been speaking to the media about the episode because Ms. Hill would have been “aghast” that the procedure would have cost Dr. Katakkar his job. “It’s what she would have wanted,” he said.