El Cerrito man accused of duping desperate cancer patient

Photo: Natural-oncology.org/ Investigators found Vicent Gammill's website offered, "alternative...

A 69-year-old El Cerrito man was accused of practicing medicine without a license after he changed a Southern California cancer patient’s prescriptions, giving her an array of powders and expired drugs and a “baggie of dirt,” authorities said.

The trouble began in June when a 49-year-old woman from Thousand Oaks (Ventura County) with late-stage cancer visited the Richmond office of the suspect, Vincent Gammill. She had seen his website years earlier and planned to seek treatment from him as a last resort, said the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office and officials in Ventura County.

Gammill examined the victim and allegedly told her to alter the dosing of the medication her primary doctor had prescribed, while extracting a $2,000 payment for services.

‘Baggie of dirt’

Gammill gave the unidentified woman “multiple plastic ‘Ziploc’ baggies containing different powders, empty capsules, vials of liquids, commercially produced medications with expired shelf-life dates (including medications labeled in Russian) and a baggie of dirt,” investigators said. He allegedly told her one of the compounds was so powerful it could burn a hole in a table.

Bringing out a frying pan, authorities said, Gammill showed the woman how to “mix” one of the elixirs. After the woman ingested a capsule that the substance had been placed into and began to get a “burning sensation” in her stomach, Gammill purportedly told her that it was “good her stomach was burning because that meant the ingredients were still active.”

The woman complained and sparked a probe by a multiagency pharmaceutical crimes unit in Ventura County, which found Gammill’s website but could not locate a record of him having medical training. Gammill was said to offer “alternative and complementary care for those with cancer.”

Multiple charges

Investigators arrested Gammill on July 9, and the Ventura County district attorney’s office charged him with unlawful practice of medicine, elder or dependent adult abuse, and dispensing or furnishing drugs without a license. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Ventura County Superior Court on Aug. 31.

Officials reported finding more than 25,000 prescription pills including steroids, morphine and Ambien, along with Russian and Mexican drugs and laboratory equipment, at his home and office.

According to investigators, Gammill said he had earned a doctor of science degree sometime in the 1990s after initially telling detectives he had no formal education past high school.

Efforts to reach Gammill were unsuccessful. But he told KNTV that he doesn’t treat patients, instead providing an “instructional program” they can follow if they choose. He said he had treated his own cancer with his alternative therapies, and he denied that he had given dirt to the Thousand Oaks woman.

“I think she just wants to be in the limelight,” Gammill said.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz