Former cancer doctor Farid Fata has been behind bars for 11 years now. While he's set to be released in 2050, he recently filed a motion to be released early due to health issues.
His victims and their families have been speaking up — saying he needs to stay where he’s at.
“What he did was just horrific,” said Mark Berger of Ferndale.
Berger’s mother, Ruth Berger, was one of Fata’s patients. Berger said after his mother went into remission, Fata insisted that she continue chemotherapy treatments.
“Fata just said, 'I’m your oncologist, I know how to treat you. You need to trust me for everything,'" recalled Mark Berger.
Ruth Berger did as Fata said and continued the treatments although she didn’t need them. She died about two years later.
“I feel that I was cheated out of my mother’s old age because of that, because of him,” said Mark Berger.
In 2014, Fata pleaded guilty to a health care fraud scheme that involved giving hundreds of patients chemotherapy they did not need.
He also made millions of dollars from fraudulent billing.
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“I was just appalled that someone who would get the trust of their patients, and then treat them with something they really didn’t need for financial gain. I just thought it was just the Hippocratic oath, it was everything against that," Berger said.
Fata recently filed a motion asking for compassionate release.
He said he had a rare blood disorder and if he doesn’t get out of prison soon, he will die.
“He showed not one of those patients any time of compassion, yet he’s asking for that now,” said Angela Shukwit, an oncology nurse.
She once applied to be a nurse at Fata’s doctor’s office but after one interview, she noticed things were terribly wrong.
“I saw one thing after another being done incorrectly, OSHA violations, but the biggest thing was chemotherapy being given incorrectly,” said Shuckwit.
Shukwit never accepted the position at Fata’s office and immediately reported him to the state medical board after her interview.
Shukwit and Berger are both sending letters to the judge on Fata’s case, asking that he not be released.
“I think he should spend the rest of his life in jail,” said Beger.
Fata’s victims have until Aug. 26 to send in their statements about their thoughts on Fata’s compassionate release request.
This story was originally published by Tiarra Braddock at Scripps News Detroit.
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