doTERRA US Founder Stands Behind Use Of Oils For Burn Treatment That Hospital Denies

Last week, I wrote an article about 15-year-old Max Goddard, whose parents were detailing a terrible burn accident on maxgoddard.com.  Their original post about the accident has gone through several iterations, starting as a testimonial for the doTERRA oils they sell for a very successful living, and eventually just explaining that Max was on fire, and they took him to the hospital.

Subsequent postings on the website read like a doTERRA testimonial, of which there are thousands upon thousands within easy Google reach. The boy was not making as much progress, there was talk of specific interventions, but they slathered him in oils and he got better. Rather than following protocol, the head nurse allowed them to irrigate Max’s skin with oils, and his condition improved. Miracle upon miracle upon miracle, most attributed to the miraculous oils. Remember that time that his mom grabbed a scalding pot and he ran for the lavender oil? Thank God for the miraculous oils!

But their story is HARD TO BELIEVE.

I contacted the burn ward at The University of Utah hospital, where Max Goddard is supposedly getting treated. For obvious reasons, they could not comment on any specific case.  However, the representative made it clear that they practice ”evidence-based medicine” and wouldn’t allow ”any type of outside interventions that would endanger our patients.”

For clarification, ”evidence-based medicine” is “The conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient” ”¦Developed by David Sackett, a pioneer in EBP, this definition describes “integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.”

The thing about essential oils is that, while many people find them useful for many different ailments, there is certainly no clinical evidence based on systematic research that suggests that they should be irrigated onto third degree burns.  Even testimonials and heavy-duty essential oil followers will usually say things like ”A third-degree burn affects even the tissue underlying the skin and needs immediate medical attention.” The anecdotal evidence does not support what the Goddards are saying that they are doing how could a burn ward possibly consider testing it on critical care patients? (Answer: they wouldn’t. At least not according to the burn ward that the Goddards say that they are in).

The burn ward at University of Utah, like any respectable burn ward in the United States, cannot take a chance on the unproven claims of an oil salesman. Either the Goddards (who have a huge financial stake in the doTERRA company) were not truthful, or the representative of the burn unit (which has a large stake in following proven methods of treatment) was lying or unaware of what was happening in his hospital. I put my money on the former.

However, Andy Goddard says that the hospital is not telling the truth.

In a Facebook message to me, he wrote, “I imagine that the hospital would deny using the oils for lots of reasons: First, there are over 50 on staff just in the burn unit, and there’s no way for all 50 to know every aspect of every patient’s protocol. Second, they would be opening pandora’s box to publicly admit they allow any alternative method. When we asked them if we could use oils, we had to go through 3 levels of administration, and each did their own research of evidence with the oils.”

OK. But I could find no evidence, not even anecdotal, suggesting these oils should be IRRIGATED onto third degree burns. Maybe one person could be convinced, but to go through three levels of administration, each evaluating the nonexistent evidence and deciding to give it a green light, SEEMS unlikely. Further, a hospital that isn’t going to publicly admit the use of a therapy isn’t going to use that therapy. The hospital would be asking to be sued. I’ve been told two separate stories by two separate people, and I’m prone to go with the hospital’s rep on this one. If their denial is true, Andy is not just possibly making up stories about treatment, but suggesting that the very people who are saving his son’s life  would lie so as not to be held accountable for their actions.

AS THE STORY SPREAD BEYOND DOTERRA CIRCLES, the tone of the website changed. There are continuous updates about Max, but the oils haven’t been mentioned in several days. Instead, the focus is on the miracle of modern medicine. Andy explains it thus: “Burn care transitions significantly at the time of the surgery. Before surgery, the focus is preventing infection. After surgery, the focus is to help the grafts take. The doctors have been very open to using oils in conjunction with their silver and sulfa products before surgery, but didn’t want to take any chances with the oils hurting the skin grafts. So we’ve transitioned to using oils on the bottoms of his feet since the surgery.” It’s not hard for me to believe that they are rubbing oil on his feet – perhaps that’s what they’ve been doing all along.

Andy sent me a photograph of a “patient supplied medicine” bottle, with his son’s information and the essential oils listed, with the directions that the oils are to be misted on the wounds.  I asked him if there was a difference between irrigation and misting, and he said that the bottle that had prescribed irrigation had been thrown away several days ago, after the surgery, when their protocol changed.

Maybe I should just let it go – they stopped mentioning the oils, no harm no foul, right? Except there is POTENTIAL harm. The Goddards’ story is not simply a report they are trying to convince others to follow in their potentially made-up footsteps: ”There are moments it feels like he may be going through this to help many others who are suffering know a better way.” The better way, of course, being to use the products that they have become rich selling. Already, if you search for Max Goddard, you can find examples of doTERRA spokespeople re-telling the story as a source of inspiration, and there are several instances in the comments of people expressing relief that now they know what to do in this type of emergency.

 (Image: DoTerra)