A high-profile conspiracy theorist influenced her daughter to reject chemotherapy in favour of alternative treatments, which ultimately led to her death, a coroner has ruled.<\/p>\n
Paloma Shemirani, from Uckfield in East Sussex, died in July last year – seven months after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.<\/p>\n
Ms Shemirani, 23, had declined chemotherapy in favour of juices and coffee enemas advocated for by her mother, Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who was struck off for her anti-vaccination views.<\/p>\n
Coroner Catherine Wood said at Kent and Medway Coroners Court on Thursday: \u00ab\u00a0The influence that was brought to bear on Paloma… did contribute more than minimally to her death.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
After her diagnosis in December 2023, Ms Shemirani went to live with her mother and began having five coffee enemas a day, according to her brothers.<\/p>\n
In July 2024, she collapsed at home and was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where she died five days later.<\/p>\n
An osteopath who saw Ms Shemirani on the morning she collapsed told the inquest he had \u00ab\u00a0never seen\u00a0\u00bb a lymphoid mass like hers in 43 years of practice.<\/p>\n
Ms Wood said Ms Shemirani died from the progression of a disease which was curable but not treated.<\/p>\n
She added that treatment would have given Ms Shemirani an 80% chance of a complete cure.<\/p>\n
The Cambridge graduate had initially consented to treatment, the coroner said, adding that \u00ab\u00a0doubts about consent only surfaced after Mrs Shemirani became involved\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The coroner said Ms Shemirani was being influenced by her own beliefs, her mother’s, her father’s and by those of a family friend – all who advocated the alternative treatment she used.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I found Mrs Shemirani’s care of her daughter incomprehensible but not unlawful killing,\u00a0\u00bb Ms Wood said.<\/p>\n
Ms Shemirani’s mother tried to blame medical staff for her daughter’s death and has previously labelled chemotherapy as \u00ab\u00a0mustard gas\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Staff at Maidstone Hospital, where Ms Shemirani was diagnosed, the Royal Sussex County Hospital and paramedics all acted appropriately, the inquest found.<\/p>\n
Neither her mother or her father – non-medical doctor Faramarz Shemirani – attended the conclusion of the inquest.<\/p>\n
Her brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian Shemirani, did attend and said the state had \u00ab\u00a0failed\u00a0\u00bb by not classing their sister’s death as an unlawful killing, despite recognising a breach in their mother’s duty of care.<\/p>\n
Gabriel told the inquest: \u00ab\u00a0I blame my mother entirely for my sister’s death\u00a0\u00bb, adding she had been \u00ab\u00a0obstructing\u00a0\u00bb his sister from receiving treatment.<\/p>\n
The coroner noted the \u00ab\u00a0striking\u00a0\u00bb family dysfunction, which she said had been \u00ab\u00a0on display very publicly\u00a0\u00bb during the inquest.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The dynamics within the immediate family were complicated and dysfunctional at the time of Paloma’s death,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A high-profile conspiracy theorist influenced her daughter to reject chemotherapy in favour of alternative treatments, which ultimately led to her death, a coroner has ruled. Paloma Shemirani, from Uckfield in East Sussex, died in July last year – seven months after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Ms Shemirani, 23, had declined chemotherapy in favour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}