A Cambridge graduate died after her conspiracy theorist mother made her “doubt” her cancer diagnosis, a British coroner has found.
Paloma Shemirani (23) who had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, died at Royal Sussex County Hospital on 24 July 2024 after declining chemotherapy, and instead following an “alternative treatment programme”, including daily coffee enemas, led by her mother, prominent online conspiracy theorist Kate “Kay” Shemirani.
The Telegraph reports that Paloma was “adversely influenced” by her mother, whose actions were “incomprehensible”, ruled Coroner Catherine Wood at Kent and Medway Coroner’s Court last week.
Shemirani and Paloma’s father, Dr Faramarz Shemirani, who is “sympathetic” to his ex-wife’s views, tried to blame medical staff for their daughter’s death.
Kay Shemirani was struck off as a nurse in 2021, after a Nursing and Midwifery Council committee found she had spread Covid-19 misinformation that “put the public at a significant risk of harm”.
After the hearing, Paloma’s brothers said their sister had been “brainwashed” since she was born, and that as children, they were lectured about medical conspiracy theories, and how “‘big pharma’ is plotting to kill us”.
The coroner concluded that Paloma’s parents’ influence “more than minimally” contributed to her death.
Estranged
After graduating from Cambridge, Paloma had been “estranged” from her mother until her cancer diagnosis.
In December 2023, doctors at Maidstone Hospital found a large and bulky upper right side medicinal mass – a non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the court heard.
Her mother had encouraged her to return to the family home and took a leading role in her daughter’s “alternative treatment programme”, which involved daily coffee enemas and a strict diet, the inquest heard.
‘Egregious and incomprehensible’
At the time of her diagnosis, doctors told Paloma she had an 80% chance of recovery through chemotherapy.
The coroner said: “It seems that if Paloma had been supported and encouraged to accept her diagnosis and considered chemotherapy with an open mind, she probably would have followed that course.”
She later added: “If she had undergone chemotherapy she probably would have survived.”
On 19 July 2024, Paloma collapsed and was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, where she died five days later of an “unsurvivable brain injury” caused by her long cardiac arrest.
Nick Gosset, an osteopath who saw Paloma on the morning she collapsed, said he had never seen a lymphoid mass like hers in 43 years of practice.
The coroner found it “incredible” that Kay Shemirani was claiming her daughter was well in July 2024, and that it was “egregious and incomprehensible” that she did not seek further medical advice as Paloma’s condition worsened.
Paloma’s twin brother Gabriel Shemirani told the inquest: “I blame my mother entirely for my sister’s death.”
He and his siblings were hoping coroner Wood would find Paloma’s death an “unlawful killing”, he added later outside the court.
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