Golden – Brian O’Connell, a holistic healer, was sentenced today in Jefferson County Court to 13 years in prison during a long, emotional hearing for his part in the deaths of three patients, and one who was harmed in his care.
O’Connell, 37, pleaded guilty last month to criminally negligent homicide, practicing medicine without a license, assault, theft and perjury.
In one of the cases, Sean Flanagan, 19, died in December 2003 of Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone or tissue cancer. He had been taken by his parents to O’Connell after other doctors pronounced him terminally ill. Flanagan died after he was injected with a hydrogen peroxide solution, among other forms of unconventional therapy.
O’Connell was facing up to 16 years in prison.
