'License to Kill' Season 2 Episode 2: How fake doc Rick Van Thiel 'treated' many for cancer, STI and abortions
It's the stuff of nightmares — someone you trust to be a licensed professional who can save lives, but Rick Van Thiel was not that and his charade caused casualties. One such casualty was Randy David Valenzuela Jr, who tested positive for HIV in 2005 and went to a licensed doctor. When his diagnosis took a turn for the worse in 2012, he approached Van Thiel after noticing a Craigslist ad that said the latter could treat HIV/AIDS using ozone therapy, a form of alternative treatment that claims to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood and cleanses it of viruses and bacteria through the introduction of ozone. Van Thiel is the subject of the latest episode of Oxygen's 'License to Kill'.
Valenzuela's first round of treatments actually seemed to go well, though his mother was skeptical. When Valenzuela took an at-home HIV test — known to be faulty and produce false negatives once every 12 tests — he was elated to see that it showed he tested negative. Two years later, in 2015, Valenzuela believed he had contracted HIV once again and decided to return to Van Thiel for treatments. This time, however, Valenzuela was not asked for daily treatments and even got worse. Soon Valenzuela decided to stop his treatments with Van Thiel and died three weeks later.
An investigation into Van Thiel was not opened until a few months later when Last Vegas police received a tip from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Servies. Van Thiel had been accused of conducting unlicensed medical procedures — including abortions — in his trailer, treating everything from cancer to STIs. Van Thiel had never obtained a medical license and was a former military who was arrested several times in the past for violent felonies, including shootings.
Van Thiel identified himself as a sovereign and espoused anti-government rhetoric. He claimed he had been studying medicine for 30 odd years and did not need a government-issued license to practice. Later, after he had been arrested in October 2015, prosecutors alleged that as many as three people who sought treatment from him have died. Retired FBI agent Bryanna Fox says in 'License to Kill' that investigators came across YouTube videos which were "particularly shocking". In one video, Van Thiel declared that he was not a surgeon and learned how to perform various procedures by watching YouTube videos.
As authorities raided Van Thiel's "practice" in October 2015, they discovered that Van Thiel had been processing multiple patients’ blood through the same ozone therapy machine without cleaning it, potentially exposing them to various diseases and ailments. They also seized a vial of black market steroids, about 10 vials of the blood thinner heparin, IV bags containing something that looked like blood, and medical equipment from the trailer. On encountering victims, officers also learned that Van Thiel would often perform procedures naked.
While Van Thiel waited for his trial, he claimed that he was innocent. However, Van Thiel's victims never got to see his trial, as in July 2017, Van Thiel hung himself in his detention cell at the Clark County Detention Center.
'License to Kill' airs on Saturdays at 7 pm ET/PT on Oxygen.
