Susie had come to Saskatchewan from North Carolina three months earlier, chasing the promise of healing offered by Dayan Goodenowe and his Dr. Goodenowe Restorative Health Center in Moose Jaw. It’s a private, unregulated facility that claims “a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the progression and in restoring function of people with ALS.”

Goodenowe maintains that every person who enrolls in the program offered at the centre leaves in better condition than when they entered.

In her desperation, Susie put her home up for sale to pay the $84,000 US fee.

But former Goodenowe employees say that as her condition worsened, Goodenowe centre management left Susie to fight for her life on her own — she had to hunt for an American hospital that would install the feeding tube and find a way to get there.

One of those workers, who ended up quitting her job at the Goodenowe centre as a result of how Susie was treated, concluded, “these people had been taking advantage of vulnerable clients like Susie.”