Author's Cousin Died After Trying Alternative Therapy

Topic: Diseases and Disorders

Saturday, 1 August 2026, at 3:36 pm

Hannah McElhinney's family found out her cousin had gone to Malaysia for medical treatment from a stranger on social media.

In short:

Author Hannah McElhinney spent years investigating after her cousin Lauren died seeking medical treatment overseas.

Lauren didn't tell anyone in her family she was going to Malaysia for treatment.

Hannah says people with friends or family suffering from mysterious illnesses should focus on validating their experiences.

When Hannah thinks about her cousin Lauren, a few things stand out.

She remembers spending her childhood idolising her cousin, whose walls were covered in pictures of boy bands.

She was what many people look up to in an older family member.

But she also remembers Lauren being tired.

Hannah's family always thought Lauren was just a sleepy teenager, but as she aged something shifted.

Lauren was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Both conditions can cause extreme tiredness, body aches, and brain fog.

Finding a diagnosis

Hannah says as Lauren aged, she began to search for answers outside of traditional medicine.

In her early 30s, she says her cousin became convinced she had chronic Lyme disease.

Around 2018 is when she found that diagnosis.

And in between then and those early diagnoses, she looked into other conditions.

Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection caused by bacteria.

Model Bella Hadid says she's been through more than 100 days of Lyme disease treatment.

The disease is commonly found in parts of Asia, the US, and UK.

Australian health authorities say there is no evidence that the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is present in Australian ticks.

Chronic Lyme disease is not an officially recognised condition.

Hannah says her cousin became convinced she had CLD and tried alternative treatments.

The first thing was veterinary Ivermectin.

Ivermectin is a medicine that has effects against parasites, mites, and worms.

It surged in popularity during the COVID pandemic amid unproven claims it could cure the virus.

Medical experts have repeatedly warned against misusing the drug.

Hannah says Lauren also tried drinking chlorine dioxide and bee sting therapy.

Bee sting therapy is where a person will sting themselves repeatedly with bees to treat Lyme disease.

Lauren also tried the controversial Gerson therapy.

The overseas therapy that killed Lauren

Hannah only discovered the extent of Lauren's alternative therapies after her cousin died in Malaysia.

She never returned.

The family did not know Lauren had left Australia until they received a message from a stranger on Facebook.

This man who my aunt didn't know said, 'Lauren is in a large hospital in Johor Bahru, and she's unconscious.'

Lauren died while undergoing hyperthermia, a treatment used to help damage or kill cancer cells.

Following Lauren's death, Hannah spent years looking into what led her cousin to decide on alternative treatment.

She joined the same social media groups her cousin had been a part of and spoke to other people living with chronic conditions.

I think the saddest thing for me was I got to know Lauren so much better after her death than I ever did while she was alive.

Hannah believes her cousin was sucked into a social media wormhole as she tried to find answers for her condition.

Lauren didn't just wake up one day and think, 'I'm going to go and have drastic alternative medical treatment.'

I actually found that for everything she did, there was a truth at the beginning of it, and there was a reason that she did it.

While a lot of it was based on misinformation, her logical steps were ones that I think so many people would take.

Lauren 'let down' by healthcare system

Hannah says Lauren's mother was the only person in their family who knew the full extent of alternative treatments she had been trying.

Hannah says her aunt would take Lauren to doctors, seeking help to explain the risks of the treatments she was undergoing.

Hannah says we should be careful not to isolate family members who are looking into alternative therapies.

She desperately wanted someone from the medical field to intervene and engage, but so often, and understandably, they feared getting entangled in alternative medicine.

In particular, one doctor sort of rolled their eyes at my aunt over Lauren's head while she was talking about some of the treatments that she was looking at.

Hannah says the healthcare system is letting down Lauren and other people living with mysterious chronic conditions.

This is a systemic issue, certainly not one with individual practitioners.

From a systemic point of view, I think there is a lack of information, a lack of understanding about these conditions.

The peak medical body for GPs in Australia has long recommended practitioners validate patient concerns when they present with medically unexplained symptoms.

In sharing Lauren's story in her book, Wormhole, Hannah hopes to change how we talk about people who fall into wormholes while looking for answers.

I think we can focus our efforts as family members on the invalidation that people with these illnesses often feel.

If we can just make sure that we believe their symptoms, we validate their symptoms, and that they know that we are committed to supporting them as they find something that will help them.

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