'Thought he was helping': Patient endures 9 years of chemotherapy for cancer he never had

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. “I never really questioned that until someone else told me that there was reason to.” I discovered Olson’s story in a cache of records related to an ongoing legal dispute between Weiner and St. Peter’s. In December 2020, St. Peter’s fired Weiner, accusing him of “harm that was caused to patients by receiving treatments, including chemotherapy, that were not clinically indicated or necessary,” among other allegations. “The harm that he’s done to these people — they’re broken both physically and mentally because of what he did.” For years, LaClair could not comprehend why so many in Helena continue to support Weiner, but in watching the change in one of his favorite patients, he came to understand something: Olson didn’t just feel betrayed; he was heartbroken. In a court filing that year, the hospital alleged that Weiner “misdiagnosed and/or failed to properly diagnose numerous other patients whose subsequent chemotherapy treatments may not have been warranted ….” St. Peter’s, however, did not provide a full accounting.