Now, that wasn't in the US, and I'm pretty sure the quack device wasn't approved as a medical device. But the fact is that fraudsters will sell their fake medical products to desperate patients who have nothing left to try. These people should rot in jail.
My idea is not about quack medicine. People should be discouraged from using quack medicine, and made abundantly informed that it's guaranteed not to work, while consuming their precious time alive which other treatments might extend.
My idea is about something that has promising results in scientific trials, but may carry unknown risks, and so is not yet approved. The risks may be worth it, because the alternative is a certain and quick death.
The patients should, of course, be also abundantly informed about the risks, the odds of success, etc.
Of course, some people would do things that we would find irrational, no matter how we try to persuade them against that. This may of course be painful to see, but I don't see why should we curtail the free will of an adult in their sane mind, as long as nobody's rights are being infringed. Certain new things always look crazy even though they have merit: see vaccines, blood transfusion, etc.
They indeed do this and have various avenues for treatments to be approved on expedited timelines.
BTW people picking such experimental treatments would provide important data points.
Talking about immunotherapies feels like oh yes of course it would be worth it…but should you also be able to print out a blog article about holistic medicine and demand the hospital follow that treatment plan for your illness? Should a person insisting their illness be treated with an untested therapy from a disreputable company get a hospital bed instead of you for the same condition because they arrived first?
IMO this seems like something where the burden on the medical system is at least as much of a factor as the risk to the patient.
Screw ‘em
It took about one year to find efficient ways to treat COVID-19.
So, if you have a condition with a few years of life expectancy remaining, maybe it's worth it to wait for some promising scientific results to turn into an approved medicine that will cure you. If you have a few decades (e.g. the normal life expectancy), even more so. If you doctors give you a few months though, maybe the "try anything" approach is a better gamble.