Mexican Clinic Where Coretta Scott King Died Closed

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican clinic where Coretta Scott King died has been closed, U.S. Embassy officials said Friday.

Mexican officials were not immediately available to explain why the Santa Monica Health Institute in the Mexican beach resort of Rosarito, 16 miles south of San Diego, was shut.

Judith Bryan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said the U.S. consulate in Tijuana was helping patients find new facilities.

King last week traveled to the beachside clinic. She was seeking treatment for advanced stage ovarian cancer and a stroke she suffered several months ago.

The clinic specializes in alternative treatments for patients with incurable illnesses.

Its founder and director, Kurt W. Donsbach, has a criminal past and a reputation for offering dubious treatments to desperately ill patients, according to court records and a watchdog group.

However, the clinic doctors assigned to King's case said she arrived in poor health and they could not even begin to treat her before she died early this week.

"She came here with half her body paralyzed," Dr. Rafael Cedeno, the doctor who was overseeing her case, told reporters after King's death. "She was in really bad condition."