Video: Couple accused of offering false hope to cancer patients

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SEATTLE – A Mount Vernon couple accused of using a bogus device on people they claimed could cure cancer have reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Donald and Sharon Brandt face a year in prison after admitting that they purchased a non-Food and Drug Administration approved medical device called a "vibe machine," which supposedly uses vibrations to kill disease at the cellular level.

Authorities allege it was one of several devices the Brandts used on customers with cancer and other illnesses, and charged them up to $1,600 a week for the treatments.

The Brandts deny they were in it for the money.

"We never advertised or tried to get any people at all. We're both ministers of the gospel. People would come to us after they were told they only had a couple months left to live, and so, they'd say 'try help us.' So we would pray with them and do what I know to do. We're both board certified microscopists. We do know health frontwards and backwards," said Donald Brandt, who calls himself "Dr. Brandt," even though he only has an eighth-grade education.

The Brandts stand by the type of treatment that uses radiowaves and electromagnetic fields. They say that kind of treatment works. Search warrant documents say at least one cancer patient, a 32-year-old Bellingham man, died in the Brandts care after rejecting surgery recommended by his doctor that could have extended his life.

But the Brandts also have their supporters, including a man whose wife was treated.

"All I know is my wife was having seizures. My wife is totally healed," he said.

The Brandts will be sentenced in August.