A Westmount naturopath is on trial for criminal negligence causing death, more than three years after the incident occurred.

Mitra Javanmardi was treating 84-year-old Roger Matern in 2008 when he came to see her for heart problems.

In court on Thursday, witnesses testified that Javanmardi gave Matern an intravenous injection of magnesium at which point he started feeling ill.

Matern started feeling hot, then cold and vomited, after which Javanmardi advised Matern drink a smoothie.

Following this Matern went home, and continued to decline.

He was taken to St. Luc hospital where he died the next day, June 13, 2008.

An investigation followed, and a preliminary hearing for Javanmardi began in February 2010.

The College of Physicians has fined Javanmardi on at least two prior occasions for practicing medicine without a license.

The College says that only medical professionals should be giving injections

Only nurses or medical doctors are permitted to give intravenous procedures n Qeubec. Javanmardi had been fined three times by the College of Physicians for practicing such illegal medical acts.

"She didn't have the right to give intravenous treatments and we'll show the proof," said Prosecturo Helen di Salvo.

The defense said that Matern was aware that Javanmardi was not a medical doctor but came to her because he did not trust modern medical treatments.

"I took for granted that she was not a medical doctor, but her title began with the letters Dr. So I trusted her," said Denise Matern, the 82-year-old widow.