Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:54:20 +0100
http://id50.blogspot.com/2008/01/updating-rogues-gallery-of-llmds.html
Updating the Rogues Gallery of LLMDs
Did we miss anyone?
Jan. 24, 2008. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A Stone Mountain doctor initially charged with injecting his patients with commercial-grade weed killer was sentenced Thursday to five years' probation for health care fraud. Totada R. Shanthaveerappa, 73, who was suspended by the state medical licensing board after his indictment in 2005, treated terminally ill patients at his clinic in Stockbridge. He pleaded guilty in October to defrauding insurance companies out of $650,000 for submitting false and misleading claims. Among Shanthaveerappa's initial charges was illegally giving patients Dinitrophenol (DNP), a weed killer and insecticide. But Shanthaveerappa did not plead to this charge. Samuel said the doctor gave DNP to five patients who had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease.
Dec. 19, 2007. Newsweek. Doc punished for Lyme disease treatment. Conn. regulators reprimand and fine pediatrician for his Lyme disease treatment. A New Haven pediatrician who has been praised by patients but criticized by the medical establishment for the way he treats Lyme disease was reprimanded, fined $10,000 and placed on two years probation by state regulators.
November 23, 2007. Topeka, KS (AP) - A Topeka doctor pleads no-contest to reckless involuntary manslaughter for the death of a woman he was treating for Lyme disease using an unauthorized method. Toth treated [Lyme patients] with intravenous infusions of a "heavy metal" known as bismuth, which has not been approved for such a use.
May 13, 2007. Three Lakes, WI. Wisconsin’s Gregory Hoffmann, M.D., is being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing and the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board for his treatment of Lyme disease.
December 8, 2006. Associated Press. A New Jersey doctor and her assistant were found guilty Friday of taking thousands of dollars from patients by promising to cure them of Lou Gehrig's disease with a stem-cell therapy they did not, and could not, deliver. A federal jury found Charlene DeMarco and her aide, Elizabeth Lerner, both of Egg Harbor City, guilty on all 11 counts with which they were charged, including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. [Note: DeMarco is known for her work on Lyme disease and in 2003 was appointed to the Governor's Lyme Disease Advisory Council.]
Sept. 17, 2006. In late 2005, the state Department of Public Health charged [Charles Ray] Jones with violating "the applicable standard of care" for his treatment of two young siblings who live in Nevada. After investigating the complaint, the health department brought charges to the medical board, alleging that he diagnosed Lyme disease in the children without examining them, that he failed to consider other causes for their symptoms, and that he improperly prescribed antibiotics. (Hartford Courant, Northeast Magazine section.)
August 22, 2006. A Topeka doctor accused of murder has made his first appearance in court. At his arraignment, Dr. John Toth heard the murder charges against him after prosecutors argued he gave one of his patients injections of Bismacine to treat her Lyme disease. Bismacine contains high amounts of bismuth, a metallic chemical that can be poisonous and is not approved by the FDA. Kansas' Board of Healing Arts suspended his license last year after two other patients suffered potentially fatal complications. (WIBW - Topeka, KS, 13 News)
July 19, 2006. The widow of a man who died of prostate cancer in 2004 while under Dr. James Shortt’s care has reached a tentative settlement with him in separate federal lawsuits. On Monday, Shortt was sentenced in a separate federal criminal case to one year and one day in prison. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to distribute steroids and human growth hormones to NFL athletes, body builders and others. Bate’s widow, Janet Bate, of Richland County, contends in one lawsuit that Shortt was negligent in the July 21, 2004, death of her 66-year-old husband. Shortt gave him intravenous hydrogen-peroxide treatments and falsely diagnosed him as having Lyme disease, the lawsuit said. In June 2004, Shortt prescribed testosterone, which caused his prostate cancer to rapidly advance and resulted in his death about six weeks later, the lawsuit said. (The State, S.C.)
June 16, 2006. Lyme doctor ruled guilty. The N.C. Medical Board on Thursday suspended a Mecklenburg County physician's license for one year after finding he departed from prevailing methods of treating Lyme disease. The 12-member board also concluded Dr. Joseph Jemsek didn't adequately inform patients that his approach, which includes keeping patients on intravenous antibiotics for months or years, is unorthodox. Jemsek, 57, didn't make it hard for the board to convict him. He testified repeatedly that he is the only physician in the state who routinely diagnoses patients with chronic Lyme even if they do not test positive when screened with standard laboratory tests. Jemsek also said he is alone in attacking the tick-borne disease with long-term antibiotic therapy. Most doctors require positive test results and believe Lyme should be treated with no more than two- four-week courses. Five patients, including the widower of a woman who died of morphine poisoning while under Jemsek's care, testified for the prosecution. (New Observer, N.C.)
March 31, 2006. A southern New Jersey doctor took money from Lou Gehrig's disease patients by getting them to pay as much as $35,000 for a stem-cell treatment that she could not -- and did not -- perform, according to a federal indictment unsealed yesterday. Charlene DeMarco of Egg Harbor City and her assistant and housemate, Elizabeth Copperman, were arrested yesterday and charged with 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for acts they are accused of committing between 2002 and 2004. DeMarco is known for her work on Lyme disease and in 2003 was appointed by Gov. James E. McGreevey to the Governor's Lyme Disease Advisory Council. (Associated Press)
April 28, 2005. A federal grand jury in Camden, New Jersey has returned a 17-count indictment charging two New Jersey men with conspiracy to defraud the United States, income tax evasion, and willful failure to account for and pay the IRS employment taxes withheld from their employees' wages. The indictment alleges that Anthony Lionetti, who resided in Hammonton, New Jersey, was the owner and president of two Lyme disease treatment centers, and that Donald DuBeck, who resided in Shamong, New Jersey, was the companies' vice-president and office manager. It alleges that they withheld income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from the wages of employees of the Lyme Disease Treatment Center and Tick Born Disease Group, and made only partial payments of the employment taxes collected in 1999 and 2001. (www.usdoj.gov)
Nov. 14, 2002. Dr. Perry Orens, whose license was revoked in November of 1999 as a result of his hearings before the New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC), has had his license reinstated by the Appellate court of the Supreme Court of New York State.
April 23, 2002. Dr. Joseph Burrascano, following hearing before the New York State OPMC on his medical treatments of Lyme patients, was placed on probation with a practice monitor.
2001. Dr. Richard Horowitz, who had been in hearings with the NYS OPMC since the spring of 2001, was offered a settlement consisting of three months suspension.
January 29, 2002. Texas State Board of Medical Examiners Disciplinary Action against William Cowden, M.D. (2002). William L. Cowden, M.D., who practices in Fort Worth, Texas, has been reprimanded twice by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners. In 1996, he was placed on two years of probation for (a) injecting a patient with Hodgkin's disease with a homeopathic product that lacked FDA approval and (b) prescribing Cytomel (a thyroid hormone) to a patient "without appropriate indication or documentation" that the patient has hypothyroidism. In 2002, he was fined $2,500 and placed on three years' probation for failing to maintain adequate medical records or to obtain adequate consent related to his management of three patients.
“Lee Cowden, M.D., of Fort Worth, Texas, has established what has come to be known as one of the leading chronic Lyme treatments of our time. Known as the Cowden Protocol, this series of treatments consists primarily of various herbal extracts, including Cumanda and Samento as well as hyperbaric oxygen treatment, ozone therapy, and other interventions.”
1998. Dr. Joseph Natole (Michigan) had his license suspended for 90 days, but was also fined $50,000. He was subsequently indicted and pleaded guilty to federal charges of over billing insurance companies.
Feb. 2, 1996. Donna Brewer of the Ct State Department of Public Health said they have determined that there was not "sufficient evidence of a violation of the standard of care that warrants action" against Dr. Phil Watsky’s license. The Hartford Courant quotes part of her letter: "The department is nevertheless concerned about certain issues regarding your treatment of 'S.M.'" The Bristol Press continues the quote from Brewer's letter, "The department is concerned regarding your continued diagnosis of Lyme disease despite the fact that the patient has not tested positive for a considerable period of time, your selection of antibiotics used in the treatment, the frequency and length of antibiotic therapy, and the possible long-term effects of such treatment."
August 12, 1995. The Trenton Times. "State seeks license of Lyme disease Doctor." This was John D. Bleiweiss, MD. The good doctor committed suicide shortly afterward.
June 25, 1993. FINAL FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT, NIH GUIDE, Volume 22, Number 23. Raphael B. Stricker, M.D., (past president of ILADS Lyme group).
An investigation conducted by the University found that Dr. Stricker falsified data for a manuscript and a PHS-supported publication reporting research on AIDS. In the manuscript, Dr. Stricker selectively suppressed data that did not support his hypothesis, and reported consistently positive data whereas only one of four experiments had produced positive results. Dr. Stricker executed a Voluntary Exclusion and Settlement Agreement in which he has agreed not to apply for Federal grant or contract funds and will not serve on PHS advisory committees, boards or peer review groups for a three year period beginning April 1, 1993. The publication "Target platelet antigen in homosexual men with immune thrombocytopenia" in the New England Journal of Medicine, 313: 1315-1380, 1985 has been retracted (New England Journal of Medicine, 325: 1487,1991).
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