Re: killer doctor

>>From what I can tell, what ACTUALLY happened is that there seems to
have been an emergency proceeding to suspend his license and that
didn't happen but the charges remain for a hearing along with criminal
investigation into the hydrogen peroxide deaths AND into other
allegations (giving steroids and other banned substances to carolina
panthers players etc).

This is TYPICAL of Tim Bolen, both because he is an ignorant moron and
because he is an obsessed ranter, obsessed with quackwatch and steve
barrett and he constantly distorts things. In fact he and silver boy
are pretty damned similar in totally distorting mischaracterizing
misstating and out and out lying about things when it suits them.

There is no way that CBS news wrote this article in january 2005 if it
wasn't true. So given the total lack of crediblity of tim bolen AND
brent, I think it trumps this tim bolen piece of crap:

CBS News | A Prescription For Death? | January 13, 2005 10:00:12
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/12/60II/main666489.shtml

A Prescription For Death?

Jan. 12, 2005



Dr. James Shortt calls himself a "longevity physician." But the death
of one of his patients has been ruled a homicide, and investigators are
now looking for more. (Photo: CBS)



"If I am such a clear and present danger and a murderer, I should be in
jail by now."
Dr. James Shortt


Katherine Bibeau had been battling multiple sclerosis for two years,
and was looking for treatment that would keep her out of a wheelchair.
She died last March. (Photo: CBS)


Michael Bate, a retired Boeing engineer, was being treated for advanced
and incurable prostate cancer. He went to Dr. Shortt, desperate to
improve his odds. He died last July. (Photo: CBS)


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society

American Cancer Society

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention






(CBS) Dr. James Shortt calls himself a "longevity physician." He
promises to help his patients live better in the hopes they'll live
longer.

To many of his longtime patients, he's a savior, a physician on the
cutting edge of alternative treatments.

But the death of one of his patients has been ruled a homicide, and
investigators have been combing through his files, looking for more.

At issue is the unconventional use of a cheap, readily available
chemical, a chemical you probably have in your medicine cabinet right
now.

CNN Correspondent Anderson Cooper, on assignment for 60 Minutes
Wednesday, reports on this controversial treatment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If I am such a clear and present danger and a murderer, I should be in
jail by now," says Shortt, who despite a criminal investigation, is
still treating patients in his office on the outskirts of Columbia,
S.C.

Shortt got his medical degree on the Caribbean island of Montserrat,
and has been practicing now for 13 years. Being a "longevity physician"
didn't seem to bother anyone until one of his patients wound up dead.

It turns out Shortt gave her an infusion of a chemical, hydrogen
peroxide, that he's given a lot of his patients. It's normally used to
clean cuts and scrapes, and has never been FDA-approved for internal
use. But Shortt has been putting it in his patients' veins, because he
believes hydrogen peroxide can effectively treat illnesses from AIDS to
the common cold.

"I think it's an effective treatment for the flu," says Shortt, who
also believes that it's effective for multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease,
and "as adjunctive therapy" for heart disease. "Things that involve the
immune system, viruses, bacteria, sometimes parasites."

He's not the only physician using this treatment. On the Internet,
intravenous hydrogen peroxide is just one of a number of alternative
therapies touted as a secret cure the medical establishment doesn't
want you to know about. There's even an association that says it's
trained hundreds of doctors how to administer it.

The theory is that hydrogen peroxide releases extra oxygen inside the
body, killing viruses and bacteria. Shortt's patients, who get vitamins
and nutrients intravenously, swear by hydrogen peroxide, even though
there are no large-scale studies that prove it works.

Shortt diagnosed Luann Theinert with allergies, asthma, mononucleosis,
and Lyme disease. She says hydrogen peroxide is the only thing that's
helped: "When I first came here, I could not walk down the hall. I
could hardly breathe."

Stories like hers helped convince Katherine Bibeau, a medical
technologist, to travel all the way from Minnesota to see Shortt.
Bibeau, a wife and mother of two, had been battling multiple sclerosis
for two years, and was looking for any treatment that might keep her
out of a wheelchair.

According to her husband, Shortt said hydrogen peroxide was just the
thing. "He had said that there was other people who had been in
wheelchairs, and had actually gone through treatment and were now
walking again," says David Bibeau.

It didn't worry the Bibeaus that Shortt wasn't affiliated with any
hospital or university - and that insurance didn't cover most of his
treatments.

"He was a licensed medical doctor in Carolina," says Bibeau. "So I put
my faith in those credentials."

Last March, Shortt gave Katherine Bibeau an infusion of hydrogen
peroxide. According to his own records, she complained of "nausea,"
"leg pain," and later "bruises" with no clear cause.

"She went Tuesday, she went Thursday. And by 11 o'clock on Sunday, she
died," says Bibeau. He says Shortt never told him or his wife about any
serious risks. "Even if it wasn't effective, it should not have been
harmful."

Dr. Clay Nichols is the pathologist who conducted the autopsy. "I was
pretty well flabbergasted that somebody would administer this type of
therapy intravenously," he says. "I never heard of it before. I would
- started questioning myself. Did I miss something in med school?"

In his autopsy report, Nichols says Katherine Bibeau died from
"systemic shock" and "DIC," a disorder in which the blood loses its
ability to clot. Nichols blames Shortt's treatment, saying "this
unfortunate woman died as direct result of ... infusion of hydrogen
peroxide." The finding led Richland County's coroner to rule Katherine
Bibeau's death a "homicide."

Why did Nichols say it was a homicide? "Because it was a deliberate act
to put unapproved drugs into her veins," he says.

Did Shortt intend to kill Katherine Bibeau? "Of course not. And the
idea is to bring them back," says Nichols. "This is a cash cow for the
people who practice this type of medicine."

Nichols says there is no proven use for intravenous hydrogen peroxide:
"It's not the cure for any disease. It's not the treatment for any
disease. It's a bogus treatment."

And he's not the only one who thinks so. The National Multiple
Sclerosis Society calls intravenous hydrogen peroxide "unproven" and
"potentially dangerous." The American Cancer Society warns "there is no
evidence that it has value as a treatment for cancer or other
diseases."

If you search the medical literature, you won't find any rigorous
scientific studies showing this treatment works. You will, however,
find a number of cases in which hydrogen peroxide, used internally,
caused fatal embolisms and blood disorders.

Shortt argues he's using something different from what caused those
deaths, and different from what you can buy in the store. It's a
solution that's much more highly diluted and of better quality. He says
he's given it to more than 2,000 patients, and it's never harmed
anyone, including Katherine Bibeau.

"I didn't hurt that woman. I didn't kill her," says Shortt. "I think it
was an unfortunate interaction between her condition and certain
medications."

Those medications were prescribed by Katherine Bibeau's physicians in
Minnesota to treat multiple sclerosis. The drugs can have serious side
effects, but she had been taking them for a year and a half with no
apparent problems.

"I believe it's strictly a coincidence," says Shortt, who adds that he
can't see how it could have anything to do with hydrogen peroxide.

"He's a dressed-up snake oil salesman with an M.D. after his name,"
says attorney Richard Gergel, who is suing Shortt on behalf of the
Bibeau family.

Gergel says South Carolina's board of medical examiners should have
moved to suspend Shortt's license immediately after Katherine Bibeau's
death was ruled a homicide.

"It's up to the medical boards to protect the public from people who
prey on those who have no cure," says Gergel.

But how about the thousands of patients around the country who have
taken this treatment and say it works?

"Well, of course, we all know there's a placebo effect on medications,
and that's why you set up a double blind study," says Gergel. "And you
try to see both short-term and long-term whether there's any real
effect. You don't rely on anecdotal findings. That's not the way we do
things."

But Shortt disagrees. "Approximately half of what's done in medicine is
not proven," he says. "I know that hydrogen peroxide works because I've
watched what happens to patients when I deliver it."

County coroner Gary Watts, however, worries the true risks of this
treatment may be hidden. "One of my concerns is that it would not be
unusual for patients to fly in, receive the treatment, fly back home
and because they were terminal patients, nobody would think anything
about it," says Watts. "They were terminal patients. They died."

He says he's terrified that there could be other Katherine Bibeaus out
there.

These concerns prompted South Carolina's law enforcement division to
investigate. In September, detectives seized all of Shortt's records.
And then, a former patient, who spent many hours in Shortt's infusion
room, came forward with allegations of her own.

"I absolutely believe it was a complete racket," says Janet Bate.
"Absolutely."

Bate's husband, Michael, a retired Boeing engineer, was being treated
by an oncologist for advanced and incurable prostate cancer. He went to
Shortt, desperate to improve his odds. But it wasn't long before Bate
became a patient as well. She says Shortt diagnosed her with Lyme
disease, and said her husband had it, too.

"They would tell us that it was sexually transmitted from one to the
other," says Bate. "So a husband could have it and then the wife could
have it."

But according to the Centers for Disease Control, that's impossible.
Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks.

"That's the official explanation," says Shortt. "I'm saying there's a
potential that there are other means of transmission, and that we may
very well have a greater spread of this problem."

Bate says she and her husband paid Shortt at least $26,000 over the
course of eight months, hoping it would help Michael Bate live longer,
just as the doctor's sign says.

"Longevity physician. Makes me laugh now because he sure shortened my
husband's, hastened his death," says Bate.

She charges that Shortt's treatment hastened her husband's death,
because in addition to giving Michael Bate hydrogen peroxide, Shortt
also wrote a prescription for testosterone cream. It's a treatment that
Bate believes was contrary to the standard of care and the efforts of
her husband's oncologist.

Bate's oncologist had been giving him medicine to lower his
testosterone levels. Bate says her husband applied the cream without
telling his oncologist; that's when his condition rapidly got worse.

"He had tears streaming down his cheeks," recalls Bate. "And he said,
'A terrible mistake. Shortt has made a terrible mistake. I'm a dead
man. Janet, I'm a dead man walking now.'"

Shortly before he died last July, doctors re-tested Michael Bate for
Lyme disease. According to those tests, he didn't have it. And neither
did his wife.

"I get the feeling now, looking back, like we were being fleeced," says
Bate. "And I am angry about that. I have a lot of anger."

When her husband died, Bate was suspicious, but not enough to request
an autopsy. Michael Bate was cremated. Authorities are now
investigating his death, in addition to Katherine Bibeau's.

Bate has hired the same attorney who is representing the Bibeau family,
Richard Gergel.

"Dr. Shortt's office appears to be a crossroads for every medical scam
out there. Phony Lyme disease test. Hydrogen peroxide to cure any
condition the traditional medical community can't cure," says Gergel.
"I think it's going to be a rich repository of a problem which I think
extends far beyond South Carolina."

Shortt denies the testosterone cream he prescribed hastened Michael
Bate's death, but he won't say anything more than that, citing patient
confidentiality. He insists, however, he's done nothing wrong.

Is his practice some sort of scam for money? "No, I don't make much,"
says Shortt. "This is a mission for me."

Bate feels she's got a mission now as well, to warn people how
vulnerable we all are when faced with terminal illness.

"Right now, as we speak even here, there are thousands of people
sitting on their Internets in catastrophic conditions of health.
They're going to their Internet site, typing in whatever they can,
trying to find out what they can use to find hope," says Bate. "I've
only been a widow for two-and-a-half months, and I don't want this to
happen to anybody else."

Six months after Katherine Bibeau's death, South Carolina's board of
medical examiners moved to suspend Shortt's license. A disciplinary
hearing is scheduled for later this month.

For the time being, Shortt has agreed to stop using hydrogen peroxide,
but he's still in business, still seeing patients. If you look him up
tonight on the state licensing board's Web site, you'll find James
Shortt listed as a doctor "in good standing."



© MMV, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.





Brent wrote:
> On 31 Mar 2005 23:23:10 -0800, "zipzip" <mcpucho@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> snickered:
>
> >
> >Brent wrote:
> >> Big pharma and their quackwatch
> >> project set up the murder charges.
> >
> >only the families of the the deceased or state authorities have the
> >ability to pursue murder charges against the dr.
>
> The ruling - an emphatic "CASE DISMISSED!!"
>
> Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
>
>
>
> Monday, November , 2004
>
>
> Several State of South Carolina employees, a County Coroner, a County
> Medical Examiner, an Oncologist, a self-styled CAM "lite"
> practitioner, a private practice attorney, and a newspaper reporter,
> found out, THE HARD WAY, last Thursday, November 18th, 2004, why it
> it's a really BAD idea to rely on any information sucked out of the
> internet site calling itself "quackwatch.com."
>
>
>
> A South Carolina Judge explained it all to them...
>
>
>
> Last Thursday, that South Carolina Judge issued her ruling in a
> Hearing called by certain employees of South Carolina's Medical Board
> system to immediately remove Jim Shortt MD's license to practice
> medicine alleging that he MURDERED a patient by using Hydrogen
> Peroxide IV Therapy last March, 2004.
>
>
>
> The ruling - an emphatic "CASE DISMISSED!!"
>
>
>
> In October of this year, armed agents of several State, County, and
> Federal departments raided Jim Shortt MD's Columbia, South Carolina
> clinic seizing records, and everything, virtually, that wasn't bolted
> to the floor. The local media, alerted ahead of time by those
> agencies, filmed the whole thing. Jim Short was vilified in the
local
> press, primarily by a reporter for "The State" newspaper named Cliff
> LeBlanc. LeBlanc, in way over-the-top reporting, had accused Jim
> Shortt of "injecting rocket fuel" into the patient.
>
>
>
> Remember LeBlanc's name - you'll be reading more about him below. The
> whole story about Jim Shortt was, of course, written up on
> "quackwatch.com," right then.
>
>
>
> The Jim Shortt case is so unbelievable it's hard to find a starting
> point to begin to tell you about it. To make it simple, I'll start
> right from where I first got involved. It's been a roller-coaster
> ride. The case has been a literal HELL for Jim Shortt, his family,
> his business, and his friends - TO THIS POINT. But now, things are
> going to turn around, and Jim can try to rebuild his life.
>
>
>
> The story I'm telling you is one more example of just how rotten, and
> murderous. the "quackbuster" conspiracy really is. But more, this
> story tells you how easy it is to turn the situation around if you
> know what's actually happening - and who, and what, is actually
behind
> the assault against North America's cutting-edge health
practitioners.
>
>
>
>
>
> The Jim Shortt Story...
>
>
>
> I've known Jim Shortt, casually, for several years - mostly through
> ICIM, IOMA, AAEM, or ACAM meetings which we both attend. We've had
> dinner together at, at least, one of those events. He called me last
> March after he had been formally accused of murdering that patient by
> the County Coroner. Now, I know him, his family, friends, et al, a
> whole lot better. My gain.
>
>
>
> The idea that Jim Shortt, or Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy could murder
> someone is absolute nonsense. The "quackbusters" and those that
> relied on their false statements, need to PAY DEARLY for what they
did
> to Jim Shortt. After meeting, and talking, to Jim's attorneys, I'd
> say that "pay dearly" project is underway. I'll keep you informed.
>
>
>
> But, our current story begins at the ICIM/IOMA meeting in Atlanta,
> Georgia this last October 6th through the 10th, 2004. I've said
> before what a great group these people are, and their performance to
> help Jim Shortt was nothing short of spectacular.
>
>
>
> Jim Shortt found me in a hallway, and asked if I could talk to him
for
> a minute. What he told me (the story up-to-date) was shocking.
> Immediately, we put a plan together to deal with the current
> emergency, and called in ICIM/IOMA's "Emergency Response Team" to
> help. And, help they did.
>
>
>
> What was the "emergency?" CBS "60 Minutes" was heading for Jim
> Shortt's clinic on Monday... and the news media, so far, had been
> ripping Jim Shortt, and Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy to pieces. Cliff
> LeBlanc, at "The State" newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina had
> sensationalized the Shortt case on the front page of his newspaper,
> mischaracterizing Shortt and Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy.
>
>
>
> But, there was more to LeBlanc. About two years before, LeBlanc had
> written a glowing article about a local attorney named Richard
Gergel.
> According to his website, Gergel specializes in Medical negligence...
> and... eighteen wheeler accidents. Gergel is listed on the
> "Quackwatch Legal Advisory Board." On November 5th, 2004, Gergel
> participated in an event put on by the North Carolina Academy of
Trial
> Lawyers called "MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE: Preparing to Win" where he
> participated in a panel called "Pre-emptive Strike: Stopping the
> Defense Team in Their Tracks."
>
>
> I'm sure Jim Shortt's attorneys will be asking attorney Gergel about
> his relationship with "quackwatch.com," reporter Cliff LeBlanc, the
> Coroner, the Medical Examiner, and his actions in this case in a very
> FORMAL manner, soon.
>
>
>
> Not long after LeBlanc smeared Jim Shortt on the front page of "The
> State" newspaper, the New York Times ran a similar article, covering,
> basically, the same information as "The State." Then, CBS "60
> Minutes" called...
>
>
>
> As we know, the "quackbuster's" New York ad agency frequently
> arranges for, and misleads, the press in regards to cutting-edge
> practices. But this time, we were ready for them. "60 Minutes" was
> invited to fly to Atlanta and interview Jim Shortt's "peers," and the
> IOMA Science committee who had, earlier that day, thoroughly
> investigated the so-called "homicide" and had given Shortt a clean
> bill of health - and had, using the patient charts, pointed directly
> to the REAL cause of death. "60 Minutes" showed up early Sunday
> morning, and spent the day with us.
>
>
>
> The following Thursday, we all met in Columbia, South Carolina where
> about 20 of Jim Shortt's patients had volunteered to be interviewed
by
> "60 Minutes," on camera. They were interviewed. On Saturday, CNN's
> Anderson Cooper (Anderson Cooper - 360, 7:00 pm EST M-F - CNN) showed
> up to interview Jim Shortt on contract to CBS. On Sunday, Jim Shortt
> was interviewed. And, there was more.
>
>
>
> All in all, I spent about thirty hours with "60 Minutes".
Hopefully,
> I used the time well.
>
>
>
> On November 1st, 2004, Jim Shortt was forced into a legal hearing by
> employees of the South Carolina Medical Board for the purpose of
> immediately suspending his medical license claiming he was "a danger
> to the public, due to his use of Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy." The
> trial took about two weeks, with the State putting on about seven
> witnesses, and the defense about twenty. In the end, the Judge ruled
> for the Defense.
>
>
>
> Frankly, the State's witnesses were simply not credible, and
basically
> told exactly the same story. The basis of their story seemed to be an
> article written by "quackbuster" Saul Green for the so-called
> "Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine." The "Scientific Review
> of Alternative Medicine," we know, is owned, and published, by
> Prometheus Press, the company that publishes all of the "quackbuster"
> books, and its "Editor" (insert laughter here) is Wallace Sampson MD,
> who claims as his title "Professor Emeritus at Stanford University."

>
>
>
> Sampson, we know, has NEVER taught at Stanford, and was, not long
ago,
> declared in a PUBLISHED decision on a California Appeals Court to be
> "biased, and unworthy of credibility." Saul Green, who has no
> credentials to write about oxygen therapies at all, has as his claim
> to fame that he once worked for Sloane-Kettering. His address listed
> is the same as the notorious American Council on Science and Health
> (ACSH), well known as a "quackbuster" front, and commonly criticized
> for its positions.
>
>
>
> The common thread throughout the testimony of the State's witnesses,
> according to observers, was that they All seem to have been coached,
> for their testimony, by attorney Richard Gergel. In fact, during
> cross-examination of the State's witnesses, it was brought out that
> Richard Gergel actually wrote, for the complainers, the "Complaint
> Letters" to the South Carolina State Medical Board.
>
>
>
> "60 Minutes" is still on the story, though. We'll see what happens.
>
>
>
> Stay tuned...
>
> Tim Bolen - Consumer Advocate
>
> http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/shortt1.htm

.

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