Re: More on Shantha/ICHT GA Suspends Weedkiller prescribing dr's license (finally)
- From: "Mockingbird" <mockingbirdbrain@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Dec 2005 02:57:00 -0800
LymeBlog Dot Com - Cancer and Lyme disease doctor's license is
suspended
http://lymeblog.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=323
Latest News: Cancer and Lyme disease doctor's license is suspended
LymeBlog News
Lexington, KY USA
Staff
December 23, 2005 4:45 pm EST
"These are patients who are told, `There's nothing more we can do for
you _ go home. They come to Dr. Shantha as a last resort." -
Shanthaveerappa's lawyer, Don Samuel
According to an AP article by Don Schanche Jr. the Georgia State
Medical Board suspended Dr. Totada Shanthaveerappa's license, saying
his continued practice of medicine "poses a threat to the public
health, safety and welfare" and "requires emergency action."
The doctor, also known as Dr. T.R. Shantha, is accused of treating
patients with a chemical used in pesticides and reported that one of
his patients died after receiving a high dose of a chemotherapy drug.
Shanthaveerappa, 70, of Stone Mountain faces an 87-count federal
indictment for health care fraud and money laundering involving almost
$5 million. He operates Integrated Medical Specialists, a medical
clinic in Stockbridge, GA, in the metorpolitan Atlanta, GA area.
Dr. Totada R. Shanthaveerappa
Shanthaveerappa has had no disciplinary infractions with the board and
touts himself - on Web sites like Wehealcancer.org and
ims-islandofhope.com - as an alternative healer. In June, he received
the distinguished physician award from the American Association of
Physicians of Indian Origin at the group's convention in Houston.
In a letter to a medical newsletter, Shanthaveerappa wrote that he
treated a lady dying with septic shock with peritoneal hyperthermia.
"The procedure has never been attempted before anywhere in the world,"
he wrote. "Sarcasm and indignation was expressed by my colleagues about
how I treated this woman." He wrote that he is scorned by some doctors
for avoiding "the status quo."
According to the doctor's website, iptmd.com, Shanthaveerappa focuses
on treating patients with cancer and chronic Lyme disease.
Outlines of Dr.Shantha's method of treatment for chronic Lyme disease
posted on the clinic's website include:
Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) with antibiotics
Metabolic intra cellular hyperthermia
MICHT with extra cellular hyperthermia (ECHT)
Use of cytokines therapy with interferons and interleukins.
Hyperbaric therapy
Use of Rife principle
Nutritional and alternative immune boosting therapy
The website says, "Chronic Lyme Disease (CLD) is ...
almost impossible to diagnose definitely and very difficult to treat.
This is a condition where all kinds of therapies have been tried and
symptoms continue to linger and may even disable the person afflicted
with the disease."
"These individuals may complain of memory loss, mental/cognitive
problems, severe fatigue, Fibromyalgia, symptoms like multiple
sclerosis, heart problems, arthralgia, arthritis, chronic headaches,
chronic flu-like symptoms".
"Chronic Lyme Disease) is often misdiagnosed as ALZHEIMERS DISEASE,
MULTIPLE SCEROSIS, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME,
CHRONIC FIBROMYLAGIA, CHRONIC ANXIETY, AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE, HYSTERIA"
But a McDonough, GA resident, Mike Marinello, said he was not surprised
by the indictment of Dr. T.R. Shantha by federal authorities. He said
he went to Shantha two years ago seeking a treatment for Lyme disease.
He understands why some patients will turn to alternative medicines
like those Shantha promoted.
"People will get into a position to where they'll do anything," he
said. "I've known people who would give everything they had just to
feel good for a couple of weeks."
Marinello, 39, said he took two treatments from Shantha before the
doctor wanted to treat him using a hyperbaric oxygen treatment and
wanted $5,500 up front.
"We found another doctor," Marinello said.
Prosecutors said Shanthaveerappa and assistant Dan Bartoli, 63,
injected numerous patients with unapproved and misbranded drugs,
including dinitrophenol, a commercial-grade weed killer and
insecticide.
In a four-page order, the Georgia Board of Medical Examiners cited the
case of a cancer patient treated by Shanthaveerappa in 2001. It said
the doctor treated the patient with a chemotherapy drug called
methotrexate in doses so high they posed "an unreasonable and
significant risk to the patient," who died from complications caused by
the drug.
The two men also submitted false insurance claims that disguised the
types of drugs and treatments they were providing, according to the
indictment.
In its order, the medical board said it received a letter from
Shanthaveerappa on Thursday acknowledging that he had treated patients
with two drugs that have not been approved for use in the United
States, and that he had misbranded one of the drugs.
According to Shanthaveerappa's Web site, he has six children, two of
whom are doctors. He has three U.S patents. One is listed as "A method
and apparatus for heating the interior surfaces of a hollow organ or
orifice of the human body for the treatment of viral infections,
microbial infections, and cancers, the apparatus including an insertion
body having a semi-rigid support tube and an inflatable balloon."
Shanthaveerappa's lawyer, Don Samuel, said the doctor plans to plead
not guilty.
Samuel said his legal team has collected hundreds of testimonials from
patients, some of whom have had their lives extended by years because
the doctor treated them after traditional medicine gave up.
"These are patients who are told, `There's nothing more we can do for
you _ go home,'" Samuel said. "They come to Dr. Shantha as a last
resort."
The weed-killer drug prosecutors allege the doctor used is an
experimental drug regularly used overseas that was once used in the
United States as a diet medication, Samuel said.
"It happens to have the same chemicals you use to treat lawns. But so
does water," Samuel said. "There's probably something in the cookies
you eat" that is used in weed killers, too.
Shantha's therapy is similar to intracellular hyperthermia (ICHT). Both
therapies used DNP and hyperthermia. ICHT was used by a number of Lyme
disease and cancer patients a in 2002 and 2003 and was administered by
Nicholas Bachynsky at the Villa Preziosa Medical Facility in
Laveno-Mombello, an Italian city near the Swiss/Italian border. Shantha
is a former associate of Bachynsky.
In October 2003, an Italian newspaper reported that Bachynsky had been
charged with aggravated volountary manslaughter based on an
investigation by Italian authorities in connection with the death of
four patients. The report noted that the authorities and the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation had been unable to locate Bachynsky
[13]. However, he was eventually apprehended and charged by the U.S.
Government with 40 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and
securities fraud. As of April 30, 2004, he has been in the federal
prison in Miami, Florida.
View of Villa Preziosa Medical Clinic
ICHT hyperthermia being administered
at Villa Preziosa Medical Facility in Italy
In December 2004, a former Bachynsky associate-James Naples, D.P.M.,
of Texarkana, Texas-pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice
during an investigation of his billing practices. In April 2005, Naples
was sentenced to 2 years' probation and ordered to pay the $2 million
in restitution.
That Villa Preziosa Medical Facility has since been closed.
Mockingbird wrote:
> Macon Telegraph | 12/24/2005 | Georgia suspends license of indicted
> doctor
>
> http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/13477643.htm
>
> Georgia suspends license of indicted doctor
> By Don Schanche Jr.
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
> ATLANTA - Georgia's medical board Friday suspended the license of a
> doctor accused of treating patients with a chemical used in pesticides,
> and also reported that one of his patients died in 2001 of
> complications from a high dose of a chemotherapy drug.
>
> The board suspended the license of Dr. Totada Shanthaveerappa of
> Stockbridge, saying his continued ability to practice medicine "poses a
> threat to the public health, safety and welfare and imperatively
> requires emergency action."
>
> In the four-page order, the state Board of Medical Examiners cited the
> case of a cancer patient treated by Shanthaveerappa in 2001. It said
> the doctor treated the patient with a chemotherapy drug called
> methotrexate in doses so high they posed "an unreasonable and
> significant risk to the patient who subsequently died from
> complications caused by the methotrexate."
>
> Shanthaveerappa, 70, and a medical assistant were indicted Tuesday by a
> federal grand jury on 87 counts, including health care fraud and
> distributing unapproved and misbranded drugs. The doctor is also
> charged with money laundering.
>
> Prosecutors said the doctor and assistant Dan Bartoli, 63, injected
> numerous patients with unapproved and misbranded drugs, including
> Dinithrophenol, a commercial-grade weed killer and insecticide.
>
> The two men also submitted false insurance claims which disguised the
> types of drugs and treatments they were providing, according to the
> indictment.
>
> In its order, the medical board said it received a letter from
> Shanthaveerappa on Thursday acknowledging that he had treated patients
> with two drugs that have not been approved for use in the United
> States, and that he had misbranded one of the drugs.
>
> Shanthaveerappa's lawyer, Don Samuel, said his client plans to plead
> not guilty on Tuesday.
>
> Shanthaveerappa's patients have sometimes had their lives extended by
> years because of his client's treatment, Samuel said
>
> "The patients are people for whom the traditional medical field has
> given up on," Samuel said. "These are patients who are told, 'There's
> nothing more we can do for you - go home.' They come to Dr. Shantha as
> a last resort."
>
> Samuel said his team has collected hundreds of testimonials from
> patients vouching for the doctor.
>
> The weed killer drug prosecutors allege the doctor used is an
> experimental drug regularly used overseas that was once used in the
> United States as a diet medication, Samuel said.
>
> "It happens to have the same chemicals you use to treat lawns. But so
> does water," Samuel said. "There's probably something in the cookies
> you eat that are used in weed killers, too."
>
> Other allegations can be countered over the FDA's definition of a drug,
> Samuel said.
>
> "If I treated your cancer with massage therapy, that doesn't violate
> the FDA because it's not a drug," he said. "They allege that some of
> the experimental treatment qualifies as a drug."
>
>
>
> Cancer doctor loses his license | ajc.com
>
> http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1205/24metdoctor.html
>
>
>
> Cancer doctor loses his license
> He's also charged with insurance fraud
>
> By BILL TORPY, KATHY JEFCOATS
> The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 12/24/05
>
> A doctor charged with injecting cancer patients with weedkiller and
> defrauding insurance companies had his license suspended Friday
> morning.
>
> People who say that Dr. Totada R. Shanthaveerappa saved their lives
> continued to rally to his defense Friday afternoon, even as two
> questionable patient deaths came to light.
>
>
> (ENLARGE)
> Totada Shan-thaveerappa allegedly injected cancer patients with
> weedkiller.
>
> MOST POPULAR STORIES
> Police say Missouri woman swallowed cell phone whole to end fight
> Home for the holidays
> Wis. Dog Frozen to Railroad Tracks Rescued
> Actor Renfro Accused of Bid to Buy Heroin
> Christmas Eve robbery sends girl, 7, to hospital
>
> EMAIL THIS
> PRINT THIS
> MOST POPULAR
>
>
>
>
> The Georgia Medical Board of Examiners, after an emergency meeting,
> voted 9-0 to recommend the suspension of Shanthaveerappa's license. He
> was given notification of the suspension at his Stockbridge clinic,
> said Dr. Jim McNatt, the board's medical director.
>
> Shanthaveerappa stopped treating patients immediately, but two other
> doctors at the clinic will continue their work, said Dan Conaway, a
> lawyer for the doctor. Conaway said Shanthaveerappa would plead not
> guilty Tuesday during his first appearance hearing in federal court.
>
> An 87-count federal indictment accuses Shanthaveerappa, 70, also known
> as T.R. Shantha, of treating patients with drugs not authorized by the
> U.S. Food and Drug Administration, then falsely billing insurance
> companies by saying he had used approved drugs. The indictment says
> Shanthaveerappa used dinitrophenol, or DNP, a weedkiller and
> insecticide, and Ukrain, which is not approved for use in the United
> States.
>
> Shanthaveerappa told the medical board that he treated patients three
> years ago with DNP and still treats patients with Ukrain.
> Shanthaveerappa, a native of India, who has been licensed in Georgia
> since 1972, calls himself an alternative healer.
>
> But a lawyer for cancer patient Johnny Pierce, who died last week, says
> Shanthaveerappa gave Pierce false hope and contributed to his horrible
> death. Pierce filed a malpractice suit last month against
> Shanthaveerappa, alleging that the doctor's treatment made him
> susceptible to infections that led to the removal of his colon and
> allowed the cancer to spread.
>
> Pierce's lawyer, Michael J. Hannan III, said Pierce, a musician and
> songwriter from Tennessee who sang and played in Juice Newton's band in
> the 1980s, was diagnosed with cancer in his tonsils in February 2004.
> The tumor was removed, and Pierce was told by his doctor to get
> chemotherapy and radiation treatment. But Pierce chose not to do so,
> because it could have ruined his voice.
>
> Pierce sought out alternative therapies on the Internet and found
> Shanthaveerappa, who has several Web sites, including Wehealcancer.org.
> According to the lawsuit, Pierce went to Stockbridge and gave
> Shanthaveerappa a cashier's check for $40,000.
>
> According to the suit, Pierce was placed into a heat chamber where his
> blood was to be heated to 106 degrees. "Mr. Pierce was advised that
> this would kill the cancer," the suit says. He was also given
> intravenous injections.
>
> The suit gives this description of what happened next:
>
> On April 18, 2004, after three weeks of therapy, Pierce had a high
> fever, uncontrollable shakes and severe abdominal pain. He called a
> nurse from Shanthaveerappa's office, who drove him to the Henry Medical
> Center. The nurse told Pierce not to tell hospital officials he was
> seeing Shanthaveerappa, because "they don't like him at this hospital."
> He was transferred to Emory Medical Center, where he was operated on.
>
> "They found he had a raging infection in his abdomen," Hannan said in
> an interview Friday. Pierce also had aplastic anemia. Surgeons removed
> his colon, and he later received a colonostomy.
>
> Hannan said Shanthaveerappa treated Pierce with low-dose chemotherapy,
> not enough to stop the cancer but enough to weaken his immune system
> and allow infection to spread.
>
> "His immune system was completely compromised. Shantha's treatment gave
> him false hope. It didn't give him the chance conventional treatment
> would have."
>
> The medical board, in the suspension ruling, referred to another
> unnamed patient who died in 2001 from high doses of methotrexate, a
> chemotherapeutic agent. Pierce, according to his lawsuit, was also
> treated with methotrexate and Ukrain.
>
> But at Shanthaveerappa's office Friday, Connie Mahoney of McDonough
> proudly displayed a lab test result showing that her ovarian cancer was
> in remission. The cancer had spread into her abdomen, she said, and she
> underwent multiple surgeries and conventional treatment before finding
> Shanthaveerappa on the Internet.
>
> "I am officially in remission after three months of treatment," she
> said. "I will defend the doctor to my end."
>
> Mahoney said she was treated intravenously at the clinic three days a
> week for four hours a day. She said Shanthaveerappa treated her with
> Ukrain, which is made in Austria, as well as vitamin C and
> hypertherapy, or heating of the blood.
>
> "Ukrain has been used in Europe for decades," Mahoney said. "I got
> comparable treatments in Europe for three weeks at $25,000. To pay Dr.
> Shantha $20,000 for unlimited treatments is a bargain, especially now I
> know it works. I spent a lot of money on alternative treatments, and I
> am in debt. But it is money more than well spent."
>
> After being out of work on disability for six months, Mahoney said, she
> will go back to work Jan. 2.
>
> Shanthaveerappa can appeal his suspension, either by asking for an
> expedited hearing before a state administrative law judge or by going
> to Superior Court to request a restraining order against the
> suspension.
>
>
>
> WTVY | Pesticide Prescription
>
> http://www.wtvynews4.com/home/headlines/2107632.html
>
>
>
> Pesticide Prescription
> 11:23 AM Dec 22, 2005
> Associated Press
>
>
>
> Patients of a doctor who's been accused of using a chemical found in
> pesticides and weed killer to treat people say they still support him.
>
> An 87-count federal indictment accuses Doctor Totada R. Shanthaveerappa
> of health care fraud and money laundering.
>
> But Shanthaveerappa, a native of India who is also known as T.R.
> Shantha, continued seeing patients yesterday, one day after being
> indicted.
>
> Nancy Hoffman delivered a tray of Christmas cookies to Shanthaveerappa
> and said he saved her life.
>
> Others said Shanthaveerappa gave them hope after other cancer
> treatments were exhausted.
>
> Yaro Garcia and her mother, Isabell Santos, came to the Stockbridge
> clinic from Naples, Florida, to get help for Santos' brain and breast
> cancer.
>
> Federal prosecutors say Shanthaveerappa treated cancer patients with
> dinitrophenol -- or D-N-P -- a weed killer and insecticide chemical;
> Ukrain; and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
.
- References:
- Prev by Date: More on Shantha/ICHT GA Suspends Weedkiller prescribing dr's license (finally)
- Next by Date: Re: Beware New Troll "jenbooks"
- Previous by thread: More on Shantha/ICHT GA Suspends Weedkiller prescribing dr's license (finally)
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
