The Chicago Tribune turns over some rocks
May 22nd, 2009
Almost everybody knows what happens when you turn over rocks in the garden - you find slugs, beetles and other slimy and creepy-crawly things underneath.
Well, the Chicago Tribune recently (21 and 22 May, 2009) came out with a two-day series of articles on what they found when they turned over some rocks in the “alternative” autism therapy world. What they found was beyond what I would have expected, and I’ve been critically analyzing “alternative” autism therapy for a fairly long time.
Here are the articles - I suggest you go read them yourselves. Be prepared to be disturbed:
“Miracle Drug” called Junk Science
Physician team’s crusade shows cracks
A Flawed Rationale for Treatment
Autism doctor: Troubling record trails doctor treating autism
Dr. Peter Rosi places blame on some parents for their babies’ deaths
I had to take a shower after reading these articles - I felt contaminated just reading the words of these…….people.
A few excerpts:
On the Geiers’ “Lupron Protocol”:
The blood tests the Geiers use as proof of excessive testosterone don’t show that at all, and other data they cite mean nothing, said Paul Kaplowitz, chief of endocrinology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and an expert on precocious puberty. They also leave out test results that could help show whether the children are in early puberty, he added.
Looking at the tests, Kaplowitz said he asks himself: “Is Dr. Geier just misinformed and he hasn’t studied endocrinology, or is he trying to mislead?”
………………..
Mark Geier responded that these are “opinions by people who don’t know what they are talking about,” saying the pediatric endocrinologists interviewed by the Tribune don’t treat autistic children and have not tried the Lupron treatment. David Geier said prominent scientists support their work and gave as an example Baron-Cohen…
………………..
Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in England and director of the Autism Research Center in Cambridge, said it is irresponsible to treat autistic children with Lupron.”The idea of using it with vulnerable children with autism, who do not have a life-threatening disease and pose no danger to anyone, without a careful trial to determine the unwanted side effects or indeed any benefits, fills me with horror,” he said.
Apparently, the Geiers don’t have the support of prominent scientists that they think they do.
Now, I fully expect people in the “alternative” autism therapy business (and their apologists) to “spin” this as a “kill the messenger” response or as the latest act of the “Big Pharma / AMA / Government Conspiracy to Hide the True Cause of Autism”. But this stuff is pretty hard to just “explain” away.
Let’s continue with the curious past (and dubious present) of one of the prominent “alternative” autism practitioners in the Chicagoland area - Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, head of “Home First Health Services”:
Eisenstein, who calls the American Academy of Pediatrics the “American Academy of Pharmaceuticals,” dismisses the many peer-reviewed studies that failed to find a link between autism and vaccines as “fake studies.”
Vaccine proponents won’t admit this because, he said, “Every doctor now essentially in this country has done something as heinous as the Nazis did, unknowingly.”
Where is the Hitler Zombie? Dr. Eisenstein is not coming across as a voice of reason so far. But let us continue…
Eisenstein’s practice has faced at least 19 malpractice cases in the last three decades, and two Homefirst doctors were involved in 15 of those cases — more than what’s typical. In 80 percent of the cases involving those two doctors, a jury either sided with the plaintiffs or the cases were settled, court records show.
OK, doctors get sued all the time. No big deal, right? Let’s read on…
For example, a case filed in 1986 alleged that a Homefirst doctor and midwife failed to diagnose that a mother and her newborn had incompatible blood types, which can lead to a potentially fatal condition if not caught by a routine blood test. The baby suffered kernicterus syndrome, athetoid cerebral palsy and hearing loss. The case was settled for $985,000 in a structured settlement, court records show.
The failure to diagnose incompatible blood types between a mother and newborn was also at issue in the case that netted the $30 million jury verdict. In that case, however, the baby, Na’eem Shahid, died.
A Homefirst doctor took a sample of blood from Na’eem’s umbilical cord that could have been used to diagnose the problem and could have led to prompt treatment, according to court testimony. But instead of dropping off the sample at the lab, the doctor said under oath, he was tired, went home and put the sample in his refrigerator, where it sat the whole weekend.
In an interview, Eisenstein blamed the parents for not taking the baby to the emergency room for a blood test. Na’eem’s parents testified that no one from Homefirst ever told them to go to the emergency room.
Remember that this is the doctor who claims that unvaccinated children do not get autism. To refresh our memories:
He proclaims that he’s seen “virtually no autism” in his patient pool of thousands of unvaccinated kids.
Well, if you don’t look, you don’t find.
Dr. Eisenstein also has strong views about telling the truth:
In his lectures at conferences, Eisenstein often describes a key lesson he learned in law school: falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. Translated “false in one thing, false in everything,” this is a legal principle that if a witness lies about one thing, a jury can disregard anything that person says.
Yet Dr. Eisenstein has fallen tragically short of this standard:
In a different case, Eisenstein said under oath that he was a faculty member at the Hinsdale Hospital Family Practice Residency Program from 1992 to 2003. A hospital administrator testified that Eisenstein “never was” a faculty member. In a recent interview, Eisenstein said that while he wasn’t a faculty member there, he did teach students from that program and kept snapshots of them.
In that same case, Eisenstein also testified he knew little about the College of Health Sciences, where he and some of his doctors received their continuing medical education credits — a requirement for retaining privileges at some hospitals.
“I have no clue,” he said under oath when asked where the school was located.
The attorney questioning Eisenstein reminded the doctor that he could go to prison for lying under oath. He asked if Eisenstein had any connection to the college. “Not that I know of,” Eisenstein answered.
I won’t go into the sad and sordid case of Dr. Peter Rosi, one of Dr. Eisenstein’s associates at Home First - that story is too disturbing. Go read it yourself.
Despite all this, I fully expect to hear a chorus of defense from the “usual suspects”. They will defend the Geiers, Eisenstein and even Rosi because - frankly - they are all the “alternative” autism therapy supporters have. They’re willing to leap to the defense of the indefensible because the only other choice they have is to face the fact that “alternative” autism therapies are largely a bunch of baloney.
I’d love to be proven wrong, but I doubt I will be.
Prometheus
Filed under: Autism Practitioners, Autism Science, Autism Treatments
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Well, better late than never.
This starts to make up for some of the screed that the Chicago Tribune has let go out under it’s masthead.
Let’s hope they keep this up.
Joe
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I do hope that you are wrong…but you are probably not. The autismone convention is going on in Chicago right now…
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
A bath after reading about those people? A tanker truck full of bleach could not wash away their filth.
Robert Estrada
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I must protest your harsh words. How dare you compare these people to slugs? On behalf of slugs everywhere, I demand an apology!
While the so-called “therapists” you discuss arguably bear a resemblance to slimy fecal-digesting invertebrates — in that all of them are full of sh** — they are far less beneficial to humankind.
What’s more, at least we can control slug proliferation simply by putting out shallow containers of beer and watching them drown themselves. Folks like Geier, Eisenstein and Rosi, are like lice — parasitic and highly resistant to extermination as long as they can suck the life (and cash) out of the people they infest.
Shoot. Now I have to go apologize to the lice community …
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:04 am
[...] Brain Right Brain autism.change.org Photon in the Darkness Respectful Insolence Mindless Mommy Neurologica [...]
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Mama Mara,
I certainly didn’t mean to equate the “autism practitioners” in these articles with slugs or beetles and I apologize for leaving that impression.
Insects and slugs are integral parts of the ecosystem (with the possible exception of leopard slugs, which are an invasive species). Even parasites (such as the lice you mention) do not victimize their own species.
The ecological term for an organism that lives off the flesh of members of its own species is “cannibal”.
Thank you for your comment.
Prometheus
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I would suggest testing the slug theory by placing shallow containers of beer around the Autism One conference, just to make sure it won’t actually work.
Seriously, that series of articles was both informative and depressing on many levels. Mostly, my mind is boggled because my health insurance won’t even pay to get my child something non-quacky like speech therapy, and somehow these snake-oil salesmen are bilking medicaid for chemical castration?
The comments about the infants who died are just heartless and beyond tasteless.
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Fishchick,
I found the comments of Mayer Eisenstein and Peter Rosi about the babies who had died from malpractice so appalling that I couldn’t bring myself to put them on my ‘blog.
The fact that they would even think such things - let alone say them to a reporter is a testimonial to their lack of common decency.
I note from the comments left at the Chicago Tribune that the “usual suspects” have had no trouble swallowing these words and deeds and finding a way to not only accept them, but to even justify them.
Just when I think my opinion of people can sink no lower…..
Prometheus
May 31st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
It is appalling. I really don’t understand why their medical licenses have not been revoked. What is wrong with the Illinois Medical Board?
Thank you again for reporting on these quacks.
They are practicing TVM. They even admit it proudly.
July 25th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Can’t agree with you more. I stumbled across the CT articles tonight when Googling Eisenstein after my sister, a devout follower (who’s had 3 home births through Eisenstein’s “practice”–all successful, thankfully!) sent me yet another “helpful” email about Eisenstein’s approach to autism, hoping to help my PDD-NOS son. I’ve known he was a quack for awhile–now I have support I can point to, and it was nice to find your list of all the articles in one easy place. Thank you.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:52 pm
This practice has been corrupted by money hungry Mayer Eisenstein and his equally greedy family. The practice of homebirth can be a safe wondeful experience. Mr. Eisenstein (I will not call him doctor) constantly skimped on everything to keep the bottom line as low as possible. Such a sham. Peter Rosi is mentally ill.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Another court rejecting the Geiers as experts: Pamela Blackwell, et al., v. Wyeth d/b/a Wyeth, Inc. et al., Maryland Court of Appeals (May 7, 2009), http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/blackwell.pdf
August 26th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
WFJAG,
Thanks for the information - my favorite line was this:
I think I will have to find a way to use “analytical gap” in one of my up-coming posts.
Prometheus
February 21st, 2010 at 1:16 am
Thanks for sharing all the weird and questionable practices that are going on regarding autism.