The world is full of people willing to take advantage of the desperation of parents of "sick" children. One prime example of this are the team of father (Dr. Mark) and son (David) Geier, who are peddling their own "autism treatment". In short, their hypothesis is that testosterone in the body interacts with mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines, retaining this in the body, which somehow causes autism. Sounds crazy? Not crazy enough apparently to discourage parents from choosing to visit Dr Geier's clinic and getting their children treated with a strong drug, Lupron (also used for chemical castration) to "get rid" of the testosterone and subsequently making the mercury accessible to "chelation". You can read Kathleen Seidel's excellent summaries of the Geiers' undertakings, their misrepresentation of the science, and their financial interests here. Essentially, the weird testosterone-mercury hypothesis became a money printing machine. Children would come to the clinic, scores of blood tests would be ordered from "special labs" that would come back with the "right" diagnosis for billing purposes. "Precocious puberty" would be diagnosed and Lupron prescribed (which would then be billed to insurance companies). Apparently, David Geier, who holds a BA in Biology, was seeing patients and advising parents in his father's clinic.
Many people have been thinking for years that father and son Geier should be in prison for their abuse of autistic children, their exploitation of the parents seeking their help and their health insurance companies. Complaints were made to the various State Medical Boards where Mark Geier held licenses and, one after the other, very slowly, those were removed - Todd W is keeping tab.
Now, finally, David Geier has been convicted of "Practicing medicine without a license" by the Maryland State Board of Physicians and ordered to pay US$ 10.000 (being let off very lightly IMHO). Read the whole ruling if you have the time. The audacity is amazing (the spelling mistakes in the "diagnosis" written up by David Geier are priceless, but he charged parent A "only" $150 for it). Thanks are due to "parent A", who remained vigilant and filed a complaint when she saw the inconsistencies in the treatment of her son and the billing documents.
Also covered by LBRB and Neurologica
Many people have been thinking for years that father and son Geier should be in prison for their abuse of autistic children, their exploitation of the parents seeking their help and their health insurance companies. Complaints were made to the various State Medical Boards where Mark Geier held licenses and, one after the other, very slowly, those were removed - Todd W is keeping tab.
Now, finally, David Geier has been convicted of "Practicing medicine without a license" by the Maryland State Board of Physicians and ordered to pay US$ 10.000 (being let off very lightly IMHO). Read the whole ruling if you have the time. The audacity is amazing (the spelling mistakes in the "diagnosis" written up by David Geier are priceless, but he charged parent A "only" $150 for it). Thanks are due to "parent A", who remained vigilant and filed a complaint when she saw the inconsistencies in the treatment of her son and the billing documents.
Also covered by LBRB and Neurologica
The audacity is amazing... apparently the board is not too please with the ALJ (Administrative Law Judge). Much of the article shows where he/she is "Wrong, wrong, wrongety, wrong!"
ReplyDeleteIt was a highly amusing read.