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Hokeyopathy
From today's Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO USA):
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...208423,00.html Questionable medicine Criminal charges focus spotlight on alternative healing By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News September 25, 2004 No more. "God, please, no more," 19-year-old Sean Flanagan gasped, the last words he spoke before he died after a treatment from naturopath Brian O'Connell that went terribly wrong. Dave and Laura Flanagan had turned to O'Connell in desperation after doctors told them their son would be dead in a year from cancer that ravaged his bones and lungs. O'Connell promised to save Sean. But during a Dec. 18 treatment that involved taking blood from Sean's body, his blood oxygen plummeted to 17. A healthy level would be in the high 90s. "O'Connell did nothing but pace back and forth, take Sean's pulse and look scared," Dave Flanagan said. "I could tell by the blank, scared look in his face that this man didn't know what to do. He didn't have a clue." Sean Flanagan died the next day. The Flanagan family believes the last precious months of Sean's life were stolen by O'Connell, who faces criminal charges for allegedly lying to them and other patients about his medical credentials. O'Connell is charged in Jefferson County with practicing medicine without a license, criminal impersonation, fraud and theft. For all the charges and accusations mounting against him, however, O'Connell has supporters who say he helped them when traditional medicine failed and that he is being unfairly targeted merely for offering alternative treatments. Steve Colton, president of the Colorado Naturopathic Medical Association, in which O'Connell holds office, questions the source of the complaints. "I really don't know him personally and don't know much detail about his actual practice," Colton said. "But these complaints were generated from medical doctors, not patients. It just seems kind of strange that he has been there five years doing this - if he's been doing such a poor job and injuring people, we would have known about him a long time ago." O'Connell and his attorney have declined comment while the criminal case is pending. But in a letter soliciting defense funds from members of the naturopathic association, O'Connell said, "The case goes far beyond just me as an individual being arrested and charged. Our right to practice naturopathy is being challenged. "In short, we are being used to set a precedent that naturopaths are dangerous and it is my feeling that the MDs are trying to use my case to shut down naturopathy in Colorado altogether." Naturopathy, the practice of healing through herbal medicines, diet supplements, sunlight, acupuncture and other natural treatments is not regulated in Colorado. Some say O'Connell's case shows why it should be. Diplomas and certificates The Flanagans say O'Connell misrepresented his qualifications. "He told us he was a pharmacist for 10 years and we thought he was a physician," Laura Flanagan said. "He was wearing surgical scrubs and a white coat with 'Dr. O'Connell' on them. We thought he had all these degrees." O'Connell's office was filled with diplomas and certificates that seemed to verify his training. "We were so desperate, we didn't take time to research his background," Laura Flanagan said. "We were praying for a miracle and felt he was an answer to prayer." The family turned to O'Connell in December after Sean's doctors told them there was nothing more they could do. His cancer had returned after two surgeries, a bone marrow transplant and courses of radiation and chemotherapy. While Sean's physicians offered a bleak outlook, O'Connell was optimistic. "He told us, 'I can save him,' " Laura Flanagan said. "He said, 'I'm not having an Irish kid die on my watch.' " O'Connell recommended "photoluminescence" treatments in which small amounts of Sean's blood was removed, exposed to ultraviolet light and then returned to his body. A small amount of hydrogen peroxide solution also was injected into the bloodstream. The treatments are promoted as fighting disease and cancer by killing toxins and mutated cells in the blood and by stimulating the body's immune system to fight disease. O'Connell assured the Flanagans the treatment was sterile because "the ultraviolet light kills everything," Dave Flanagan said. Fighting for licensing After the first treatment, though, Sean wound up in the hospital with an infection in his IV tube that led to pneumonia in his weakened lungs. After he was discharged, he had three more blood treatments from O'Connell. Each time, the meter Sean wore showed his blood oxygen content plummeting and then gradually coming back up, Dave Flanagan said. "The treatments were supposed to oxygenate the blood, so I asked (O'Connell) why Sean's oxygen levels were dropping after every treatment," Dave Flanagan said. O'Connell went to the Flanagan's home on Dec. 18, assuring them he could fix the problem by adding more hydrogen peroxide solution to the treatment, Dave Flanagan said. Instead, this time Sean's blood oxygen dropped to 17 and his mother said he turned gray. "God, please, no more," Sean said. When O'Connell asked what he said, Sean repeated loudly, "No more." "That was the last thing he said," Laura Flanagan said. "He never really recovered from that," said his father. Sean died the next day. The Flanagans blame O'Connell's treatments for hastening their son's death. They now are fighting for state licensing of naturopaths to ensure they are properly trained. "More hydrogen peroxide - that was his fix and that's when Sean crashed," Dave Flanagan said. "Maybe these treatments help some people, but the man needs to have the medical background to know when what he's doing is causing more harm than good. That's what happened to Sean. What he did speeded the process of his death." Sean Flanagan isn't the only patient to react badly to O'Connell's therapies. O'Connell was arrested in May after two patients wound up in the emergency room after receiving treatments at his clinic, Mountain Area Naturopathic Associates in Wheat Ridge. A 55-year-old cancer patient was rushed to the hospital from his home March 23 after a treatment in O'Connell's office earlier that day. Terminally ill with colon cancer that had spread to his liver, Roy Gallegos later died. Two days after Gallegos was taken to Lutheran Medical Center, a 17-year-old girl suffered a heart attack after undergoing photoluminescence therapy at O'Connell's clinic. But the parents of the girl stand behind O'Connell and say he's been wrongly accused. "I don't believe he brought any harm to my daughter," said Catherine Bresina. "Whatever they're accusing him of they're falsely accusing him. It breaks my heart. He did everything he could possibly do to help my daughter." Bresina, who lives in Wisconsin, took her family to see O'Connell to be evaluated while they were in Colorado in March. "I don't believe she had a heart attack," Bresina said. "She had an allergic reaction to a B12 shot." While at the hospital, Bresina said she felt her family was in a tug of war between conventional and alternative medicine. "They're after him," she said. "They wanted him stopped. What they're doing with this man is not justice. It's not right." Bresina said she sought care for her daughter from O'Connell because he offered the treatments she wanted. "I'll go to Europe or Mexico to get it, if I have to," she said. Bresina said it's unfair to accuse O'Connell of causing harm to patients, many of whom turned to him for help after therapies offered by traditional medicine failed. "A lot of people who come to him are very, very ill and on their end," she said. "I believe he did more to help them than regular medicine." Treatment backfires But other patients don't share her view. Donna Taylor took her 88- year-old mother to O'Connell for treatment of skin cancer on her nose. Taylor said O'Connell boasted of his success rate treating various cancers and said he had treated more than 100 cancer patients. "I asked how many were successful and he said, 'Oh, every single one,' " Taylor said. O'Connell recommended that Taylor's mother use Black Salve, an ointment he said would remove tumors, even internal tumors such as those caused by liver cancer, Taylor said. "He said you could take it orally or apply it topically to the skin area next to the tumor. It might pass in the bowels or pop out of your skin," she said. Taylor's husband, Robert Arnold, said he found O'Connell's claims to be preposterous. "He told her it would pull the cancer right out," he said. "He said it was like an octopus that reaches its tentacles down in there and pulls it right out. My experience was that he was a quack from day one." Arnold said they decided against using the salve after he did some research on the Internet. "I told my wife, 'We don't want to use that stuff on her. It's like battery acid and it's going to burn her nose off,' " he said. "This guy is very disarming and preying on these older people who are desperate, just desperate to get a cure," Arnold added. "They're ripe for the picking." "He's very smooth," Flanagan agreed. "He could sell a bucket of sand to a man in the desert." Correspondence courses Prosecutors contend O'Connell was using medical procedures he had no license to perform and presented patients with misleading or fraudulent credentials. "There is a huge amount of benefit to be gained by alternative medicine," said naturopath Jacob Schor, "but when I see someone using credentials that are not true, I ask myself, when does he draw the line and start telling the truth? "It's for the courts to figure out if what he did was right or wrong. I can only question the deception. It give me the creeps." O'Connell claims to hold a doctorate in naturopathy, but his training came from a correspondence course from the Herbal Healer Academy run by Marijah McCain from her home in Mountain View, Ark. McCain offers correspondence courses over the Internet and issues "naturopathic doctor" certificates to students who complete the course and pass a written final examination. The Arkansas attorney general sued McCain for deceptive trade practices and she was ordered to pay $10,000 in May 2003 for improperly offering degrees and board certification in naturopathy from entities not accredited by the U.S. Department of Education. Arkansas does not license the practice of naturopathy. The walls of O'Connell's office are filled with various certificates and degrees attesting to his qualifications, but many of them are bogus or questionable, police allege. Among them is a certificate of naturopathic medicine issued by the nonexistent Colorado University of Naturopathic Medicine. Questionable credentials O'Connell is licensed to practice naturopathic medicine in the District of Columbia, but the license was obtained just by paying a fee, according to Wheat Ridge Detective Mark Slavsky. No examination or verification of credentials was required, he said. Furthermore, District of Columbia municipal regulations state that it is "unlawful for a naturopathic practitioner to inject any substance into another person by needle," something O'Connell regularly did. O'Connell is vice president of the Colorado Naturopathic Medical Association, which is affiliated with the American Naturopathic Medical Association. Neither organization requires a degree from four-year naturopathic colleges. O'Connell said he is board certified by these organizations; however, they are not approved by the U.S. Department of Education. He had licenses to possess controlled substances issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Colorado Department of Human Services, but both were fraudulently obtained, Slavsky alleges. The DEA license was issued in connection with O'Connell's work with Heritage Health, which he said was an animal research lab in Fort Collins affiliated with Colorado State University. Police later learned that Heritage Health is a diet supplement company and has no research affiliation with CSU. O'Connell worked for the company as a sales and public relations specialist, Slavsky said. O'Connell says on his Web site that he has a degree in microbiology, but won't say where he earned it. In the past, O'Connell has claimed to hold a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but university officials told police he attended the school for only three months in 1992 and never received a degree, Slavsky said. Many patients believe that O'Connell was trained as a pharmacist because he said he worked for 10 years in the field. He did work as a pharmacy technician in a Milwaukee hospital, but was fired after he was accused of stealing medication and prescription pads, Slavsky said. Despite such discrepancies, many patients remain fiercely loyal. Penny Wheeler of Federal Heights said her asthma and her husband's blood pressure resisted traditional therapies and were brought under control only after they went to O'Connell. "I don't where we'd be without him," she said. ------ Alternative therapy Naturopathic medicine focuses on the underlying causes of disease and uses natural methods to promote the body's ability to heal itself. Naturopaths might use any of the following treatments: • Homeopathy: Treating a disease with substances that would cause symptoms of that disease in a healthy person. Based on the assumption of "like cures like." • Herbal medicines: Whole herbs or extracts prescribed as alternatives to traditional medicine. • Dietary supplements: Vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other food substances. • Dietary restrictions: Eliminating certain foods to relieve sensitivity and to clear the body of toxins. • Physicial medicine: Using water, heat, cold, ultrasound and exercise to manipulate muscles, bones and the spine. • Stress reduction: Using counseling, hypnotherapy, biofeedback and other methods. • Detoxifying regimens: Purifying the body using methods such as fasting or enemas. Source: Www.Yahoo.Com/Health or 303-892-5181 Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved. |
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"Vaccine-Man" wrote in message om... O'Connell recommended "photoluminescence" treatments in which small amounts of Sean's blood was removed, exposed to ultraviolet light and then returned to his body. A small amount of hydrogen peroxide solution also was injected into the bloodstream. ...and if you are thinking of trying this at home - Don't..... http://www.h2o2.com/intro/safety.html "Under no circumstances should hydrogen peroxide be taken internally." "Contact of the eyes with hydrogen peroxide is particularly dangerous because corneal burns can occur very rapidly" A dilute solution is sometimes used as an EXTERNAL antiseptic but apparently it's not a very good one... http://science.howstuffworks.com/question115.htm |
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"CWatters" wrote in message - "Under no circumstances should hydrogen peroxide be taken internally." LOL. Wouldn't want anyone to twig onto oxygen therapy, which is why they stopped the one person selling drinkable peroxide http://www.whale.to/c/oxygen.html "I interviewed 15 people who stated they were cured of cancer by using one of the oxygen therapies.amazingly enough, one of them had pancreatic cancer A man had prostate cancer. Someone else had colon cancer. Dr Otto Warburg won the nobel prize twice for stating that the cause of cancer is a normal cell denied 60% of its oxygen requirements..I asked a big cancer specialist .if he had ever heard of Dr Warburg, and he said no. And this specialist's title was 'Head of Fermentation Process Laboratories."---McCabe. |
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"CWatters" wrote in message ... "Vaccine-Man" wrote in message om... Naturopathic medicine focuses on the underlying causes of disease Oh don't you just love that expression. It makes it sound like every other kind of treatment is based on last nights footbal results - anything but the actual cause. Touchy, which is why you can't cure most diseases. Cleansing isn't something in orthodox meds vocab http://www.whale.to/m/cleanse1.html the main cause of disease, toxemia, and junk food, apart from poisons like drugs and metals |
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On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:46:36 GMT, "CWatters"
wrote: "Vaccine-Man" wrote in message . com... O'Connell recommended "photoluminescence" treatments in which small amounts of Sean's blood was removed, exposed to ultraviolet light and then returned to his body. A small amount of hydrogen peroxide solution also was injected into the bloodstream. ..and if you are thinking of trying this at home - Don't..... http://www.h2o2.com/intro/safety.html "Under no circumstances should hydrogen peroxide be taken internally." "Contact of the eyes with hydrogen peroxide is particularly dangerous because corneal burns can occur very rapidly" A dilute solution is sometimes used as an EXTERNAL antiseptic but apparently it's not a very good one... http://science.howstuffworks.com/question115.htm And, of course, if a vaccine had 0.0000001% hydrogen peroxide, the anti-vaccine assholes would list this as a "toxic" component of vaccines and cite the above as proof. Yet it's fine for a con-artist to inject it into someone as long as he claims to be a "naturopath." PF |
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"john" wrote in message ... "CWatters" wrote in message - "Under no circumstances should hydrogen peroxide be taken internally." LOL. Wouldn't want anyone to twig onto oxygen therapy, which is why they stopped the one person selling drinkable peroxide So which is it John? For long life do we need to take oxidisers like Hydrogen Peroxide of anti-oxidants like some vitamins? |
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Hydrogen peroxide causes cancer in animals - but I admit it seems there is
insufficient evidence to show if causes cancer in humans - so thats alright then :-( http://www.gasdetection.com/TECH/h2o2.html HYDROGEN PEROXIDE CASRN: 7722-84-1 See Occupational Exposure Standards Human Health Effects: Evidence for Carcinogenicity: Evaluation: There is inadequate evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of hydrogen peroxide. There is limited evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of hydrogen peroxide. Overall evaluation: Hydrogen peroxide is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3). [IARC. Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Man. Geneva: World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer,1972-PRESENT. (Multivolume work).,p. 71 683 (1999)]**PEER REVIEWED** A3. Confirmed animal carcinogen with unknown relevance to humans. [American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. TLVs and BEIs. Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices. Cincinnati, OH. 2000. 42]**QC REVIEWED** |
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http://www.gasdetection.com/TECH/h2o2.html
DNA strand breaks and chromosomal aberrations were studied in human cells treated with hydrogen peroxide or with ionizing radiation. DNA strand breaks could be produced at dose levels of hydrogen peroxide much lower than those which induced chromosomal aberrations. Doses as low as 0.5 mM of hydrogen peroxide produced about as many DNA strand breaks as 2 Gy of (60)Co gamma-radiation. On the other hand, as much as 20 mM hydrogen peroxide produced only half as many chromosomal aberrations as 1 Gy of (60)Co gamma-radiation. [Rueff J et al; Mutat Res 289 (2): 197-204 (1993)]**PEER REVIEWED** |
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Hydrogen Peroxide is a pesticide....
http://www.gasdetection.com/TECH/h2o2.html Environmental Standards & Regulations: FIFRA Requirements: As the federal pesticide law FIFRA directs, EPA is conducting a comprehensive review of older pesticides to consider their health and environmental effects and make decisions about their future use. Under this pesticide reregistration program, EPA examines health and safety data for pesticide active ingredients initially registered before November 1, 1984, and determines whether they are eligible for reregistration. In addition, all pesticides must meet the new safety standard of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. Pesticides for which EPA had not issued Registration Standards prior to the effective date of FIFRA, as amended in 1988, were divided into three lists based upon their potential for human exposure and other factors, with List B containing pesticides of greater concern and List D pesticides of less concern. *** Hydrogen peroxide is found on List D. Case No: 4072; Pesticide type: Fungicide, Herbicide, Rodenticide, and Antimicrobial; **** Case Status: RED Approved 12/93; OPP has made a decision that some/all uses of the pesticide are eligible for reregistration, as reflected in a Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) document.; Active ingredient (AI): Hydrogen peroxide; AI Status: OPP has completed a Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) document for the case/AI. [USEPA/OPP; Status of Pesticides in Registration, Reregistration and Special Review p.330 (Spring, 1998) EPA 738-R-98-002]**PEER REVIEWED** |
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