Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Anti-Fraud Group: Is there Blood on the Heimlich Award Committee’s Hands?

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

This is a repost from the old Dean of Cincinnati site, originally published on Jan. 28th, 2005.  We have had a request to make the link live.  The Cincinnati Beacon is proud to offer some space.

From: “Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD” Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:17:30 -0500
To: Cincinnati Business Courier “Healthcare Hero” Award Judges:
Sharron DiMario, John M. Rice, Ph.D, Julie Isphording, Barry Malinowski MD, O’dell Owens

HEIMLICH’S MANEUVERS: IS THERE BLOOD ON THE AWARD’S COMMITTEE’S HANDS?

Tonight the Cincinnati Business Courier will bestow its “Lifetime Hero Award” on Dr. Henry Heimlich for a lifetime of “achievements” in health care.

Recently we wrote the Business Courier to question the propriety of this award (copy of email below). Our argument was that under even mild scrutiny Heimlich has been engaging in illicit research on humans for years. We believe this includes applications of the “Heimlich Maneuver”, especially promotion of use of this for drowning and asthma. The entire story of some of the illicit experiments has yet to be told.

The Business Courier did not include our concerns in their recent article, and these concerns remain. Heimlich has not produced evidence that any of his “studies” were legitimate, and relies on alleged case reports, attacking his critics, and bullying to advance his speculations. The data which refute accusations of misconduct have not been produced, but the evidence of the misconduct continues to build. A group of “spin masters” (spokespersons) have attacked his critics, but have not produced the simple papers that would prove them wrong. In the absence of such evidence, and considerable and growing evidence of wrongdoing, the obvious conclusion is that there was wrongdoing.

The Business Courier wrote an editorial which claimed that the “good” done by someone was outweighed everything else, and justified the award. But it was the Committee that gave the award, not the Business Courier. The Business Courier put the burden of whether this award would be proper on you.

The judges at Nuremberg did not give awards to the medical experimenters they judged. Some of the information from the experiments was unique and advanced knowledge. However, medical authorities and medical journals won’t allow republication, reference to, or teaching of any of the physiology or medicine learned from these experiments, and rightly so. They were criminally wrong.

Let’s consider a few things.

- Dishonesty Is Not Something Which Qualifies One For a “Hero” Award.

No matter how talented, do you really believe that a tenured full-professor of engineering at a major university could do the entire medical curriculum, and then an internship while maintaining his teaching position? Even if one could complete medical school under such circumstances, it defies imagination, and credibility, that one could complete an internship of any kind without being full-time, especially during the era in question. The employment records and internship records from the Jewish Hospital have not been produced. Instead, it was claimed that an affidavit from Dr. Heimlich was proof enough. The affidavit (readily available on the web) does not attest to the internship, only to knowing the individual over several years, and that they were affiliated with the Jewish Hospital. This was merely a “character” attestation, common in that era as one requirement for licensure.

How would I know this? I was a full time faculty member of a medical school from 1976-1984. Before I applied for medical school I already had earned a DDS and PhD (anatomy and cellular biology), and taught full-time for ten years. I then matriculated as a full-time medical student, graduating in 1987. From 1987 to 1988 (July 1 to June 30), I was a full time intern in medicine. That consumed an easy 100 hours a week. I was physically in the hospital every 3rd night and every 3rd weekend, all weekend. Days went from 6:30 AM to 7 or 8 PM, except when we were on call - those days went until 5 or 6 PM the next day! On the few hours off there was barely time to sleep and do laundry. This was standard fare for that era. Surgical/rotating interns, such as was claimed in the Heimlich situation worked even harder than we did. Full time sabbatical leaves are commonly and usually for 6 months from academic positions, not a year. There was no evidence that even this was done.

Internships are always from July to June, not September to August as claimed. A hospital would readily produce a certificate of internship and transcript of what was done for anyone who asked. Such has not been forthcoming the Heimlich situation. The Jewish Hospital could easily confirm the internship with employment records, and other appropriate documents. One must ask, Why Not?

Whether this was “years ago” or last year, it is serious business if someone is a party to misrepresenting credentials in any area of medicine.

- Illicit Experiments On Human Beings

It is simply not acceptable to conduct any form of experiments on humans without oversight of an Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Studies, and an ethical protocol. Injecting humans with blood from other people that had not been screened, and which contained a disease-containing organism is not just ethically challenged, but criminally wrong. To do this in another country or in a cross-border scheme to avoid scrutiny is equally criminal. There is no doubt that the “malariatherapy” experiments were done. The attached document details that and more. See also this reference for further details.

http://www.circare.org/malariotherapy.htm
http://www.bioethicswatch.org/foia/lyme.htm

- Who Is Holly Martins?

I don’t know who Holly Martins is, nor do I especially care. In the Watergate Scandal the identity of “Deep Throat” has yet to be made public. No one attacked “Deep Throat” since the information provided was accurate. The same is true for Martins. The documents collected speak for themselves. If “Holly Martins” is a family member, so what? This isn’t an episode of “Family Feud.” It is a detailed story of ethical and research misconduct.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.05.05/heimlich-0501.html
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/city_2004-12-30.cfm
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=7079
http://clevescene.com/issues/2004-12-29/news/firstpunch.html

- He’s An Old Guy - We Should Just Let This Go

When good people condone bad things they become a part of those bad things. In Boston a few years ago, three prominent physicians, including a world-respected allergist, were each convicted of murdering their wives. All three were creative, and some would say brilliant. They also were criminals. They did not give a “Lifetime Hero” award to the allergist, who not only cared for hundreds of patients but was also an academic luminary.

The fact that someone is “famous,” well-known, or well-connected does not free them from ethics or immoral behavior.

If you fail to condemn illicit human experimentation then you become a part of it, and have blood on your hands too.

I urge you to carefully consider whether you want to continue to be part of this award, as the Business Courier has put the matter completely in your hands.

Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS
President, National Council Against Health Fraud, Inc.
119 Foster Street, R 2nd Floor
Peabody, MA 01960

Attached: IMT Proposal by Heimlich
http://www.circare.org/foia2/hh_imt_proposal.pdf

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: “Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD” To: Doug Bolton, Andrea Tortora
Cincinnati Business Courier

Subject: Heimlich Lifetime Hero Award

January 16, 2005

National Council Against Health Fraud, Inc.
119 Foster Street
Peabody, MA 01960

Mr.Bolton:
Ms. Tortora:

I read with interest the notice of the upcoming awards dinner in Cincinnati being sponsored by the Cincinnati Business Courier at which Dr. Henry Heimlich is to be honored with the “Lifetime Hero Award” this week.

While Dr. Heimlich is well-known for his promotion of the “Heimlich maneuver” in relieving choking, the Business Courier may not be aware of some his other activities. Some of these may not be the types of things the Business Courier would want to be associated with.

In particular I am referencing a series of dubious experiments in which individuals were deliberately infected with malaria, as a supposed method of treating: cancer, Lyme disease, and HIV infection. Dr. Heimlich has been apparently been involved in these activities for many years. These have not been a casual or dabbling interest, but a long-term, concerted effort at promoting experiments on humans that appear to be improper, dangerous, and potentially deadly. There is no evidence these were ever approved by a properly constituted Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects. Most of these experiments have been conducted in other countries under Heimlich’s aegis. There are rumors that these illicit experiments are going on today in Africa. There is evidence that these experiments were conducted in China already.

Extensive press coverage of these is already part of the record (LA Times, NY Times, University of California Daily Bruin, attached), however, you may not know that the so-called “malariotherapy” experiments were the subject of an extensive FDA investigation as well. The experiments involved injecting malaria containing blood from one individual to induce an infection in a second individual. One does not need a medical degree to understand the danger of such an activity, not only in deliberately infecting someone with malaria (which can be untreatable with certain strains of the organism) but also in potentially exposing the “subjects” to getting a host of other diseases, including hepatitis, cancer, and HIV to name only three, as well as causing severe “rejection” problems with the introduction of someone else’s blood.

These “experiments” are on a par with the worst of the World War II experiments on humans carried out by the Japanese and the Germans.

Heimlich apparently carried these out through the “Heimlich Institute,” which is part of the Deaconess Institutions of Cincinnati. You will note that money from the Deaconess Institutions is listed as flowing to the Heimlich Institute for the “malariotherapy” research (see attached tax filings).

You can find an extensive array of documents, including the research protocol by Heimlich, detailing this sordid story at:

http://www.circare.org/malariotherapy.htm
http://www.bioethicswatch.org/foia/lyme.htm

Even after the FDA shut down the illicit organization that was supposedly supervising this “research,” and suspended it in 2000, it apparently continued.

Heimlich has apparently also been making claims that the “Heimlich maneuver” is effective for drowning and asthma treatment. Medically this is impossible with even a simple understanding of the disease mechanisms of asthma and drowning. As an emergency physician I can attest to this, however, I am not alone. A number of authorities on these subjects have pointed out not only the lack of physiological plausibility but the risks in delay of care (death) by using this unproven method. This is not the “establishment” vs. a maverick, as Heimlich has claimed, but rather science vs. nonsense. Medicine readily accepts new concepts with good data, ethically collected. Heimlich has yet to produce any such information to support his speculations.

Much as with the “malariotherapy” concept, Heimlich does not appear to appreciate the mechanisms of the diseases and conditions he claims to be treating. The fact that Heimlich is well known does not change what he has done, nor give credence to illogical and illicit experiments on humans. Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in crystallography, but his ideas about Vitamin C and the common cold were unfounded. He too was famous and he was also wrong. Being wrong in a speculation is one thing, experimenting on humans based on that speculation is another.

Even though it is the 11th hour, the Cincinnati Business Courier should investigate more thoroughly what it is about to do, as the “achievements” of Dr. Heimlich are something the newspaper needs to consider carefully. I don’t think the Business Courier would want to be remembered for recognizing as an achievement illicit human experiments on Third World subjects.

When this information was recently presented to the U.S. State Department and others involved in the recent Pan Africa Conference in Nashville, Heimlich was disinvited from the program (attached). The Business Courier would be wise to consider doing the same.

Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS
President

NB: recent articles in Calif, Michigan, Cleveland and Utah press on Heimlich are equally revealing.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.05.05/heimlich-0501.html
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/city_2004-12-30.cfm
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id3D7079
http://clevescene.com/issues/2004-12-29/news/firstpunch.html

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