'Oxidation' Practice Comes Under Fire - hydrogen peroxide IV treatment

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health/10544442.htm?1c

Posted on Sat, Jan. 01, 2005

'Oxidation' Practice Comes Under Fire

ALLEN G. BREED

Associated Press

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - When Bibeau's body

arrived at the morgue, she was covered in large, deep

purplish-black bruises.

But the woman had not been beaten, coroner Watts

discovered. Rather, she had bled internally, and

massively, after receiving an unconventional treatment

for her multiple sclerosis.

Intravenous infusions of hydrogen peroxide,

administered by a physician named Shortt, had

produced bubbles in Bibeau's bloodstream that started

her down a fatal spiral into multiple organ failure

and cardiac arrest, Watts concluded.

The death, he ruled, was a homicide.

This case and the death of another of his infusion

patients have put Shortt at the center of a

controversy over a treatment that its opponents say

has no proven benefits - and serious risks.

Some 100,000 infusions of the chemical - a refined

form of the first-aid kit standby - are given each

year across the nation as a treatment for a variety of

diseases, according to proponents.

Shortt, who is fighting to keep his medical license,

denies harming anyone. " I might be the world's

greatest lunatic, " he says, but " I'm not going to do

anything to my patients that I think might hurt them. "

At the root of hydrogen peroxide's purported power is

the same action that makes it foam when placed on a

cut. Proponents of oxidative or " hyperoxygenation "

therapy believe that many diseases - including cancer

and HIV - can be linked to oxygen deficiency. They say

that infusion or even ingestion of substances such as

hydrogen peroxide, ozone and germanium sesquioxide

deliver an " oxidative burst " that can kill cancer

cells and viruses, and boost the immune system.

Shortt says he has been a believer since infusion guru

Dr. Farr helped him save a lupus patient's

blackened toes from amputation.

Shortt says he has administered as many as 1,800

hydrogen peroxide treatments to patients from as far

away as Europe, and has seen people in the midst of

severe asthma attacks " go from gray to pink " during an

infusion.

On a recent day at his clinic, Health Dimensions,

patients occupied two of the dozen black leather

chaises arranged in a spacious lounge off the waiting

room. They watched videos as IV bags of yellowish and

clear liquid emptied slowly into veins in their left

hands.

Many of his patients, Shortt says, come to him when

conventional medicine has run its course.

" We go to work from this point where you're hopeless, "

the 58-year-old said in a recent telephone interview.

But health experts say injecting hydrogen peroxide

directly into the bloodstream can cause convulsions,

acute anemia and deadly gas emboli. A 1991 article in

the " Journal of Emergency Nursing " blamed the death of

a 39-year-old cancer patient on such " cancer

quackery. "

The American Cancer Society says treating certain

tumors directly with hydrogen peroxide " remains an

area for responsible research. " But as for infusion of

the chemical into the bloodstream, there is " no

scientific basis for the regimens utilized by the

oxymedicine promoters. "

In September, the National Multiple Sclerosis

Society's Web site posted a " Medical Alert, " saying:

" Hydrogen peroxide, administered either orally or by

intravenous infusion, is not a recommended or approved

treatment for multiple sclerosis. ... Dr.

, the National MS Society's Chief Medical

Officer, strongly urges people with MS to avoid this

unproven and potentially unsafe treatment. "

Physicians in Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee

have had their licenses suspended or revoked for

giving patients intravenous hydrogen peroxide. In the

Tennessee case, the medical board said the physician

exhibited " gross malpractice ... and incompetence and

ignorance in the course of medical practice. "

Bibeau, a 53-year-old mother of two from

Cottage Grove, Minn., was diagnosed with multiple

sclerosis in 2001.

The avid knitter, gardener and baker - whom husband,

, has described as " June Cleaver with an

attitude " - was a breast cancer survivor. So when

confronted with a degenerative and incurable disease,

she embarked on an open-minded search for ways to

combat it.

That search led her to Shortt.

" Hydrogen peroxide would be very good to kill

whatever's in there, " Shortt told her in a February

phone call, according to a transcript of the taped

consultation. " Because, right now, we don't know what

it is. "

March 9, 2004, she sat in one of those leather chairs

in West Columbia as a 0.03 percent solution of

hydrogen peroxide coursed through her veins. That

first treatment lasted 90 minutes.

Afterward, Bibeau complained of abdominal pain and

nausea, according to a federal lawsuit the family

filed against Shortt. Two days later, the suit

contends, she returned to Shortt's clinic extremely

weak, with bruising at the infusion site and severe

vaginal bleeding.

The lawsuit alleges that Shortt ignored these signs of

" acute hemolytic crisis " and failed to order a blood

work-up for Bibeau, or to refer her to another

physician. Shortt, while acknowledging that hydrogen

peroxide therapy can destroy red blood cells after

repeated treatments, denies those allegations.

By the time she arrived at the emergency room on March

12, Bibeau was in multiple-organ failure. Two days

later, she was dead.

In July, a second patient of Shortt's died.

Bate, a 66-year-old retired engineer, had advanced

prostate cancer.

Bate's wife, Janet, said he received eight hydrogen

peroxide infusions, along with other treatments. (Bate

also obtained the banned, discredited drug laetrile.

Shortt acknowledges showing Bate how to use it after

Bate made it clear he intended to do so against

Shortt's advice.) In this case, too, the physician has

denied doing anything to harm his patient.

In September, armed state and federal officers raided

Shortt's office and confiscated his files. Later that

month, the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners

asked a judge for an emergency suspension of Shortt's

license.

Seeking support, Shortt traveled to the October

conference, in Atlanta, of the International Oxidative

Medicine Association, which developed the regimens he

used. The group found that Shortt had followed its

" well-established " protocols.

In its position paper, the group's president, Dr.

Rowen, instead zeroed in on two FDA-approved

drugs that Bibeau had previously been prescribed: the

MS drug Copaxone and Tegretol, which is used to treat

seizure disorders.

Rowen noted that among Copaxone's listed side effects

are " metorrhagia (profuse uterine bleeding),

thrombosis, bruising, clotting problems, and

infections. " An Internet site dedicated to Tegretol

warns of " easy bruising, or reddish or purplish spots

on the skin " as possible " signs of a blood disorder

brought on by the drug. "

Rowen says it is " more than reasonable to conclude "

that the interaction of these two drugs was " the

proximate cause of this death. "

Shortt says he knew of no reason his treatment would

react negatively with the drugs Bibeau was taking. He

did not suggest she drop those medications.

Israeli drug company Teva Pharmaceuticals, maker of

Copaxone, told The Associated Press that its drug had

been " extensively studied and tested clinically ...

and has proven safe and effective. " Novartis

Pharmaceuticals, Tegretol's Swiss-based manufacturer,

declined to comment.

Richland County forensic pathologist Clay Nichols says

Bibeau had been on both drugs for more than a year

" with no adverse effects. "

As the investigations go forward, Shortt has

voluntarily ceased performing hydrogen peroxide

infusions. The South Carolina medical board has

scheduled a Jan. 21 hearing to revisit his case.

Coroner Watts stands by his conclusions.

" I don't think he meant to kill her, " Watts says. " I'm

just saying ... she died as a result of his infusing

her with something he shouldn't have infused her

with. "

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EDITOR'S NOTE - G. Breed is the AP's Southeast

regional writer, based in Raleigh, N.C.