RE: Serostim Nightmare!!

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing your story.

You may want to check with a local lawyer on the statute of limitations. If there is fraud involved, the two year statute may not have started running until you learned about the fraud. In any event, telling the truth about your experience with this doctor (preferably giving his name) on this list and to HIV groups in your area will warn other potential and current patients of the doctor and may help prevent the doctor from continuing his sleazy ways. Just be careful to limit your account to facts that you personally know, so as to avoid any potential for libel or slander -- truth is always a defense, as well as the best way of exposing sleaze!

Serostim Nightmare!!

I thought I'd offer up the terrible situation (and sleaziness?) regarding my Serostim treatments in 1996.I went to my doctor to tell him about my - as it was called then - protease paunch. He told me that there was a treatment for this called Human Growth Hormone. I said I was interested. He then left the room and brought in a Serono (sp?) rep. I told him that I was interested, the guy left, and then my doc finished up my appointment. Amazingly, the next day at work, an entire year's supply of the drug was delivered via Fed-Ex to my office. Along with a bill for $30,000!!! Someone in my office signed for it. Because of the priceI sent it back. Then Serono switched into overdrive and helped me out to get my company's insurance pay for it, and eventually, after about a month, my insurance agreed. Of course the HGH was at my office the next day.Now started my Serostim nightmare. My doctor prescribed it as a shot EVERY day. So I started the treatment, and within about 3 to 4 weeks my knuckles started swelling up and getting very sore. In fact it got so bad that it was too painful to knock on a door!! I went to the doc and he said that I could switch to every OTHER day. So I did this, but the pain did not stop. I set up another appt. with him and told him that I could not continue with this, so he said that I should bring the entire supply of it back to him. I did this. In the meantime my knuckles actually grew new bone and was barely able to bend my fingers. Also the intense pain continued for over 2 years, and now the pain is gone but the bone is still enlarged. And this summer, when it was really humid, the pain came back, though not as bad. I'm assuming now that this is turning into arthritis. I talked with a lypo specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Dr. Pallela), and he said the unfortunate effects I had happened to about 2% of patients on this drug. It was not til later that I read that the recommended dosage of Serostim was 1-2 times a week. So it looks like my doc made a big mistake when giving me the dosage (or maybe, back then, this is what the dosage was). It should be added that since this happened I have found out that this doc was notoriously known as someone that did this sort of thing - subscribing things for paybacks. I mean, everytime I went to see him it seemed that he had just got back from some cruise where there were HIV "conferences". (isn't this some scheme drug companies use to goad docs into using their drugs?) In another example, I was in a study for a new treatment (that has since been phased out since it didn't work), and this doc was charging my insurance for the blood draws even though they actually were done for free through the study!! (in other words, this doc is/was VERY sleazy)So this is my nightmare, and I'm sure that I'll be suffering from arthritis for the rest of my life because of it. I'm wondering if there's some kind of suit I could bring against the company because of this happening. I have been told that it's past the 2-year limit, so there is no chance of it.Sorry that this message is so long, but this has been boiling up in me for awhile, so it's nice to finally share it with with other understanding ears. Zacherscott_zacher@...