Another Chelation Therapy Death

[Guest guest]

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=10003567 & nav=menu374_2_2

NewsChannel 5 Investigates:

Girl's Death Raises Questions About Alternative Therapies

Posted: March 13, 2009 05:23 PM EDT

More and more people are turning to alternative therapies to deal with serious

medical problems.

But now, a little girl's death is raising serious questions about some of those

therapies.

" NewsChannel 5 Investigates " discovered that authorities want to know whether

the six-year-old girl may have been harmed, instead of being helped, by the

treatment she received.

Her parents say she loved princesses and Disney.

Starr didn't let her epilepsy keep her from smiling. Her parents turned to

alternative therapies and said improved.

But last year died at the age of six. The autopsy stated her death was due

to seizure disorder -- and was natural.

It seemed 's story was over.

But, nearly a year later, investigators served a search warrant on what used to

be the Center For Proactive Medicine, a clinic on music row. The warrant raises

questions about the role alternative therapies played in 's death.

Investigators were looking for evidence of child abuse and criminally negligent

homicide.

According to the search warrant, received chelation therapy, an alternative

treatment for epilepsy, just days before she died.

Doug Gilmore was co-owner of the clinic that treated .

" I can tell you the chelation therapy in my unprofessional opinion did not harm

that child, " Gilmore told investigative reporter Ben Hall.

The therapy has been used for decades to treat lead poisoning. It works by

putting a solution into the body using an IV.

" It latches onto heavy metals throughout your system and you urinate them out, "

explained Gilmore.

He is not a doctor but he says his business treated thousands of adults in

Tennessee with chelation therapy.

" We chelated over 15,000 treatments over eight years. We never had one single

adverse reaction, not one, " Gilmore insisted.

A couple years ago, the clinic started doing chelation on children with autism

and, in 's case, epilepsy.

Even though chelation therapy is not FDA approved beyond lead poisoning, many

parents -- including 's -- insist the treatment works.

They believe environmental toxins caused their children's illness - and

chelation could cure them.

Gilmore agreed. " What I'm telling you is I saw people with these two eyes get

better. I saw kids talk that never talked before. "

Even celebrities like McCarthy, who has a son with autism, have publicly

supported the use of alternative treatments like chelation therapy to remove

toxins.

The Starrs agreed. They started a foundation in 's honor. It has a website

full of 's pictures designed to raise awareness about chelation and other

therapies.

Vanderbilt doctor McGrew is concerned about the growing use of chelation

therapy on children with autism and other illnesses.

" My opinion of chelation is that it is dangerous, " Dr. McGrew said.

She does not know of the Starr investigation, but says children have died

because of the therapy.

" The danger with chelation therapy is when it can't remove heavy metals, it's

removing other things from the body, " explained Dr. McGrew.

But some parents claim the treatment has actually cured children of autism.

In an internet interview Fred and Starr, who are both doctors, claimed

's brother no longer had autism because of a series of alternative

therapies.

Starr said, " Sammy's two and a half. "

" And he's your autistic child? " an interviewer asked.

" Ah, he used to be, " Starr answered.

Dr. Fred Starr now promotes a number of alternative therapies - including

chelation - in his private practice.

In the interview he said, " You have to look at it that you can make these

interventions that can make a dramatic difference in their development. "

But investigators want to look at 's full medical history for more clues

about her death.

Doug Gilmore believes chelation therapy is not responsible.

He says, " If it was a death they don't know about, they should investigate it

fully, cause there are a whole lot of other variables than chelation. "

received several types of alternative treatments. Chelation is the only one

mentioned in the search warrant.

Done properly, it is not illegal -- but it's controversial when it's not used

for lead poisoning.

Some doctors have been disciplined for using the wrong chelating agents. That

can be very dangerous, but it's also rare.

Authorities say their investigation is far from over.

[Guest guest]

Do they do any chemical tests on the levels of metals in your blood, first?

If it can remove the wrong substances when you don't have a high enough level of

the targetted substance, you would expect them to think of testing the level. Is

that too clever?

[Guest guest]

" Do they do any chemical tests on the levels of metals in your blood, first?

" If it can remove the wrong substances when you don't have a high enough level

of the targetted substance, you would expect them to think of testing the level.

Is that too clever? "

In the US, chelation may is only approved by the Food and Drug Administration as

a treatment for metal toxicity. Any other use is unapproved. Thus either the

hundreds of thousands of people getting chelation have metal poisoning, or they

don't.

My unqualified medical opinion is that these people do not have metal poisoning,

else there would be scares across the country and toxic waste cleanups

everywhere. In turn, this leads me to believe that chelation is being used as a

" treatment " or " cure " for things besides metal toxicity, and so if there was

testing going on, the results showed negative for metal poisoning.

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