Comments on: Parents in lawsuit over Thoughtful House treatement

By: Sullivan

Sullivan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:13:21 +0000

Dennis,

thanks for the link. Just finished blogging it.

I expect the usual hate filled smears to appear tomorrow in the usual places.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:40:41 +0000

And here’s Part III of the Chicago Tribune’s series

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....full.story

By: Visitor

Visitor — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:36:04 +0000

Another feature about Thoughtful House which may be shaken from the trees by this episode is how much money the principals of this “nonprofit” are making. Any lawsuit can force out this data.

We know that Andrew Wakefield makes $280,000 a year. The receptionist, Anissa Ryland, makes $100,000. Nice work if you can get it.

But this big imponderable is Arthur Krigsman, who flies in from New York to perform ileocolonoscopies on the kids. The reported cost to parents is $4,500 a pop.

So, if the colonoscopy takes about half an hour – plus time for other stuff – you get maybe a maximum of 10 in a long day.

The Austin Surgical hospital will take a cut, and there will be ancillary costs for nurses etc, admin and all the rest.

I reckon he might be pocketing $10,000 a day from these parents. But maybe someone else can work out the sums.

By: David N. Brown

David N. Brown — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:26:40 +0000

Two more things I discovered, contradicting the troll:
Quackwatch only has 6 pages mentioning Wakefield. One of those pages (NOT written by Barrett) had this to say about ABA:
ABA programs are based on well-established theories of learning and emphasize the value of scientific methods in evaluating treatment effects. Nevertheless, given the current state of the science, claims of “cure” and “recovery” from autism produced by ABA are misleading and irresponsible.

Not much of a foundation on which to charge conspiracy!

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:23:21 +0000

A couple of new stories hit the press in Chicago this morning, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune. Looking through their archive, of interest are the exposés that their medical watchdog reporting team has run on a number of autism quacks such as the Geiers.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....full.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....5439.story

By: David N. Brown

David N. Brown — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:28:27 +0000

I copied and pasted most of them in a new doc… I think I missed one, which seemed to be strictly taunting about Barrett. I suggest leaving them up to show this person up. If not, I would be interested in receiving them for my own use. And, I suggest taking this as cause for “open season” on ALL biomed bullies… including the “Hairy Biped”.

By: Sullivan

Sullivan — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:33:47 +0000

OK, I’ve approved 2 of the 9 posts from this troll.

one by “faithingod” since people responded to it, and it gives us a good idea of who is behind these spams
the second is by slumlord17, so I can respond: this blog is not run by QuackWatch. I think Stephen Barret is far from shy about using his own name on his efforts and multiple websites. I doubt he would set up a website in the UK when he can avail himself of the much better freedom of speech protections in the US.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:49:50 +0000

@Mike, things have been shaking loose (for the better) in Austin. We expect to have an update from her early this week. Watch this space (or the website, or the FB group) as we’ll post as soon as we get it.

Cheers,

N2C

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:47:06 +0000

Almost ten years ago I participated on the Healthfraud listerv. Tim Bolen harvested my email and started to send me spam. Apparently he likes to do that: Old spammin' Tim. If I had known about the Spamcops I would have also complained. One of the Spamcops did Google Bolen and came up with the Quackwatch site.

By: Mike Stanton

Mike Stanton — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:18:00 +0000

Do we have an update on how Juli Martinez is doing in her case?