A lawsuit has been filed in Chicago claiming that a child has been harmed by the treatments prescribed by Dr. Dan Rossignol and Dr. Anju Usman.
This is being reported in a story, Father of 7-year-old autistic boy says treatment harmed son. (also now on the Chicago Tribune’s website)
Doctor’s Data has also been named:
Coman also alleged that Doctor’s Data Inc., the St. Charles laboratory that performed the tests Usman and Rossignol used to justify these treatments, was negligent for using an “improper method” of testing.
We here at LeftBrainRightBrain have commented many times about the concept of “challenge” testing to “prove” heavy metal toxicity.
The suit spotlights a test often used to diagnose metal poisoning in children with autism. To conduct the test, doctors give children a chelation drug that forces the body to let go of some of the metals that exist in everyone – healthy or sick – in trace amounts. Those metals show up in urine, which is sent to a lab for screening.
In the case of Coman’s son, Doctor’s Data then compared those drug-provoked results to a reference range calculated for people who had never been given a chelation drug. Based on this apples-to-oranges comparison, Coman’s son was found to have elevated levels of lead, aluminum, tin and mercury – some with results Doctor’s Data listed in the “90% range of metal contamination,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the story, there are no comments from Doctor’s Data, Dr. Rossignol’s office nor Dr. Usman’s office.
Left Brain Right Brain 
There are no statements as to what harm was caused. I hope it isn’t a permanent one. Kids should not be used as experiments. DAN! doctors should lose their medical licenses to practice. The children need to be protected.
The chelation therapists seem to have deep pockets backing them, but there’s no way they can defend challenge testing in court. One thing that can be raised is that even some of the chelation therapists are complaining about it.
“Rossignol” is misspelled in the title of this post.
I’m curious to know if any one of the people who responded to this post have done any research what so ever to the cause of Autism and the available treatments in Western Medicine. If they had, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge these doctors who are putting their licenses on the line in search of the truth, and a real cure. Do some research and then share your opinion. A good place to start is Dr. Kenneth Bock’s book “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics”
“If they had, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge these doctors who are putting their licenses on the line in search of the truth, and a real cure”
I object to doctors who put the health of people, especially disabled children, on the line without good science to back them up.
Kenneth Bock–
a man who believes in the autism-heavy metal poisoning link and promotes chelation? The guy who refers to autism as a “dark cage”?
@Amanda, what a patronising comment. Reading a couple of pseudo scientific books, which seems to be all you have done, is not research. I suggest you follow your own advice.
Amanda,
Yes, I have done research into the cause(s) of autism. And by “research” I mean actual designing and carrying out research projects, not just reading books about “alternative” autism therapies written by people who make their living selling those treatments.
Have you?
Prometheus
Prometheus… you win; you have been awarded the internet as a prize!
“Have you?”
Somehow, I think she has not.
I haven’t done research into causes – except to take a Lewinian social and psycho-anthropological view at it – but I have done research; I now have an interesting Ph. D. project at an embryonic stage but (given how getting into research positions in universities in Finland is done) I’m more than disappointed that it will never come to fruition. But it is at least there.
Maybe if we do a Medline search we’ll find some Amanda Weeks research in there … but then again … how likely is that?
—– time passes —–
Wow!
A pig just flew past the window and waved at me, saying he was sorry that AW’s research lost out at the pre-publication stage!
I have done actual research too.
Autism is a multifactorial disease. We need answers and someone HAS to do research on it on children if we have to treat future generations of children. God will not come down to earth to do it only on angels and give us answers that pertain to humans. Sounds very harsh and harmful for the kids whose parents volunteer for it. But how else is research done? In vitro? Only Phase I. At the end of the day, no Drugs Controller will permit any treatment to be called “Approved” UNLESS human trial has been done, that too on a placebo controlled fashion (more degarding or ? harmful to the child treated or not treated????).
Seems our argument is back to square one…
Dr A Mukherjee I’m not sure what sort of Dr you are but you should be aware that testing drugs experimentally with no good biological reason is unethical. There should be sound medical basis for running pharmaceutical/treatment trials of any kind. Those of us who read and post here (well most of us) are well aware of the multifactorial aspect of ASD. But science if not completely bereft of understanding Autism. The proposition that Autism is the result of heavy metal toxicity is not established at all so why would chelation or any other alternative treatment that involves inherent risks be seen as reasonable?
Wow, that’s funny. So….what you’re saying is….we should only do research that’s “bilogically fit” on these types of therapies?! But not the drugs that our legal drug dealers are pushing (btw, I mean pHARMa)?!
Because it appears young girls (and now young boys) are dying thanks to the Gardasil vaxx.
Oh wait. Maybe we should leave THAT alone. Pfft.
Why is it that any time someone writes ” So….what you’re saying is…” the next part is always a misrepresentation of what was actually said?
Jenn, did you read the article above? If so, why not ask for explanation of the parts you misunderstood?
Jenn: Sorry that the prevention of cancer interfering with your income. It’s not Sullivan’s fault that healthy peoole don’t buy quack cures. Maybe some honest career is avaiable for you?
@DNA: “Wow!…A pig just flew past the window…”
you are bad!…but more truth/points in under lying humor than scientific stuff…ohoh, i just saw another flying pig…and it’s hard for them to get between the CA houses that are almost on top of each other…
happy new year, friend.