Mayer Eisenstein is a go-to person in the vaccines-cause-autism community. He heads a large practice in the Chicago area and claims that his unvaccinated children do not have autism. He also was or is a part of the “Lupron Franchise”—a group of practitioners who took on the Geier idea that shutting down sex hormone production in autistics could be a treatment. It was a profoundly bad idea.
Mayer Eisenstein was the subject of an article in the Chicago Tribune: Autism doctor: Troubling record trails doctor treating autism. From that article:
Yet his suburban Chicago practice, currently known as Homefirst, garnered an alarming record: It was on the losing side of one of the largest U.S. jury verdicts — $30 million — ever awarded to the family of a newborn in a wrongful-death suit.
In court records dating back three decades, the families of dead and brain-damaged children repeatedly alleged that doctors who work for Eisenstein made harmful mistakes — sometimes the same error more than once. His practice also has been dogged by accusations in court records that its offshore malpractice policy was phony.
After the $30M verdict, Mayer Eisenstein filed bankruptcy. Which was not permitted. Again from the article above:
With bankruptcy off the table, a Cook County judge acknowledged the practice’s claim of insolvency, consolidated the $30 million verdict, five remaining malpractice cases and two civil fraud cases and ordered mediation.
Last July, the judge approved a $1.275 million settlement that Homefirst must divide among six families over seven years. Eisenstein’s practice made the first $100,000 payment last September, four months before he opened the autism clinic.
It appears that the $1.275M settlement noted above is the topic of a battle ongoing in the current bankruptcy filing by Dr. Eisenstein. Per the complaint:
The aggregate Settlement Amount of $1,275,000 represents a small fraction of the total of claims by the Personal Injury Plaintiffs, some of which had reached verdict and judgment.
In other words, it appears Mayer Eisenstein wasn’t allowed to avoid payment by filing bankruptcy, but he did reduce the payments dramatically. The settlement also included a payment schedule. The families claim that four annual payments for a total of $430,000 were made, then the payments stopped after 2011. They claimed (as of August 2013):
Installments to Be Paid on or Before: Amount
September 22, 2012 (not paid when due). . . . . . . . . . . . $ 140,000.00
September 22, 2013 (not yet due). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 150,000.00
September 22, 2014 (not yet due). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 160,000.00
September 22, 2015 (not yet due). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 395,000.00
Total due and unpaid and to become due $ 845,000.00
Per the docket, the case was scheduled to go to hearing last month.
In short, it appears that a multiple families were injured by Mayer Eisenstein and/or member of his practice. They sought and were granted damages, only to have Dr. Eisenstein negotiate those down in a 2004 bankruptcy filing. Dr. Eisenstein made some payments, but then stopped. And he now appears to be trying to avoid further payments as part of his new bankruptcy filing, which the families are fighting. Again.
Why, one might ask, didn’t the families get some secutity pledged to cover the settlement should Dr. Eisenstien stop payments? Seems a reasonable thing to do. The answer is they did. It appears that the property he pledged as security was not under Mayer Eisenstien’s control. In other words, when the families sought to get the property in lieu of the payments, they found that Dr. Eisenstein (who holds a law degree in addition to his medical credentials) couldn’t directly hand it over.
The records of the Office of the Recorder of Deeds of Cook County, Illinois disclose the following transactions for the property at 1101 Dodge, Evanston, Illinois, PIN 10-24-
208-032-0000:
(a) Karen Eisenstein (Mayer Eisenstein, M.D.’s spouse) took title by a deed recorded on April 29, 2002 as document number 0020384408.
(b) Karen Eisenstein transferred title to North Star Trust Co. Tr. # 36189 by a deed in trust recorded on June 11, 2003 as document number 0316239026.
25. Paragraph 6 of the Circuit Court order of July 12, 2008 further provides:
“6. Plaintiffs are to have secured creditor status in the event of an applicable bankruptcy filing.”
So, it would appear that Mayer Eisenstein pledged a property as security for the settlement—a property which he had transferred to his wife in 2002 and which she had transferred to a trust company, in 2003. In other words, to this layman, it appears that at the time he put the property up, it was effectively shielded from actually being used as security.
Another question that one would reasonably ask is why weren’t these claims paid by malpractice insurance? That gets very convoluted, but the original settlement agreement included the statment
“I. Defendants in this matter affirm that they do not have any liability insurance coverage for any of the claims of the remaining plaintiffs.”
Defendants would be Mayer Eisenstein and his practice. And here is where it gets convoluted. The current complaint states
45. At one of the meetings pursuant to Section 341 of the Bankruptcy Code, Mayer Eisenstein, M.D. stated that from time to time he has malpractice insurance to allow him to be on staff at an area hospital.
46. At that same meeting, Mayer Eisenstein, M.D. stated that he did not submit any of the claims to that malpractice insurance carrier, because, as he claimed, if he had the insurance would have been cancelled, and he could no longer use the hospital
47. If Mayer Eisenstein, M.D. had medical malpractice insurance coverage in place at a time when the claims or one or more of the Personal Injury Plaintiffs cases arose, then the
statement was false.
Maybe he didn’t have insurance. Maybe he did and didn’t submit the claims.
Let’s take a look back at the Chicago Tribune article. In addition to discussing the Lupron clinic Dr. Eisenstein set up, it also discusses his history with insurance:
He also dabbled in group health plan sales to Illinois families but tangled with state insurance regulators in the mid- to late 1990s. Regulators warned consumers in a newsletter that Eisenstein “continued to illegally market” the Homefirst Health Plan, based in the British Virgin Islands, even after they told him the plan was ineligible. Despite this, he continued selling the plan, records show, and they ordered him to “cease and desist.”
In an interview, Eisenstein said he was offering a “fraternal health plan,” not traditional health insurance, so he said he didn’t have to listen to regulators. He no longer sells health plans.
And, later:
After Nathan Howey’s death, Weiss Hospital sued Homefirst, Rosi and Eisenstein for fraud, alleging they misrepresented their Caribbean-based malpractice policy. Eisenstein testified that he was in St. Kitts helping one of his daughters, a veterinary student there, buy a condo when the lawyer who helped arrange the sale told Eisenstein he also sold malpractice insurance.
“I was tickled pink to get insurance,” he said under oath.
A Cook County judge called it an “improperly underwritten insurance plan.” Eisenstein, who says the policy is legitimate, agreed to pay Weiss $50,000 after mediation.
Yes, “tickled pink” to get insurance. From a Caribbean island real estate/insurance salesman.
For those interested, here are some of the documents from the case discussed above.
—
By Matt Carey
Left Brain Right Brain 
I have listened to several broadcasts of Attorney Alan Phillips and Dr. Eisenstein on their “Know your Rights” hour. I was very disturbed when Dr. Eisenstein encouraged and affirmed parents in not telling doctors in hospitals and emergency rooms that their children were unvaccinated.
How that man can call himself a doctor, and play an accessory into possibly introducing an outbreak into a hospital, I don’t understand.
It’s hard to believe that Mayer Eisenstein with all his shady dealings, has a clean record with the Illinois State Lawyer Licensing Board:
http://www.iardc.org/ldetail.asp?id=986022080
If he’s not practicing as a lawyer – which I don’t know – there won’t be legal malpractice.
Ooops, try this link and key in “Eisenstein” in the “Lawyer Search” field in the left column:
http://www.iardc.org/
To continue the story, you can read Eisenstein’s answer to the complaint here:
http://bit.ly/1aKu5d6
To boil it down, Eisenstein is saying that he never agreed to the settlement and never agreed to pledge the property as security because he didn’t own it and couldn’t pledge it. His lawyers done it, and it’s not his fault, he says.
Eisenstein says there never was a settlement, though he admits that he made the first four settlement payments “on advice of counsel.” Re the medical malpractice insurance, he says he had a policy, but it wouldn’t have covered the plaintiffs’ claims so he didn’t submit them to his carrier.
What appears to have happened is that there were a bunch of state court cases against Eisenstein that were consolidated and ultimately, according to the plaintiffs, settled. This had nothing to do with the earlier bankruptcy proceeding.
After the settlement, Eisenstein made some of the payments and then filed the 2013 bankruptcy proceeding. Because the plaintiffs’ claims existed before the 2013 bankruptcy was filed, those claims would ordinarily be discharged, meaning that the plaintiffs could not pursue them and would have to take whatever they could get from the bankruptcy, sharing with other creditors. But there’s an exception to discharge for claims that resulted from fraud. So the plaintiffs filed this Adversary Proceeding in the bankruptcy court – that’s what this lawsuit is – to get their claims under the settlement agreement declared nondischargeable due to Eisenstein’s alleged fraud in entering into the settlement agreement. If they win this, they would then be able to pursue their claims against Eisenstein for breach of the settlement agreement regardless of the bankruptcy. The purpose of the Adversary Proceeding is to try to prevent Eisenstein from using his bankruptcy to avoid his full liability to the plaintiffs for the remaining settlement amounts.
The case is still pending and, as far as I can tell, hasn’t yet been set for trial.
Now I wonder whether Eisenstein will let his lawyers testify about whether he authorized them to say he would pledge the property as security, or whether he will invoke the attorney-client privilege on that subject.
He’s the client. If they acted without his authorization, he should act against them. I, too, am interested to see if he invokes privilege – which would be excellent reason to dismiss that claim. thanks for the info.
While there are bad lawyers (every job has bad apples), I don’t buy this for a second. I can’t believe that the lawyers would have put this up as surety without the title deed, unless Eisenstein claimed he owned it. I’m convinced he’s lying, but that would be par for the course from someone who encourages others to lie.
anyone notice that there are no details as to what this suit is against Eisenstein? what exactly is the charge?
Which one? there are several mentioned in the Chicago Tribune article. Also, the links contain the legal documents to the bankruptcy.
I’m also against the vaccine fraud giving poison in the guise of disease protection and that is probably the basis of all suits against him.The billion dollar vaccine industry is as fraudulent as fraudulent can be !
Putting aside the fact that vaccines are not poison, the basis of the suits is that his and his clinic’s practices, which deviated from the standard or care, hurt or killed children. They were brought by the parents of the victims.
Sir, thanks for that information that vaccines are not poison. I believe the writer was referring to INGREDIENTS in vaccines being poison. Surely you’re aware of the numerous poisons in vaccines, aren’t you? If you’re not aware of them, you can easily Google this information. I mean we are in the year 2014, not 1914. The information is readily available. Standard of care causes 1 in eight children to be born premature and 54 percent suffering from a chronic medical condition. You need to get your head out of the sand.
You are mistaken on that, too.
A. In the tiny amounts in which they are in vaccines, none of these ingredients is poisonous. Here are some helpful links to explain why the ingredients are there and how we know they are safe:
Click to access vaccine_components.pdf
http://vec.chop.edu/vaccine-safety/vaccine-ingredients/index.html
B. “1 in eight children to be born immature and 54 percent suffering from a chronic medical condition”: citation needed – to the fact and that it’s caused by the standard of care.
Standard of care allows RH positive babies of RH negative women to survive; Dr. Eisenstein didn’t respect that.
Standard of care led to an incredible decrease in infant mortality, deaths from cancer, and prolonged life span.
1) vaccines work. If you disagree, you demonstrate ignorance.
2) the lawsuits had nothing to do with vaccines. These were his patients. Mayer Eisenstein had multiple problems within his practice and also had at times substandard malpractice coverage.
I never said his lawsuits had nothing to do with vaccines. That wasn’t my reply. As for vaccines working, I recommend you do me a favor and send me the references that vaccines work. That way i can include them in an article I’m working on regarding vaccines. “Vaccines DO work, and here’s the evidence provided by Mr. Matt Carey as to why they work.” I don’t mind printing your evidence. It will be provided along with mine. But I never said anything about Dr. Eisenstein–who died five days ago, by the way. Just the same, I was on a radio program with him on 11/17, so I DO support the work he did at his clinic.
If you are working on an article and have yet to find evidence that vaccines work, your research skills are lacking.
“As for vaccines working,”
Here is a tiny hint: learn the difference between mortality and morbidity, also known as death and incidence rate. For some reason some of Eisenstein’s friends do not own a dictionary and mix them up.
@ Tom: Plenty of links to sources in this article. Proof that the only way to catch smallpox now is to get into a laboratory to be infected with it. Now STFU!
Any doctor or human that can look at the ingredients in vaccines and multi dose an infant is a murderer. They def. do not understand toxic overload. They do not comprehend what and how immunology works and they definitely should spend some time under the tutelage of Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld. I bring up vaccines because the Shrill/Trolls on here keep going back to it. I am totally unvaccinated; travel the world; had my childhood illness and have life long immunity. I am the herd and I will never be injected as long as I live.
Every single doctor I know how multiple problems in their practice. Malpractice coverage should definitely be in force in a day and age where people sue for just about anything.
I expect most doctors do understand that the tiny amounts of ingredients in vaccines are not an issue, and that not protecting babies against dangerous diseases is a mistake. So they vaccinate. I’m glad you’ve been lucky so far in spite of your failure to protect yourself. I hope your luck hold, that you get no disease, and that you not infect and harm others because of your lack of protection, either.
Perhaps you should find somewhere else to comment, rather than on a several year old post about a dead quack.
You obviously did not read this blog thoroughly, nor did you open the links provided, which detail the many medical malpractice suit court judgements against Eisenstein. Furthermore, Eisenstein ran a medical insurance scam, collecting/pocketing premiums for his non-existent medical insurance company, thus sticking his “marks” with tens of thousands of medical and hospital bills.
You’ve yet to post any links to back up your assertions…so typical of you and your ilk who are science illiterates and anti-vaccine to the cores of your being.
Anne Dachel just reported that her “mentor,” Mayer Eisentein, has died, apparently without disclosing why he refused to publish his data that, he claimed, showed that the “over 35,000 patients who have never been vaccinated” in his practice absolutely, positively, never ever developed ASD–and without indicating why anyone would believe him.
Dr. Mayer Eisenstein passed away this week…
brian beat me to it – his creditors aren’t going to be pleased….
It’s not particularly clear to me what the status of (what seems to be) the lone case remaining is.
Be very careful not to judge him because of his beliefs that are contrary to the Medicine money making machine. It does take tremendous backbone to stand against such a behemoth. History credits many people for sticking to their beliefs when most other people were violently opposed, Thank MLK for his backbone ! In todays litigious culture it is becoming nearly impossible to stand firm against standard practices. Thank you Mayer Eisenstein. RIP
I do judge him for his beliefs that go against the evidence, and the harm they caused.
Backbone in rejecting evidence and treating patients unsafely is not a virtue.
I judge him from using chemical castration on autistic children; for refusing to protect RH positive babies; for refusing to protect children against diseases; all against the evidence, all actually or potential harmful to patients, to give only some examples.
True.
From my point of view Eisenstein would NEVER have been allowed to treat anyone in my family. That I say having read a great deal about him. Doctors who abandon evidence are not physicians in my view.
I love the classic straw man argument– you paint those who counter Mr. Eisenstein’s misinformaion as doing this because they are “contrary to the Medicine money making machine”
History shows that many people who have misled people caused harm. That is Eisenstein’s legacy.
Having been on his Mailing list, I find it ironic that people paint the medical community as profit driven. Every day i got an email about how i could buy one or more supplements or in some other way assist Eisenstein’s bottom line. The alternative to medicine community is very profitable.
It takes a lot of backbone to stand up against the alternative to medicine community, of which Mayer Eisenstein was a part. Prof Reiss has that backbone.
The alternative to medicine industry is billions of dollars annually and their adherents are quite willing to overstep the line in defense of their community.
Rest in pieces, indeed.
Dr. John, just the fact that you made a comparison of Eisenstein to MLK is a strong indication that you are probably not a physician at all. Merely “bucking the system” is not a virtue as Prof. Reiss stated. While I have sympathy for his family’s loss, Eisenstein was a charlatan and caused a lot of harm.
“Doctor” John – Mayer Eisenstein’s beliefs are the very foundation of the alternative-to-medicine money-making, children-killing machine. Torquemada and Stalin stuck to their deadly beliefs – Eisenstein’s death count is less only because he has fewer followers. The sooner Eisenstein’s beliefs are in the same scrapheap as every other pro-disease advocate, the better.
P.S. Tying MLK to your evil ideas is an abomination.
Mayer Eisenstein died suddenly in his office and all the crank anti-vaccine, anti-science bloggers and “journalist” are posting tributes about this charlatan quack doctor.
Eisenstein appealed to credulous parents with his stories of caring for 30,000 children who were unvaccinated and consequently never were diagnosed with ASDs. Somehow, he managed to find amongst his patients children who were diagnosed with ASDs and for them he prescribed chemical castration with Lupron…the very same abusive, dangerous, not-clinically-indicated bogus treatment that was used by former medical doctor Mark Geier and his not-a-medical-doctor son David Geier, which finally resulted in the loss of Mark Geier’s multiple medical licenses in multiple states and payment of a $10,000 fine for his son for practicing medicine without a license.
Too bad Mayer Eisenstein didn’t live long enough to see the State of Illinois revoke his medical license, for chemically castrating autistic children.
Not too long ago, a Canadian physician wrote an article linking high Mercury content in the blood to Autism. Her hypothesis is that Lyme bacteria thrive in an high Mercury content environment as discovered in lab tests. In addition, Lyme bacteria like to eat the Schwann cells in the brain, those cells that wrap around the nerve axon and enable a nerve impulse, or action potential, to rapidly propagate down a nerve axon. Thus, if a human that has an high Mercury content in the body and also has been infected or innoculated with Lyme bacteria, he/she may have an high tendency for the Lyme bacteria to enter the brain and devour brain cells. Since the area where the Lyme bacteria may take hold in the brain is virtually infinite, thus there are potentially infinite forms of “Autism”. The idea is that if a child has multiple vaccinations that raise the body Mercury level, and if the child gets infected with Lyme bacteria (common in every environment in the planet), e.g., through a cut or scrape in the skin, and the bacteria make it through the blood stream to the brain, they may have an high probability of developing Autism. Thus, Autism is actually a form of Lyme disease. Stop raising the blood Mercury level then stops the occurrence of Autism.
This is problematic because: A. There’s no real evidence vaccines raise the level of mercury in the blood – and some against it. Especially if you consider that levels of thimerosal in the childhood schedule are now low to non existent. B. There is no indication that children with autism have the lyme bacteria. C. Studies of rates of vaccination – Smith and Wood, DeStefano 2013 – found no link between rate of vaccines and autism, so counter the claim that more vaccines raise the risk of autism. A sibling study found no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated siblings.
D. It ignores the evidence that autism is prenatal.
In short, it’s not a good argument.
Nope, not even in the U.S. The Southern Hemisphere’s right out.