An Illinois doctor who subjects autistic children to “unwarranted, dangerous therapies” must have her work reviewed by an acupuncturist. The state medical board also fined Dr. Anju Usman $10,000, ordered her to take additional medical education classes, and placed her on probation for at least one year, as part of her plea agreement with state regulators.
The acupuncturist, Dr. Robert Charles Dumont, is a pediatrician, and a member of the faculty of the Integrative Medicine Department of Northwestern University School of Medicine. According to the consent decree, Usman “shall submit ten active patient charts on a quarterly basis” to Dumont. When asked if Usman is allowed to select which charts will be reviewed, a medical board spokesperson referred the reporter to the language in the consent decree.
Usman suggested to regulators the doctor who will be reviewing her charts, according to Usman’s attorney.
Usman is director of True Health Medical Center in Naperville, Illinois and owner of Pure Compounding Pharmacy. She a is regular presenter at Autism One, an annual gathering of vendors, providers, quasi-researchers and desperate parents.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation says Usman provided “medically unwarranted treatment that may potentially result in permanent disabling injuries” to a boy that Usman started seeing in the spring of 2002, when the child was not quite two years old. Records indicate Usman diagnosed the boy with a calcium-to-zinc imbalance, yeast, “dysbiosis”, low zinc, heavy metal toxicity, and abnormally high levels of aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, silver, tin, titanium and selenium. Usman prescribed chelation, a hormone modulator, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which regulators describe as an “extreme departure from rational medical judgment.”
The complaint against Usman was filed by the boy’s father in 2009. A year later, he sued Usman and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. for harming the child with “dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments.” A Chicago-area lab, Doctor’s Data, was also sued. The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the suit in 2014, but will reportedly reinstate it in 2015 or later.
Usman was the subject of a 2009 Chicago Tribune investigation into questionable medical practices aimed at treating autism. The article noted that Usman and Rossignol “are stars of Defeat Autism Now!, having trained thousands of clinicians… They are listed on the group’s online clinician registry, a first stop for many parents of children with autism seeking alternative treatment.”
Usman’s name is also connected to the 2005 death of Tariq Nadama, a five-year-old boy who died at the hands of Dr. Roy Kerry. Usman diagnosed the boy with high aluminum levels, then referred him to Kerry, an ear-nose-throat specialist in Pennsylvania. Kerry treated the child for lead poisoning, even though his blood lead levels were below that which indicates the need for chelation.
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Cross posted from Autism News Beat
Left Brain Right Brain 
I can’t fathom why the medical board would agree to such a low penalty for someone who engaged in such practices.
One quack supervising another quack? Yeah, that makes sense…..
That’s a slap on the wrists for this medical doctor, who makes her money by subjecting autistic children to invasive, painful and dangerous bogus “autism treatments”.
The decision by the Illinois Medical Licensing Board to have another physician who is deep into bogus “autism treatments” as the designated physician to monitor Dr. Usman, is an insult to the autism community and to the memory of Tariq Nadama.
Sadly Illinois is one of the most corrupt states in the US. It may be second to California. This outcome doesn’t surprise me in the least.
“Qui custodie custodies” indeed.
Northwestern hasn’t heard of him. Perhaps that should have been Loyola, if he’s still affiliated.
“Chuck” Dumont is at the Raby Institute for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern:
http://www.rabyintegrativemedicine.com/pages/providers/367.php
The Raby Institute is not associated with Northwestern University. It’s near Northwestern’s downtown medical campus, hence the “at.”
Thanks for the clarification, Narad.
Check out Boiron’s “expert witness” in this class action lawsuit:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-cam-docket-boiron-ii/
Don’t forget to visit the Tribune comments.
Don’t forget to visit AoA to see Stagmom’s defense of Dr. Usman…and don’t forget to visit the post from Chicago Tribune’s Trine Tsourderos about Stagmom’s “treatment” of her three autistic children’s ASDs:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-01-17/news/chi-autism-chemicaljan17_1_dismay-upon-hearing-children-dr-l-jackson-roberts-expert-in-environmental-health
Yep, the classic “they don’t like treatment!”
It’s a huge straw man. Let’s take Ms. Stagliano’s story as an example. She promoted an untested synthetic chemical which was mislabeled as a “supplement”. At best the substance is a drug. An untested drug. Designed as an industrial chelator and sold as a supplement to avoid safety and efficacy testing.
1) lack of safety testing
2) lack of efficacy testing
3) synthetic compound mislabled as “supplement”
4) an untested drug sold as a “supplement”
5) autism is not caused by mercury intoxiation, so using the “treatment” shield for using a chelator is a false premise.
6) Ms. Stagliano was a party to the misrepresentation of the drug by presenting it as a supplement.
7) Ms. Stagliano was a party to the scam (because that’s what this is) by not alerting her audience to the lack of safety data.
But instead of stepping up and being responsible for her own actions, she attacks the Tribune as being “anti treatment”.
Again,
one can not stand up for the rights of the disabled to be free from unproven and mislabeled drugs without being labeled as “anti-treatment”. Where Ms. Stagliano and AoA should be fighting for better care, they are lowering the bar and promoting anything that fits in with their “vaccines cause autism” message.
Of course, these are the people who brought us bleach enemas, lupron, chelation and more.
wow you people are truly contemptible, not only do you deny vaccine-related injuries, deem aluminum and thimerosal to be entirely harmless to babies, you now seek to prevent parents pursuing treatments that have been shown to massively improve the outcomes of autistic children, who happened to reverse dramatically after vaccines.
There are no words.
Well Sally, you seem to have found plenty of words to display your ignorance and dishonesty. Firstly, no vaccine-advocate denies there are injuries due to vaccines, there are and fortunately very rare. There just aren’t the ridiculous vaccine injuries that people like you claim. The amounts of aluminium and thiomersal in vaccines are harmless to babies; furthermore, thiomersal isn’t even in any paediatric vaccines so a mute point other than autism prevalence did not decrease since its removal from vaccines. The environmental aluminium burden is much higher than any in vaccines, why aren’t you vilifying that?
The so-called treatments you are whinging about “us” trying to prevent are not treatments at all but abusive and dangerous nostrums concocted by unethical charlatans like Usman. Please show data to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of chelation, HBOT, bleach enemas, off-label drug use, nicotine patches and the like as “massively improving the outcomes of autistic children.”
Abusive treatments? What doing a hair sample? And then chelating metals from the body? DAN supports a nutritional-based program that is advantageous to health. As for me not considering aluminum in the environment is harmful, where did I say that? Nowhere. But just like your sort to make things up – the kind of bogus ad hominem tripe that is all you can come up with. There are no safe levels of aluminum or mercury in the body – just because most people can tolerate it with side-effects doesn’t mean it isn’t deleterious to health..
“And then chelating metals from the body?”
From a hair analysis? Yes, that’s abuse. Read the report from a real toxicologist on Dr. Usman’s methods. Hair analysis is not used for, say, mercury. And that’s assuming you are talking about a real hair test and not some made up counting rule nonsense that gets used by some practitioners.
And in animal tests chelation was showed to cause cognitive impairment when applied without actual intoxication. Cause impairment. So, given that fake test like a hair analysis means that one likely doesn’t have actual intoxication with a treatment that can cause impairment and you have abuse. Then add that DAN! doctors tend to chelation much more than is called for and you have an even worse problem.
No way my kid would ever see Dr. Usman. Not for a scraped knee. Certainly not for her “specialties”.
Aluminum is the most prevalent mineral on the planet – your statement is one of the most idiotic I’ve heard in a while.
Lawrence – well that’s an interesting reply! It’s abundant so it’s good??! Scientists agree that aluminum is toxic to the body, as are many things are that are abundant on this planet. It is implicated in a wide variety of illnesses, particularly ones affecting neurology. Scientists have known for some time about the link between aluminum and Alzheimers.
But hey, it’s abundant. Enjoy eating from your aluminum pans, and the like, and let’s see how good your brain function is when you get to your seventies.
Yes indeed. A hair sample isn’t a viable diagnosis and chelation based upon it is abusive. Chelation isn’t specific for the “icky stuff”; it also depletes the body of essential minerals. The NIH chelation study on autistics was cancelled due to findings by Cornell researchers that chelation where there is not actual metal toxicity caused neurological problems in rats. If metal toxicity is suspected, why not take the child to an actual toxicologist for real testing? I think we know the answer.
Oh bull; DAN! quacks conduct bogus tests and then sell their own supplements along with all manners of quackery as I listed above. Don’t you ever wonder how there is no standard of care amongst DAN quacks to treat “vaccine-induced autism”? That alone should make you question the validity of their “treatments”.
Exactly, just whinge about teh vaxxeeens when we get far more from our environment without harmful effects.
Yes there are actually and the fact that you don’t know this just further demonstrates your ignorance and dismissal of facts that are inconvenient to your dogma.
What side effects would those be? And you still have yet to provide any data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of DAN! “treatments” that have “reversed autism”.
ScienceMom – I see your style of argument is just to be highly abusive. I think I’ll place more trust in the many thousands of people who have seen rapid improvements in their children after following DAN and biomedical programs. And the fact you claim it is “dangerous” shows you know absolutely nothing about it.
I have no vested interest in this matter – I do not have a child with autism and have been considering what vaccination schedule I want for my child (and which vaccines I don’t). But people like you are sure swaying me in the opposite direction. Anyone that aggressive clearly is not a disinterested party.
” I see your style of argument is just to be highly abusive.”
Ah, attacking by claiming to be the victim of faux “abuse”.
You don’t have an autistic kid but you are an expert on DAN!? DAN! is bunk. So much so that they even dropped the name. Remember back when DAN! accepted basically anyone? Seriously. I remember when they had people who were unable to be in the same room alone with a child due to prior disciplinary actions (why they didn’t just lose their license is another big question).
I’ve watched DAN! for a long time. But you believe in the “many thousands of people who have seen rapid improvements”. Right. You believe internet testimonials of the day. Perhaps you could explain why 10 years ago chelation was all the rage–“recovering” kids at an amazing rate–and now it’s almost never used? If it was so effective, why did almost everyone drop it? Same for secretin. B6 and magnesium. Shall we go on? I’ve seen so many claims of “rapid improvements” that turned out to be just sales pitches.
You’ve shown it yourself. No autistic kid but you are promoting DAN. Right. We should all treat our kids with whatever faux treatments they come up with because Sally, the person without an autistic kid, has told us it is so effective.
Go ahead and tell me my response is abusive. You read the parent groups for a decade, why don’t you. You read how horrible adverse reactions are brushed under the rug with the label of “Herxheimer reaction”. You watch as parents fly all over the world, spending tens of thousands of dollars, chasing one fad treatment after another. You watch as disabled kids are harmed and even killed. Then you listen to someone who has no idea what she’s talking about repeat the fact free hype. My response is quite restrained.
Ouch.
“…so a mute point…”
I think you meant “moot point.”
Hey, Sally, I noted that you stated in a response to another thread that
Of course, that was immediately after you wrote: “The pro-aluminum and thimerosal crew – rude, contemptuous, fact-free, ad hominem.” Now you follow that up with>BLOCKQUOTE>wow you people are truly contemptible Please think before you write again. Please think.
Brian – calling someone out on their personal abuse is not being personally abusive. It’s called an observation. Sheesh.
Oh sorry, I missed the meaning of your comment because of the blockquote issues. Well, I’m not trying to argue a point. I’m simply making another observation that to attack DAN and equivalents which are proving so successful for so many autistic children – and which are not harmful treatments – is utterly contemptible. These families have a right to make their children better through nutritional support. Anyone attacking this desire is beyond comprehension. And yes, contemptible.
“DAN and equivalents which are proving so successful for so many autistic children”
Right. They aren’t. I’ve been watching them for nearly a decade. All we get is “here’s a revolutionary new treatment! Here are tons of testimonials that I want you to take in place of science and data”. Then, a few years later, that treatment falls by the wayside and a new one is brought up with the same fanfare.
It’s chelation! It’s secretin! It’s bleach enemas!
They keep throwing darts. Perhaps one day they will actually make a hit. But my kid isn’t a dart. My kid deserves the best, not some amateur pretending to be a specialist. Ever notice how DAN! doctors never referred kids to actual medical toxicologists for treatment when they diagnosed “heavy metal poisoning”? That’s because those who have spent their lives understanding toxicology knew the diagnoses and treatments that DAN! was using were wrong.
I assume you’ve checked the complaint against Dr. Usman. As such you are already aware that she didn’t report the cases of “heavy metal poisoning” to the state as is required. If she really believed her diagnoses would stand up, why didn’t she report?
My kid deserves the best treatment. When as specialist is needed, we get a specialist. Not someone who attends parent conventions, takes a few hours of “training” and get’s called a “DAN! specialist”. No. No way. Not while I have a say in it.
Sullivan – Has an email gone round? I’ve just spent a week reading the differing views on vaccines to gauge what I want to do with my child. That has included reading the accounts of hundreds of parents whose children transformed after having certain vaccinations (rightly or wrongly). Their children were officially diagnosed as being on the ASD – and a significant number have seen incredibly improvements in their children after following these methods. Sorry but I trust the families more than anonymous posters on the net.
And why would anyone possibly be against nutritional methods that couldn’t cause serious harm to a child anyway? It’s beyond bizarre.
I get the pro-vaccine position. But this – never.
Anyway, I’m going to leave you all to your sneering at the families who are trying to help their children. I don’t want to be put off vaccinations completely and you lot are seriously making that happen. Not that I suspect this would bother you – it seems like a very intimate group.
“Sullivan – Has an email gone round?”
What are you on about? Are you wondering why I am responding here? If so, I’ll let you work that out.
“And why would anyone possibly be against nutritional methods that couldn’t cause serious harm to a child anyway? It’s beyond bizarre.”
Here we go with the straw man arguments again. Tell me how chelation is a “nutritional method”, as just an example. And I’ve gone into detail as to why chelation is inappropriately used and is harmful.
If you are making health decisions for your family with the same depth of analysis you are using here, please (and I mean this seriously) step back and seek out actual expert advice.
“That has included reading the accounts of hundreds of parents whose children transformed after having certain vaccinations (rightly or wrongly). ”
I’ve read far more. And spoken with the parents. And the actual experts. And looked at the science. And understood the science.
“There are no words”
yes there are. Straw man. As in you make straw man arguments.
How did you get an informed decision when you misunderstand the arguments?
Straw man?! You obviously don’t know what the phrase means.
Would you like to try a substantive reply instead?
You stated “not only do you deny vaccine-related injuries, deem aluminum and thimerosal to be entirely harmless to babies”
Which was never a claim by anyone here. Hence the fact that your response is a straw man.
That’s a substantive response. I back up what I say. Since ScienceMom had already discussed your statement, I didn’t need to make it clear the statements that I was referring to the first time.
So you haven’t actually tried any nutritional support for your own child? So how can you possibly criticise the parents who have and who this has worked for? Maybe I missed something,
Are you seriously trying to make DAN! out to be only a “nutritional support” protocol? Are you that ignorant of the protocol?
I will note the passive-aggressive attack in which you imply I do not care for my family. Common among DAN supporters to be so judgmental but want to pretend they aren’t
Sullivan – I implied nothing of the sort. I’m simply pointing out that if you choose not to make a choice, it’s more than odd to attack those who do and say it is working for them.
I’ve no interest in sticking around here. A lot of very angry and aggressive people who certainly do the pro-vaccine argument no favours whatsoever.
Sorry, but you came here convinced and looking for a fight. If your family suffers due to your vaccine choice, it’s on you, not us.
” I implied nothing of the sort. ”
And, yes, you did. You jumped to a conclusion and dangled some fight bait: “So you haven’t actually tried any nutritional support for your own child?”. Yes, it implies I’m not caring for my kid. Further, you don’t have the information available here to make the statement. it doesn’t follow from the conversation. It’s baiting. And you got called on it.
I note that you throw out unsubstantiated statements and avoid the requests to back up your claims. Of course you are leaving. Your argument looks worse and worse the longer you do that and the more times you get called out.
Angry and aggressive–again with the passive aggressive attacks. You have no idea if I’m angry or not. Hint: I’m not. I’ve seen your debate style too many times to get angry. As to aggressive? Funny how when people are asked to back up their unsubstantiated claims they claim the other person is “aggressive” or the like.
What was your first comment in this discussion?
And you try to close with a statement claiming that you are reasonable but everyone else is “angry and aggressive”.
I wish you well.
Given your lack of scientific education and ease with which you seem to be swayed by quacks, you have no intention of actually doing real research or listening to real information about vaccine safety and efficacy anyway Sally.
Sally, I was offline for hours and I return to LB/RB to be confronted with your ignorant-of-science snide remarks.
Why are you defending Kim Stagliano, who posted a defense of this unethical quack doctor who referred Tariq Nadara to another quack doctor for supposed “multiple heavy metal toxicities”? Usman ordered bogus tests and a bogus laboratory to test for these “multiple heavy metal toxicities” and the referring doctor’s “chelation treatment” killed young Tariq.
I have to wonder how Usman sleeps at night, with the knowledge that her referral resulting in the death of Tariq.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2014/12/chicago-tribune-continues-campaign-against-autism-treatment.html
Open up the link and see how Ms. Stagliano still defends the use of an industrial mining chemical (not suitable for human consumption), OSR, to spike her daughters’ food:
“….In 2010, The Trib ran this article, Bad Medicine, about my family and the fact that we were using Dr. Boyd Haley’s OSR – accusing me of sprinkling toxic waste onto my children’s breakfast. It was a twisted display of vitriole – and the former cupcake food beat turned science beat writer did her best to disparage me. And Dr. Haley. My daughter did so well on OSR that she started speaking and learned to tie her shoes. I even have a photo from the first day she tied her own sneakers – thanks to increased fine motor skills as a result of OSR….”
The next time you come posting here, you’d better have some proof for your ignorant inane lacking-in-science comments and your overreliance of anecdotes from unreliable sources such as Kim Stagliano and the other crank “journalists” at Age of Autism.
Actually, Sally, Lawrence wasn’t saying that the abundance of aluminium proves it’s good. He was saying that the abundance of aluminium proves that the very small amounts of it in vaccines are harmless at worst, and good when they work as designed, but well done on yet another typical anti-vaxxer-style deliberate misreading of information.
What is it about protecting children that is so triggering to people like Sally? They get so riled up at the mere thought of a bad doctor being stopped from doing experiments on helpless kids. I feel bad for her, and hope she learns to find joy in the protection of children even if a bad doctor had to suffer a little.
Right. I point out you’re wrong and ask for evidence for your claims. Really abusive there.
Collectively millions of children in multiple studies by multiple investigators around the globe cannot find any vaccine causation of autism, add to the the 5000 Omnibus Autism Proceedings where the most solid test cases were presented and the best and brightest of “autism experts” testified and were flat-out rejected but you’ll go with thousands of people who claim something. I have read many of these cases and they’re just wrong and/or lying because they can’t grasp that their child was just born that way.
The fact that you think that DAN is some harmless nutritional guidance demonstrates you have never witnessed what these cranks do. Do you honestly believe that parents who think that their children are “vaccine injured” and take them to these quacks are going to admit to an outsider the abuses that they heap on their children? Anti-fungals because the kid “looks yeasty”, potent anti-virals because the kid has a high IgG measles titre, IV chelation, stem cells, bleach enemas, baths and drinks, the list goes on what these charlatans do to children.
What are you seven years old? I tell you you are ignorant and dishonest after coming out of the gate swinging and you will become full bore anti-vaccine? Go for it you brat, you obviously don’t have your child’s best interest at heart anyhow, only your own hurt fee fees.
And you’re here for what reason then?
For a more balanced report: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-autism-anjum-usman-discipline-met-20141229-story.html