FYI - drug error, not chelation killed boy experts say

[Guest guest]

While they haven't reported whether the error was due to the pharmacy

mis-labeling the drug or the doctor mis-ordering or selecting the wrong drug, I

think

this serves as a good warning to make sure that your child's doctor has

extensive experience in what he/she is treating and to always check out all

drugs

thoroughly before they are given to your child. A friend of mine's child was

recently given Diflucan pills that were over 3x the dosage she was supposed to

get. It was a pharmacy error that fortunately the mom caught before giving it

to the child. With our kids delicate systems, who knows what that might have

done to her liver.

Gaylen

[Guest guest]

TREATMENT

Drug Error, Not Chelation Therapy, Killed Boy, Expert Says

Father is a medical doctor.

By Kane for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06018/639721.stm

One of the nation's foremost experts in chelation therapy said

she has

determined " without a doubt " that it was medical error, and not the

therapy

itself, that led to the death of a 5-year-old boy who was receiving

it as a

treatment for autism.

Dr. Brown, chief of the Lead Poisoning Prevention

Branch of

the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said

yesterday

that Abubakar Tariq Nadama died Aug. 23 in his County doctor's

office

because he was given the wrong chelation agent.

" It's a case of look-alike/sound-alike medications, " she said

yesterday. " The child was given Disodium EDTA instead of Calcium

Disodium

EDTA. The generic names are Versinate and Endrate. They sound alike.

They're

clear and colorless and odorless. They were mixed up. "

Both types of EDTA are synthetic amino acids that latch onto

heavy

metals in the bloodstream.

Dr. Brown said she obtained the child's autopsy report on

behalf of

the CDC after reading an article about the death in the Pittsburgh

Post-Gazette. She said it didn't take long to figure out what had

happened.

Essentially, Tariq died from low blood calcium. Without enough

calcium

-- a metal -- in the blood, the heart stops beating. Dr. Brown said

the

Disodium EDTA the child was given as a chelation agent " acted as a

claw that

pulled too much calcium " from his blood.

" The blood calcium level was below 5 [milligrams]. That's an

emergency

event, " she said.

Officials from the state police, the district attorney's

office and

the coroner's office will meet soon to decide whether to hold an

inquest

into the child's death and whether it should remain listed as

accidental.

Dr. Brown said the same mix-up happened in two other recent

cases: a

2-year-old girl in Texas who died in May during chelation for lead

poisoning

and a woman from Oregon who died three years ago while receiving

chelation

for clogged arteries.

Dr. Brown said that in each case, the blood calcium level was

below 5

milligrams. Normal is between 7 and 9.

The correct chelation agent -- Calcium Disodium EDTA -- would

not have

pulled the calcium from the bloodstream, she said.

The County coroner's office confirmed last week that

Tariq had

died as a result of his chelation treatment, but the findings that

were

released didn't indicate whether the treatment had been improperly

administered.

[From the Schafer Autism Report http://www.sarnet.org]

Dr. Brown said chelation was once a common and necessary

therapy that

was used on children and adults alike for lead poisoning. Chelation

means

administering an agent into the bloodstream that causes heavy metals

in the

body to cling to it and then be excreted in urine.

Though its only approved use, according to the U.S. Food and

Drug

Administration, is for lead poisoning, Dr. Brown said she is aware

that it

is used by some people for other medical problems, ranging from

clogged

arteries to autism.

She said there have been no reputable medical trials

demonstrating the

effectiveness of chelation as a therapy for anything but lead

poisoning. But

if it were administered accurately, the procedure would be harmless.

She said it is well known within the medical community that

Disodium

EDTA should never be used as a chelation agent. She quoted from a

1985 CDC

statement: " Only Calcium Disodium EDTA should be used. Disodium EDTA

should

never be used ... because it may induce fatal hypocalcemia, low

calcium and

tetany. "

" There is no doubt that this was an unintended use of Disodium

EDTA.

No medical professional would ever have intended to give the child

Disodium

EDTA, " Dr. Brown said.

Tariq was brought to the United States from England last

spring by his

mother, Marwa, for the chelation therapy. He was in the Portersville,

County, office of Dr. Roy Eugene Kerry when he went into cardiac

arrest.

In recent months, chelation treatments of a wide variety

ranging from

IV to oral to topical have been gaining popularity for autistic

children due

to anecdotal information from parents indicating a reduction in

symptoms.

The underlying belief is that autism is caused by a sensitivity to

heavy

metals in the bloodstream.

Carpenter, executive director of the Advisory Board on

Autism

and Related Disorders -- the largest autism advocacy group in the

region --

said the determination by Dr. Brown clears up the mystery surrounding

Tariq's death but not the uncertainty over chelation itself.

" Since this child died, there have been parents who are pro-

chelation

who have been very angry that there's talk against it. On the other

side,

they say the death was a natural consequence of a dangerous activity.

Maybe

what happened to [Tariq] is explained, but we still don't have a

conclusion

about whether chelation is an effective treatment for autism, " he

said.

Tariq's father is a medical doctor who practices in England.

Dr. Kerry could not be reached for comment. A board-certified

physician and surgeon, he advertises himself as an ear, nose and

throat

doctor who also specializes in allergies and environmental medicine.

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