Aternative Medicine Clinic Closed in Baja

A Mexico clinic that advertises unorthodox medical treatments for U.S. patients has been closed for the second time in two years.

Hospital Santa Monica in Baja California was originally closed in early 2006 after civil rights activist Coretta Scott King died there, The San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday. It later reopened under a new name but was still providing unproven treatments under the Hospital Santa Monica name, the newspaper said.

Mexican health authorities closed the clinic again this week after they allegedly documented incomplete medical records, improper storage of medications and propaganda of unorthodox treatments.

The newspaper said a Web site advertised that treatments were selected by the clinic’s founder, Kurt Donsbach, who has a 1996 felony conviction for tax evasion and smuggling illegal medicines across the border. The Union-Tribune said Donsbach has no medical degree and isn’t licensed to practice medicine in Mexico or the United States.

Donsbach’s attorney said his client is a nutritional consultant and doesn’t treat patients.