Ga. Doctor Suspended in Pesticide Case
Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 18:00 CST
By DON SCHANCHE JR.
ATLANTA - The state medical board on Friday suspended the license of a doctor accused of treating patients with a chemical used in pesticides and reported that one of his patients died after receiving a high dose of a chemotherapy drug.
The board suspended Dr. Totada Shanthaveerappa's license, saying his continued practice of medicine "poses a threat to the public health, safety and welfare" and "requires emergency action."
In a four-page order, the Georgia Board of Medical Examiners cited the case of a cancer patient treated by Shanthaveerappa in 2001. It said the doctor treated the patient with a chemotherapy drug called methotrexate in doses so high they posed "an unreasonable and significant risk to the patient," who died from complications caused by the drug.
Shanthaveerappa, 70, and a medical assistant were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on 87 counts, including health care fraud and distributing unapproved and misbranded drugs. The doctor was also charged with money laundering.
Prosecutors said the doctor and assistant Dan Bartoli, 63, injected numerous patients with unapproved and misbranded drugs, including dinitrophenol, a commercial-grade weed killer and insecticide.
The two men also submitted false insurance claims that disguised the types of drugs and treatments they were providing, according to the indictment.
In its order, the medical board said it received a letter from Shanthaveerappa on Thursday acknowledging that he had treated patients with two drugs that have not been approved for use in the United States, and that he had misbranded one of the drugs.
Shanthaveerappa's lawyer, Don Samuel, said the doctor plans to plead not guilty.
Samuel said his legal team has collected hundreds of testimonials from patients, some of whom have had their lives extended by years because the doctor treated them after traditional medicine gave up.
"These are patients who are told, `There's nothing more we can do for you - go home,'" Samuel said. "They come to Dr. Shantha as a last resort."
The weed-killer drug prosecutors allege the doctor used is an experimental drug regularly used overseas that was once used in the United States as a diet medication, Samuel said.
"It happens to have the same chemicals you use to treat lawns. But so does water," Samuel said. "There's probably something in the cookies you eat" that is used in weed killers, too.
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Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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