New York:The license of a 70-year old Indian American doctor has been suspended by the Medical Board of Georgia state for allegedly using insecticides to treat cancer patients and prescribing unauthorised drugs.
The Board took the decision unanimously at a 30-minute meeting on Thursday and the notice was served on the doctor, Totada R. Shanthaveerappa a little later.
The nine-member Board's unanimous action came after a federal grand jury had earlier in the week accused the doctor, who practices in Stockbridge, of using weed killer and insecticide to treat patients.
The jury had returned an 87-count indictment which, among other things, accuses him of falsely billing insurance companies by indicating that he was using approved drugs.
The prosecutors alleged that Shanthaveerappa, also known as T. R. Shantha, was using dinitrophenol, or DNP, a weed killer and insecticide chemail Ukrain and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat patients.
His lawyer Dan Conaway told media that the doctor, who calls himself an alternative healer, would stop treating the patients but his clinic would remain open with other doctors continuing to attend on the patients.
The law enforcement officials did not arrest him nor closed down his clinic. They expect him to surrender within next few days and Donaway said the doctor plans to plead not guilty when appears in the court next Tuesday.
KC Shantha, who has had a licence to practice since 1972, could appeal the medical board's decision before a state administrative law judge or the state Supreme Court. There is no previous record of any action against him.
The Atlanta Nation quoted one of his patients Connie Mahoney as saying that she was never administered weed killers. What Shantha gave her was a cure for her ovarian cancer, she said and called herself the doctor's "absolute fan."
Another breast cancer patient Karen Kasunic told the paper that she did not know if he was guilty or nor but she knew that before going to Shantha, conventional doctors told her that her case was incurable. After four weeks under his care, she said, he had reduced cancers and tumours in her system.
But a niece of still another patient called him a “quack,” saying he failed to heal her uncle who was now gravely ill.
Shantha runs the Integrated Medical Specialist clinic and its website says its goal is to combine conventional and alternative therapies to ablate and/or cure cancer when possible.
“Just as important to curing caner is providing the highest quality and maximum extension of life. This is accomplished by combining the latest in conventional and alternative modalities for an unsurpassed multi-level attack against all cancer," it says.
The website says the standard two to three week treatment would cost between $25,000 and $45,000 and maximum charges will not exceed $60,000 for 3 to 6 weeks.
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