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Fred A. Baughman, Jr. MD, Neurology/Child Neurology 1303 Hidden Mountain Drive El Cajon, CA 92019 fredbaughmanmd@cox.net
Leonard P. Edwards Dear Judge Edwards, I have received no reply to my letter of December 10, 2002, regarding the tragic case of this mother and son, torn apart, by court order, for no legitimate medical reason. Vincent's nearly 4 years of court-ordered, (1) psychotropic drug treatment (with multiple drugs), (2) total separation from his natural mother and family, and (3) psychiatric hospitalization, have all been enforced in the name of treatment for a disease that does not exist—Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder—ADHD. The Panel of the National Institutes of Health, ADHD, Consensus Conference, concluded, on November 18, 1998: " ...we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction." There have been repeated claims from within psychiatry—the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychiatric Association, that ADD/ADHD is a bona fide brain disease. However, no confirming abnormality has been replicated/validated, and none can be demonstrated, person-by- person, as is required if they are to be pronounced "abnormal" / "diseased" (as in Vincent's case) and ordered "treated." All physicians, psychiatrists included, know that they have not confirmed the presence of a disease until such time as they have demonstrated an objective physical or chemical abnormality. Saying to a patient, parents, and/or parens patriae that ADHD is a disease requiring medication, without which the child's health and life are at risk, the physician(s) lies and abrogates their informed consent rights; such abrogation being tantamount to medical malpractice. The judge/court has a duty to the child and family in his/her jurisdiction to ascertain not just the prevailing practice in the community, but the state of the science concerning so-called ADHD, before enforcing dangerous, addictive, medications and separating physically normal children from their natural parents as a condition for treatment. The judge/court should know that absent an objective abnormality on some examination or some test, that the child cannot be said to have a proven disease/abnormality of any sort. What is being done to Vincent Booth (and to his mother and family) in the name of psychiatric "treatment" is nothing but psychologically and physically damaging. Having been consulted in several deaths due to Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs, my concern is not just for the health of Vincent Booth, but for his life, as well. This was a concern of mine when I wrote to you in December and it is a concern of mine still. All medications for diagnoses not those of real, verifiable, diseases, should be withdrawn, under appropriate medical supervision. At the same time, and with no delay, Vincent should be returned to his mother, Diane, who has shown no inability whatsoever to care for him and make responsible, appropriate, health care decisions for him. This cannot be said for the court, or for the other government agents or agencies who have taken over this child's medical care and his life. All physicians and professionals who have misrepresented the true nature of ADHD and any other psychiatric "diseases" to this parent and child (Diane and Vincent Booth) and to court, having parens patriae responsibility for Vincent, should be reported to the Medical Board of California for having abrogated their right to informed consent, this being tantamount, in the instance of physicians to medical malpractice; and in the instance of educational personnel and other non-physicians (psychologists) to the practice of medicine without a license. Furthermore, all care rendered pursuant to "disease" diagnoses, not those of valid, verifiable, diseases constitutes health insurance fraud. Such care is to be identified and duly reported to Medi-Cal the probably insurer in this case. I am sorry that you did not accept the invitation to contact me in regard to this child and family, that I tendered to you in my letter of December 10, 2002. This was a case of pure, absolute, abuse of this child, mother, and family then, and it is a case of pure, absolute, abuse of this child, mother, and family today, compounded, now, by the fact that the mother has just returned from temporary refuge in Canada and has been arrested, and is jailed, in the state of Washington. Because the Medical Board of California allows the representation of ADHD as a disease and it's treatment with Schedule II stimulants as if it were, despite the absence of scientific proof, the MBC is in collusion with all who deceive and victimize such parents and children, abrogating the informed consent rights of every patient. By accepting the "diagnosis" and "treatment" of ADHD as the legitimate practice of medicine and reimbursing for it, Medi-Cal / Medicaid (with dollars in short supply for legitimate, medical care) is in collusion with all in psychiatry, psychology, neurology, pediatrics and family practice who deceive and victimize parents and children where the children are "diagnosed" ADHD. Pamela McMahon, School Psychologist, Dianne Farley, Teacher Sunnyvale Cherry Chase School and numerous personnel of the Cherry Chase School, Sunnyvale, CA, did abrogate the informed consent rights of Vincent and Diane Booth, (2) have slandered Diane Booth by calling her "negligent" for not accepting their "diagnosis" and recommendations for "treatment," all, while practicing medicine without a license. Dr. Daniel Katzenberg, Santa Clara County Medical Center, Dr. Jennifer Graber, Childrens Shelter Clinic, Union Rd., San Jose, CA, Dr. Jeffrey Reichenthal, Eastfield Ming Quong, and Andrea Jeremy, Psychologist, abrogated the informed consent rights of Vincent, his mother, Diane, and you, Judge Edwards, as parens patriae, by asserting, contrary to all science, that ADHD is a bona fide, diagnosable disease justifying (1) separation from the parent and from all family members in order to provide (2) involuntary, long-term, psychiatric, hospitalization and (3) the long-term administration of Schedule II stimulants and other psychotropic medications, concurrently—polypharmacy. Further, prescribing physicians, in this case, practiced medicine, below the accepted standard of care, in not stopping Schedule II stimulants when tics, an undoubted side effect of stimulant treatment, appeared. All agents and agencies of Santa Clara County performed below the acceptable standard regarding the physical and mental care of the medically normal, minor, child, Vincent Booth—theirs to care for after he was removed from the custody of his capable, competent, natural mother, Diane Booth. I refer to physical injuries sustained on more than one occasion and to his appearing to be "socially immature regressed, and primitive, at a 2-3 yr level," with "little or no positive interaction with others," as of August 8, 2002. For it's part, the court has a duty to ascertain the true state of the science concerning so-called ADHD, and all of the entities with which this child was "diagnosed" before enforcing either the diagnosis or treatment and separating this, to-begin-with, physically normal child from his mother an family as part of enforcing "treatment." Novartis, the manufacturer of Ritalin is guilty of conveying to the public, both directly, and through CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit Disorders, that ADHD is a disease, a brain disease and also that Ritalin, contrary to the opinion of the Drug Enforcement Administration and International Narcotics Control Board and the last half-century of pharmacological literature, is safe and non-addictive, in fact, that it prevents addiction in those with the fictitious "disease" ADHD. The National Institute of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of the Surgeon General, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the American Psychiatric Association, the Child Neurology Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have all knowingly spread the fiction--as fact--that ADHD is a disease, a brain disease, and that Ritalin/amphetamine is the most effective treatment of all, and that it is safe and non-addictive. From 1970 to the present, the US Congress has sequentially held hearing and passed laws that have legitimized calling psychological/psychiatric/mental symptoms—diseases—when they are not, resulting in the needless medicalization of the lives of 8-10 million US children—Vincent Booth just one of them. In all of these hearings, our Congressmen heard testimony from members of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the NIH, NIMH, and NIDA and chose to believe their every incredible, anti- scientific, claim that psychiatric/psychological/mental conditions were medical/physical/organic abnormalities--actual diseases. Never once in all of these 32 years did they look beyond the incredible claim for physical proof, as surely they would do, were it there own child, in the privacy of their own physician's office. All of the above agents, agencies, bureaucrats, bureaucracies, and enterprises, have colluded so as to result in Vincent Booth's having been "diagnosed" ADHD and taken from his mother so that if nothing else, he would be labeled "ADHD" and, without fail, "treated." Vincent, his mother and her family, all of whom love Vincent and have sought to see him, even once, in the past 4 years are just one of the six or so million ADHD patients in the US who have been lead by mainstream psychiatry, pediatrics and medicine, to believe that ADHD is an actual disease, a life-long disease, one for which they absolutely must be treated with one psycho stimulant or another. Like all the rest, Vincent, his mother and family are victims-still of what is the greatest health care fraud of modern history. I truly hope that some court will see and acknowledge the terrible wrongs and injuries done here and summarily free Vincent and his mother and reconcile them. The damage done can never be undone but at least this will be a start. Sincerely, Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD
CC Gary Gitnick, President, California Medical Board |