New article on UCLA, Medtronic corruption. Dr. Gary Michelson

Santa Monica based Consumer Watchdog is asking the Governor to investigate these doctor kickbacks from medical companies. There needs to be more over sight that is actually enforced by an independent company.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/5/article/p2p-80018992/

UCLA has a long history of doing anything for money. Here's an example. Very unethical POM juice company got in big trouble for making false health claims about their expensive, reconstituted, sugary, unhealthy pomegranate juice. This article was written in 2006 and accurately summarizes the unethical relationship between UCLA and POM.

http://pomwonderfuljuice.blogspot.com/2006/12/poms-wonderfully-misleading-snake-oil.html

POM decided to donate money to UCLA to fund medical "research" on rabbits and on men dying from prostate cancer. UCLA happily accepts the money and names a building after the Resnicks. It turns out the anti-oxident properties in the juice and juice concentrate capsules may have caused the men to die even faster. That's "responsible" medicine? POM wanted to say their juice could "cure cancer," you could "cheat death," it prevents "erectile dysfunction." They gave some juice to male rabbits then sliced them up to see if they had better circulation to their penises. Totally unnecessary "research" just to make false advertising claims. To this day POM is still in trouble over false advertising. They just won't stop.

All these "research studies" were small studies. The results were that larger studies needed to be done. Everyone knows a small study will give you any result you want. The Resnicks just wanted to say "research proves our products will help erectile dysfunction, cheat death, cure cancer." Then of course the ALF went after them and they stopped the animal research. Then POM used their money and influence to arrest and charge two people for aggressive targeted protesting. I do agree the protestors were out of line yelling death threats at the Resnicks. I'm totally against that type of behavior. It doesn't even help animals.

I do hope UCLA is investigated. I'm going to be having back surgery within the next six months to a year and I don't want anyone putting any Infuse (TM) in my back. I also do not want any "Michelson technology" in there either.

Dr Gary Michelson, Michelson Prize, $75 million, Found Animals Foundation, Dr. Gary Michelson, Gary Michelson, Gary, Michelson, Gerald, Michaelson, Gary Michaelson, G Karlin Michelson, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, marycummins.com, animaladvocates.us, Gary Karlin Michelson, Gary K Michelson, Karlin Michelson, Alya Michelson, Aimee Gilbreath, teak, farm, billionaire, Forbes, lawsuit, worth, married, fraud, pitbull, purebred, bribe, bribery, patent, spine, animal nut, patent troll, thief, criminal, childhood, philadelphia, pennsylvania, boca de canon, Los Angeles, California, Ed Boks, Edward Boks, Antonio Villaraigosa, steve cooley, jackie lacey, campaign, donation, district attorney, inventor, hall of fame, grandmother, hand, fire, burn, 20, million minds, text book, free, surgery, surgical, twenty million minds, dog, high school, law, lawyer, doctor, dr., Michelson Medical Research Foundation, foundation, wilshire, Karlin Asset Management, KAM, Found Animals Legislative Fund, mom, dad, mother, father, brother, Gracie, bull, spay, neuter, adopt, buy, capital, karlin ventures, david cohen, tianxiang zhuo, spinal, surgeon, ceo, Karlin Real Estate, charity, 501 3c, irs, nonprofit, non-profit, Gary Karlin Michelson M D Charitable Foundation, gay, homosexual, wayne pacelle, hsus, animal services, temple university, medical, school, born, flake, crazy, central high school, Hahnemann Medical College, drexel, jewish, russian, Medtronic, Wikipedia, grant, $25, $50, Kremlin, mail order bride, Karlin Holdings Limited Partnership, C & M Investment Group Limited, michelson technology at work, Karlin Opportunity Fund, Karlin OP, Medical Research Foundation Trust, Alya Michelson, Alya Gold, Alevtina Gold Michelson, Tina Gold, Alevtina Shchepetina, Alexander Shchepetina, Алевтина Щепетина, александр щепетин, sasha, ria novosti, USC, Japanica, Russian mail order bride, T'n'G, test tube girl, smile, orel, russia, moscow, journalist, pathological liar, #deanflorez #foundanimalsorg #alyamichelson #20MillionMinds #drGaryMichelson #GaryMichelson #20MM #JAPANICA #Forbes #billionaire

Evil Medtronic knowingly sold product that would severely harm patients, Dr Gary Michelson

I read more of the amended complaint against Medtronic and Dr Gary Michelson. It reads like a horror story about stupid science, greed and innocent victims who end up worse than they started. It's 125 pages of the main amended complaint double spaced, 7.4 MB. It's more compelling than a suspense horror drama movie. There is so much corruption, criminal acts, illegal kickbacks, outright lies, whistle blowers being paid off that it's difficult to believe. That UCLA whistle blower getting $10,000,000 to shut up and go away is nothing. Tip of the iceberg of greed and corruption. This is Dr. Gary Michelson's disgusting business of pure and utter personal and corporate greed.

http://www.marycummins.com/medtronic_amended_complaint.pdf

Medtronic was only allowed to use Infuse (TM) with the L-T spinal cage (TM) with morphogenetic protein type 2 over a collagen frame when they are surgically accessed from the front. FDA approved this use only in lumbar patients, lower back. It did not approve it for cervical (neck) patients or for use in surgery accessed from the back. There is very good reason for that.

This product is for people with disc degeneration who need to have two or more vertebrae fused together. Gary Michelson's stolen invention the spinal cage is put between the two vertebrae. A collagen frame is inserted into the cage. Morphogenetic protein type is inserted onto the collagen frame. This protein causes bone to grow. Previously for many years they successfully used bone grafted from another part of the person's body or cadaver bone. That was considered the gold standard. This protein eliminated the need for a bone graft.

While I was reading the amended complaint I instantly had questions about the bone growth. How do they control how much bone grows and where? Can they isolate the protein to one specific site and limited growth? Is the cage enclosed so bone only grows in a specific area? Is there a way to make sure none of the protein escapes the cage or a certain area around the cage? No, they can't and that's the problem. How incredibly irresponsible!

Two to seven days after surgery with Infuse 87% of patients had complications. The protein leaked into surrounding tissue causing inflammation. For example if you used this off-label for cervical vertebra it could cause your throat to swell to the point that you would need emergency surgery for a breathing tube. Other patients experienced excessive bone growth which caused even more back problems. Patients needed multiple surgery to remove the excess bone then to remove the cage and bone. When the protein grew back after removal it would grow back even faster than before. If you used it off-label to perform surgery from the back, the negative effects were even worse because the protein could enter the spinal area from the incision.

That sounds like a horrible enough story but that's just the beginning of this horror story. Normally you would think they use the product off label, see monstrous results then stop. Nope, not Medtronic. They continued to use Infuse off-label knowing full well of all the horrible negative effects. They did this because they make more money with off-label uses than with on-label uses.

All the while Medtronic is giving kick backs to doctors who promote, use, sell, talk about Infuse. These doctors in turn lie and say everything is fine. Meanwhile whistle blowers contact FDA and DOJ. Medtronic paid doctors say "there's nothing wrong with using this for on-label uses." They continue to say it won't be used off label. FDA asks them how they will make sure it's not. They said they would educate doctors.

Many other doctors, hospitals used Infuse and noted horrible results. They write journal articles, make presentations, reports are made, more whistle blowing. What does Medtronic do? They pay off the whistle blowers.

I think they need to soak the collage frame in the bone protein before they insert it in the cage. Squirting the protein onto the frame after inserting the cage and frame seems to cause it to leak. The protein should be glued to the frame so it won't grow outside of the area.

I only read the parties, claims, history of events. I'll read the rest tomorrow. What truly horrible people. I actually almost signed up for a study that sounds like this. A doctor in Texas made some gel product that he injects in a herniated disc which causes it to stop leaking. The surgery is performed almost outpatient from the back. It doesn't sound like bone protein but I didn't get all the info. Nightmare. This is how Gary Michelson made all his money. If Gary hadn't made sure he owned the patent for any product put in his cage, not just bone, he wouldn't be on the hook for this. If he said his product was only for bone grafts, he'd be fine. Greedy.

Dr Gary Michelson, Michelson Prize, $75 million, Found Animals Foundation, Dr. Gary Michelson, Gary Michelson, Gary, Michelson, Gerald, Michaelson, Gary Michaelson, G Karlin Michelson, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, marycummins.com, animaladvocates.us, Gary Karlin Michelson, Gary K Michelson, Karlin Michelson, Alya Michelson, Aimee Gilbreath, teak, farm, billionaire, Forbes, lawsuit, worth, married, fraud, pitbull, purebred, bribe, bribery, patent, spine, animal nut, patent troll, thief, criminal, childhood, philadelphia, pennsylvania, boca de canon, Los Angeles, California, Ed Boks, Edward Boks, Antonio Villaraigosa, steve cooley, jackie lacey, campaign, donation, district attorney, inventor, hall of fame, grandmother, hand, fire, burn, 20, million minds, text book, free, surgery, surgical, twenty million minds, dog, high school, law, lawyer, doctor, dr., Michelson Medical Research Foundation, foundation, wilshire, Karlin Asset Management, KAM, Found Animals Legislative Fund, mom, dad, mother, father, brother, Gracie, bull, spay, neuter, adopt, buy, capital, karlin ventures, david cohen, tianxiang zhuo, spinal, surgeon, ceo, Karlin Real Estate, charity, 501 3c, irs, nonprofit, non-profit, Gary Karlin Michelson M D Charitable Foundation, gay, homosexual, wayne pacelle, hsus, animal services, temple university, medical, school, born, flake, crazy, central high school, Hahnemann Medical College, drexel, jewish, russian, Medtronic, Wikipedia, grant, $25, $50, Kremlin, mail order bride, Karlin Holdings Limited Partnership, C & M Investment Group Limited, michelson technology at work, Karlin Opportunity Fund, Karlin OP, Medical Research Foundation Trust, Alya Michelson, Alya Gold, Alevtina Gold Michelson, Tina Gold, Alevtina Shchepetina, Alexander Shchepetina, Алевтина Щепетина, александр щепетин, sasha, ria novosti, USC, Japanica, Russian mail order bride, T'n'G, test tube girl, smile, orel, russia, moscow, journalist, pathological liar, #deanflorez #foundanimalsorg #alyamichelson #20MillionMinds #drGaryMichelson #GaryMichelson #20MM #JAPANICA #Forbes #billionaire

Many class action medical malpractice spine product lawsuits filed against Dr Gary Michelson

There are now a ton of class action lawsuits against Dr. Gary Michelson for malpractice and design flaw in his Medtronic spinal cage. Talk about karma. You steal someone else's invention, run and patent it, make the money then get sued for design flaw. Not only that but Gary made everyone put labels on all his products that said "Michelson technology in action." On top of this Gary sued anyone that used his product with another product. In some cases they inserted his cage then inserted bone growing tissue into the cage instead of a  bone graft. Michelson demanded part of that money. That of course makes him liable.

I don't feel bad for Gary but I do I feel really bad for these patients. They all have the same back problem as me in the exact same location. Thank god I swore I'd never use one of Gary Michelson's products or this could have been me.

In the last nine months many class action lawsuits have been filed in Los Angeles County alone for malpractice against Gary Michelson and Medtronic. They are being transferred to Federal court in LA due to diversity of parties. Here is but one. This is only the basic lawsuit. The rest is 287 pages available on Pacer.

http://www.marycummins.com/class_action_lawsuit.pdf

If you read the lawsuit you'll see it mentions Medtronic doctor/advisors who push Medtronic products on patients. Few days ago I posted about the UCLA whistle blower who got $10M because he said doctors were pushing Medtronic products on back surgery patients after being compensated by Medtronic. UCLA claimed no patient was harmed by this but that doesn't seem to be true now. Why else would they settle right before trial. They knew they would lose which makes them instantly liable in these new class action lawsuits. The whistle blower Dr. Robert Pedowitz was represented by lawyers Mark Quigley, Ivan Puchalt, and Christian Nickerson with the Santa Monica, CA law firm of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP. The above lawsuit is just one of seven I see filed recently in LA alone. Each lawsuit has many, many plaintiffs.

It appears that Medtronic was paying doctors to recommend their products to their patients. Some of these products were used off label and were known to have many risks and side effects. The doctors did not disclose this to their patients. The patients used the products and now their backs are in worse shape. This is the world Gary Michelson chose to live. This is the result of Gary Michelson's patent trolling, invention stealing and lawsuits. This is where Gary Michelson gets his money, from lying to and screwing over people with injured backs. I don't think this is what Gary's grandmother had in mind when she supposedly said "one day you will fix this (her bad back) for me." His granny must be spinning in her grave. Of course Gary is probably just lying again. In his high school year book he said he wanted to be a lawyer. Well, he is involved in law, just as a serial litigant.

Dr Gary Michelson, Michelson Prize, $75 million, Found Animals Foundation, Dr. Gary Michelson, Gary Michelson, Gary, Michelson, Gerald, Michaelson, Gary Michaelson, G Karlin Michelson, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, marycummins.com, animaladvocates.us, Gary Karlin Michelson, Gary K Michelson, Karlin Michelson, Alya Michelson, Aimee Gilbreath, teak, farm, billionaire, Forbes, lawsuit, worth, married, fraud, pitbull, purebred, bribe, bribery, patent, spine, animal nut, patent troll, thief, criminal, childhood, philadelphia, pennsylvania, boca de canon, Los Angeles, California, Ed Boks, Edward Boks, Antonio Villaraigosa, steve cooley, jackie lacey, campaign, donation, district attorney, inventor, hall of fame, grandmother, hand, fire, burn, 20, million minds, text book, free, surgery, surgical, twenty million minds, dog, high school, law, lawyer, doctor, dr., Michelson Medical Research Foundation, foundation, wilshire, Karlin Asset Management, KAM, Found Animals Legislative Fund, mom, dad, mother, father, brother, Gracie, bull, spay, neuter, adopt, buy, capital, karlin ventures, david cohen, tianxiang zhuo, spinal, surgeon, ceo, Karlin Real Estate, charity, 501 3c, irs, nonprofit, non-profit, Gary Karlin Michelson M D Charitable Foundation, gay, homosexual, wayne pacelle, hsus, animal services, temple university, medical, school, born, flake, crazy, central high school, Hahnemann Medical College, drexel, jewish, russian, Medtronic, Wikipedia, grant, $25, $50, Kremlin, mail order bride, Karlin Holdings Limited Partnership, C & M Investment Group Limited, michelson technology at work, Karlin Opportunity Fund, Karlin OP, Medical Research Foundation Trust, Alya Michelson, Alya Gold, Alevtina Gold Michelson, Tina Gold, Alevtina Shchepetina, Alexander Shchepetina, Алевтина Щепетина, александр щепетин, sasha, ria novosti, USC, Japanica, Russian mail order bride, T'n'G, test tube girl, smile, orel, russia, moscow, journalist, pathological liar, #deanflorez #foundanimalsorg #alyamichelson #20MillionMinds #drGaryMichelson #GaryMichelson #20MM #JAPANICA #Forbes #billionaire

Corruption with spine surgeons, Medtronic, patents, spinal devices. Gary Michelson, Forbes, billionaire

Universities and government agencies are supposed to be ethical and have whistle blower policies. They have the policies but who cares if they don't enforce them. Just having an ethical policy does not make you ethical.

The head of spine surgery at UCLA made complaints about doctors taking money from Medtronic. Medtronic is the one who gave $1.3M to Gary Michelson for his patents making him an over night billionaire. Medtronic owns patents on spinal devices such as expensive screws, plates, cages.

UCLA denied all wrongdoing but agreed to give him $10,000,000. I sued the City of LA and got a settlement. Part of the settlement is you must agree to dismiss case then they give you the money. Obviously they did something wrong or you wouldn't be getting any money. Below is from the Plaintiff's attorney, 

"What good are all the policies if they protect the wrongdoers and fail to protect the actual whistleblower?" Quigley said. "The university wanted to cover it all up."

There is obviously a ton of money in spinal devices. One screw can easily be $50,000 with the patents and lawsuits. More from the article. 

"University of California regents agreed to pay $10 million to the former chairman of UCLA's orthopedic surgery department, who had alleged that the well-known medical school allowed doctors to take industry payments that may have compromised patient care.

The settlement reached Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court came just before closing arguments were due to begin in a whistleblower-retaliation case brought by Dr. Robert Pedowitz, 54, a surgeon who was recruited to UCLA in 2009 to run the orthopedic surgery department.

In 2012, the surgeon sued UCLA, the UC regents, fellow surgeons and senior university officials, alleging they failed to act on his complaints about widespread conflicts of interest and later retaliated against him for speaking up.

UCLA denied Pedowitz's allegations, and officials said they found no wrongdoing by faculty and no evidence that patient care was jeopardized. But the UC system paid him anyway, saying it wanted to avoid the "substantial expense and inconvenience" of further litigation.

As department chairman, Pedowitz testified, he became concerned about colleagues who had financial ties to medical-device makers or other companies that could unduly influence their care of patients or taint important medical research.

He also alleged that UCLA looked the other way because the university stood to benefit financially from the success of medical products or drugs developed by its doctors.

One of the orthopedic surgeons that Pedowitz complained about testified at trial about receiving $250,000 in consulting fees in 2008 from device maker Medtronic. In memos to university officials, Pedowitz raised concerns about the financial dealings of other doctors as well.

Inside the courtroom Tuesday, Pedowitz sat in the front row with his wife and daughter as the judge told jurors that a settlement had been reached. He said he felt vindicated by the outcome.

"These are serious issues that patients should be worried about," Pedowitz said in an interview. "These problems exist in the broader medical system and they are not restricted to UCLA."

The seven-week trial in downtown Los Angeles offered a rare glimpse into those potential conflicts at a time when there is growing government scrutiny of industry payments to doctors.

Starting this fall, the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, part of President Obama's healthcare law, requires public disclosure of financial relationships between healthcare companies and physicians.

Many doctors and universities defend long-standing industry arrangements as essential for carrying out cutting-edge research and top-flight medical education.

In a statement Tuesday, the UC regents said they "resolved this lawsuit to end a prolonged conflict and permit UCLA Health Sciences to refocus on its primary missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement."

The statement added that "multiple investigations by university officials and independent investigators concluded that conduct by faculty members was lawful. Patient care was not compromised."

This latest settlement eclipses a $4.5-million payout the UC regents made last year to resolve a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by another UCLA surgeon.

Pedowitz, as part of his settlement, left the UCLA faculty, effective Tuesday. He had agreed to step down as department chairman in 2010 after initially voicing his concerns to top UCLA officials. He filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint in March 2011.



http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-79987025/

Dr Gary Michelson, Michelson Prize, $75 million, Found Animals Foundation, Dr. Gary Michelson, Gary Michelson, Gary, Michelson, Gerald, Michaelson, Gary Michaelson, G Karlin Michelson, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, marycummins.com, animaladvocates.us, Gary Karlin Michelson, Gary K Michelson, Karlin Michelson, Alya Michelson, Aimee Gilbreath, teak, farm, billionaire, Forbes, lawsuit, worth, married, fraud, pitbull, purebred, bribe, bribery, patent, spine, animal nut, patent troll, thief, criminal, childhood, philadelphia, pennsylvania, boca de canon, Los Angeles, California, Ed Boks, Edward Boks, Antonio Villaraigosa, steve cooley, jackie lacey, campaign, donation, district attorney, inventor, hall of fame, grandmother, hand, fire, burn, 20, million minds, text book, free, surgery, surgical, twenty million minds, dog, high school, law, lawyer, doctor, dr., Michelson Medical Research Foundation, foundation, wilshire, Karlin Asset Management, KAM, Found Animals Legislative Fund, mom, dad, mother, father, brother, Gracie, bull, spay, neuter, adopt, buy, capital, karlin ventures, david cohen, tianxiang zhuo, spinal, surgeon, ceo, Karlin Real Estate, charity, 501 3c, irs, nonprofit, non-profit, Gary Karlin Michelson M D Charitable Foundation, gay, homosexual, wayne pacelle, hsus, animal services, temple university, medical, school, born, flake, crazy, central high school, Hahnemann Medical College, drexel, jewish, russian, Medtronic, Wikipedia, grant, $25, $50, Kremlin, mail order bride, Karlin Holdings Limited Partnership, C & M Investment Group Limited, michelson technology at work, Karlin Opportunity Fund, Karlin OP, Medical Research Foundation Trust, Alya Michelson, Alya Gold, Alevtina Gold Michelson, Tina Gold, Alevtina Shchepetina, Alexander Shchepetina, Алевтина Щепетина, александр щепетин, sasha, ria novosti, USC, Japanica, Russian mail order bride, T'n'G, test tube girl, smile, orel, russia, moscow, journalist, pathological liar, #deanflorez #foundanimalsorg #alyamichelson #20MillionMinds #drGaryMichelson #GaryMichelson #20MM #JAPANICA #Forbes #billionaire