Bad MD Files · Pennsylvania · Board Order 2009

Dr. Roy E. Kerry: The Death of Abubakar Tariq Nadama

A five-year-old boy with autism was brought from England to Pennsylvania for chelation therapy, on the theory that heavy metals had caused his condition. On his third visit to an “integrative medicine” office, he was given the wrong drug, the wrong way, and his heart stopped. The doctor was charged with manslaughter; the charges were dropped. The state medical board suspended him.

What happened

Tariq Nadama's parents, Mawra and Rufai Nadama, moved from Plymouth, England to the Pittsburgh area so that their son could be treated for autism with chelation — drugs that bind metals so the body can excrete them. The treatment rests on the theory that autism is caused by mercury or other heavy metals, which research has not supported. The Food and Drug Administration approves chelation only for confirmed acute heavy-metal poisoning.

On 23 August 2005, at his third chelation appointment that summer, Tariq was given an intravenous push of EDTA at Dr. Kerry's office. He went into cardiac arrest and died. The autopsy attributed his death to a sudden drop in blood calcium.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated. It found that he had been given disodium EDTA rather than calcium disodium EDTA. The two are easily confused by name but not by effect: the calcium form is used for lead poisoning precisely because it does not strip calcium from the blood; the disodium form does, and given rapidly it can stop the heart. The CDC reported his death in 2006 among three deaths from hypocalcaemia linked to chelation.

What followed

• September 2006
  The Pennsylvania Department of State filed six disciplinary charges, including that he used an IV push despite warnings it could be lethal and prescribed the wrong formula. Dr. Kerry denied wrongdoing and said investigators were biased against him because of his age and because he advertised alternative treatments.
• 2006
  Three Australian paediatric researchers wrote in the BMJ that chelation for autism had no basis in evidence and was dangerous.
• July 2007
  The Nadamas sued Dr. Kerry, another physician at the centre, and the Texas compounding pharmacy that supplied the solution, for wrongful death.
• 2007
  The Butler County district attorney charged Dr. Kerry with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. He surrendered his medical licence while the case was pending.
• May 2008
  Days before jury selection, the district attorney withdrew the charges, citing “more germane” avenues for dealing with the doctor's conduct. The family's lawyer said it was the wrong drug, given the wrong way. The state said his licence would be reinstated.
• August 2009
  In a settlement with the State Board of Medicine, Dr. Kerry admitted that he had ordered treatment that was contraindicated in both its manner of delivery and its choice of drug. His licence was suspended for three years, six months of it active and the remainder stayed in favour of probation. He was barred from giving intravenous chelation to minors and required to complete a clinical skills assessment.

Why it is on a Canadian site

The Nadama death is the case that every critic of chelation for autism cites, and the front end of it — testing that “finds” heavy metals in almost any child — is documented on this site's provoked urine testing page. Canadian cases are on the record too: Dr. Zigurts Strauts in British Columbia in the 1990s, and the Ontario naturopath whose EDTA undertaking ended in revocation.

Related

Sources

1. Joe Mandak. “Doctor sued in death of boy, 5.” Associated Press / Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 July 2007.
2. “Charges dropped against Dr. Kerry in autistic boy's death.” Sharon Herald, May 2008.
3. “Board ordered suspension, probation for Dr. Roy Kerry.” Left Brain Right Brain, 12 January 2010, reporting the August 2009 consent agreement.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Deaths associated with hypocalcemia from chelation therapy — Texas, Pennsylvania, and Oregon, 2003–2005.” MMWR, 2006.
5. Sinha Y, Silove N, Williams K. “Chelation therapy and autism.” BMJ 2006;333:756.
6. Stephen Barrett, MD. “Roy E. Kerry, M.D. charged with unprofessional conduct” and “Roy E. Kerry, M.D. disciplined.” Quackwatch / Casewatch.

This file rests on the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine's 2009 consent agreement. The criminal charges were withdrawn and were never tried; no criminal finding was made. Corrections are welcome and are recorded on the page.