Hospital Accused in ‘Useless’ AIDS Treatment

The Medical Center of North Hollywood knew a doctor was treating patients on its AIDS ward with “useless” Vitamin C injections but did nothing to stop him, according to new papers filed in a lawsuit by nine AIDS sufferers.

The patients sued the hospital, the doctor and several others last year, saying they participated in an “unethical experiment” on the patients, using an illegal AIDS potion.

The new court papers charge that the hospital’s lack of action in the Vitamin C episode encouraged the doctor, Valentine Birds, to approve surgery two years later so different patients could take intravenous injections of an unproven anti-AIDS compound called Viroxan.

A lawyer for the hospital strongly denied the new allegations. The hospital previously denied the charge that it was involved in an unethical medical experiment.

The patients also claimed that Birds hooked them up to a black box--called a renaissance machine or accuscope--that had wires and electrodes protruding from it but no medical value. They said Birds used the device to test them for “toxin frequencies” and then prescribe expensive but useless remedies.

Birds’ attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The Medical Board of California last year revoked Birds’ physician’s license for helping patients inject themselves with Viroxan and pressured an Orange County doctor who invented it, Stephen Herman, to surrender his license--the first such action in California against what authorities characterized as AIDS quackery.

Herman injected Viroxan into AIDS patients for more than a year without government permission or reliable evidence that it was safe or effective, state officials said. He was ordered by federal drug regulators not to experiment on humans with Viroxan and was convicted in Orange County on charges of false advertising related to sales of the potion.

Since then, he has moved his operations to Kenya, and Viroxan is being tested on Africans with AIDS.

The patients claim in the suit filed last year that Birds, Herman, the hospital and others conducted an unapproved and dangerous experiment aimed at producing human test data that would help Herman market Viroxan. Herman, a radiologist with no training in treating AIDS, first made the compound in the kitchen of his guest house in 1988.

According to the suit, Birds admitted dozens of AIDS patients to the 182-bed North Hollywood hospital in 1989 for surgery to install rubber tubes that permitted them to inject Viroxan at home. The patients claim that the hospital slashed its regular fees as a lure for them to undergo the procedure.

In an interview Tuesday, Alan Rushfeldt, an attorney for the hospital, denied that the hospital struck a deal with Birds to slash its fees to get more patients to undergo surgery for Viroxan infusion.

Rushfeldt acknowledged that Birds was allowed to use hospital meeting rooms to discuss his unorthodox medical views with AIDS patients. But he said most of Birds’ patients found out about him through referrals by other doctors and AIDS sufferers, not the hospital discussions.