he House That AIDS Built
Liam Scheff
This article deals with pharmaceutical abuse
in a children’s home in NYC. This is a most controversial story –
l, however, it’s entirely based in fact and good reporting. I hope you’ll
find it as compelling and shocking as I did investigating it.
This piece was investigated
and written in summer / winter 2003 and published in January 2004.
Liam Scheff. E-mail : liamscheff@yahoo.com
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Introduction:
In New York’s Washington Heights is a 4-story brick building called
Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC). This former convent houses
a revolving stable of children who’ve been removed from their own homes
by the Agency for Child Services. These children are black, Hispanic and
poor.
Many of their mothers had a history of drug abuse and have died. Once
taken
into ICC, the children become subjects of drug trials sponsored by NIAID
(National
Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, a division of the NIH),
NICHD (the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) in
conjunction
with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies –
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Genentech, Chiron/Biocine and others.
The drugs being given to the children are toxic – they’re known to cause
genetic mutation, organ failure, bone marrow death, bodily
deformations, brain damage and fatal skin disorders. If the children
refuse the drugs,
they’re held down and have them force fed. If the children continue to
resist, they’re
taken to Columbia Presbyterian hospital where a surgeon puts a plastic
tube through their abdominal wall into their stomachs. From then on, the
drugs
are injected directly into their intestines.
In 2003, two children, ages 6 and 12, had debilitating strokes due to drug
toxicities. The 6-year-old went blind. They both died shortly
after.* Another 14-year old died recently. An 8-year-old boy had two
plastic surgeries
to remove large, fatty, drug-induced lumps from his neck.
This isn’t science fiction. This is AIDS research. The children at ICC
were born to mothers who tested HIV positive, or who
themselves tested positive. However, neither parents nor children were
told a
crucial fact -- HIV tests are extremely inaccurate.(1,2) *The HIV test
cross-reacts
with nearly seventy commonly-occurring conditions, giving false positive
results.
These conditions include common colds, herpes, hepatitis, tuberculosis,
drug
abuse, inoculations and most troublingly, current and prior
pregnancy.(3,4,5)
This is a double inaccuracy, because the factors that cause false
positives
in pregnant mothers can be passed to their children – who are given the
same false diagnosis.
Most of us have never heard this before. It’s undoubtedly
the biggest secret in medicine. However, it’s well known among HIV
researchers
that HIV tests are extremely inaccurate – but the researchers don’t
tell the doctors, and they certainly don’t tell the children at ICC, who
serve as test animals for the next generation of AIDS drugs. ICC is run
by
Columbia
University’s Presbyterian Hospital in affiliation with Catholic Home
Charities
through the Archdiocese of New York.
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Sean and Dana Newberg are two children from ICC. Their mother
used drugs and was unable to care for them properly, so they were raised
in
foster care, until their great-aunt Mona adopted them. Mona Newberg is a
teacher
in the New York Public Schools, and has her Master’s degree in Education.
She adopted the children when Sean was three and Dana was six. She was
already
raising their older brother, who was never given an HIV test or AIDS
drugs.
He’s now grown, healthy and serving in the Navy.
Their mother used heroin and crack cocaine since she was
a teenager. She was given an HIV test in the late 80s and tested
positive.
“She
had three children before Sean and Dana,” said Mona. “Nobody told
us that the test cross-reacted with drug abuse, let alone pregnancy. It’s
not a valid test.”
Because of the test result, the doctors at Columbia Presbyterian
put Sean on AZT monotherapy when he was 5 months old. Use of AZT
monotherapy
is now considered malpractice because it can cause debilitating, fatal
illness
including fatal anemia.
Dana spent her first four years at Hale House, a NY orphanage
for children whose parents abused drugs. Hale house was participating in
an
AZT drug trial when Dana was there. “We can’t get the records from
Hale House, so I don’t know what happened there,” Mona said. “I
never gave Dana the drugs after I got her, but I know she arrived with a
filled
prescription for AZT.”
Sean has been on life support twice as a result of the AIDS
drug Nevirapine. Dana was put on AIDS drugs in 2002, even though she
wasn’t
sick. Since being put on the drugs, Dana has developed cancer.
Both children have been taken into ICC and kept there against
their will and against Mona’s wishes for one reason – Mona has questioned
the safety of the AIDS drugs AZT, Nevirapine and Kaletra and stopped
giving
the drugs when they made the children ill. In the summer and fall of
2003,
I
visited Mona, Sean, Dana and ICC. I spoke with Mona about her experience
and
her decision. (The names of Sean, Mona and Dana are aliases which they
requested
to protect their identities, but their stories are accurate and
unaltered).
Liam Scheff: What led you to question the safety of the
drugs?
Mona: When I first got Sean at three years old, he was a vegetable.
He’d never eaten solid food. He had a feeding tube that went through his
nose into his stomach. AIDS medications change the taste buds. AZT,
especially,
makes it so kids can’t stand the taste of food and won’t eat. The
nurses fed Sean AZT, Bactrim and six cans of Pediasure a day through this
tube,
which stayed in his stomach for over two years. Nobody ever bothered to
change
it.
When I got Sean, I continued to give him the drugs as prescribed
for about 5 months. But after each spoonful, he got weaker. I thought,
wait
a minute – this stuff is supposed to be making him better, why is he
getting
worse?
Sean had night sweats and fevers 24 hours a day. He had no
energy. He couldn’t play. He couldn’t get up for ten minutes without
lying down. Nurses came regularly to give him blood infusions to manage
the
AZT anemia. After the infusions, he’d be nearly comatose for two days.
He was like a limp doll.
Every time I gave Sean the drugs, he got weaker and sicker.
I didn’t know what to do but I didn’t want him to die. So I stopped
everything that appeared to be killing him. I stopped the AZT. I stopped
the
Bactrim. I stopped the nurse from coming to give the infusions.
It wasn’t immediate, but Sean started to improve. His
fevers subsided. He could eat. He gained weight. Within a couple months,
he
was actually running and playing with the other children. Sean was born
with
a chronic lung condition because of his mother’s drug use, but even his
lungs improved. I couldn’t believe it. When Sean was born, the doctors
told his mother that he was going to die. They told her to buy a coffin
for
him. He barely survived. When I took him off the drugs, he was healthy
for
the
first time in his life.
I was so happy, I told everyone - including the doctors and
nurses - what had happened. I didn’t know not to. When the hospital found
out I wasn’t giving him the drugs, they contacted Agency for Child
Services
(ACS). An ACS worker came to my door, and told me I had to register the
kids
with an infectious disease doctor – Dr. Howard at Beth Israel. I was
taking
Sean and Dana to a Naturopathic MD, and they were both healthy and
strong.
I
told them that we had a doctor. They said, “Too bad, you have to see Dr.
Howard now.”
Howard was terrible for the children. He ignored the only thing
that actually bothered Sean – his lung condition, and insisted that he
go on a new drug for HIV. He said, “There’s a new miracle drug.
It just came on the market. I guarantee if you give it to Sean, you’ll
watch the miracle happen”.
LS: What was the miracle drug?
Mona: Nevirapine. Howard put Sean on Nevirapine. Sean’s health
immediately deteriorated. He got sicker, his lungs congested, he lost
weight,
his cheekbones sunk, his liver and spleen started to go. Six months after
he
went on Nevirapine, he had complete organ failure. He was on life support
for
two weeks at Beth Israel Hospital. Then I did some research on
Nevirapine,
and
found out that it caused organ failure and death. When Sean finally got
out
of the hospital, Howard discharged him on hospice care. Six months
earlier,
he was healthy. Now they were telling me to prepare for his death.
Once I got him home, I stopped giving Sean the Nevirapine,
and he was able to eat again. He started to gain some weight back. Sean
was
so weak after being on life support, with all those tubes in him. He’d
gotten so thin. But he finally started to recover. When I took Sean to
Dr.
Howard,
he was always surprised to see that Sean was improving. Howard would ask
me,
“Are you sure you’re giving him the medication, Mrs. Newberg?”
LS: In times of improvement, he suspected that you weren’t
giving Sean the Nevirapine?
Mona: Right. He only worried when Sean wasn’t sick! AIDS doctors
always think there’s something wrong if you’re not dying.
After that Howard started keeping Sean in the hospital for
longer periods of time for the lung problems we used to treat at home.
Howard
kept Sean for 25 days and fed Sean the Nevirapine himself. Sean ended up
back
in intensive care with organ failure. He was placed on life support for
two
weeks. He got a hospital staph infection because Howard wouldn’t let him
leave. He was eight years old, and just wanted to come home.
A month later, the hospital finally discharged him. Then ACS
called me for a meeting. The ACS worker told me I should put Sean into
Incarnation
Children’s Center until he was stronger. They told me that ICC was this
wonderful place. They said in four months he’d be strong enough to come
back home. ICC took Sean off the Nevirapine and put him on Viracept,
Epivir,
Zerit and Bactrim. Sean improved off the Nevirapine, but the new drugs
definitely
made him sick – just not as badly. He had trouble walking, and his arms
and legs got even thinner.
I visited Sean at ICC for five months. Then, when I wanted
to bring him home, they said, “We don’t recommend that Sean leave
here. You have a reputation for not giving meds.”
LS: ICC refused to let Sean come home?
Mona: Right. They kept him for a year and a half. I had to get a lawyer
to get him out.
LS: What was it like for Sean at ICC?
Mona: There were children in wheelchairs, on crutches, with deformations.
There were AZT babies. Their heads have a different shape, with the eyes
spaced
wide and sunken in. The drugs cause severe developmental problems. Many
children
have misshapen, weak limbs and distended bellies. Many are learning
disabled.
The kids at ICC are constantly medicated with all kinds of drugs. When
children
refuse the drugs the nurses hold them down and force feed them. Sean
wanted
to get the hell out of there.
During my visits I noticed that many children at ICC were walking
around with tubes hanging from their undershirts, and I wondered what
they
were.
Then one day, I saw the nurse come in with a whole tray of medications
and
syringes,
and I watched her inject this medication into the tubes coming out of
their
stomachs. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, my god, what’s going
on here?
Every child who had a stomach tube took their medication that
way, from the three-year-olds to the teenagers. It horrified me. I
couldn’t
understand it. When I found out what was being done, I thought, surely
this
must be illegal. There’s no way they could be doing this legally.
I expressed my concerns to Sean’s ACS case worker. I
said, “Do you know what they’re doing to those kids in there? This
reminds me of Nazi Germany.” He said, “They’re doing wonderful
things for these children.” I called Albany, the state capital, and
talked
to Dan Tietz at the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute.
He said, “What are we going to do if these little children refuse to take
the medication? How are we going to save their lives if we don’t perform
this operation?”
LS: Who performs this operation?
Mona: The children are sent to Columbia-Presbyterian for the operation.
The surgeons there do it.
I was at ICC one day, and saw a fourteen-year old boy named
Daniel refusing the pills. I actually saw him run from the nurse when she
came
to give him his medication. He said, “The medication makes me sick and
I don’t want to take it.” His aunt was there, and she said, “The
medication makes him very ill.”
The ACS case worker, Wendy Wack, came in, and said to the aunt
very clearly, “Daniel has refused to take his medication. We’ve
changed it three times and he’s still refusing. Now, the only thing left
is the operation.” She said, “If you refuse the operation, we’ll
call Agency for Child Welfare – and take Daniel away from you.”
His aunt signed, and they took Daniel away. When he came back a few weeks
later,
he had a tube in his stomach.
LS: Does Sean have the tube?
Mona: No. He doesn’t want that tube in his stomach. He’s been
there long enough to know you get the tube if you say no to the
medication.
He’s terrified, so he never refuses the drugs.
The children at ICC who don’t have the tubes tend to
be a whole lot healthier and live a whole lot longer than the ones with
the
tubes.
I was talking to a boy named Amir. He’s 6. His stomach
was so swollen. He said, “My stomach is swollen, it got big.” He
said, ”They cut me,” and he showed a little cut on his side. He’s
had a tube for a long time. Amir was an AZT baby. His face has that wider
shape.
He also has lypodystrophy from the drugs. He has huge fat lumps on his
back
and neck. They’ve taken him away for surgery twice but the lumps grow
back.
Sean’s little friend Jesus just died. He was 12. He had
a tube. He had a stroke from the drugs. There was a little girl, Mia. She
had
a tube. She had a stroke and went blind. She died recently too. Carrie, a
14-year-old
girl died last year. She had a tube. There’s a three-year-old, Patricia.
She’s had a tube since she arrived. She’s going home with it in
her. I don’t think she’s going to make it.
I used to talk with the child care workers about the drugs.
I got to know all of them and they were all very friendly with me. I
said,
“These
drugs are killing the children.” They said, “We know.”
LS: They agreed with you?
Mona: Yes, but what can they do, they just take care of the kids. The
doctors
and nurses give the medication. Telling the doctors that the drugs make
you
sick doesn’t do anything. They just stare at you blankly. They don’t
care. Compliance is the main goal of ICC. All the kids in ICC come from
families
who’ve failed to comply with the drug regimen.
LS: ICC is part of a national program running AIDS drug
trials. Have you ever signed a waiver permitting them to use your
children
in
a drug trial?
Mona: No, never. But ACS has signed for me when I didn’t want to give
Sean drugs. When I said, “No,” the ACS case worker grabbed the form
and said, “I’ll sign it. You don’t need to.” They’re
always switching medications – they never ask me if it’s okay.
Right now, most of the kids at ICC are on Kaletra. Kaletra
was on fast-track approval. It was released before testing was complete.
But
they do know something about Kaletra. It causes cancer. It says on the
label,
that this drug causes cancer in test animals.
I fought for a year to get Sean home. ICC wanted to put him
in a foster home where someone would be paid to feed him the drugs every
day.
I got a lawyer and we finally got Sean out of there. My lawyer was able
to
get
Sean’s ICC medical records. He told me, “Sean was tortured at
Incarnation.
He was tortured.”
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