This is HUGE: "Fibromyalgia zealot loses chiropractic license"! - Paul Whitcomb and the Fibromyalgia Relief Center are gone for good.

This particular crusade is over, and with a fair ending. Paul Whitcomb, D.C. and the Fibromyalgia Relief Center in the U.S., South Lake Tahoe, California are no longer able to take advantage of unsuspecting people with Fibromyalgia.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this happen by spreading the word and by sharing their experiences about Whitcomb and the Center.

This is from the Consumer Health Digest (CHD) #09-32
August 6, 2009
(CHD is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by Stephen Barrett, M.D., and cosponsored by NCAHF (National Council Against Health Fraud) and Quackwatch.)

Fibromyalgia zealot loses chiropractic license.

The California Board of Chiropractic Examiners has revoked the license of Paul Whitcomb, D.C., who claimed to have developed a unique method for curing fibromyalgia. In November 2008, the board accused Whitcomb of incompetence, gross negligence, and unprofessional conduct, based on his management of seven patients. The accusation states that he (a) administered excessive treatments, (b) failed to provide adequate structural examinations, (c) failed to develop treatment plans that were medically necessary, (d) failed to perform sufficiently detailed follow-up examinations to gauge patient progress, and (e) advertised with sensational statements that were intended to deceive the public. The number of neck manipulations ranged from 60 to 143 [6]. In June 2009, an administrative law judge upheld these charges and recommended against probation:

"The factors that militate against granting a probationary license are the breadth of respondent's failures to abide by the standard of care, his hubris and zealotry, his inability to recognize that he has harmed patients and his contempt for these patients, his inability to recognize that his treatments have the potential to harm other patients and his inability to recognize the importance of routine responsibilities; such as appropriate charting. Essentially, respondent has indicated repeatedly, by word and conduct, that he has discovered a cure for fibromyalgia and that nothing should stand in the way of his disseminating information about this cure and profiting from his discoveries. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to fashion restrictions under a probationary license that would put these concerns to rest." http://www.casewatch.org/board/chiro/whitcomb/decision.shtml

In July, the chiropractic board revoked Whitcomb's license (effective August 31) and ordered him to pay $23,502.50 for the cost of its investigation.

The casewatch.org link above goes a copy of the 24 page decision of the chiropractic board. Fun reading!

There IS justice in the world.