"Naturopathic doctors" face oversight
Any state regulation is opposed by mainstream physicians, who say it lends too much credence to the field.
By Tim Hoover
March 6, 2008 (link)

Seattle Times

Teen's death hastened by practitioner who had bogus diplomas
By Christine Willmsen and Michael J. Berens

November 26, 2007 (link)

Steamboat Pilot

Licensed natural healing?
Proposed law would allow local naturopathic clinic to reopen
By Mike Lawrence
February 20, 2007 (link)

The Gazette

Bill would provide business oversight
By Ed Sealover
April 9, 2007 (link)

Rocky Mountain News

Naturopathy - a healthy debate:

Holistic treatments' supporters swear by it, while its detractors glare at it

By Joyzelle Davis

March 1, 2007 (link)

Licenses a bad idea: Editorial

February 17, 2007 (link)

Proposed legislation would regulate naturopaths

Parents who lost son testify; panel OKs legislation

By Felix Doligosa

February 16, 2007 (link)

CBS 4

Terry Jessup Reporting

Parents Testify For New Naturopathic Physician Law

February 16, 2007

Print Story (link) Video Version (link)

Bill Would Regulate Alternative Health Care

February 15, 2007

Print Story (link) Video Version (link)

7 NEWS

TheDenverChannel.com

February 16, 2007
Video: Lawmakers Consider Tightening Naturopath Licensing (link)

Print Story: Parents Of Dead Teen Try To Tighten Naturopath Requirements (link)

Past Stories

Print Media:

Steamboat Pilot

Alternative medicine group wants backing

Mike Lawrence March 5, 2006 (read)

Naturopathy Digest

Elevating Naturopathic Education: Carnegie Commission recommends giving naturopathic medicine a higher classification

Kathryn Feather March 2006 (link) (read)

Rocky Mountain News

Proposed legislation would regulate naturopaths

Parents who lost son testify; panel OKs legislation

Felix Doligosa Feb 16, 2007 (link)

Phony Doctor Gets 13 Years

Sue Lindsey March 28, 2006 (read)

Naturopath Pleads Guilty

Sue Lindsey February 2, 2006 (read)

Naturopath's Trial Underway

Sue Lindsey February 1, 2006 (read)

Death Prompts Call for Licensing

Sue Lindsey November 14, 2005 (read)

Denver Post

Holistic Healer gets 13 years Kieran Nicholson March 28, 2006 (read)

Holistic healer pleads guilty in teen's death Kieran Nicholson February 2, 2006 (read)

Westword

Do No Harm: Is Brian O'Connell all he's quacked up to be?

Amber Taufen August 4, 2005 (read)

Colorado Springs Independent

Rx for Confusion Dan Wilcock January 19, 2006 (read)

License to Heal Dan Wilcock October 27, 2005 (read)

Dose of Reality Dan Wilcock September 1, 2005 (read)

Mile High News

O'Connell Pleads Guilty*

Brianna Hovendick February 8, 2006 (read)

Television News:

CBS 4

Terry Jessup Reporting

Parents Testify For New Naturopathic Physician Law

February 16, 2007

Print Story (link) Video Version (link)

Bill Would Regulate Alternative Health Care

February 15, 2007

Print Story (link) Video Version (link)

Rick Sallinger Investigates

Accused 'Fake doctor' Pleads Guilty

February 2, 2006 (read) (watch)

Jury Selection in 'Fake Doctor' Trial Begins

February 1, 2006 (read) (watch)

State Wants Licenses for Naturopathic Physicians

October 26, 2005 (read) (watch)

Naturopathic Doctors not all Regulated

July 1, 2005 (read) (listen)

7 News

Video: Lawmakers Consider Tightening Naturopath Licensing (link)

Print Story: Parents Of Dead Teen Try To Tighten Naturopath Requirements (link)

February 16, 2007

O'Connell to Spend 13 Years in Prison

March 27, 2006 (read) (link)

9 News

Naturopath sentenced to 13 Years in Teen's Death

March 27, 2006 (read) (link)

Court TV

Naturopath to stand trial for cancer patient's death

Jessica Su February 2, 2006 (read)

New Video

Andrew Weil and others speak on the value of naturopathic licensing

to view:

click here

Stories:

Stories on Brian O'Connell's conviction and sentencing are posted on another page: (link)

Feb 1, 2006 4:35 pm US/Mountain

Accused 'Fake Doctor' Pleads Guilty

Naturopathic Physician Brian O'Connell Charged In Patient's Death

(CBS4) GOLDEN, Colo. Brian O'Connell, a self-proclaimed naturopathic physician accused of manslaughter, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges in the death of a patient. The trial was about to start Wednesday with opening statements when the guilty plea was announced.

The Jefferson County district attorney's office said new evidence in the case was discovered. Prosecutors said when O'Connell was confronted with the new evidence, he decided to plead guilty.

Prosecutors said that evidence showed O'Connell had testified as an expert witness in another case, claiming that he had various degrees which he did not have.

O'Connell was charged with manslaughter, criminally impersonating a doctor, theft, illegally obtaining drugs and other crimes. He pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.

O'Connell was charged in the death of Sean Flanagan, a cancer patient who died under his care.

The district attorney's office said sentencing was scheduled for March 27. Prosecutors said no deal was made on how many years he will serve in return for his guilty plea.

watch at:

http://cbs4denver.com/seenon/local_story_032134800.html

Jan 31, 2006 9:30 pm US/Mountain

Jury Selection Begins In 'Fake Doctor' Trial

(CBS4) DENVER Jury selection began in the trial of Brian O'Connell, a naturopathic physician accused of manslaughter in the death of a patient.

O'Connell faces 17 counts including the criminal impersonation of a doctor.

The charges also included obtaining drugs by forgery or misrepresentation, theft and assault.

Prospective jurors were given a questionnaire on Tuesday in which they were asked what they know about naturopathic medicine.

Watch at: http://cbs4denver.com/seenon/local_story_031233210.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_299091230.html

Oct 26, 2005 7:11 am US/Mountain

State Wants Licenses For Naturopathic Physicians

A state agency has recommended that naturopathic physicians be licensed. The decision comes after the highly publicized death of a young man whose family thought they were taking him to a medical doctor. The man's family wants the state to follow through.

Sean Flanagan had cancer. His family took him to a naturopathic clinic for treatment. The name on the literature read "Dr. Brian O'Connel."

"We had somebody who called himself a doctor, all of the diplomas on his wall called him a doctor, we were under the impression this man knew what he was doing," Dave Flanagan, Sean's father told CBS4.

The family said O'Connell removed a small amount of their son's blood. He put it under ultraviolet light and then put the blood back in Sean's body along with hydrogen peroxide. Sean died the next day.

O'Connel was awaiting trial on manslaughter and other charges.

"People are dying because of those mistakes and people are not being accountable and there's nobody for these people to be accountable to and they need that," Laura Flanagan, Sean's mother said.

The state Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) has recommended that Colorado license qualified naturopathic physicians.

Dr. Rena Bloom, the head of Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians said she welcomes the licensing for those who are properly educated.

"I think it holds the practitioners accountable for who they are and what they are doing and who they are calling themselves," Bloom told CBS4.

The state legislature will have to give the OK for licensing to take effect.

"The recommendation is before us and I read DORA's recommendation that this is an appropriate and safe move for the state," Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Jefferson County, said. Boyd is the chairwoman of the State House Health and Human Services committee.

Sean Flanagan's parents are pushing for the licensing.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia already have regulated and licensed naturopathic physicians.

Jul 1, 2005 11:50 am US/Mountain

Naturopathic Doctors Not All Regulated

(CBS4) WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. The CBS4 Investigates team is looking into why the state of Colorado does not regulate the growing profession of naturopathic doctors.

CBS4 has obtained documents that show that 6 years ago the state of Colorado started warning a group of naturopathic doctors. The state told the group to stop claiming they were regulated by the state.

The warnings continue, but they're too late for a Centennial couple who turned to naturopathic medicine in hopes of saving their dying son.

The man the couple turned to for help may have called himself a doctor, but his practice is a practice of betrayal.

The time has passed, but not the anger in the 2-and-a-half years since Dave and Laura Flanagan lost their son Sean.

Sick with terminal cancer, they turned in desperation to the man who called himself "Dr." Brian O'Connell.

"It was a situation where Brian O'Connell was telling us what we wanted to hear and that was that," Dave Flannagan told CBS4 investigator Rick Sallinger. "He was going to save our son's life."

They said O'Connell removed a small amount of their son's blood, put it under ultraviolet light and returned it to his body along with hydrogen peroxide. His son begged to have the treatment stopped. He died the next day.

"I just feel I let him down as a parent -- that I didn't make the best decisions for him to help get him through this," Laura Flannagan said.

The Flannagans said they thought O'Connell, who practiced in Wheat Ridge, was a medical doctor. It said doctor on his literature, and they saw certificates on his wall. What they did not know was that the Colorado University of Naturopathic Medicine, which was on the certificates, was not a real college.

O'Connell's diploma was endorsed with a seal from what's called the Colorado Alternative Medical Regulatory Board. The Flanagans also did not know that this group had a history of being accused by the state of misleading the public.

A January 1999 letter from the Colorado attorney general to that board warned the group "has no legal authority to engage in any regulatory activity" associating itself with the state of Colorado. But the board's seal appears on Brian O'Connell's certificate, dated 2002, despite the state's warning 3 years earlier in 1999.

The Flanagans say had they known this, they might not have gone to O'Connell. "There would be no question it would put a level of doubt in our minds that, 'OK, hey, this is not on the up and up,'" Laura Flanagan said.

Dr. Rena Bloom is president of a rival group, the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, which is seeking state licensing and requires graduation from a government accredited medical school. Bloom went to authorities after she spotted the diploma in O'Connell's office.

"I was appalled that there is this framed ribboned, gold medallion diploma on the wall where every single patient would assume it's true, and it's a complete lie on his wall," Bloom said.

The Colorado Attorney General's Office then acted again, sending out a letter last year ordering the Colorado Alternative Medical Regulatory Board to "cease and desist" from making false representations.

CBS4 went to the head of that board, Dr. William Betzner. Betzner is the doctor who signed O'Connell's diploma.

"I'm not going to give any statements," Betzner told Sallinger.

"The state told you to cease and desist," Sallinger said.
"Yeah, We quit doing that," Betzner said.
"But you continued 3 years after that, did you not?" Sallinger asked.
"No, no, no. Certainly not," Betzner said.

Betzner said he was not aware of the 1999 letter from the Colorado Attorney General and replied in writing to the state's 2004 letter saying, "it's attempts to regulate were for quality and safety," adding "we do not represent ourselves as offering required licenses."

CBS4 made numerous attempts to ask O'Connell questions, but were told no comment with his trial pending on charges of manslaughter and criminal impersonation.

The Flanagans now believe the state needs to regulate legitimate naturopathic doctors.

"There are people out there who are being made to look like quacks because of people like this and organizations this man belongs to," Laura Flanagan said. "We have to prevent this from happening to other families. When you're desperate you want to do anything you can to save your child, and there are many kids out there who have cancer."

The state says it has a medical board in place and that when people practice medicine who shouldn't be, they are criminally charged. O'Connell was scheduled to go on trial this week, but it was postponed after he was arrested for violating his bail and his attorney quit the case.

(Copyright © MMV CBS )

Do No Harm
Is Brian O'Connell all he's quacked up to be?
By Amber Taufen
http://www.westword.com/issues/2005-08-04/news/news2.html
Published: Thursday, August 4, 2005

Brian O'Connell was supposed to stand trial on June 23, facing fourteen criminal counts.

Instead, he went to Disney World.

That excursion violated the conditions of his bond, and when O'Connell returned to Colorado , he was arrested. His attorney also withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest, so the naturopath had to find new representation. On Friday, June 29, he stood before District Court Judge Margie Enquist with his new attorney, Malcolm Seawell, asking for another extension in setting the trial date. Begrudgingly, Enquist agreed.

This is just the latest snag in O'Connell's story, which has been unfolding since he was arrested almost eighteen months ago.

On March 30, 2004 , the Wheat Ridge Police Department raided Mountain Area Naturopathic Associates, O'Connell's clinic on Ward Road . The cops had been alerted by doctors at Lutheran Medical Center ; they had concerns about several of O'Connell's patients who had been admitted to their facility.

Five days before O'Connell's arrest, physicians had treated seventeen-year-old Catherine "Cat" Elizabeth Bresina for cardiac arrest. Cat and her family had traveled from Wisconsin to receive medical treatment from O'Connell. During one session, he performed photoluminescence -- drawing blood, exposing it to ultraviolet light and replacing it in the body -- and gave the teenager an injection of vitamins C and B12. It was supposed to be a routine preventive-care session, but after the vitamin injection, Cat vomited, gasped for breath and lost consciousness, according to police records. While O'Connell attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, paramedics raced to the scene and delivered Cat to Lutheran Medical Center .

According to paramedics, she was in cardiac arrest for at least ten minutes, and doctors initially weren't sure whether she would make a full recovery. O'Connell explained to them that his patient had had an anxiety attack, but Dr. Joanne Edney was skeptical. She told police that she believed the young woman's sudden problem was caused by an allergic reaction, an air embolism, a blood embolism or a contaminated product -- not by an anxiety attack.

Doctors at Lutheran were particularly concerned because this wasn't the first patient of O'Connell's to end up in their emergency room. Two days earlier, colon-cancer patient Roy Gallegos died in the hospital hours after O'Connell treated him. And in December 2003, nineteen-year-old Sean Flanagan died the day after a photoluminescence treatment by O'Connell.

When the Wheat Ridge police got to O'Connell's clinic, they charged him with a laundry list of offenses, including theft, criminal impersonation, seven counts of assault, practicing medicine without a license and submitting a false application or report for controlled substances. Flanagan's parents also sued O'Connell for the wrongful death of their son; they settled out of court in June. (Neither O'Connell nor his attorneys returned numerous calls for comment.)

Catherine Bresina, Cat's mother, however, isn't suing the naturopath. She believes mainstream medicine has a vendetta against alternative healing. "He was a caring person. I really don't want to get him into trouble," she says.

And therein lies the crux of the issue: Are naturopaths doctors? O'Connell's business card listed him as an "NMD," a doctor of naturopathic medicine. He wore scrubs and a white coat with "Dr. O'Connell" embroidered on the breast. He hung an impressive assortment of certificates and diplomas on his walls.

From that, a potential patient might assume that O'Connell is a naturopathic physician. Someone who has a pre-med bachelor's degree and attended one of the four accredited graduate programs in the United States . A program in which he would have had an experience similar to that of a traditional medical school, with rigorous coursework; anatomy and cadaver labs; classes in clinical nutrition and botanical medicine, as well as homeopathy, massage, lifestyle counseling and acupuncture; clinical tests; residencies; and the fourteen-test, three-day naturopathic board exams. In states that license and regulate the profession, such naturopathic physicians are licensed primary-care physicians who can diagnose health problems, prescribe medication, perform minor surgeries and deliver babies.

But despite his impressive wall display, O'Connell is not a naturopathic physician.

He received his degrees from an unaccredited "distance learning institution." O'Connell's alma mater, Herbal Healer Academy , is run by Marijah McCain, who in August 2002 was sued by the Arkansas Attorney General for offering "accredited" two-week accelerated courses that would qualify participants to practice naturopathic medicine. She has since been ordered to stop offering "accredited" degrees.

Colorado doesn't license naturopathic doctors, but there is a naturopathic "regulatory" organization: the Colorado Alternative Medical Regulatory Board. However, that board is "illegitimate and unlawful," according to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.

Naturopathic physician Rena Bloom is the president of the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians and has been fighting for Colorado to license her profession for more than a decade; the current application for regulation and licensure was submitted to the Department of Regulatory Agencies last year, and naturopathic physicians are expecting a reply sometime in November.

"Anyone can use food, herbs and homeopathy," she says, "but not anybody can call themselves a doctor."

Not all naturopaths agree. Joanie Sevcik-Weichbrodt, president of the Coalition of Natural Health, sees regulation as ineffective. "The problem is, they want only certain schools to be allowed to sit for board exams for licensure," she says. "Only nationally accredited naturopathic schools. They want to put all the other 5,000 to 10,000 natural healers in the State of Colorado out of business; they want a monopoly."

She is also concerned that licensing would restrict the number of people who can use the term "naturopathic doctor." As it is, Sevcik-Weichbrodt doesn't think that those who legitimately call themselves naturopathic physicians are "real" naturopaths; their practice is too tainted by modern medicine. They are, she says, "doctor wannabes. A naturopathic doctor uses only natural forms of healing. [These others] want to be alternative primary-care physicians, and that has nothing to do with a definition of doctor of naturopathy or naturopathic doctor. The true, traditional naturopathic doctors would not do any medically related type of therapy."

The Bresinas weren't aware of these nuances when they went to O'Connell. Catherine Bresina found him online, where he listed such qualifications as "Board Certified Naturopathic Physician," "Colorado Naturopathic Medical Association Member," "Licensed by National DEA," "Licensed by the State of Colorado, Controlled Substances Division," "Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine" and "Masters of Science: Microbiology, Minor: Biochemistry." He does not say where he obtained his master's degree, but O'Connell has claimed he attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The university says he was there for three months but did not earn a degree. He also claimed to have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for ten years. According to police reports, he worked in a pharmacy as a technician until he was fired for allegedly stealing prescription pads and drugs.

One of the official-looking certificates on O'Connell's office walls stated that he received a doctoral degree in naturopathic medicine from the Colorado University of Naturopathic Medicine. The "degree" claims that the CUNM program's "high standards may exceed the credit hour requirements of the Dept. of Education by twenty percent or more" and that the "diplomate endorsement" applies "criteria beyond established standards set by the Dept. of Education." It includes the seal of the unrecognized Colorado Alternative Medical Regulatory Board.

Another certificate was O'Connell's license, obtained from Washington , D.C. The district does license registered naturopaths, but a practicing naturopath need only register to get one. There are no procedures in place to examine educational requirements or proof of residence. Furthermore, D.C.-licensed naturopaths are supposed to provide their patients with a written statement proclaiming that they are only doctors of naturopathy, not medical doctors. They are also not allowed to inject substances into patients or prescribe drugs.

Though Cat didn't know that before her photoluminescence treatment, she still doesn't have ill feelings toward O'Connell. She did, however, tell police that she "probably wouldn't go to him again" unless she had a serious health problem. And she does agree with O'Connell's assessment of why she went into cardiac arrest.

"I could have spazzed," she told them. "Things happen."

Colorado Springs Independent

Dose of reality

September 1-7, 2005

http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2005-09-01/news3.html
Doctor slapped with lawsuit for practicing with no license

Dr. Mark Cooper's naturopathic practice on South 21st Street is under siege in a state lawsuit. Cooper says he did no harm.

Dan Wilcock

The path to finding a good doctor can be tricky for ailing Colorado citizens seeking non-invasive natural healing instead of reliance on powerful drugs or surgery.

That's because naturopathic physicians in Colorado who have at least four years of post-graduate medical education are lumped in with those who can boast only an online degree that takes weeks to complete.

That means trouble for trained naturopathic doctors such as Mark Cooper, who owns the Alpine Naturopathic Clinic on South 21st Street. As a naturopath, he offers a variety of natural healing techniques, including herbal supplements, topical treatments and diet regimes.

This summer Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and the Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners sued Cooper, charging him with practicing medicine without a license. Specifically, the suit says Cooper removed a patient's hemorrhoids in 2002 and sold a thyroid medication to a patient last year.

"No one's ever been hurt," Cooper says, before declining to discuss more specifics of the case before his Sept. 23 hearing.

Cooper holds a doctorate in naturopathic medicine from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Oregon, one of four nationally accredited schools that train naturopaths as primary care physicians. However, Colorado currently offers no licenses to naturopaths.

If the state wins its case, Cooper says he could lose his practice because the suit seeks to prevent him from providing many of the services he offers.

Officials at the attorney general's office and the Board of Medical Examiners declined to discuss the case.

To license or not

Cooper's case, in which harm is not alleged, stands in stark contrast with a recent suit that claimed a Jefferson County naturopath possibly killed a patient. According to court documents, Brian O'Connell, of Wheat Ridge, did not attend a nationally accredited naturopath program, but rather earned his degree in a correspondence course.

Last year he was arrested after 19-year-old Sean Flanagan, a cancer patient, died. O'Connell reportedly removed blood from Flanagan, treated it with ultraviolet light and returned it to Flanagan's body before his death. Although O'Connell settled with Flanagan's parents in a wrongful death suit, Jefferson County's district attorney is suing O'Connell for practicing without a license.

Cooper's supporters dislike their doctor being thrown in the same legal hot water as O'Connell.

"They are taking away our freedom of choice for medical care," says Deborah Kaufman, one of Cooper's patients.

Kaufman and other patients began contacting state representatives to demand Colorado join 14 states that currently license naturopaths.

"I've received lots of e-mails," says Rep. Michael Merrifield. "I'm inclined to think they should be licensed."

10 years strong

The fight for naturopath licensure has raged for more than 10 years in Colorado. A licensing bill actually passed the state's House of Representatives in 1999 before dying in a Senate committee.

Opponents to licensing have included traditional medical interests and the hundreds of alternative healers who don't hold doctorates.

The Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, a group representing naturopaths with accredited doctorates, filed a "sunrise" application last year with the state Department of Regulatory Agencies.

The application, the third in 12 years filed by the association, seeks to create a board to regulate and license naturopaths. A decision on the application, due in October, will hinge on whether harm results from not regulating naturopaths.

-- Dan Wilcock

RECENTLY:

License to heal

Dan Wilcock

Colorado Springs Independent

October 27-November 2, 2005

After more than a decade of wrangling, Colorado took a giant step this month toward joining 14 other states that regulate alternative doctors.

On Oct. 15, the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies recommended that lawmakers issue licenses to naturopaths -- physicians who work as primary care doctors after attending one of four nationally accredited postgraduate schools.

"More and more people are interested in this kind of care," says Rena Bloom, a Denver naturopath and president of the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

Naturopaths often employ non-invasive treatments such as herbal supplements, topical treatments and diet regimes, instead of powerful drugs or surgery. But because naturopaths aren't regulated in Colorado , it's often difficult for patients to distinguish between trained physicians and amateurs.

The General Assembly now has a two-year window to authorize licensure. In 1999, such a bill actually passed in the House before dying in the Senate.

Naturopaths often refrain from providing the full range of treatments for which they've been trained, for fear of being sued for practicing medicine.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and the state's Board of Medical Examiners sued Mark Cooper, a Colorado Springs naturopathic physician, this summer for illegally practicing medicine.

Cooper maintained he'd done no harm, and last month he settled with the state. He says he's pleased with the latest news.

"That gives me boundaries I can work in, without apprehension or fear of prosecution," he says.

But not all alternative healers are happy.

"The licensure will create a monopoly," says Kim Green, a Colorado Springs-based massage therapist and volunteer activist for the National Health Freedom Coalition, a group that opposes licensing because it corners the market on alternative healing. "The consumer loses big."

-- Dan Wilcock

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4236867,00.html

Rock Mountain News:

Death prompts call for licensing

State review recommends regulation of naturopaths

By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
November 14, 2005

Two years ago, David and Laura Flanagan's terminally ill son died after he was treated by a Wheat Ridge naturopath accused of misrepresenting his credentials.

Now, the Flanagans want to help pass legislation to license the profession.

The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies recommended regulation of naturopaths in a sunrise review released last month. This is the first time that DORA has recommended regulation.

The Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, which sought the sunrise review, plans to put a licensing proposal before the legislature in January.

If that happens, the Flanagans will testify in support of the measure.

"We feel there is a strong need for licensing," David Flanagan said. "Now, there's nobody out there regulating these individuals. They can be arrested for practicing medicine without a license, but unfortunately someone has to get hurt or die before anything is done.

"If there was regulation, at least the general public would have an understanding of the training and background of that individual before you walk through the door."

DORA's report cites the Jefferson County criminal case against Wheat Ridge practitioner Brian O'Connell, who is accused of causing the death of 19-year-old Sean Flanagan, as evidence that the unregulated profession is causing harm.

Sean Flanagan, who had cancer, died Dec. 19, 2003 , after he was given a series of treatments by O'Connell in which blood was removed from his body, exposed to ultraviolet light and then returned.

His parents said that O'Connell promised a cure, and contend that the unconventional treatments caused them to lose the last precious months with their son.

O'Connell was charged last year with practicing medicine without a license and manslaughter in Sean Flanagan's death. He also is charged in connection with his care of a 17-year-old girl who was rushed to the hospital after she went into cardiac arrest at his office.

O'Connell's attorneys said these allegations are unproven. O'Connell's trial is set for next year.

"I don't think the (regulatory) process should be belittled by focusing on just one guy," said O'Connell's Houston lawyer, Rick Jaffe.

"These are some unproven, inflammatory allegations," he said. " Colorado deserves a good honest debate as to whether or not these practitioners should be licensed. There are much more informative issues than what one guy did to one or two patients. This is too important. It affects the health and freedom to choose of the people of Colorado beyond this case."

Naturopathy is a system of health care based on the premise that the human body has the power to heal itself by restoring its natural balance. A variety of therapies are used, including botanical medicines, homeopathy, nutrition, physiotherapy and spinal manipulation.

DORA says it's time for regulation but stops short of recommending licensing, although the report says that licensing would offer the greatest level of protection to the public.

"We're not advocating a full licensing program," said DORA spokesman Geoffrey Hier. "We're suggesting that the General Assembly consider regulation. It's up to them to decide what form it should take."

Lesser forms of regulation could restrict use of the title of naturopath to individuals with specified training or exempt specific areas of care offered by naturopaths from the Medical Practice Act, Hier said.

Under the licensing proposal favored by the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, naturopaths would have to attend a four-year education program at one of three accredited naturopathic medical colleges in the U.S. and pass an examination to obtain a license to practice in Colorado .

"I think it's high time," said the group's president, naturopath Rena Bloom.

Two previous DORA reviews in 1993 and 1998 ended without any recommendations for regulation.

"The O'Connell case certainly played a role in bringing this to the forefront," Bloom said. "We do not know yet if he will be found guilty, but the potential for harm certainly became clear in Colorado ."

Bloom said a regulatory agency will help consumers of alternative health care.

Currently, the training of practitioners can range from correspondence courses to the four-year college programs.

O'Connell, for instance, called himself "doctor" but received his training from a correspondence school that was sued in Arkansas for deceptive trade practices, according to the charges against him. Other credentials displayed on his walls included a diploma from the nonexistent Colorado University of Naturopathic Medicine.

The measure may have a rough go in the legislature because Colorado lawmakers historically are reluctant to add regulatory agencies.

Bloom said she expects opponents of licensing to lobby against it.

"The legislative process is one that often doesn't involve reason, but rather power, turf and money issues," she said. "If another powerful lobby group opposes us, it could trump who we are and what we do."

Among the opponents is the Coalition for Natural Health, whose executive director contends that licensing is unnecessary and a way of keeping the naturopathic colleges in business.

Boyd Landry said students in those colleges learn to "cut, prescribe and deliver" babies, practices that aren't part of traditional naturopathy.

"I am perplexed," Landry said.

He contends that sunrise reviews of other professions, including crane operators and burglary alarm installers, showed much greater potential public harm than naturopathy.

O'Connell's lawyer said that many naturopathic practitioners support the concept of licensing, including O'Connell. But many of them don't want licensing tied to schools offering four-year degrees.

The Colorado Naturopathic Medical Association, of which O'Connell was a member, is among these groups.

"We are for licensure, provided that it does not exclude specific groups of naturopaths that have been in the state practicing for quite some time," said naturopath Steve Colton, the group's president, who holds a degree in pharmacology.

Bloom is eager to get the issue before the legislature.

"The sooner we can get some sort of regulation," she said, "the sooner the citizens of Colorado will be protected and have a place to call when they have problems."

lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5181

Colorado Springs Independent January 19-25, 2006

http://www.csindy.com/csindy/current/

RX for confusion
Colorado 's lack of regulation leaves alternative doctors on risky ground
by Dan Wilcock

Chris Didario

For 19-year-old Sean Flanagan, the heartbreaking diagnosis came on the day, two years ago, when he hoped Denver 's Children's Hospital doctors would tell him he was free of cancer.

The previous year, he'd been through nearly every treatment modern medicine could throw at him: surgery to remove a football-sized tumor from his pelvis, bone marrow transplants, skin-slaking radiation therapy, a leg amputation and various chemotherapies.

It hadn't been enough. Ewing 's sarcoma, a rare cancer that strikes most commonly in teenagers, had won the chemical war. To the doctors, the purple tumor knobs on Sean's stump said it all.

If conventional medicine had failed their son, Dave and Laura Flanagan asked themselves, what about alternatives? Weren't there safe natural remedies that could be tried?

The Centennial couple hired Brian O'Connell, who claimed to be an N.M.D., or naturopathic medical doctor. A wall full of credentials and certificates decorated his practice, Mountain Area Naturopathic Associates in Wheat Ridge , a suburb northwest of Denver .

Dave Flanagan says they wanted to help Sean live out his remaining months in less pain. O'Connell, he says, promised to do a lot better: He said he'd save their son. "He said, 'No Irish kid's going to die on my watch.'"

In the first of four treatments, O'Connell injected the teenager with hydrogen peroxide and withdrew his blood with the same syringe. The blood then was exposed to a UV light machine before being returned to his body -- a process called "photoluminescence." Meanwhile, an IV drip administered a cocktail of vitamins into the bloodstream.

Nine days after beginning this treatment, the oxygen level in Sean's veins plummeted to around 18 percent of its normal level, and the teen's skin turned grey. He died on Dec. 19, 2003 .

O'Connell was arrested three months later and subsequently booked on 14 counts, including reckless manslaughter, multiple assaults, fraud, theft, practicing medicine without a license, and possession of controlled substances. Dave and Laura Flanagan watched the arrest on TV with horror.

Sean Flanagan isn't the only patient listed in the case against O'Connell, who is charged with assaulting a number of other patients. One went into cardiac arrest, and another died with large open wounds after O'Connell brought him to the emergency room at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge .

But Flanagan's grisly death has become a flashpoint in an increasingly heated battle over whether alternative, or naturopathic, doctors should be regulated in Colorado .

Proponents of regulation argue that O'Connell never should have been able to present himself as a naturopathic doctor, because he possessed only flimsy credentials. Police discovered that Flanagan's training in naturopathic medicine had been a correspondence course from the Herbal Healer Academy in Mountain View , Ark.

In the summer of 2004, following his arrest, O'Connell allegedly began seeing patients again. He subsequently was slapped with another round of criminal charges. Lack of oversight, regulation proponents say, allowed him to prey on ignorant consumers.

O'Connell could not be reached, and his attorney declined comment for this story. He goes to trial on Jan. 31 at the Jefferson County District Court in Golden.

Colorado 's freewheeling marketplace

Pointing at the O'Connell case and others, the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) agreed this fall that something needed to be done.

Having studied the issue for more than 10 years and having issued two previous reports on the topic, the state's professional credentialing agency put its weight behind an application to regulate naturopathic doctors in Colorado . Failure to license qualified naturopathic doctors puts citizens at risk by allowing an unsafe marketplace, according to its report issued Oct. 14.

The recommendation was greeted with gratitude by many of the 84 practicing naturopathic doctors in Colorado , including at least four in Colorado Springs , who arguably have the right to call themselves "doctors" under the state's Consumer Protection Act because they've earned U.S. Department of Education-approved postgraduate degrees in natural medicine.

"More and more people are interested in this kind of care," says Rena Bloom, a Denver naturopathic doctor and president of the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, made up of naturopaths who have earned accredited degrees.

Unlike O'Connell, doctors who graduate from one of the three nationally accredited four-year residential colleges (or from a fourth college currently a candidate for accreditation) study a wide range of alternative treatments. They base those treatments on a foundation of conventional, science-based medical training.

Naturopathic doctors, or N.D.s, offer themselves as guides through the expanding maze of available alternative remedies, including herbs, diet changes and homeopathy.

The key difference between naturopaths and conventional medical doctors is the naturopathic philosophy that the body can heal itself if treated holistically, not just through attacking individual symptoms with surgery and drugs.

The ranks of formally trained naturopaths have steadily grown across the country over the last 20 years. Fifteen states and the nation's capital now offer them licenses as primary care providers.

But the resistance to legitimizing them has grown, too.

They face opposition from many medical doctors who call them "quacks," and who view alternative remedies as scientifically unproven and threatening to their own practices.

Even more fiercely opposed to the idea of licensing alternative doctors in Colorado are the multitude of less formally trained healers, many of whom boast correspondence course degrees. They often prefer Colorado 's current freewheeling marketplace and fear that licenses would lock them out of a thriving business.

The battle between all camps is likely to be ferocious if Colorado 's Legislature, which holds the power to create professional licensing boards, takes up the issue within the next two years.

Although naturopath licensure bills have been introduced and failed three times before -- in 1993, 1995 and 1999 -- the DORA recommendation and the O'Connell case may create a tipping point.

Dave and Laura Flanagan, of Centennial, lost their son Sean to cancer just days after Brian O'Connell began what they say he promised would be life-saving treatments. Police later discovered that although O'Connell called himself a naturopathic medical doctor, his training consisted only of a correspondence course.

Photo By Dan Wilcock

Rigorous training

In looking for an alternative doctor, the Flanagan family wasn't acting out of the mainstream.

At least one-third of all Americans now complement standard medicine with some kind of alternative care, such as naturopathy, acupuncture or massage therapy, according to a study by The New England Journal of Medicine .

That amounts to a $40 billion industry annually, according to some estimates.

Naturopathy employs a wide palette of alternative treatments, ranging from herb usage to massage techniques and spinal manipulation.

"I was not attracted to surgery, I was not attracted to drug therapy," says Bloom, who says she easily could have pursued a degree in conventional medicine after going pre-med at the University of Massachusetts in the 1980s.

But her heart was drawn to alternative care. "I was interested in teaching people what they could do to become healthy," she says. "The combination of studying medicine with natural therapies was, to me, a perfect fit."

Earning a four-year doctorate in naturopathy from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland , Ore. , suited her pragmatic personality.

Students there spend the first two years of study immersed in classes similar to those taken by med-school students, including anatomy, physiology, pediatrics and obstetrics, and going through other rigorous training. During the third and fourth years, the focus is naturopathic, on things such as diet regimes, botanical medicine and pharmacology for natural remedies. Meanwhile, students complete more than 1,500 hours of clinical internship study with both licensed naturopathic physicians and conventional medical doctors.

National College is one of three fully accredited institutions offering N.D. degrees. A fourth, the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut , is approaching its fifth year of candidacy status with the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education.

After earning her degree in 1991, Bloom applied for and received a license to practice naturopathy in Oregon . But instead of practicing there, she and her husband, also a naturopath, moved to uncharted territory.

"We didn't waste any time," she says. "We moved here and got hopping right away."

Although Colorado didn't offer licenses, the pair established a practice in Denver in 1992 that, like the health alternative marketplace, began to thrive.

"When we first moved to Denver in 1992, if you wanted echinacea or glucosamine sulfate, you went to Alfalfa's, Wild Oats or the co-op," she says. These days, "customers shop for herbs at CostCo, a Walgreens and Target."

Walking into a madhouse

In 1993, Bloom found an ally in the fight for recognition in then-state Rep. Russell George, a Republican from Rifle.

"He looked at us and said, 'Let me get this straight. You're well-trained. You're offering a service to the citizens of Colorado that they want and appreciate, and you're practicing medicine without a license?'

"We said, 'Uh huh.'

"And he said, 'Well something needs to be done about that.' And from that day forth, he sponsored our bills."

From 1993 until 1999, George, who became speaker of the house, championed bills to regulate naturopaths.

Although bills failed in 1993 and 1995, the stars appeared to have aligned for licensure in 1999. The Colorado Medical Society -- the state's largest membership society of medical doctors and students -- agreed to not oppose licensing if the law stated that naturopaths would not prescribe medicine, do minor surgery, deliver babies or use the title of "physician."

The bill appeared poised for approval.

Then, everything went haywire.

On April 20, 1999 , the Columbine school massacre happened. Uproar followed at the state Capitol, and all other issues got pushed back.

When Bloom finally was invited to the State House to make what she had expected to be a simple presentation, licensing opponents had come out in full force.

"The basement was swarming with people with these big buttons on. It was one of these 'No!' buttons with our bill number on it."

As many as 150 people flooded the hearing room, prompting the senators to move to a larger space. Dozens of people rose to speak against licensing naturopaths, the first being a stocky man named Boyd Landry.

Landry, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Coalition for Natural Health, a nonprofit organization that fights against licensing naturopaths, had mobilized the bill's ambush.

To this day, George, now executive director of the state's Department of Natural Resources, remains convinced that regulating alternative doctors is the right thing to do.

Rena Bloom, of the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

Photo By Dan Wilcock

"The more I learned, the more impressed I was to learn how well-trained they are, how strong their academic training is," he says.

He, too, was surprised by the sudden emergence of the activists in the Senate chamber. "When you have that much noise in the system, it's hard to accomplish anything."

Lobbying for health freedom

Landry represents the multitude of alternative healers who go into practice without fancy degrees -- including reiki practitioners, Rolfers, traditional naturopaths, aroma therapists and hydrotherapists.

He says he'll travel to any state to oppose naturopath licensing: Idaho , Louisiana , Minnesota and Rhode Island all have been recent stops.

"I'm one of Delta's favorite customers," he says in a recent interview at a diner near Denver International Airport .

He often hires the best lobbyist available. In Denver seven years ago, that was Pancho Hayes, who also represented Philip Morris and the Denver Broncos.

Landry's group is largely funded by corporate sponsors from the natural supplement industry. The massive industry wants to ensure that their products aren't targeted for further regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

Landry, who has no medical background, has been successful in supporting "health freedom" laws in six states that guarantee the right to dispense non-medical alternative care without a license. Focusing on who should be called a "doctor," he says, isn't important.

"People deal with tree doctors, muffler doctors, glass doctors," he says. "There's all kinds of doctors out there."