Dr. Atkins dies obese - Dr. Fleming celebrates

[Liberal]

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dr. Atkins weighed 258 pounds when he died, which, for a man of his height, 6 feet, is medically obese. The Journal said that it got its information from the Medical Examiner's Report forwarded from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The PCRM, it turns out, got its information from Dr. Robert Fleming, a Nebraska cardiologist and longtime critic of the Atkins diet.

How Fleming got it from the New York Medical Examiner is still unclear. He says he did nothing wrong, and yet the medical examiner's office has issued an apology to Atkins' widow, Veronica Atkins, for mistakenly releasing the papers to Fleming. That office has called for an investigation of Fleming's conduct by the Nebraska Health Department.

Thing is, Atkins died from skull fractures that he got when he slipped on some ice. And he weighed 195 pounds at that time. One writer (cited below) has balked at that figure because it was taken from an echocardiogram report which, he claims, might not be the doctor's actual weight. But the figure was verified by Dr. Stuart Trager, Atkins' personal physician and head of the Atkins Physicians Council. And while it is not the ideal weight, by any means, it is nowhere near obese, according to the BMI calculator from the Centers for Disease Control.

As it turns out, PCRM is a quack medical group that has been censured twice publically by the American Medical Association. It has close ties to PETA, an openly violent animal rights organization. In fact, every one of its advisory board members is a card-carrying PETA guerilla, and it has received more than a million dollars from PETA. It also happens that the squealer, Dr. Fleming, timed his release of Dr. Atkin's medical records to coincide with his new book, Stop Inflammation Now!, a highly charged critique of low carb diets.

Now, there was a forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, who appeared on Fox News with Greta van Susteren and opined that typically, under the circumstances of Atkins' head injury, it is unlikely that a person could gain 60 pounds while under intensive care because the doctors would be draining fluids. Of course, Baden was not there, but Trager was. And he explained that much more fluid was going in than was coming out. According to him and to family members, by the time he died, he was bloated so much that he was almost unrecognizable.

Now, here's the rant.

I believe that the tactics employed by Fleming and the nuts at PCRM in this case were about on the level of Fred Phelps picketing a funeral. Maybe worse. Just so the guy could profit by creating publicity surrounding the publication of his book, he fraudulently obtained private medical records, knowingly and willfully stripped them of context, and then pawned them off to a media outlet. He didn't care about its effect on the doctor's widow and friends.

I just gotta say that this guy is the sea slug of bottom feeders. I hope his ambulance chasing ethics backfire and kill the sale of his book. It was a low blow, and he is a jackass.

Sources:

http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/archive/200402/NAT20040212b.html
http://www.pcrm.org/about/index.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/bmi-means.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/16/atkins.widow/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/02/12/atkins_diet_centers_on_the_green/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1012637,00.html
http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=1639722
http://www.fumento.com/fat/empire.html
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/17813.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/10/atkins.widow/
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1076425107316_71834307/?hub=Health
http://www.activistcash.com/org_detail.cfm?ORG_ID=23
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,111268,00.html

[Malacandra]

I'll toss you a can of gas for that flame, Lib. I've already seen the "Atkins was obese when he died" line parrotted here and there by people who should have a tad more by way of critical faculties, and it's an easy guess the truth is going to be half an hour behind and printed in much smaller type.

I'd heard Fleming wasn't exactly a disinterested observer, but thanks for the above cites. What an asshat.

[ultrafilter]

And it's worth saving that collection of cites, cause you'll be hearing about this one for a long time.

[Cheesesteak]

Allow me to add a bit of flame for the "news" outlets that promote this garbage. I'm sick and tired of hearing this crapola from news agencies. One group with a bone to pick releases information from a dubious source, and somebody has to parrot it like it's on a fucking stone tablet handed down by God himself. Then you get the stories about how one news outlet published the original story. Wow guys, that's cutting edge.

Get bent, you lazy bastards.

[Sampiro]

Did anybody see the Dateline interview with Atkins that aired last week? The interview took place less than two months before he died and the man was most definitely not obese. (He wasn't slim by any means and he had terrible skin, but nobody would call him a lard butt.) I have mixed opinions of his diet and would never use it myself until there's been a lot more long-term research, but spreading lies about him discredits the detractors rather than high-protein/low-carb dieting.

[tdn]

Before Dr. Atkins died, he had a number of MIs. He had a home defibrillator and would use it on himself. One day he was using it and electrocuted himself, fell to floor, cracked his head open, and died.

As told by a cardiac surgeon in my office several months ago. This one ain't gonna die soon, folks.

[Bill Door]

I realize I'm just one person, and this is anecdodal, but I have been on an Atkins diet for over two years. While not to my goal weight, I am 70 pounds lighter than when I have much more energy than before and my joint pains are better. Last week my blood work came back, total cholesterol, 191, high density lipoprotein, 76, for a ratio of 2.5. This is in someone who eats around 18 eggs per week and uses butter liberally. My kidney and liver enzymes are all normal. To watch alleged "physicians" knowingly lie about the death of someone to serve their own agenda makes me sick.

[manhattan]

What's galling to me is the Journal's behavior in this. They printed a followup story about his weight at the time of his accident (as opposed to the time of his death), but didn't put anything in a corrections section, nor did their retract their original story (at least that I've seen, and that includes a search I just did on their website). Whilst the original story was "correct" if one went over it with the legal department, it was substantively wrong and the WSJ should have said so. Particularly since their pages have been pretty critical of the Adkins approach over the years.

They normally do a lot better.

[Jonathan Chance]

I'd actually be interested if this was actionable.

Since the goal of the PCRM was clearly to damage the business of a for-profit entity could the Atkins crew sue for damages (lost business and such)?

A couple of million dollar hit might well bring them to heel.

[Lute Skywatcher]

To watch alleged "physicians" knowingly lie about the death of someone to serve their own agenda makes me sick.You sure it's not something you ate? ;)

[iampunha]

Anyone else smell an Urban Legend forming? "Hey guys, guess what!!! You know Dr. Atkins? Well apparently his own diet didn't work for him! He died from a massive heart attack because he was 500 pounds!"

:rolleyes:

[Mr. Miskatonic]

I realize I'm just one person, and this is anecdodal, but I have been on an Atkins diet for over two years. While not to my goal weight, I am 70 pounds lighter than when I have much more energy than before and my joint pains are better. Last week my blood work came back, total cholesterol, 191, high density lipoprotein, 76, for a ratio of 2.5. This is in someone who eats around 18 eggs per week and uses butter liberally. My kidney and liver enzymes are all normal. To watch alleged "physicians" knowingly lie about the death of someone to serve their own agenda makes me sick.

Excuse me if I bring up what seems to be becoming my crusade on the SDMB:

REGISTER HERE (http://www.lifespan.org/services/bmed/wt_loss/nwcr/) you underepresented, protein-eating, hash-mark!

:D Sorry, I have no opinion on Atkins, but I want all these anecdotes I keep hearing to show up on the radar.

[overlyverbose]

While I don't agree with Dr. Atkins' diet, I think Fleming's a jackass for obtaining those records and distorting them. That's really shitty, and no way to prove a point. Thanks for all those cites!

[The Long Road]

I'd actually be interested if this was actionable.

Since the goal of the PCRM was clearly to damage the business of a for-profit entity could the Atkins crew sue for damages (lost business and such)?

A couple of million dollar hit might well bring them to heel.


I was wondering if this violated HIPAA. I have not been able to find a reference to this particular type of case so don't know.

[dropzone]

IANAL, but aren't Medical Examiner results automatically part of the public record?

[Liberal]

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York medical examiner, said the report is believed to have been given to Physicians for Responsible Medicine by Dr. Richard Fleming, a cardiologist who operates a heart institute in Omaha. He's been quoted in newspaper articles criticizing the Atkins diet.

Fleming submitted a request for the report in mid-December on his business letterhead, and the documents were mistakenly sent to him on Dec. 22, Borakove said. Such reports typically are released only to a physician who had treated the individual, which Fleming had not, she said.

http://www.fox23news.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=6F659BC2-1561-4DF0-B3AE-29016562A711