Family Sold Bleach COVID ‘Cure’; Doc’s Alleged Malpractice Trail; Faulty Implants

Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

Family Sentenced for Selling Bleach as ‘Miracle’ COVID Cure

A Florida man and his three sons were sentenced to several years in prison for selling more than $1 million worth of a fake COVID-19 “miracle” cure that was actually an industrial-strength bleach solution, according to the New York Times.

Federal prosecutors said the family used a church as a front for their business dealings, which centered around the sale of the bleach solution. They called it “Miracle Mineral Solution” and claimed it cured a range of diseases, including COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, and leukemia, among other diseases.

FDA had received reports of people requiring hospitalization and dying after drinking the solution, prosecutors said.

Two of the men, Mark Grenon, 66, and Joseph Grenon, 36, were sentenced to 5 years in prison for conspiring to defraud the government. The other two men, Jonathan Grenon, 37, and Jordan Grenon, 29, were sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiring to defraud the government and for contempt of court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

All four men were found guilty by a jury in July after choosing to represent themselves in court. The sentencing came after a 3-year-long case that began in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The solution that the Grenons were selling contained sodium chlorite and water, which becomes chlorine dioxide after being ingested, the Times reported.

The family marketed the product to customers using Bible verses through their newsletter, a radio station, and a book, according to prosecutors.

Michael Homer, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, told the Times in a statement that the Grenons “poisoned thousands of people with their bogus miracle cure, which was nothing more than industrial bleach,” and that they “targeted vulnerable people who were suffering from life-threatening illnesses and who were desperate for a cure.”

Ob/Gyn’s Alleged Trail of Malpractice

After a New York obstetrician allegedly caused severe pain and suffering to a newborn during a Cesarean section, his history of malpractice allegations and his previously suspended state license came to light, according to a Gothamist investigation.

Thomas J. Byrne, MD, lost his New York State medical license in 1991 after the medical board determined that his practice represented “an imminent danger to the health of the people of the state,” according to the report. The board noted in the suspension summary that Byrne failed to meet the acceptable standard of medical care in treating seven pregnant women between March 1988 and September 1990.

In a rare reversal, Byrne had his York State medical license reinstated in 2014. In the meantime, he had managed to obtain a medical license in New Mexico and in Oklahoma. During his time in those states, he was sued for medical malpractice numerous times, for alleged injuries including a perforated colon, a damaged ureter, and a damaged bowel. Byrne was also accused of leaving a sponge inside a patient’s body after surgery.

Once back in New York, Byrne was also accused of medical malpractice related to the death of a patient who delivered her baby at home but died from severe blood loss at Harlem Hospital in New York, where Byrne provided medical care to her.

All told, former patients and their families have filed nearly two dozen lawsuits against Byrne throughout his career, alleging injury and death. Experts interviewed by Gothamist said that number is well above the average of one to three malpractice suits for ob/gyns.

Patients Sue Over Faulty Implants

More than 1,100 patients who received allegedly faulty knee, hip, and ankle replacement devices are suing Exactech after an August 2021 recall, according to KFF Health News.

Thousands of pages of court filings revealed that the company is being accused of concealing evidence of its products’ failures from patients and government officials for years.

Government records reportedly show that Exactech took years to report adverse events to FDA’s Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database, which tracks medical device malfunctions.

As far back as 2005, Wayne Moody, MD, a Maine orthopedic surgeon, began warning the company about device malfunctions and failures. The surgeon noted that the company’s knee replacement device had loosened in 25 out of 385 operations over the previous 4 years. Moody also said that one knee implant gave out after only 9 months, according to the article.

Manuel Fuentes, a former senior product manager for the company who became a whistleblower, testified in a deposition that pulling the product from the market in 2008 “would have been the ethical and moral thing to do.”

Exactech started as a mom-and-pop device manufacturer and over three decades grew into a global company that sold for three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2018. The company declined to comment for the story, citing ongoing lawsuits related to these cases. However, Exactech reportedly denied the allegation in the legal filing for the patient lawsuit, according to the article.

The company also acknowledged in a recall letter to surgeons that data from an Australian registry confirmed that one of its devices had “statistically significant” higher rates of revisions than knee implants manufactured by other companies, the outlet reported.