A Mount Kisco physician who specializes in the treatment of Lyme disease is suing a blogger for $1 million for allegedly misrepresenting his disciplinary action for professional misconduct.
Dr. Daniel Cameron sued Jann Bellamy, a Tallahassee, Florida lawyer and activist for science-based standards in health care, Nov. 8 in federal court in White Plains.
Cameron claims that an article Bellamy wrote last year depicted him as a “predator who preys on Lyme disease patients for his own financial gain,” and that she falsely described his consent agreement with the New York state Department of Health”™s Board for Professional Medical Conduct.
Bellamy replied by email today, “I have not been served with any lawsuit and cannot comment.”
Cameron has been practicing medicine in New York since 1985. He primarily treats patients with a history of Lyme disease or associated tick-borne diseases, such as Bartonella and Babesia.
He is active in the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society that has issued diagnosis and treatment guidelines for chronic Lyme disease.
Lyme disease, he states in the complaint, is endemic in Westchester County and most of New York state. His patients come from throughout the world and many find him through internet searches.
Bellamy contends that there is no such disease as chronic Lyme and that the consensus of infectious disease experts is that long-term use of antibiotics to treat these patients can be harmful.
In April 2017, the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct filed a statement of charges against Cameron, concerning seven patients he treated from 1995 to 2010.
The board accused him of professional misconduct, including gross negligence, gross incompetence and failure to maintain records.
Cameron formally denied all allegations and charges in a 14-page response.
He said the state board interviewed him about diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease but did not interview him about the board”™s charges.
The state, he said, “manipulated the license disciplinary process.”
He demanded a hearing on the legal merits of his position.
Three weeks later, he signed a consent agreement that put him on probation for three years, allowing him to continue his practice subject to several restrictions.
“I assert that I cannot successfully defend against at least one of the acts of misconduct alleged,” the agreement states.
One week after Cameron signed the consent, Bellamy published her account of the disciplinary action on the website of Science-Based Medicine.
She said Cameron is board certified in internal medicine but has no fellowship training or certification in the infectious diseases subspecialty. She described him as a recognized leader “among those who consider ”˜chronic Lyme”™ a real disease,” but not among board certified infectious disease doctors “who agree that ”˜chronic Lyme”™ is not a real disease.”
Cameron, she wrote, “brushes off the expert opinion of infectious diseases doctors versus ”˜chronic Lyme”™ pseudoscience as simply ”˜different points of view.”™”
New York, according to Bellamy, does not require doctors to stipulate to particular acts of misconduct as a condition of settling a case. “This means the allegations in the state”™s statement of charges were never proven.”
But she said the statement of charges, based on expert review of Cameron”™s patient records, “remain uncontested by Cameron.”
“Reading between the lines,” Bellamy continued, “Cameron had only one tool, a hammer, so he saw every problem as a nail. The possibility that the patient might be suffering from something other than ”˜chronic Lyme”™ was tossed aside via inadequate physical exams and medical records, failing to consider other diagnoses, and bulldozing ahead with inappropriate long-term antibiotics, adverse conditions be damned.”
Those assertions, Cameron states in his complaint, are libelous.
The consent order, he states, made no findings of actual misconduct and did not sustain any of the original allegations.
He never stipulated to charges of negligence or incompetence, the complaint states, but he did formally contest the charges.
“The consent order was merely a statement of all the outstanding charges,” the complaint states, “and nothing more.”
Cameron is demanding $1 million for libel and defamation and in injunction barring future postings of the article.
The lawsuit also names five doctors from across the country who edit articles on the website, but it does not name the publication or organization as defendants.
Cameron is represented by Jacques G. Simon of Jericho, Long Island.
Thank you Dr. Cameron!! Please, please, please persecute, persecute, persecute!!!
Bellamy should be ashamed, embarrassed, and exposed for her irresponsible reporting that is misleading sick and suffering patients down a dangerous road.
“Persecute, persecute, persecute..â€
We in the Lyme community Know that you have been targeted by IDSA CDC worshipers before and have great respect for what you have done for many that suffer in the Lyme community. Saddens me to see those that target those trying to help and pioneer a future for this dreadful pandemic.
Thank you and hope this ends in your favor,
David R Thomas
Lyme Disease Advocate
http://www.throughchallenge.com
Lady, go out to the woods in Mass or so and get bit. And then you tell me.
Although I don’t wish harm on anyone.. She as a medical professional should be really ashamed. It’s criminal even. Go and speak to the communities all around America alone. It’s not 1 big flash mob of conspiracy driven human beings. . Go listen to us. Here’s the struggles and similarities alone. You can get a nice education but that doesn’t buy intelligence. So go ahead, talk a nice long stroll through a hike in the woods. Maybe put a tick on you to prove your point? Just 10 days of doxycycline. No big deal.
That is a really dangerous and mean stance. Do better. Learn more. Listen.
I’m so glad Dr. Cameron is suing her. The science based medicine website is a horrible site, spewing sarcasm, venom, and vicious accusations, calling everything that isn’t an American medical society endorsed drug or treatment as quackery, as if the founder and his guest writers know everything there is to know. They are the worst of “skepticsâ€, writing opinions that aren’t actually science based, stating their unproven opinions as fact, and failing to note any arguments or evidence that contradicts their dogma. I hope he wins a large settlement against each doctor he sued and that it sends a message to stop libeling doctors who do work that you don’t understand.
A misinformed and misguided lawyer, is Ms. Bellamy. Those of us battling chronic Lyme disease know just how real it is. Good for you, Dr. Cameron, for fighting back. Best of luck with this lawsuit.
Over the last thirty years I have met a lot of people who were as unaware of the actual state of affairs as Ms. Bellamy currently is. A fair number of them learned the hard way how drastically misinformed they had been when they or a beloved family member contracted Lyme and some co-infections. With their eyes so painfully opened, they were thankful that they had not succeeded in helping to drive all of the Lyme Literate doctors out of practice, because they badly needed their help. A few even had the grace to say so.
Unfortunately, coping with the epidemic of Lyme whilst fighting the harassment has caused enormous stress on the heroes in the trenches, and we have lost some good doctors along the way.
You’re on the wrong side of science, Ms. Bellamy, as time will tell. Concentrate on exposing the actual charlatans in the medical field. There’s no shortage of them.
Good for Dr Cameron for remaining viligent in the face of adversity. Its not a easy road to travel if you just ask the thousands who are suffering from this disease. It was unacceptable 30 plus years ago and its not acceptable now. Everyone now admits that the stealthy nature of the bacteria allows it to flouriish especially if the infection is not discovered right away. No more chroic cases should be the goal for all that are involved. The constant whiting out of facts must be abolished so the steps forward can move for a cure.
Stuides proved back in the 80’s that this bacteria has the capabliity to shut down the immune system allowing all the other bacteria and viruses to take over.
If you need any support, I too have been the focus of Science Based Medicines lies. They launched into me to try to discredit my testimony. Not a single one of them contacted me first to ask to see medical records before stating that I falsified , exaggerated in my testimony etc . If anything, because the testimony of 18 years of hell was reduced to 5 minutes or less, there was only reduction of the true impact this disease had on our lives. The statements he made were uncalled for and reflected their lack of knowledge of the science of Lyme disease. Thank you Dr Cameron for all you do! As we who have been in this for years know, they “can not win on science so they must win on the socio political front ” I do hope that you include all the doctors who report on that site and act as managing editors.
Most comforting to see doctors who have the courage to stand by their patients being defended
Ultimately, the true issue is between the patients and the doctors who neglect them, and not between doctors who sue each other in order to defend their scientific opinions.
“Expert opinion of infectious diseases doctors???†Seriously?
Those so-called “experts†who have controlled the narrative for the past thirty years have been named in a racketeering lawsuit in Texas District Court. Seven academics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and eight insurance companies.
Court document: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LymeDisease.pdf
Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH
Incredible that a lawyer in Florida is convinced that she knows better than the trained physicians who have been working with actual Lyme Disease sufferers for decades. Many of these Doctors have made it their life’s focus studying and helping people suffering from the debilitating symptoms of Lyme and associated infections. Yet Ms. Ballamy, a lawyer by training in Tallahassee Florida is making the claim that chronic Lyme Disease simply doesn’t exist. Somehow she believes that she is better educated on Lyme and associated diseases than the medically trained physicians who work with Lyme patients daily. Looks like Ms. Ballamy has an agenda. Very sad to see people like her doing such harm to those who have been so helpful to so many. Dr. Cameron, please make it $2 Million.
I sincerely hope Dr. Cameron can turn his attention other areas of critical medical importance soon, such as adrenal fatigue, leaky gut syndrome, and autistic enterocolitis.
I Good luck Dr. Camron you’ve been a very good doctor and I have seen you help many people with Lyme disease. so that bleep! Hope she goes in the woods and get bitten. Behind you 100%.