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Botulism sufferer hobbles into court
The doctor allegedly injected himself and three others with a toxic knockoff of Botox.
Associated Press
Published March 1, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE - Recovering from botulism paralysis, a stooped osteopath slowly rolled a walker into court Monday to face fraud charges in a national network that allegedly bought and sold raw toxin place of the wrinkle treatment Botox.
Bach McComb is accused of paralyzing himself and three others by injecting a potent, unapproved form of botulin at a clinic in November instead of the costlier, federally approved drug made from the toxin.
McComb went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and was hospitalized there, then returned here to face the federal indictment.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer agreed to let him stay free on $200,000 bail while undergoing rehabilitation and move from his mother's house in Bayonne, N.J., to his sister's house in Sarasota.
McComb is charged along with two Arizona doctors in a network that allegedly sold 3,081 vials of a knockoff wrinkle treatment for $1.5-million to doctors and clinics nationally.
A California research toxin manufacturer, which has not been charged, supplied both the Arizona doctors and McComb's clinic with the toxin, federal investigators allege. The botulin formulation sent to Arizona was at a level equivalent to Botox. Investigators think the freeze-dried version sent to the local clinic was 10 times stronger when McComb injected it.
Arraignment is set for April 1 for McComb on drug misbranding, fraud and conspiracy charges.
[Last modified March 1, 2005, 01:10:14]
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