Ex-patients lash out at Lyme doctor

But backers fear they will lose him

Prosecutors for the N.C. Medical Board launched an aggressive case against Lyme disease specialist Dr. Joseph Jemsek on Wednesday, blasting him as a reckless doctor who hurt patients by pumping them full of antibiotics for months or years to treat a disease they did not actually have.

They have charged the Mecklenburg County doctor with unprofessional conduct and might stop him from practicing or limit what he can do.

Heather Jenkins of Huntersville, one of 10 patients the medical board built its case around, testified that Jemsek kept her on daily intravenous antibiotics for a year and five months, even as she failed to get better and developed infections around the IV port implanted in her arm.

She came to Jemsek in April 2002 complaining of fatigue, flulike symptoms and blisters in her nose and mouth and was diagnosed with Lyme.

Jenkins, a wife and mother of three, stopped treatment after she developed a septic infection that put her in a hospital intensive-care unit for days. A hospital test showed that she did not have Lyme.

"He almost killed me," said Jenkins, 32, her voice breaking. "I am not a rat to be tested."

Jemsek, 56, sat next to his attorney, James Wilson, and listened silently as she testified. He has maintained that diagnostic tests often don't pick up Lyme and says the shorter standard treatment is inadequate for advanced cases.

Wednesday was the first day in a public hearing expected to last two full days. Much of the day's testimony supported the medical board's case against Jemsek. Late in the day, Wilson began to call defense witnesses who say the doctor's approach to Lyme is innovative and effective. Jemsek's defense will continue today, when the medical board is expected to decide whether he should be disciplined, and how.

Doctor's supporters

Outside the hearing room, more than 100 of Jemsek's supporters buzzed with concern about the proceedings. Many consider Jemsek a genius whose unorthodox treatment spared them from disabling chronic Lyme disease. Some fear they will suffer relapses if Jemsek, who has said he is the only physician in North Carolina who treats Lyme with long-term antibiotic therapy, is prevented from treating them.

"What are we supposed to do, just go home and die?" said Linda Richardson, 55, of Raleigh.

She said chronic Lyme made her so ill that she was bedridden for a year and had to retire from her job as a teacher at Sanderson High School. Richardson said she has improved greatly under Jemsek's care since she started seeing him in October 2004, though she has not made a full recovery.

Lyme disease is not considered fatal. But Jemsek, who gave the first part of his testimony Wednesday, said symptoms can be so debilitating that patients who have suffered with the disease for years begin to wish it was.

"They're just totally miserable -- they might as well be dead," he said.

The board's case focuses on the treatment of 10 patients, including Jenkins, who take issue with Jemsek's treatment. His practice currently treats more than 400 patients for chronic Lyme. The clinic, which is in Huntersville, 15 miles north of Charlotte, has patients from 42 states and some foreign countries.

Marcus Jimison, the medical board attorney prosecuting the case, said Jemsek would "cherry-pick certain results that support a diagnosis while ignoring everything else that would detract from the diagnosis of Lyme."

One woman, Patti Ingram of Fort Mill, S.C., said Jemsek treated her with oral and IV antibiotics for more than seven years, despite little evidence that it was helping. He diagnosed her with Lyme in 1996, even though blood tests ordered by other doctors showed she was positive for another tick-borne disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Ingram, 52, said her health has improved since leaving Jemsek's care.

Dr. Meera Kelley, an infectious disease specialist who reviewed the 10 patients' medical charts at the request of the medical board, said none of the patients' symptoms or clinical histories strongly indicated Lyme disease. She said she would not have diagnosed any of them with it and said most other doctors practicing in the state wouldn't have either.