HIV Aids - The Tragic Death of Eliza Jane Scovill

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The Tragic Death of Eliza Jane Scovill

pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part One)

Last updated: October 19th 2005

Eliza Jane Scovill died suddenly on May 16th 2005 at the age of only 3½.
That was tragedy enough for her parents Christine Maggiore and Robin
Scovill.

Eliza Jane had a lingering cold in early may, including a runny nose
that did not clear up. When a pediatrician found fluid in her ears on
May 14th he recommended amoxicillin, a form of penicillin. Her condition
rapidly deteriorated after this.

Because the reason why such a young and formerly healthy child’s heart
should stop suddenly could not be explained by the hospital, the case
was referred to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office.

Christine Maggiore has been a major critic of the AIDS establishment for
several years. She has been HIV-positive and healthy, without AIDS
drugs, for over a decade. Her experience and her research has convinced
many HIV-positive people to reconsider their use of AIDS drugs. This has
not endeared her to the many doctors and AIDS activists who promote
these drugs.

Read the available information and make up your own mind. We will be
updating this page as more information comes available.

Index by Date

September 24th 2005 - LA Times Story Breaks.*
September 25th 2005 - Supporters Start to Rally.**
September 26th 2005 - Supporter’s Letters and New Article in London, UK,
newspaper The Guardian.***
September 29th 2005 - Letter to one of the doctors quoted in the LA
Times article.****
October 2nd 2005 - Christine’s Attempted Letters to the LA Times.*****
October 3rd 2005 - Does a Mother’s Denial = a Daughter’s Death?******
October 15th 2005 - Peter Chowka’s article in Natural Health
Line.*******

*September 24

A Mother’s Denial, a Daughter’s Death LA Times

This front page story by LA Times reporters Charles Ornstein and
Daniel Costello appeared to accept, without questioning, the LA county
coroner’s conclusion that Eliza Jane died of “AIDS-related pneumonia”
even before Christine and Robin had received a copy of the coroner’s
report.
This front page story also reported that several mainstream doctors had
suggested that her parents should have been forced to test the child for
HIV and that stronger antibiotics (such as Bactrim) should have been
used.

Anti-AZT Activist’s Child Dies Liam Scheff

Liam Scheff is the journalist who broke the story about clinical
trials and abuse of guardians and children at the Incarnation Children’s
Center in New York City.

**September 25

Postings on AIDSsoc

Sara

What colossal BS.
There are approximately half a million cases of pneumonia in the US each
year and approximately 40,000 deaths, mostly among the young and the
elderly. There is no reason to believe that this little girl’s death had
anything to do with HIV or AIDS.

This is one of the common scare tactics used by the AIDS establishment
to get people to toe the line - show that people who don’t use AIDS
drugs can get get sick and die. Of course they can, everyone gets sick
and we are ALL going to die. Where is the double blind study of death
rates among the HIV+ who refuse AIDS drugs versus the HIV+ who take the
drugs? My personal experience is that the latter group is the most high
risk group in the world.

KAB

I am still in shock that they would use something as personal and
difficult as a death of a child to try to drive the AID$ bus forward
(although I should not be surprised; they seem to stop at nothing)
Christine needs us as never before. I wonder what the best way to
support her at this time would be. Any good ideas out there? The article
seemed to insiuate that as the word gets out about this there will be
some fallout.

--
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pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Two)

***September 26

To Our Friends and Colleagues David Crowe

As many of you may be aware, Christine Maggiore and Robin Scovill’s
three and a half year old daughter, Eliza Jane, died in May of unknown
causes. Last week, after four months of deliberation, the LA County
Coroner released a report in which they claim that Eliza Jane died of
AIDS related pneumonia. An article that appeared Saturday in the Los
Angeles Times carrying this news is apparently being picked up by media
across the country and around the world.

Robin and Christine have serious concerns and questions about the
coroner’s conclusion and have hired an independent pathologist to review
the autopsy in detail. The autopsy report is also missing crucial data
which their attorney requested on Friday September 23. As of today, the
coroner has not responded to their attorney’s request.

Although Christine shared these concerns and other critical information
with reporter Dan Costello, the LA Times elected to omit many facts from
their article. They also refused to wait for the missing data from the
autopsy report or for the results of an independent inquiry before going
to press. Additionally, the Times failed to mention that in addition to
their son Charlie’s negative HIV status, Robin also tests HIV negative
after nine years together with Christine.

Robin and Christine are devastated by the sudden death of Eliza Jane,
deeply concerned about several aspects of the coroner’s report, and
troubled by the Times’ decision to run the story before all the facts
are in.

They will have the results of an independent inquiry in two to three
weeks and look forward to sharing what it reveals with you and any media
interested in following this story.

As Christine said to the LA Times, she has been brought to her emotional
knees by the death of her beautiful daughter but continues to stand
solidly on the science and medical data that has informed her and
Robin’s decisions.

Robin and Christine appreciate everyone’s concern and believe practical
action such as fund raising for legal and PR fees may well be necessary
in the near future. At that point, we will need your help and support.

In the meantime, the best thing to do is to think about what you might
do to help, but please wait until enough information is in before taking
any overt action. It is also very important to avoid spreading rumors.
Feel free to let people know that there is a dispute over the coroner’s
conclusion, but it is too early to be more specific. If you want to
write to the LA Times about the article, please use polite and
professional language, fact check any points you wish to raise and be as
concise as possible.

We hope that more details on their situation will be available soon.

Letter to the LA Times Mira de Vries, Association for Medical and
Therapeutic Self-Determination, The Netherlands

Times’ Staff Writers Charles Ornstein and Daniel Costello are jumping
the gun when they suggest that 3½-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill would not
have died if she had been on antiretroviral drugs. The child’s HIV
status isn’t known. What we do know is that antiretroviral drugs are
responsible for disfiguring, devastating, and often deadly side effects
in adults as well as children

Letter to the LA Times Dr. Harvey Bialy, Resident Scholar, Inst. of
Biotechnology, Autonomous National university of Mexico

This is in response to the story you published yesterday regarding the
death of the daughter of Christine Maggiore and Robin Scovill.

In order to have a diagnosis of ‘aids related pneumonia’, two conditions
must be met. The patient must be HIV antibody positive, and there must
be a clinical pneumonia. Whether Eliza Jane was in fact
antibody-positive is information that neither the LA Times nor the
coroner’s office has as yet made public. However, according to all
reports it is acknowledged the child suffered none of the textbook
symptoms of pneumonia, and had previously been in excellent health for
several years. Thus the crucial second condition appears completely
unsatisfied. (A post mortem finding of PCP in the lungs means nothing
since it is 100% ubiquitous in human beings). Thus we are left to ponder
the only significant fact, and it is one of omission, in your story. On
what basis did the coroner conclude the child died of ‘AIDS related
pneumonia’?

After more than 20 years of attempting to get straight answers about
HIV/AIDS from so-called authorities, I am less than sanguine that this
latest, simple query will be satisfactorily answered.

--
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pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Three)

***September 26 [Continued]

Letter to the LA Times Sascha Sarnoff, Health Advocacy in the Public
Interest, Santa Barbara

Thank you for covering this very sad and important story despite a
misleading tabloid title, which was not in step with the balanced
writing of article.

As a longtime friend of the Maggiore/Scovill family, and I have been
fortunate to watch them lovingly and wisely raise their two healthy
children, Charlie and Eliza Jane (EJ). As this case unfolds I feel that
additional information is needed to help LA Times readers understand the
case more fully and set the record straight on numerous key points,
including several inaccuracies found in the 8-page cover story about the
tragic death of Eliza Jane Scovill.

It is true, as stated in the Times article, that the child died within
hours after being prescribed, and ingesting, amoxicillin. It is grossly
irresponsible to say, as Dr. James Oleske said in his interview in the
Times article, that “This was a preventable death.” A simple Library of
Medicine review of the words “amoxicillin, anaphylaxis, symptoms”
retrieves a list of adverse reactions to amoxicillin including,
vomiting, and sudden death, which were exactly the symptoms, according
to the coroner’s office, and the L.A. Times Press release, that Eliza
Jane developed hours after taking the drug. Having never examined Eliza
Jane, does Dr. Oleske think that he indeed could have prevented an
amoxicillin-induced anaphylactic reaction (if she had been properly
evaluated)? Antibiotic adverse reactions do happen, causing serious
injury or death, this is a fact.

It is also true as the article states that flu shots, mandatory
hepatitis B vaccinations, other recent vaccinations, pregnancy, and
common viral infections could all lead to a false-positive test result.
In fact, by doing a comprehensive search one finds over 70 reasons other
than an “HIV” infection for a false positive test result, and 46 known
disease syndromes that can affect test results. Conditions like warts,
malaria, long-term drug and alcohol use, receipt of gamma globulin,
blood transfusions, leprosy, tuberculosis, bacterial and fungal
infections, autoimmune diseases, kidney failure, alpha interferon
therapy in hemodialysis patients, various cancers, herpes, non-specific
upper respiratory tract infection, various anemias, hepatitis B,
tetanus, Êhypergammaglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, vaccinations,
and many other conditions and or treatments. Many of these can be found
on “HIV” test kit inserts, and on the CDC’s HIV/AIDS websites.

Although the LA Times reports “Federal officials say that HIV tests
detect antibodies to the virus and are accurate predictors of who is
infected,” many of the test-kits themselves contradict that very
statement. “ELISA testing alone cannot be used to diagnose AIDS.”
(Abbott Laboratory’s ELISA test kit insert, 1997). “Do not use this kit
as the sole basis for HIV infection.” (Epitope, a maker for one of the
Western Blot kits, 1997), and “The Amplicor HIV-1 monitor test is not
intended to be used as a screening test for HIV, nor as a diagnostic
test to confirm the presence of HIV infection.” (Roche Amplicor test kit
insert, 1996).

Dr. Peter Havens, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the
Medical college of Wisconsin, was quoted by the LA Times article that:
“contrairian HIV theories promoted on about 400 websites are bogus
baloney,” and that, “It’s all pseudoscience,” and that, “They choose one
paper and deny the existence of 100 others.” One could ask the dogmatic
Professor of Pediatrics whether he believes that The New England Journal
of Medicine, The Lancet, the journal AIDS, and The Journal of Virology
advance “bogus baloney,” “pseudoscience,” or “contrarian views”, or
publish “selected papers”. Or should we take serious, articles in these
journals that describe, for example, the extreme toxicity of AZT and the
protease inhibitors, and the rapid advance to death that infants exhibit
when their mothers are given these toxic, failed cancer chemotherapeutic
compounds.

In the days following EJ’s passing, we need a growing willingness to
listen to unfamiliar information and ponder new points of view to better
protect the health of our tiniest citizens from medical error and
misdiagnosis.

--
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pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Four)

***September 26 [Continued]

Mother who denied AIDS link faces police investigation after death of
daughter The Guardian newspaper, London, UK

“…Christine Maggiore, the child’s HIV-positive mother, denies HIV
leads to Aids and refused to take antiviral drugs during pregnancy. She
breastfed her daughter, Eliza Jane, and refused to have her tested for
the virus…”

September 27

Published Letters to the LA Times LA Times

Two letters that were published by the LA Times are linked above. Many
supportive letters were never published.

September 28

Letter in London, UK, The Guardian Dr. Kevin Corbett, Dept. of Health
Sciences, university of York

There are worrying inaccuracies in your report of the HIV/Aids
reappraiser Christine Maggiore (Mother who denied Aids link faces police
investigation after death of daughter, September 26).
First, it’s a matter of public record that Maggiore’s HIV test result
varied drastically from “positive” to “negative” to “indeterminate”. You
only report that she was diagnosed positive. This conceals the fact that
HIV antibody tests, as acknowledged by their manufacturers, give
positive readings for reasons other than HIV infection (like a prior
pregnancy or blood transfusion). Second, Maggiore’s daughter was never
diagnosed with Aids so couldn’t have died from Aids-related pneumonia.

The anti-sceptic tone of your report asserts that lay questioning of
powerful scientific orthodoxies is harmful and that toxic antiretroviral
drugs (such as AZT or Nevirapine) should be the only choice for pregnant
women who test positive in “HIV” antibody tests. For many people facing
difficult health choices in a pharmaceutically driven environment that
is a scandalous message to propagate.

****September 29

Letter to Dr. Magnus Dr. Todd Miller, university of Miami

Dear Dr. Magnus,

Although I’ve not had the pleasure of reading your book, based on your
comments to the LA Times regarding the tragedy experienced in the
Maggiore family, I can presume that parents do not own the life of their
children and presumably the government does. Please remember that
thousands of scientists and doctors do not believe the evidence that
“hiv” causes “aids” is strong enough to make policy decisions. As a
biochemist and molecular biologist, I happen to be one of them.

I hope the LA Times contacts you again for comments after the inquiry
into the coroner’s report. Surely, you have comments on the ethics of
erroneous conclusions in coroner’s reports as well, and at this point,
all comments regarding the Maggiore’s behavior are made without the
benefit of an impartial inquiry, and couched within the fanaticism that
has surrounded “hiv/aids” for 2 decades.

Son to Remain With HIV Skeptics LA Times

“…After reviewing recent test results from three labs showing that the
boy is HIV-negative, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and
Family Services is expecting to close its child endangerment
investigation, officials said Wednesday.…”

--
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pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Five)

*****October 2

What Really Happened to Eliza Jane? Christine Maggiore

On Saturday September 24, 2005, The Los Angeles Times ran a front-page
story on the death of my three year-old child, Eliza Jane Scovill, under
the condemnatory headline, “A Mother’s Denial, A Daughter’s Death.” My
reply to the extensive article, as yet unpublished, was restricted to a
150-word letter to the editor.

Below please find my 149 words on the subject followed by the full text
of my original letter to The LA Times.

Shortened Letter Christine Maggiore

Re: ’A Mother’s Denial“ (Saturday September 24)

In response to your article “A Mother’s Denial,“ medical records show my
daughter did not exhibit symptoms consistent with pneumonia. On her last
doctor visit, Eliza-Jane had no cough or respiratory congestion. After
collapsing the next day following antibiotic administration, ER doctors
performed a series of chest X-rays that revealed nothing. After careful
examination of her lungs during a May autopsy, the coroner found no
apparent cause of death.

One month and no cause later, the coroner’s office called her
pediatrician demanding to know if he knew about my book and HIV status.
Despite their discovery, it took three more months for the coroner to
decide my daughter died of AIDS-pneumonia.

Is Eliza-Jane’s a diagnosis by association? Unlike her father and
brother, did she actually test HIV positive? While we wait for the
conclusion of an independent investigation, interested readers may
follow our side of the story at ejlovetour.com.

Full Letter (too long for LA Times) Christine Maggiore

“A Mother’s Denial,” your article on the death of my daughter, Eliza
Jane Scovill, breezed past a number of crucial facts in its rush to
publication and judgment.

Medical records show my daughter did not exhibit symptoms consistent
with the coroner’s determination of pneumonia, AIDS-related or
otherwise. The three pediatricians who examined Eliza Jane in the days
before her death all noted clear lungs. At a doctor visit on May 14, the
day before she died, no cough or respiratory congestion was evident.
When my daughter collapsed at home the next evening following her fourth
dose of antibiotic, she did not have the blue lips or fingertips
suggestive of life-threatening pneumonia.

After being transported to a near-by hospital by ambulance, emergency
room doctors took a series of chest X-rays that revealed nothing to
account for her dire condition. All other tests run that terrible night
left ER doctors without an explanation for my daughter’s death. For this
reason, Eliza Jane was brought to the Los Angeles County Coroner for an
autopsy.

During an autopsy performed on May 18, my daughter’s lungs were
carefully examined, weighed and measured. The coroner released her body
to a mortuary the following day having found no apparent cause of death.

Just before Eliza Jane’s memorial service on May 29, my husband
contacted the coroner’s office for an update on our daughter’s case and
spoke directly with the medical examiner. She informed him they had yet
to discover what took our little girl’s life, and having eliminated the
common and obvious, they would now go through a check-list that included
investigation of such unsettling possibilities as chemical toxins and
poisons. That same week, a curious friend phoned the coroner’s office
and asked if HIV tests were routinely administered in cases of
unexplained death. He was told that “the symptoms of AIDS are so
obvious” it’s not necessary to run HIV tests on all patients referred
with no apparent cause.

On June 28, one of my daughter’s pediatricians received a call from the
coroner’s office demanding to know if he was aware of my book and HIV
status. Before hanging up, the doctor was threatened with a subpoena.
Despite the apparent new awareness of my HIV positivity and
controversial book, it still took three more months for the corner to
decide upon a diagnosis of AIDS-related pneumonia.

Given the circumstances, we have questions about the medical and
scientific basis for the coroner’s conclusion. Did Eliza Jane get a
diagnosis by association or is there incontrovertible clinical evidence
for AIDS-related pneumonia? Did our daughter, unlike her father and
brother, actually test HIV positive? We won’t know until the conclusion
of an independent investigation in three weeks. In the meantime, my
family must not only endure the pain and devastation of our horrendous
loss, but the world’s speculation and scrutiny. We only hope that when
all the facts are in, the LA Times will rush to publish the rest of our
story.

--
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pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Six)

******October 3

Does a Mother’s Denial = a Daughter’s Death? Nick Gillespie

“…Given the way the [LA] Times’ story is framed, you would have thought
that [the lack of evidence for pneumonia would] be one of the first
things the paper reported. Maggiore is apparently pursuing an
independent pathology report, which should at least settle that very
basic question. And, depending on the results, may create more interest
in the debate over whether HIV causes AIDS…”

*******October 15

Eliza Jane Scovill - Another Tragic Case Comes to Public Attention Peter
Barry Chowka in NaturalHealthLine

“…In the late 1970s, I began reporting on a series of stories -
several of them having gained attention in the national mainstream media
- that involved loving and conscientious parents who wanted their sick
kids to have access to alternative, innovative, or natural therapies -
and to avoid toxic, and often unproven, standard conventional
treatments.…”

--
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Gary Stein

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

"pauleewhiting" <pauleewhiting@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:zyR5f.20$Dq.1428@news.uswest.net...
> http://www.aras.ab.ca/ej.html (Part Six)
>
(snip massively repetitive speculation about Eliza Scovill's death)

Paul for someone who was so offended by anyone who dared to question
Christine's version of events when the facts are still unknown to the
general public, why are you posting and reposting all of these purely
speculative missives on the issue.

Why not wait until both corner and the independent pathologists reports are
made public (if that ever happens which I doubt it will) so that you can
post some facts just as you demanded of those who were critical of
Christine?

At this point no one including Christine can definitively state the cause of
death, until such a time as that is possible what point is there in
speculating endlessly about what might or might not be the cause of the poor
child's death? If Christine wanted to end all the debate why wasn't the body
of the child sent to a major university pathology department for a complete
and independent autopsy?

Gary Stein

pauleewhiting

2005-10-20, 5:53 pm

"Gary Stein" wrote:
>Paul for someone who was so offended by anyone who dared to question
>Christine's version of events when the facts are still unknown to the
>general public, why are you posting and reposting all of these purely
>speculative missives on the issue.
>
>Why not wait until both corner and the independent pathologists reports
are
>made public (if that ever happens which I doubt it will) so that you
can
>post some facts just as you demanded of those who were critical of
>Christine?

Gary, have you ever heard of the term "democracy"?

Do you know what "democracy" looks like? It looks "speculation."

Here's another concept you might be unfamiliar with: "Free thinking."

>At this point no one including Christine can definitively state the
cause of
>death, until such a time as that is possible what point is there in
>speculating endlessly about what might or might not be the cause of the
poor
>child's death? If Christine wanted to end all the debate why wasn't the
body
>of the child sent to a major university pathology department for a
complete
>and independent autopsy?

Why don't you contact Christine and suggest that to her?

Paul Whiting

“There is overwhelming scientific consensus that HIV causes AIDS.”

— Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Director, US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

--
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wilyretrovirus

2005-10-24, 12:55 am

I'm interested to see how this is all going to play out. It's looking
like
the beginning of the end for the apologists. They were so *focused* on
going after Christine, that they got careless. Very careless.

Maybe they should have remembered some of the things they had written
about Christine before the LA Times article. Things that are in complete
contradiction to the assertion that EJ supposedly died of "AIDS-related
pneumonia". Maybe they should have remembered some choice words Jeanne
Bergman had written about Christine before the LA Times article came out.

What, oh what to do about Jeanne Bergman's vicious writings about
Christine Maggiore? As much as I'm *not* a Dr. Phil fan, that saying of
his is so pertinent in this situation..."you can't go back and *unring*
the bell". Love that one. I bet Ms. Bergman and her apologist friends
wish she could "unring the bell".

Dear, sweet Jeanne. According to her, Christine Maggiore is
HIV-negative.
Not only that, Jeanne had stated in an article that BOTH of Maggiore's
children are HIV-negative. Oh, what a mess... between Ms. Bergman's
ugly
writings about Christine, and the LA Times jumping to conclusion's about
EJ's cause of death...just where is this whole thing going to go?

In case those wonderful words from Ms. Bergman have already escaped down
the memory hole, let's bring them back up for air. Here you go!

"Maggiore has built a profitable career by combining a gift for
self-promotion with a couple of false-positive HIV test results."

"False-negative HIV tests are extremely rare, while false positives are
much more common, though infrequent. This fact and all the other
available
evidence strongly indicate that Maggiore was never infected with HIV,..."

"But of course Maggiore has no "fear of AIDS"—she doesn't have HIV. She
has since had two children, now three and seven years old, whom she
boasted to Scheff "have never been tested. … They don't take AIDS drugs.
And they're not in the least bit sick." But of course Maggiore didn't
want
them to be tested: she knows that they are not at risk and that their
being uninfected would lead people to question her own status. And of
course they don't take "AIDS drugs"—they don't have HIV or AIDS."

"Christine Maggiore isn't living proof that HIV doesn't cause AIDS; she's
just another lying AIDS profiteer..."

Ouch. Oh what to do when you guys can't keep your story straight. It
will be interesting, to say the least.