A Missouri state lawmaker has been charged this week in connection with a fraud scheme in which she claims she can use stem cells to treat Covid-19 patients in her medical clinics.
The legislature, Representative Tricia Derges, a Republican, was deprived of her committee duties in the State House on Monday, the same day that a charge of twenty counts against her in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mo.
And on Wednesday, the Speaker of the House in Missouri, also a Republican, urged the beleagured first-term lawmaker, who pleaded not guilty, to resign.
Prosecutors say Dr. Derges, a licensed assistant physician, contains nearly $ 200,000 at three medical clinics she operates for amniotic fluid injections that she said were false.
A month after the outbreak of the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, Dr. Derges in a Facebook post that the injections could help patients with symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to the indictment.
“This amazing treatment offers a potential cure for COVID-19 patients that is safe and natural,” said Dr. Derges said in the report. All the components of the amniotic fluid given by God: Mesenchymal stem cells (stem progenitors of progenitors that are baby stem cells: can become any tissue they want); cytokines, exosomes, chemokines, hyaluronic acid, growth factors and more than 800 proteins that work to create a human: the emphasis on the lungs. ”
The National Institutes of Health last year recommended the use of mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of Covid-19, except in clinical trials. They also noted that the Food and Drug Administration has issued several warnings that patients may be vulnerable to stem cell treatments that are illegal and potentially harmful.
According to her biography on her legislative website, the clinics operated by Dr. Derges are primary and urgent care centers for the “working person and non-insured” in underserved areas in southwestern Missouri.
The fraud scheme began in December 2018 and continued until May 2020, according to the indictment, which stated that Dr. Derges have promoted the regenerative medical benefits of the injections for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Lyme disease, erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence and others. conditions.
“This accused abused her privileged position to enrich herself by deception,” Tim Garrison, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a statement. “As an elected official and health care provider, she deserves to stand on a high standard.”
Dr. Derges, 63, of Nixa, Mo., was also charged with illegally supplying the prescription drugs oxycodone and Adderall to clients of her three medical clinics in the Ozarks in southwestern Missouri, along with lying to federal investigators.
Stacie Calhoun Bilyeu, a lawyer of dr. Derges, said in an interview Wednesday night that the public is condemning her client before she gets her day in court.
“My client started getting death threats,” she said. Bilyeu said. “Someone told her they were hoping she died of a lethal injection.”
Me. Bilyeu did not want to discuss the details of the case, including the government’s allegations that dr. Derges patients complained as much as six times more than she paid for amniocentesis without stem cells.
Dr. Derges obtained a medical degree from Caribbean Medical University in Curacao in 2014, but according to the charge sheet, he was not admitted to a graduate residency program. In 2017, she became a licensed assistant in Missouri and was authorized to prescribe medicine the following year, the indictment reads.
Prosecutors said Dr. Derges illegally provided prescription drugs to patients of other practitioners in her clinics who were not authorized to prescribe controlled drugs.
Derges, who was elected to her first two-year term in 2020, was stripped of her mandate in the Health and Mental Health Policy Committee on Monday, along with the Professional Registration and Licensing Committee and the Special Committee on Small Business.
She was removed by order of Representative Rob Vescovo, the speaker of the Missouri House and a fellow Republican.
“After talking to her and the caucus, I ask her to resign her seat at the House,” he said. Vescovo said in a statement on Wednesday. ‘The legal process will ultimately determine her guilt or innocence, but it’s clearly a time for her to spend time with her family, focusing on her legal issues, and for the people of the 140th District to continue with the choosing a replacement who effectively advocates for their interests. ”