My 18 Weeks at Envita Medical Center

I previously posted this and it was removed. I received moderator approval from Opugirl to post this again.

I went to Envita Medical Center in November 2010 for 18 weeks of mistreatment which ultimately led to the state medical board banning Envita's doctor from diagnosing Lyme disease.

I read some posts online about Envita and unfortunately called them in November 2010 and sent some of my records to them, including my Igenex lyme test which was negative. Unfotunately at the time I didn't realize that Envita pays people to send patients to them and is also very good at threatening to remove all negative posts online about them.

RK (a salesperson for Envita) had one of the Envita doctors review my records and she called me back the next day and said Envita could help me. She told me it would cost $25,000 for 8 weeks of treatment and when I’m done I should expect to feel good most of the time.

I left for Arizona the following week. On November 30, 2010 I had my first appointment with Dr BK at Envita. He recommended 8 weeks of IV treatment at Envita for Lyme disease. The dumb thing was I was so sick that according to my Igenex test I was negative for lyme but Envita convinced me I had lyme along with a bunch of other viruses and they would cure me. During this initial appointment Dr. BK recommended I buy a BCX machine (a variant of the rife machine) from Envita but told me “it’s not legal for us to sell them so dont tell anyone where you bought it from.”

After my appointment with Dr. BK, RK met with me and handed me a bill for $35,389.54. I told her that was over $10,000 more than she told me on the phone and she said the doctor added a few more ozone treatments (which didn’t explain the extra $10,000). At this point I should have realized there was something wrong with Envita and left, but I was sick and traveled 1500 miles so I decided to pay it anyway and do the treatment.

December 1, 2010 I went to Envita and received an EAV test by BH, the president of Envita (who has no medical training). BH claimed the EAV machine is FDA approved, which I later learned was a lie. Based on the EAV results Envita diagnosed me with Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, Erlichia, HHV-6, Epstein Barr, Cytomegolovirus and Mycoplasma. My blood tests for all of these, except erlichia, were negative. I was eventually tested 4 different times on their EAV device by BH.

According to other websites the EAV test is illegal to use in this manner because the operator can manipulate the results. So every couple weeks Envita would test me on this device and show me each infection was decreasing to prove their treatment was working even though I didn’t improve.

Envita made an appointment for me at the Thompson Peak Hospital to get a Port inserted in my chest on December 6, 2010.

I started the IV Lyme treatment protocol which consisted of: EDTA, Zithromax, hydrogen peroxide, MSP, Homeopathic remedies, minerals, dmsa, 80 grams IV Vitamin C.

I was sold lots of supplements to take at home and given prescriptions for oral flagyl and Doxycycline. The flagyl was taken every other week and the doxycycline was taken every day.

The Lyme treatments at Envita made me very sick and I was unable to care for myself after a few weeks. My mom later flew down to Arizona to help me.

about four weeks into treatment I could barely talk and one day during treatment Dr DK, the head physician at Envita, came in my room and stated “You’re talking like someone who just had a stroke and we don’t think thats your problem. We’ve never had a patient with this kind of problem before. What kind of illegal drugs are you taking?” I was so upset I should have left there again because I wasn’t taking any illegal drugs, it was Envitas treatment making me that way.

I got so bad that Dr. BK (Dr. DK’s son) prescribed me anti-psychotic medication and recommended I see a psychiatrist. I’ve never seen a psychiatrist before in my life but I saw two different psychiatrists while at Envita. Both psychiatrists gave me prescriptions for mood stabilizers and schizophrenia drugs because my symptoms resembled those of schizophrenia. I was seeing things, hearing things, paranoid, had horrible anxiety and depression. Before and after Envita I never took or was prescribed any type of “psychological” medication.

Dr DK gave me a prescription for Propranolol (a beta blocker), citing “volatile personality disorder” as the diagnosis on the bottle. “Volatile personality disorder” isn't a medically recognized diagnosis.

I provided Envita with Spect scans of my brain which showed limited blood flow to some areas of my brain. Dr DK told me “You must be really brilliant because most people with your brain damage would be on disability.” MRI scans taken about a month after I left Envita show no brain damage or abnormalities, in contradiction to DR DK's statement.

After the first 8 weeks of treatment failed, BH (Envitas president) met with me and my Mom, he presented me with a bill for 6 more weeks of IV treatment, natural killer cells for $63,000 and stem cells for $57,000. The Natural Killer cells and stem cells aren’t legal to do in the U.S. so I would have to go to their clinic in Mexico to receive those treatments.

At the time Envita had never done natural killer cells or stem cells in a Lyme patient before. No doctor had even talked to me about doing natural killer cells so I asked to speak with one of the doctors about this treatment. BH went to the hallway and spoke with DP (the owner of Envita) and a few minutes later DP came into the room and spoke to me about these treatments. He advised me against getting the Natural Killer Cells but told me the stem cells may be helpful due to my “brain damage” shown on the Spect scans, which according to the MRI never existed.

After 8 weeks of treatment at Envita I had no improvement. Dr DK suggested I try an experimental treatment called IPA or Insulin Potentiated Antibiotics. My blood sugar was lowered to the mid 30s and an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic was injected through my Port. The purpose was to get the antibiotics past the blood brain barrier. I was the first person at Envita to receive this Lyme treatment, and the third person that Dr. DK ever gave this experimental treatment to. I received a total of 8 of these treatments at about $1500/each.

During this time Dr BK recommended that I use the BCX Ultra machine at least three times per week.

Towards the end of my treatment Envitas nurse offered to sell me all the drugs and IV’s outside of Envita writing: “I probably can make it and get stuff for you ready or I could teach you how to start yourself and do it (I do that w/ a lot of patients) confidentially...but yeah why not? But if i do do it I have to make sure I can fit you in cause i work tues through fri...and I can maybe do it on the weekends or on mondays? but yeah i would be willing to do it or if you want i can teach you how”. That nurse no longer works at Envita, I’m not sure if its because of my complaint with the state board that she wasn’t licensed or if it was due to her offering to sell drugs to patients or something else.

I continued feeling terrible so I met with Dr BK on March 18, 2011. He recommended I come back for more treatment and that I should buy plasma ray tubes for the BCX Ultra Machine which I ordered, they charged me for these but never delivered them.

On March 23, 2011 I sent RK an email stating that I was upset about her lying about the price and my treatment at Envita, I received no email response.

On March 24, 2011 I spoke to RK and she told me she was “offended” by my email stating I was upset about her lying about the price.

On March 24, 2011 I was at Envita I talked to DP, the owner, and he told me my “relapse” was due to psychological problems and that I should hire a life coach, join a business club, join a dating service, dress differently, come back for 2 more weeks of treatments and recommended some homeopathic medications. During this conversation DP said that my getting sick after using the BCX Ultra Machine was a sign that I was still infected with Lyme and viruses

DP and RK recommended I get another EAV test. They made an appointment for me the following day but the person that was supposed to do it decided to leave early for the weekend and I never went back to Envita.

I had horrible reactions to the IV treatments Envita gave me. It was the worst period of my life. I lost 30 pounds from the time I started at Envita to the time I left because the IV Zithromax, IV Vitamin C and IV minerals made me so nauseous. AH, the nurse that worked at Envita for 4 years, told me I had the worst case of “Lyme” she ever saw because of my horrible reactions. I felt like I had schizophrenia and could barely get out of bed. There were days at Envita that I don’t even remember.

about a month later Envita's attorney, C D, recommended I see Dr F in Scottsdale. I went to Dr F in Scottsdale. Unlike Envita’s unapproved medical devices, Dr F showed me the FL1953 infection that day under the microscope. It is a tick and mosquitoe spread disease that requires a different treatment than what I received at Envita.

Dr F also explained that FL1953 thickens the blood which was the cause for the low blood flow in my spect scans, and not “brain damage” as Envita diagnosed me with.

I found out after I went to Envita that Dr DK saw my uncle several years earlier and told him he had Lyme disease. Dr DK had the Lyme tests ran and my uncle was negative for Lyme disease, but DR DK still insisted that he had Lyme disease and needed to be treated for it. Fortunately my uncle was well enough not to be misdiagnosed and mistreated like I was.

I was charged a total of $64,331,01 by Envita plus about $7,000 to have the port put in by the hospital and approximately $2,500 to have the port removed.

In May 2011 I sent Envita a letter requesting a refund along with a letter from Dr F stating I was negative for Lyme and the results of my blood test for FL1953. Envitas lawyer responded “Chronic lyme disease is a clinical diagnosis based upon several factors. The lyme disease diagnosis cannot be made based only on laboratory testing.” I interpret that to mean “my tests were all negative for lyme disease but we felt like treating it anyway.”

I was extremely upset by Envita making me worse and charging me so much money for what they did to me so I disputed about $30,000 in Envita charges on my American Express card. (The rest of the charges I paid via check so couldn’t dispute.) Envitas response was to forge my signature on credit card receipts to send to American Express. Even worse - Envita sent my medical records to American Express - violating HIPAA laws. I eventually won my dispute with American Express and got approximately $30,000 returned to me.

The doctors at Envita told me how I had horrible brain damage, that I have Lyme disease which is an STD, that I had a bunch of viruses that blood tests showed I was negative for and was being poisoned by metals that I had to get rid of. I can’t begin to describe the emotional pain of being told all those things and then finding out that none of it was true.

DP, the owner of Envita, is a trained naturopath, prescribes homeopathic remedies to patients, is referred to as “Doctor” and gave me medical advice but he is not licensed by the naturopathic or homeopathic board in Arizona. Back in 2005 the state board investigated DP for practicing medicine without a license.

From 7-14-2005 the Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Board records state: “Discussion and Consideration of unlicenseDPersons using protected title
(1) Question for the Board: Does the Board want to open an investigation regarding DP.
After discussion and consideration, the Board voted to move forward with this issue and bring it to the County Attorney and issue a possible injunction against DP.”

Dr. DK told me that he had lyme disease and is on pain medication to control the pain. I was told he was taking Fentanyl. Dr DK told me he had to take naps in between patients. He usually seemed very foggy in his thinking and a couple other patients at Envita made comments to me about his poor mental condition.

Dr DK died last year.

Envita has a “referral” program, so anyone that tells you to go to Envita gets paid by Envita to promote them. I was asked the first day I was at Envita how I heard of them. And I was told towards the end of my treatment I should tell others about Envita so I could get paid by them for referrals.

I filed a complaint with the Arizona state licensing board against Envita, DK and his son BK.

After my complaint DP (envitas owner) called my mom at her home and told her that I filed a complaint with the state and that I was lying about them, that Envita cured me and how many problems I was causing Envita by my lies. Except I never lied, Envita was the one that lied and could have killed me. The Arizona state board agreed with me.

Dr. DK was being investigated but he died in the middle of that investigation.

Dr. BK was investigated, was issued a decree of censure and he is now banned from diagnosing lyme disease.

Under oath Dr BK lied to the medical board stating that Envita gave me a full refund, when they refused to give me a refund. The complete results of my case are below, its boring reading but I simply want to prove that everything I’ve said here is true.

http://azdo.gov/GLSuiteWeb/Repository/0/0/6/1/2dced936-b220-439a-b937-70a0ed086b2c.pdf

Sorry for your ordeal. I feel like some of the clinics are definitely a shot in the dark. Did you ever recover from the FL1953?

Yeah!!! So happy for you.

happyjo said...
oliver~
I don't suppose you know if your Dr F acknowledges chronic lyme?
~jo

He owns one of the few labs that test for lyme in the US so my understanding from reading about him is that he is one of the experts on lyme in the US.

I don't recall his exact words, but he told me that he thinks a lot of people with chronic lyme or lyme disease that isnt cured have Fl1953 because it has similar symptoms but requires slightly different treatment.

Justme, in a post above, Oliver answered (below) after being asked by Louise this:" Did you ever recover from the FL1953?"

Oliver's response:

"I took Azithromyacin and Malarone for 3 years for FL1953 and that solved it. I quit taking the antibiotics about 4 months ago and haven't had any problems since stopping.

I have some issues with candida from taking antibiotics for so long, I'm dealing with that using homeopathic remedies, diet and various herbs/essential oils to kill candida. Those symptoms are slowly going away the past few months.

I was very sick for over 10 years so its taken some time to get better. But I am mostly well and am able to work full time. So I hope anyone reading this also knows that there is hope to get better."


I do hope that you have found a way to ease some of what you are going through. Know that you remain on my mind. I wish I knew something that could help you!!

I am looking for Oliver to see how he is doing?


Also was the zythro and malerone he did for 3 yrs oral?
Was he treated by Fry?

I get better each month. I wouldn't say I'm "cured" yet, but I'm getting a lot closer.

Yes, the Malarone and Azithromyacin were oral and covered by insurance.

Yes, I saw the Dr F you mentioned

Hey Bucci,
How are you doing?

Based on your feed back I am not recommending Envita to my daughters .
Many thanks oliver25

Hi there.
What are you doing now for your Lyme related illnesses, and how do you feel with your symptoms today as compared to 2010? Have you chosen a different protocol? Would you ever do catheter port/IV treatment like this again, at another clinic? What are your thoughts about the lab tests run by Envita as compared to other places you have sought treatment with? Thanks for sharing. I too had been considering Envita for treatment.