A Chicago father is suing two doctors after he says his son was prescribed “dangerous and unnecessary” alternative autism treatments over the phone.

James Coman says the doctors prescribed chelation to his son, now 7, without first running proper tests or examining the boy. Chelation is designed to remove excessive amounts of heavy metals from the body.

When Coman’s son was tested to determine the level of heavy metals in his body, he was first given a drug designed to pull all the metals from his system. Everyone has small amounts of metal in their body, but the drug makes those small amounts appear much larger since the metals show up in urine testing all at once.

Then, the results of Coman’s son’s test were assessed against a chart reflecting metal levels in people who have not taken the drug, Coman says in his lawsuit. His son was found to have extremely high levels of lead and mercury, among other metals, and chelation treatments were prescribed.

The doctors named in the suit — Dr. Anjum Usman who practices in Illinois and Dr. Daniel Rossignol who practices in Florida — promote alternative autism therapies to parents and other doctors through the Defeat Autism Now! movement.

“This is a big business, and there are a lot of people who are willing to put aside the safety of children to make money off of scared, desperate parents,” Coman told the Chicago Tribune. To read more click here.

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