Crime Scene
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SAN FRANCISCO
Clinic head arrested for toad venom pills
The 81-year-old operator of a San Francisco clinic has been charged in federal court after he sold pills - purportedly for fighting colds - that contained arsenic and a hallucinogenic chemical found in toad venom, authorities say.
Edward Feng, the owner of Feng's Holistic Healing Center at 1314 Utah St., also known as China House Clinic, sold a vial of pills to Kathleen Millikin of Watsonville in May 2009 that he said would combat the flu, investigators said.
Millikin, now 62, took four of the tablets and soon developed an earache, Special Agent Hilary Rickher of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
About a day later, Millikin's hands swelled, peeled and erupted in painful blisters, a condition that remained for a week, Rickher wrote. Millikin went back to Feng at his clinic - in the shadow of San Francisco General Hospital - and showed him her hands, and he "denied the tablets were the cause," the affidavit said.
Feng wrote down the name of the tablets in Chinese on a piece of paper for Millikin, investigators said. Translated, it means, "Six God Tablet," or "Six Spirit Pills." An FDA analysis revealed that the pills contained arsenic and bufotenine, which is derived from toad venom.
In March of this year, an undercover FDA agent bought five vials of the pills from Feng, Rickher wrote. Feng conceded that the pills contained frog poison, but called it "good poison," the affidavit said.
Millikin's son, Nicholas Eckel, went to Feng around the same time as his mother for alternative treatment of his testicular cancer, Rickher wrote. A friend had told Millikin that Feng was a "foot acupressurist," the affidavit said.
As part of the treatment, Feng jammed metal probes into Eckel's foot, causing so much pain that he "could almost not walk after treatment," Millikin told investigators.
Feng was arrested May 24 and charged with introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. He is free on $10,000 bond. He is not licensed to practice medicine in California, nor does he have a Drug Enforcement Administration license to distribute controlled substances, the FDA says.
In an interview, Feng denied any wrongdoing, saying he only wants to help people.
Speaking in Mandarin and English, Feng said he has been a "Chinese traditional doctor" since 1982. "I helped hundreds and thousands of people before," he said. He said he would not "try to make people sick."
Millikin expressed delight that Feng had been charged, describing him as a "quack" who "almost killed my son."
- Henry K. Lee