excerpt sunday times
Paralysed by a quest for perfection
By Chris Ayres
Black market botox has cost the health of a doctor and his patients

HE WAS a brilliant and handsome doctor from New Jersey who had won a
coveted fellowship and once been an Episcopalian altar boy and
high-school football star.

But Bach McComb, 47, is now paralysed and suffering from pneumonia
after becoming the unlikely victim of one of the worst cosmetic
surgery disasters in recent memory.



The Florida doctor injected himself, along with his girlfriend and two
patients, with a huge quantity of cheap, imitation Botox, the
anti-wrinkle treatment, which turned out to be raw botulinum toxin,
the same lethal bacterium used in biological weapons.

The other victims of the black-market Botox disaster include Eric
Kaplan, 52, a self-made lifestyle guru who wrote a bestselling book,
raised $2 million (?1 million) for his local synagogue and owns a
fleet of sports cars.

He was a chiropractor, corporate consultant and veteran public
speaker. Mr Kaplan?s wife, Bonnie, 53, is also in a critical
condition, as is Dr McComb?s girlfriend and assistant, Alma ?AJ? Hall,
34. All of them had simply wanted to get rid of a few facial wrinkles.

Instead, it is thought that the victims suffered dry mouths, slurred
speech, double vision, diarrhoea and vomiting before the onset of
progressive muscle paralysis. Friends and family say that they are
unable to do anything but wiggle a few fingers and toes.

For two of the victims ? Dr McComb and Mr Kaplan ? the horror was made
worse by their medical knowledge. As the symptoms of weapons-grade
botulism became obvious, they must have known their fates.

?God willing, all will recover,? June McComb, the doctor?s 82-year-old
mother, said. She admitted, however, that her son?s medical career had
been troubled since he divorced his first wife after just three years.

Dr McComb was arrested last year for writing illegal painkiller
prescriptions.

Five of his patients, two in their twenties and three in their
thirties, died of overdoses. No charges were filed against Dr McComb
over their deaths.

He was, however, set to stand trial in February for allegedly
overprescribing drugs such as OxyContin, Xanax and Valium.

Allergan, the only company that makes approved Botox treatment in the
US, said in a statement that its product had nothing to do with the
horrific botulism infections at the clinic in Broward, near Miami, in
Florida.

According to recent figures, 2.8 million were given Botox treatment in
2003. A vial of Botox contains about 100 units of botulinum toxin,
which paralyses facial muscles for up to eight months, temporarily
getting rid of wrinkles. Mr Kaplan and his wife both received up to
six shots from a vial which may have contained as many as ten million
units of raw botulinum toxin.