The state agency that regulates doctors moved Wednesday to revoke the license of an Arlington Heights doctor who used “living energy water,” liquid silver and other medically unapproved treatments to try healing everything from sore throats to cancer.
William J. Mauer, 80, demonstrated “moral indifference” to conventional doctors’ opinions, used unproven methods and substances on patients, and preyed on the vulnerability of desperate people with serious ailments, according to the medical board of the state Department of Professional Regulation.
Contacted at Mauer’s Palatine home Wednesday night, a family member said the doctor had no comment.
Nikki Zollar, who heads the agency, has final say over whether Mauer’s license should be suspended, and is expected to rule on the issue in the coming weeks. Zollar usually follows her board’s recommendations.
The medical board recommended that Mauer, who ran the Kingsley Medical Center clinic in Arlington Heights, be fined $30,000 and have his medical license revoked for a minimum of five years.
After that time, Mauer may try to get his license reinstated. First, though, he would be required to take a medical exam, complete 200 hours of medical education focusing on diagnosing and treating medical disorders, complete a medical ethics course and pay $7,500 to a patient whose leg had to be amputated because of misdiagnosis.
“This is not an indictment of alternative medicine,” said John Goldberg, the department’s prosecutor in the case. “This is an indictment of a particular practitioner and the treatments he used.”
Wednesday’s filing details Mauer’s alleged assurances to patients that he had cures for cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses.
A 73-year-old custodian who sought help from Mauer in 1994 after losing one leg to a vascular illness, had to have the other amputated three months into Mauer’s treatments, according to Goldberg. To pay for the unorthodox treatments, the man obtained two new credit cards and ran up a $7,500 bill. During those treatments, the retiree watched his leg become increasingly gangrenous, Goldberg said.
The living energy water, the recommendation contends, is merely tap water from Minnesota mixed with clay. Patients either drank the liquid or had it administered intravenously for a “cleansing/healing and a health promoting effect.” Other alternative treatments commonly used by Mauer were never approved by federal authorities.
Goldberg described Mauer’s practice as lucrative, generating as much as $260,000 a year.
It also was a family affair. A son, daughter, son-in-law, stepson and two grandsons all worked at the Kingsley Medical Center clinic. One of the grandsons, at 16, is alleged to have taken blood from patients and administered intravenous tubes, Goldberg said.
