From the May 2003 Idaho Observer:

Yurko Project goes on the offensive

Complaint alleges physician killed Baby Alan to “harvest” his organs

Alan Yurko was sent to prison for allegedly shaking his infant son to death. He has since discovered medical malpractice and contraindicated vaccines caused the death of Baby Alan. An international who's who of vaccine damage experts support the notion that an innocent father was sentenced to life in prison as a cover for vaccine-induced injuries and medical malpractice. But that was just the beginning. The Yurko Project now has evidence strongly suggesting Baby Alan's death was hastened so that the hospital could “harvest” his organs.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The international coalition supporting the campaign to free Alan Yurko, 34 has taken the offensive with evidence to suggest an intensive-care physician and a medical examiner may have participated in a conspiracy to kill Baby Alan and “harvest” his organs.

“We have believed for quite a while now that my son was murdered in the hospital, but kept a lid on it until the time was right to release the information,” said Yurko from Century Correctional Institution.

Yurko's wife Francine filed complaints with the Florida Department of Health (FDH) against Princeton Hospital Intensive Care Unit Physician Ben Guedes, MD, and Orange/Osceola County Medical Examiner Shashi Gore, MD, on May 5, 2003.

Mrs. Yurko alleges that gross incompetence and malpractice by Dr. Guedes led to the death of her baby. She also alleges that gross incompetence and malpractice on the part of Dr. Gore was instrumental in the state of Florida achieving a murder conviction and subsequent life sentence for her innocent husband.

Yurko was sentenced by a Florida district judge to serve life plus 10 years in state prison for shaking his infant son to death. Dr. Gore convinced the jury that Yurko had shaken his baby to death as evidenced by bleeding in the brain. An independent analysis of Dr. Gore's autopsy report by Mohammed Al-Bayati, Ph.D., illustrates several extremely unprofessional discrepancies. The most critical discrepancy shows that the bleeding to which Dr. Gore attributed as the cause of death was only a few hours old when the autopsy was performed and, therefore, could not have been the result of shaking by the father.

Hospital records show that Dr. Guedes administered extremely high doses of sodium bicarbonate and 8.8 times the amount of heparin recommended for an infant. According to Dr. Al-Bayati, excessive administration of these substances caused baby Alan's brain to bleed, resulting in his death.

The evidence, primarily medical records and coroner documents obtained through discovery requests, has been analyzed by numerous experts, including Dr. Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., Harold Buttram, MD and Archie Kalikorenos, MD. The consensus among medical consultants who have reviewed these documents is that baby Alan did not die from shaken baby syndrome (SBS) as concluded by Dr. Shashi Gore.

Yurko filed a 100-page appeal in Florida District Court in March, 2002. The appeal, which included an additional 600 pages of exhibits, was granted February 17, 2003.

Baby Alan was born after a difficult pregnancy. Although the baby was underweight and exhibiting several health problems, contraindicating the administration of vaccines, the Yurko's pediatrician gave him six routine childhood vaccinations in one well-baby visit at age two months.

Baby Alan's already unstable health worsened after the shots. One morning he stopped breathing, so his father rushed him to the hospital, where the struggling infant's life was subjected to additional medical insults. Seventy-five hours later, baby Alan was dead and his father was being charged with SBS.

The Yurkos steadfastly maintained the Florida man's innocence during his 1998 trial. After the father was taken into custody, the Yurkos vowed to achieve a reversal of his conviction. The couple formed the Yurko Project to enlist the help of physicians, researchers and concerned lay people all over the world to secure and analyze data and help publicize Yurko's case in preparation for an appeal of his wrongful conviction.

“The deeper we looked, the more obvious it appeared that Dr. Guedes, not my husband, killed our son,” said Mrs. Yurko.

In her complaint, Mrs. Yurko listed the chronology of events that transpired while Baby Alan was in the care of Dr. Guedes. She concluded, “It also appears that Dr. Guedes had no intention of saving my son's life. He and his staff eagerly and persistently tried to get my husband and I to release his organs for harvesting. Dr. Guedes' treatment of my son from square one appears to have been to save his organs, not his life.”

The complaint Mrs. Yurko filed against Dr. Gore details what appears to be a cover-up of Dr. Guedes' malpractice in this case. “It is alleged that Dr. Gore performed a substandard autopsy, cross-contaminated data and tissue from another case, provided numerous erroneous facts and false testimony in a first degree murder trial, and altered evidence after trial to deflect attention from his errors,” stated Mrs. Yurko for the record.

Indeed, the evidence shows that Baby Alan's organs were “harvested” prior to the autopsy and that Dr. Gore stated the deceased was a 2-month old black male instead of a 10-week old white male.

The complaint lists numerous other actions taken by Dr. Gore that reveal gross incompetence, medical malpractice and, possibly, his role in covering up baby Alan's murder.

Also attached to the complaint are documents showing how Dr. Gore, who is not a board certified forensic pathologist, has cross-contaminated hundreds of cases since 1994.

Other documents attached to the complaint place Dr. Gore's professional ethics into question. “Dr. Gore's incompetence is a liability to Orange/Osceola County and a threat “not only to his profession and the courts, but to the families and citizens he serves. It is also noted that the two Orlando newspapers and three Orlando TV-news stations are reporting the case, as are dozens of other media sources here and abroad, which elevates the need for exhaustive review...of Dr. Gore's long history of incompetence and unethical practice...” Mrs. Yurko's complaint concluded.

Yurko's appeal will begin soon. The Yurko Project has attracted the sympathetic attention of major media. Through a massive letter writing, FAXing and emailing campaign, the Yurko Project has alerted the central Florida medical community to the incompetence and medical malpractice displayed by Drs. Guedes and Gore, and to the likelihood that their criminal intent was the real cause of baby Alan's death.

It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent parents are currently imprisoned for SBS as a cover for medical malpractice and the contraindicated administration of vaccines.

If Yurko prevails upon appeal, a precedent could be set that will lead to overturning many wrongful SBS murder convictions. If FDH conducts a true investigation into the activities of Drs. Guedes and Gore, we may discover that the monetary rewards for organ harvesting are a strong enough incentive for many other medical professionals to hasten the death of infants instead of saving their lives.

“We are on the offensive now,” said Yurko, while anxiously awaiting a date for the scheduling of his appeal.

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To contact the Yurko Project and stay abreast of developments:

Mrs. Francine Yurko
The Yurko Project
PO Box 585965
Orlando, FL 32858-5965 USA

Tel/Fx (407) 291-4344

FRANSWRLD@aol.com (no 'o' in wrld)

www.freeyurko.bizland.com