Ron Evangelista’s first appointment at Progressive Medical Center left him feeling hopeful.

For years, Evangelista, 82, had been dragged down by osteoarthritis in his neck. The pain was so persistent that it had become challenging to do the simple things he loves, like walking the dogs or dancing with his wife, Kathy. She, too, had some chronic health issues.

The couple, who live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, had tried conventional medicine without much success. So, based on a friend’s recommendation, they decided a trip to Atlanta was worth a try. Progressive Medical Center, they heard, offered something different.

Practitioners offering alternative treatments often say they are “board certified” for complex conditions.

Traditional doctors who achieve that designation spend years training in their specialty areas and must pass rigorous exams from national organizations affiliated with the American Board of Medical Specialties.

But the AJC found that the certifications cited by those providing care in many alternative medicine clinics amount to nothing more than weekend seminars in hotels or a few hours of online classes — if that. And the certifying “boards” may be marketing arms of alternative medicine organizations and don’t require applicants to take exams to prove they meet standards.

Little stands in the way of Georgia doctors, chiropractors, nurses — and even clinic operators with no healthcare licenses — from claiming such credentials or offering all sorts of fringe treatments for a wide variety of conditions: autism, cancer, diabetes, dementia, aging, chronic fatigue, Parkinson’s.

These treatments rarely are covered by insurance. In fact, most alternative medicine clinics say up front: cash only. But desperation is a powerful motivator, and, the AJC found, people are willing to pay — and pay a lot — if they believe there’s a magic bullet out there for them or their loved ones.

“Desperate people will do desperate things,” said Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society in Montreal.

Schwarcz, a professor of chemistry who has spent decades interpreting science for the public, said even people who are part of the scientific community will resort to fringe or disproven treatments when they face a deadly condition for which traditional medicine cannot offer a cure.

“I never blame desperate people for doing whatever they do,” he said. “You blame the people who are taking advantage of that.”

Questioned injections

That Ron and Kathy Evangelista were drawn to Progressive Medical Center makes sense.

Located just off I-285 in Dunwoody, the facility has been in business for 27 years, and on its website claims it has served more than 40,000 patients, helping each person “achieve optimal health and wellness.”

Omnipresent on social media, it posts videos almost daily featuring its co-founder and administrator, Gez Agolli, touting its many unproven procedures along with avowed patient success stories.

An AJC examination of Agolli’s credentials and those of some Progressive staff raises several questions and suggests that the clinic may be skirting the law in its use of naturopaths.

Progressive openly promotes its use of naturopaths and says on its website that it’s legal because, while Georgia doesn’t license naturopaths, state law doesn’t specifically prohibit them. However, the Georgia Composite Medical Board and an attorney general’s opinion say the law does not allow naturopaths to diagnose or treat patients because that would be considered practicing medicine without a license.

The Progressive website also refers to one naturopath affiliated with the clinic as a “naturopathic physician.” State law says that in healthcare settings only licensed physicians may be referred to as doctors or physicians.

Yet none of that has stopped a steady stream of patients from seeking Progressive’s unconventional treatments, though some, the AJC found, have ended up second-guessing their decisions.

Hydrogen peroxide injections and IV treatment

This chemical compound is a powerful oxidizing agent commonly used as a disinfectant. It comes in different concentrations, with household disinfectant products at about 3%.

Claims: It can kill cancer cells and treat AIDS, Alzheimer’s, emphysema and infections. Some also tout hydrogen peroxide footbaths for removing toxins such as heavy metals from the body.

Risks: Bubbles of oxygen can form in the bloodstream, and a gas embolism can cause heart attacks, strokes or death. Using concentrations that are too high can add to the risk. Lawsuits have tied deaths in Florida, Minnesota and South Carolina to the therapy.

Regulations: The Food and Drug Administration has not approved hydrogen peroxide for injection or IV infusion and has warned consumers that drinking high-strength solutions can result in serious harm or death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that even a 3% solution may cause vomiting and diarrhea. Other authorities have advised there is no scientific evidence that hydrogen peroxide treats cancer, AIDS or other diseases.

Red flag: Being told the treatment is safe since the body naturally produces hydrogen peroxide; patients have experienced ill effects with even weak solutions. 

In multiple interviews with the AJC, Ron and Kathy Evangelista described how they were assured by Progressive’s staff that everything they’d need was right there: stem cells, IV cocktails, hyperbaric oxygen and more.

They were required to pay $16,000 up front for the various recommended treatments, none of which were covered by Medicare or other types of insurance. Undaunted, they obtained a medical credit card and used it to cover the payment.

But after making the trip to Atlanta every other week for six weeks, they decided to stop, believing the care they were receiving was of little value and, in at least one instance, had put Ron in danger.

According to the couple, they saw an actual medical doctor only once, and the only thing the physician did was direct them to the clinic’s in-house supplement store, where supplements from a company established by Agolli are among the items for sale.

There, they said, they were directed to buy a long list of products. That meant yet another bill, they said.

Because of the potential for patient exploitation, medical boards in some states other than Georgia say physicians should avoid directing the sale of goods in their offices or at least disclose their financial interest. Some boards can even sanction physicians for promoting the sale of goods or services in which they have a financial interest.

Even more troubling, the couple said, Ron’s treatment for his osteoarthritis included injections in his neck that were extraordinarily painful and, they later were told by his spine surgeon, may have been completely inappropriate.

According to Ron’s account, the injections he received at Progressive were given by a nurse practitioner who didn’t use fluoroscopy — a form of X-ray — or any other means to guide the needle when injecting his neck.

Ron said he believes he received Prolozone injections. The procedure, which isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration, involves injecting patients with ozone gas and other substances and is favored by alternative practitioners for treating musculoskeletal issues.

“We’ve had so many actual doctors and people who take care of us now become alarmed at what I told them, particularly about my neck,” Ron said. “I looked at Kathy and I said, ‘Gee, what did we do to ourselves?’”

In response to questions regarding Ron Evangelista’s procedure, Progressive issued a written statement to the AJC that said the advanced practice registered nurse who injected Evangelista has over 30 years’ experience and has injected thousands of patients without a complaint. Furthermore, the statement said, fluoroscopy or other forms of imaging aren’t considered necessary for trigger point injections, in which medication is injected into muscle tissue.

According to Dr. Bryce Basques, an assistant professor of orthopedics at Brown University who specializes in spinal disorders, neck injections for osteoarthritis are typically given by physicians — not nurses or nurse practitioners — and require fluoroscopy. That’s because they are only effective if medication is injected deeply into an area where a mistake could be catastrophic.

Basques acknowledged that some patients may receive injections in the muscles surrounding the neck — the so-called trigger point injections — but he said such injections would not benefit someone with osteoarthritis.

“If you’re treating arthritis, a muscle injection doesn’t do anything, because arthritis is a disease of the bones and joints,” he said.

The AJC found that the Evangelistas aren’t the only people who have left Progressive unhappy, particularly over what they said was a directive to buy supplements at the company store.

Theresa Queen, a registered nurse who lives in Woodstock, said she went to Progressive in 2022 to address several issues, including low energy and poor sleep. She used a credit card to pay $3,300 for a series of tests and then another $244 for supplements at the in-house store, according to documents she provided to the AJC.

But in a matter of weeks, Queen said, she became ill. She said that led her to visit her primary care physician, and there, she said, lab work showed that her kidney function was impaired. The nurse said she believes the issue was caused by mixing the supplements from Progressive with an antifungal medication that Progressive had prescribed.

“I was very mad, especially because that was a lot of money, and to be sicker as a result — yeah, I was furious,” she said.

Similarly, a patient who visited Progressive filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office in 2023 over the supplement issue, according to documents provided to the AJC by the AG in response to an Open Records Act request.

The patient, whose name was redacted, described paying $4,000 for lab work and then, before getting a full explanation of the results, being directed by a physician assistant to purchase $400 worth of supplements at the in-house store.

“This is a fraudulent medical center,” the patient wrote.

A consumer complaint to the Georgia Attorney General's Office regarding Progressive Medical Center asserted that a patient paid $4,000 for tests and was then directed to buy $400 worth of supplements at the clinic store before learning the results. (Georgia Attorney General's Office)

In its statement to the AJC, Progressive said patients are informed verbally and in writing that they aren’t obligated to buy supplements at the clinic’s store. “The supplement store is offered as a convenience to patients and the public,” the statement says.

As for Progressive Nutracare, the brand of supplements produced for Agolli and sold at the store, they are purchased from “reputable manufacturers” and often priced below retail, the statement says.

“From time to time, certain patients may have reactions due to a multitude of reasons … during a specific protocol to eradicate infections,” the statement adds. “It is our philosophy that supplements are needed due to the fact that most Americans … have relied on junk food devoid of nutrients and require supplements to make up for the deficit in their bodies from adulterated food.”

Three years ago, JP Garmon’s wife, Cindy, received a devastating cancer diagnosis. He sought out alternative treatments that might not be as brutal and settled on insulin potentiation therapy. Four months after Cindy’s diagnosis and two months after starting weekly IPT treatments, she died. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Cancer and regret

There can be no more powerful incentive to seek out practitioners with unconventional treatments or backgrounds than a cancer diagnosis that offers little hope.

That’s the path JP Garmon followed three years ago when his wife, Cindy, was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, and it’s a path that Garmon, an engineer who lives in McDonough, said he has come to regret just about every day since.

“The traditional route seemed so dire,” he said in a recent interview with the AJC. “I figured, `What do I have to lose?’ Turns out it was a lot.”

When his wife was diagnosed, Garmon turned to the internet to find something he hoped would be better for her than traditional chemotherapy. His search led him to insulin potentiation therapy, a treatment developed in Mexico that purportedly allows patients to receive effective doses of chemo without the harsh side effects. Looking further, he found Dr. Rhett Bergeron, an Atlanta-area physician who offers it.

Insulin potentiation therapy, or IPT, has become part of the lexicon of alternative medicine based on a theory that insulin makes cancer cells more receptive to chemotherapy drugs. That, in turn, supposedly makes it possible to use lower dosages of the drugs.

“What if cancer patients could get all of the cancer-killing benefits of chemotherapy without all the terrible side effects?” read the description of IPT on the website for Bergeron’s clinic, Real Health Medical, at the time Garmon signed on. “It might seem too good to be true. But doctors have been using a much safer form of chemotherapy for decades. It’s called insulin potentiation therapy or IPT.”

The website for Dr. Rhett Bergeron's clinic, Real Health Medical, once touted insulin potentiation therapy as "a much safer form of chemotherapy" that doctors had been using "for decades." This screenshot, taken from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, is from 2023, when JP Garmon's wife began IPT treatment there. (Internet Archive Wayback Machine)

That claim has never been validated through clinical trials — the gold standard for scientific proof that a treatment is safe and effective — and, in fact, the medical board in California has disciplined at least two physicians for promoting the procedure in that manner.

In choosing to have his wife undergo IPT at Bergeron’s clinic, Garmon was going outside his insurance and was required to make a payment each time she was treated. Willing to do whatever it took, he went along and used two credit cards, eventually charging more than $13,000, he said.

But whatever optimism Garmon felt at the beginning quickly faded as his wife of 41 years rapidly went downhill.

One particular incident left an indelible mark. According to Garmon, he called Bergeron’s office to report that his wife had coughed up blood. In response, he said, he was told by a member of the doctor’s staff that he should make an appointment.

“I was going nuts, and it was like they wanted to schedule her for an appointment in three weeks …,” he said. “I’m going, `You have got to be kidding me.’ … I think they were callous. I think they were very happy to hit my credit card.”

Four months after Cindy’s diagnosis and two months after starting weekly IPT treatments, she died.

JP Garmon feels that Dr. Rhett Bergeron's clinic wasn’t capable of dealing with the virulent form of cancer his wife had and that Bergeron should have said so up-front. “My opinion is Bergeron knew from the get-go he was in over his head,” Garmon said. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Garmon doesn’t know what impact Bergeron’s treatment may have had on Cindy’s health. But what he does say — and firmly believes — is that Bergeron’s practice, located in a Roswell office park, wasn’t capable of dealing with such a virulent form of cancer and that Bergeron should have said so up-front.