There Are No Cures for This Doctor's Ills

As the point man for saving cancer patients, Dr. Tedd Collins was described as a Man on a Mission.

Now people are wondering whether Collins' true mission was to help patients or himself. The Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating two charities Collins set up to aid Mandi Schwartz (pictured right)

She's a Yale hockey player who is battling leukemia. Her quest to find a bone-marrow donor has been one of the year's biggest heart-tugging stories.

If it rings a faint bell with you, that's part of the problem Collins has dropped on Mandi. People may smell a scam and want nothing more to do with it. I wouldn't blame them after revelations of Collins' wheeling and dealing came out this week.

It could hurt the last-minute search for a suitable donor for Mandi. It could hurt fundraising efforts on behalf of her and similar cancer victims. And worst of all, somebody might think the Schwartz family, Yale and everybody who rallied for her cause is in on the swindle.

The fact is Collins has made them all victims.

Thanks, Doc.

This won't get near the attention of A-Rod's 600th home run pursuit or LeBron's latest Vegas bacchanalia. But it goes deeper than wondering how King James could be so self-indulgent.

It makes you question how any human being can be so ... I don't even know the proper phrase. Conniving? Incompetent? Devoid of conscience?

I'd better pause and throw in the requisite "allegedly." Collins is a perplexing figure who's done some noble things. He hasn't been convicted of anything, and he may have reasonable answers for all the questions that have arisen.

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If so, the Connecticut Attorney General's office would like to hear them. It announced an investigation Wednesday after The New York Times reported about $11,000 in donations is unaccounted for.

What's more, The Times reported that federal prosecutors in Kentucky are investigating Collins for fraud associated with various business ventures over the past decade.

A Florida paramedic said he gave Collins $200,000 to invest in 2007, only to have the money and the doctor vanish. Then he saw Collins' name in a Mandi story and contacted authorities and The Times, one of the many media outlets that have done pieces on her.

The good news is that Mandi got to Seattle last week and is scheduled for a stem-cell transplant next month. She's also supposed to throw out the first pitch at the Mariners' game on Aug. 8.

Not that she needs the distraction, but she has to be more confused than anyone about Collins. He has a PhD in microbiology from the Roswell Cancer Institute, but The Times reported he left that career a decade ago to delve into Internet business ventures.

He resurfaced a couple of years ago when his 25-year-old daughter, Natasha, was stricken with leukemia. Her mixed heritage made it much harder to find a donor, and Tedd Collins started websites to aid cancer victims in similar circumstances.

His ultimate motivation was one of the final conversations he had with his daughter before she died.

"She just looked at me and said, 'One day, Dad, you can't, maybe you can't help me. But hopefully you can help other people,'" Collins said. "And she told me about Mandi."

Collins said that during an interview with ABC's "World News." He was a tireless spokesman for Mandi, whose brother Jaden was drafted in the first round of last month's NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues.

It seems the entire hockey community and half of Canada has tried to help Mandi. Yale officials and media outlets, this one included, steered people to Collins' websites if they wanted to help.

It turns out Collins hadn't notified the attorney general's office of fund-raising activities, which the law requires. And 145 PayPal donations totaling almost $11,000 are missing.



That's barely enough to buy a decent used car, much less escape to France and live in luxurious exile next to Roman Polanski. Collins acknowledged to The Times that he hadn't registered the websites dedicated to Mandi, but refused to answer questions about the numerous fraud charges dating back to 2005.

It's hard to believe he's just a flimflam artist who glommed onto Mandi's cause. Natasha Collins did suffer and die from leukemia. After enduring that, it boggles the brain to believe a man would take advantage of a similar tragedy to line his pockets.

We'll just have to hope this criminal twist doesn't damage the rest of Mandi's story. At the least, Collins owes her a big apology.

He might also want get on his knees and offer one to his daughter. Natasha's wish was that her father would use her death to help people.

Surely this wasn't what she had in mind.