Dr. Erlinda Maria Gordon, MD

It’s been over two years since my brothers passing and I still have not been able to forgive or forget the trauma that Erlinda Gordon and Sant Chawla had put my family through. Erlinda Gordon fooled our family into raising funds for a drug that did not work for my beloved little brother, Kian Faghih. We raised 235,000 USD for the Aveni foundation towards what we were told was the cure to his suffering. Every time we reached an exorbitant amount that she asked us to pay, she would continue to increase the expected amount towards fabricating this useless drug which did NOTHING to help my brother. Erlinda Gordon along with the Sant Chawla used my brother as an advertisement for the Aveni foundation. Erlinda Gordon repeatedly told my family that she evaluates a patient based on how they look rather than their CT scan which in my brothers case continued to worsen at each checkup. It was very clear towards the end of my brothers life, that these so called doctors exploited us and the… thousands that supported my brothers sarcoma journey. I am absolutely disgusted by Erlinda Gordon and Sant Chawla for their inhumane demeanour and medical incompetence. My brave brother Kian Faghih is in paradise now and free from the atrocities that he was put through by Erlinda Gordon and Sant Chawla. This post is to spread awareness for those desperate for help to avoid the deceit that our family went through by Sant Chawla and Erlinda Gordon. Their behavior in my brothers treatment is a disgrace to the medical community.

I appreciate the opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Erlinda Gordon for her development of Rexin G targeted gene therapy. In 2006, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery, followed by 18 months of chemotherapy and radiation. In 2008, my pancreatic cancer recurred. This is when I was faced with the decision of continuing more chemotherapy, the standard treatment of care. I was left with considering a clinical trial or living the remainder of my life without treatment, which was estimated to be between 6-8 months. After several weeks of research, I discovered and enrolled in a clinical trial for Rexin G by Dr. Erlinda Gordon in Santa Monica, CA. This treatment saved my life, has given me an exceptional quality of life for 16 years. My deepest appreciation to Dr. Gordon for the opportunity she gave me and to so many others.

I would like to express my sincere sympathy for the person who lost their loved one during the trial, however, I was very disheartened to read the one-star review about both Dr. Erlinda Gordon and Dr. Sant Chawla who ran the clinical trial Rexin-G (Delta Rex-G today) that my Mom successfully received in 2008. Mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and had the Whipple procedure at Duke University Cancer Center followed by rounds of chemo and radiation. When in 2008, it appeared her cancer was returning, her oncologist said he could only offer her more chemo, which she declined. As her daughter, hearing her decision, I remember hanging up the phone and saying - "I’m not ready for this” - and set out to look for options. The first thing we felt was, for the first time we were on our own; nowhere in the medical system that had treated her was there a resource for helping us look for alternatives including government run clinical trials when her cancer returned. Our main criteria… were to find a novel gene therapy with fewer side effects and not another chemo drug; something that isn’t readily available so when we found the clinical trial on clinicaltrials.gov for Rexin-G, a novel gene therapy for pancreatic cancer patients who had exhausted all other options. For the first time, we felt a ray of hope but also, after meeting Dr. Chawla and Dr. Gordon, we felt we had found physicians who were seriously and professionally committed to finding a treatment for pancreatic cancer. When Mom qualified and was receiving the treatment, she made and lost friends, because like any drug it wasn’t effective for everyone, (it was a clinical trial) however; it was a lifesaver for her and we have had been blessed to have her in our lives to this day - 14 years since her clinical treatment under the observation of Dr. Chawla and 16 years since her original diagnosis. To speak further to the credibility of Dr. Gordon, she has remained in contact with Mom as a friend and as the developer of Delta Rex-G. Anyone who wishes can learn more about Dr. Gordon’s background on her Linkedin profile as well as the Aveni Foundation. I would lastly like to say, losing a loved one under any circumstance is always hard but understand, the portrayal of Dr. Gordon whom I have known for 14 years, is sadly not the medical professional whom we have had the great fortune to get to know. Anyone who makes a decision to specialize in pediatric hematology and oncology and then expand their medical career into research and drug development to reach beyond what is currently available to patients suffering from cancer is truly a person whose heart and head are strongly aligned.

"Beware of these greedy people Dr. Sant P Chawla, and Dr. Erlinda Gordon at Sarcoma Oncology Center. We had a horrible experience with them both. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until my sweet 11-year-old brother Kian F passed away that we truly realized that both of these doctors are two faced. They fooled us into thinking these medicines were effective and made us have high hopes for these to work in stabilizing the cancer. None of these did ANYTHING for his cancer. They were only concerned about their own research testing purposes and making money off us. Erlinda Gordon pressurized us to pay an additional $200,000 more than the $235,000 we already payed her or she wouldn’t treat him. It was a financial scheme between Erlinda Gordon and Sant P Chawla. They put him on TV to use him for marketing and to make money for their drug and we did it out of desperation for a cure that they promised. They exploited us for large sums money and marketing, which was extremely unprofessional. The… suffering Erlinda Gordon and Sant P Chawla put us through was neglectful, cruel, and inhumane. Definitely not intentions of someone who wants to save peoples lives. Dr. Erlinda Gordon repeatedly told us that she “doesn’t care what the scans show, and only goes by how the patient ‘looks’ to determine if the treatment is working or not” which should have been our first red flag. She told news outlets that this drug was working when she knew that the scans showed he would not make it. It was all a lie. I have read other google reviews about Chawla, and all the negative experiences were true. I will emphasize that I noticed the same thing in our experience from the other complaints. Sant P. Chawla was the worst healthcare professional I have ever met. I would see that he would be “nice” to all of the new patients and make empty promises about getting them “the best treatment” when really it was a load of bull****. On the last day of my brother’s life, Sant P Chawla saw my brother in the clinic have extreme shortness of breath, he walked by us to go to his office and eat his lunch while we were worried that he was about to die. BEWARE, his intentions are not pure in the slightest. Even worse, he never made a single phone call to see how the patient was doing after we had to call 911 to leave the clinic or even extended any condolences after passing. Even a few days before my brother passed away, Sant P Chawla told my mom to “ship him back” home, (we traveled across the country for his treatment)"