Dr. Robert Biter, an obstetrician at Scripps-Encinitas, recently resigned within hours of having his OB privileges restored, thereby avoiding a Board of Medicine investigation into his practice. Dr. Biter has been less than forthcoming about the circumstances surrounding his suspension (he failed to inform his supporters about the 6 pending lawsuits that have been filed against him in the past 5 years). In investigating Dr. Biter’s background, I have come across repeated mentions of the charities that he has started.
Dr. Biter’s boutique, Babies by the Sea, proudly claim to donate revenue to two charitable organizations:
Babies by the Sea Boutique will donate a portion of net revenue to non-profit organizations developed by Dr. Robert Biter called Her Hearts Wish and Seaside Giving. Her Heart’s Wish is a national organization dedicated to granting the wishes of women facing terminal illness. Seaside Giving provides medical care to pregnant women who cannot afford medical services.
Over the years, Dr. Biter repeatedly mentioned his involvement in Her Heart’s Wish such as in this 2005 profile of Dr. Biter by San Diego Magazine:
Six years ago, Biter was completing his residency at Penn State Hershey Medical Center when he met Beth, a young mother dying of ovarian cancer. After coming to terms with her condition, Beth expressed two final wishes: to bake cookies with her children one last time and take a weekend trip with her husband. Biter mobilized other residents and nurses to make Beth’s wishes a reality just days before her death. But before she died, Beth revealed another wish: for other terminally ill women to enjoy the same opportunity to fulfill one last desire of the heart.
In 1999, Biter founded Her Heart’s Wish, a charitable organization that has granted hundreds of wishes in nearly all 50 states…
As far as I can determine, neither of Dr. Biter’s charities currently exist.
Her Heart’s Wish was a Pennsylvania non-profit organization that granted wishes to dying women. It was established in 1999 and is officially located in Hershey, PA. It maintained a website and was mentioned in a variety of print and web publications. Dr. Biter may have been a founder, but according to the patient Beth’s husband, HE founded the organization:
Shortly after Beth’s passing, Jim rolled up his sleeves and spent the next two years creating an organization that would grant last wishes to other women. Navigating his way through the difficult legal and tax aspects involved in establishing a non-profit organization, he never gave up. Finally, in 2001, he launched Her Heart’s Wish, which in the following years has grown from a regional to a national wish-giving organization for women over 18.
The website went off line in late 2008 and the charity appears to exist no longer. Nonetheless, Dr. Biter continues to solicit donations for Her Heart’s Wish now located at a residential address in Encinitas, CA.
How about Seaside Giving? As far as I can determine from public records, there is no charitable organization registered in California under the name Seaside Giving and there has never been such an organization. There is no website, no list of beneficiaries, indeed no mention of it anywhere except on Dr. Biter’s own website.
It appears that Dr. Biter is soliciting funds for two charities that don’t exist. Of course,I’m not expert in researching charitable organizations, and it is possible that I overlooked sources of information. So I would welcome everyone’s help in finding information that would demonstrate that Dr. Biter’s charities are real, and are dispersing funds to needy individuals.
