Legal Juice

You would not believe the frequency with which doctors sexually abuse their patients. In doing research for these posts, I come across cases similar to this at least several times each week.

According to a woman examined by Arkansas Dr. Clarence Jay Arendall, here's what happened, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

[The woman] said in the lawsuit filed March 12 that she visited Arendall for an ear infection in the past five years but that during the examination, he lowered her pants, touched her genitals, fondled her breasts and made sexual comments to her.

The suit also claims that Arendall made her addicted to pain pills. He prescribed the pain pills to her and had her pick them up each week at his office after hours, and continued to increase her prescription until she was taking 240 pills a week, the suit states.

The woman experienced seven seizures, of which Arendall was aware. And he knew that the pain medication was associated with seizures but continued to increase the dosage, the suit states.

He also threatened to have her husband fired from his job if the woman told anyone about his conduct, according to the lawsuit.

Maybe these are just baseless allegations? Unlikely. Consider this: The prosecutor said that

Alma Police Chief Russell White told him last week that investigators had received complaints from 15 to 20 women who claimed to have been sexually abused by Arendall.

Dr. Arundell has been charged with second-degree sexual abuse, and is being investigated regarding the additional 15-20 complaints received by the police. And his medical license was suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. You can read more here.

Remember the post the other day about the doctor who got a one week suspension for having a sexual relationship with a patient? Well, Dr. Mark Blaylock got a one month suspension for ... putting a picture of a government official in the trash! For real. Dr. Blaylock is the chief medical officer at the Manguzi Hospital in South Africa. It would appear that health MEC [Member of the Executive Council] Peggy Nkonyeni took great offense at this most heinous crime. So who will really suffer as a result of Dr. Blaylock's suspension? Per allAfrica.com:

Ironically, Blaylock will make more money working as a locum doctor in the private sector during this month's suspension than he does as a senior doctor at the rural hospital.

A hospital source who asked not to be named said that, ultimately patients would suffer most as the hospital was short-staffed and Blaylock's skilled would be greatly missed.

They sure showed him. You can read more (a fair amount) here.

You are psychologist Andrew Jacobs, and you need a psychiatrist to treat your wife for depression. Not surprisingly, you refer her to the same Harvard-trained psychiatrist you've been referring people to for 10 years. Surprisingly, this man, Kansas Dr. Douglas Greenens, tells your wife that she is in an unhealthy marriage. He then has a sexual relationship with your wife while she is still his patient! You find out, so he ends the doctor-patient relationship, but soon thereafter, resumes the intimate relationship. Your wife then divorces you and marries ... Dr. Greenens.

What punishment do you think the Kansas Board of Healing Arts handed down for this major violation of professional ethics? Before I tell you, let me also share with you some additional information that the Board had in its possession, as reported by The Topeka Capital-Journal:

Investigators with the Kansas board also have benefit of the Missouri healing arts board's confidential 300-page report on Geenens' out-of-bounds association with women. Geenens was publicly reprimanded by Missouri regulators and, to escape broader discipline, agreed in October to "retire" his license in that state.

Snap! 300 pages? On top of this incident? The punishment: a one-week suspension of his license! UFB! (Also, his practice will be supervised for 2 years, and he has to attend a course.(La di da.) Maybe he's emerged from all of this a changed man?

Jacobs said Geenens bragged that a member of the healing arts board secretly promised him the board wouldn't hand down a severe punishment. Meanwhile, Geenens filed an ethics complaint against Jacobs in Missouri, but the case was dismissed a year later.

Was that it for Greenens? He (or more likely, his insurer) took a relatively small hit:

Jacobs filed a civil lawsuit, later settled for $100,000, alleging Geenens prescribed psychiatric drugs to cause his wife to accept the doctor's advances.

You can read more (a fair amount) here.

Remember when a bunch of people at UCLA Medical Center snuck a peak at Brittany Spears' electronic medical records? No? I didn't either. Well they did. As reported by California Healthline:

The Department of Public Health said 53 employees, including 14 doctors, at UCLA Medical Center breached Spears' records on two occasions.

They were disciplined or fired, right?

None of the physicians quit or were fired.

What what what? None of the physicians? Then the nonphysicians must have skated by too, right? Nope.

18 [nonphysician] employees resigned, retired or were dismissed after the violations were discovered, according to UCLA data.

I'm guessing this is why:

In the past, UCLA has said physicians are overseen by a group of their peers, while other employees report to the human resources department.

Lovely. Here's the source.

A helluva lot. As reported in The Brisbane Times:

Court documents reveal the GP [general practitioner], known only as DAP, began having sex with patients as early as 1987.

He was twice suspended from practicing in 1996 and 2001.

He ... faced disciplinary action after admitting to maintaining sexual relationships with at least eight female patients, including the daughter of an elderly woman.

The Brisbane doctor, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, was twice jailed in 2005 for repeatedly sexually abusing his 10 and 11 year-old daughters.

His own daughters too! And after all that, the Health Practitioner's Tribunal still would not yank his license. Instead, they suspended him for 5 years, concluding that his epilepsy affected his behavior! At long last, Dr. DAP's rein of terror is over. The Brisbane Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the Tribunal's suspension and banned this serial sexual predator from ever practicing medicine again. Here's the source. (And it happens in the U.S. too.)

As reported by The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, here is the story of Dr. John Geoffrey Limbert of Victoria, British Columbia:

This family physician cared for a female patient for five years during which time she had two pregnancies. Subsequently, he established himself as a full-time sex therapist [I think you can guess where this is going] and she sought his professional advice. During this therapy he began to embrace her for progressively long periods of time. He advised her against having sexual relations with her husband and the marital relationship deteriorated considerably.

On one occasion during a pelvic examination he made inappropriate sexual remarks about her pelvic anatomy and breasts.

Later, they became involved in inappropriate activity related to the act of urination, which they called "water sports", which was repeated up to three times weekly. The patient fell in love with the doctor. Ultimately the interaction was discovered by the doctor's wife.

Then what?

The doctor apologized to the patient for his inappropriate behaviour, entered into therapy and consented to his therapist reporting his behaviour to the College.

So what happened to Dr. Limbert?

[He] was charged with professional misconduct for having engaged in sexual impropriety with a patient (among other things). He pleaded guilty to professional misconduct but not to incompetence. [Not misconduct! UFB!]

The Committee had no difficulty in accepting the plea of guilty and revoked the physician's licence. Upon receiving the doctor's undertaking not to appeal the decision, there was no need to consider the allegation of incompetence...

Here's how Georgia Dr. Totada R. Shanthaveerappa promoted his "Integrated Medical Specialists" and "Integrated Chemotherapy Specialists" clinics, as reported in the Gwinnett Daily Post:

He advertised that his clinic practiced "safe and effective, nontoxic, scientifically-based alternative" medicine that could "cure or control most cancer and other chronic disease," according to court documents.

Per the doctor's lawyer, he admitted injecting 5 patients with DNP, a weed killer. But that's not what he was busted for. It was health care fraud that did him in. Seems that when he submitted claims to insurance companies, he masked the drugs and treatments he actually provided. I wonder why ... So what happened to Dr. Shanthaveerappa? His license was suspended back in 2005, and last week, he got 5 years probation (after already serving 400 days of home detention). That was for the insurance fraud. As for the weed killer injections - zippy. Apparently the authorities could not demonstrate that any harm came of it.

Dr. Jean-Gilles Blain, a 72-year-old neurologist, will not be accused of being oversensitive. When a patient came to him for an EMG, complaining of numbness in her arm, here's what he said, as reported on Canada.com:

He called her "fat" several times, told her she ate too much and said her problems were all in her head.

Blain later stuck his hand between her thighs, saying: "How can such a beautiful girl like you be such a fat balloon?" the patient recalled.

The doctor also fell asleep during the consultation and snored, she testified.

Such compassion. What did the Quebec College of Physicians do to Dr. Blain when the patient filed a complaint? No doctoring for 12 months. If that seems a little harsh, it's likely because Dr. Feelgood was disciplined in 2001, and got remedial training, and was disciplined again in 2003, and got remedial training. To read more (just a little), click here.

And the tattoo says "Hot Rod." That HAD to hurt! The patient was undergoing surgery, and was sedated when the surgeon took the photo. Seems the doc showed it around (so he's not a brain surgeon - ba-da-bing), and someone made an anonymous call to the press. Snap! You can read more (a fair amount) here.

So you're a doctor, and you're convicted of sexual assault and drug trafficking. You automatically lose your license, right? Nope. Dr. Sean Buckingham, of Canada, was so convicted, and still has his license! What did he do? Per the National Post:

Nearly two dozen witnesses testified during the trial, including a number of complainants who alleged Dr. Sean Buckingham sexually assaulted them.

One woman testified Buckingham, 47, tied her to a tree, beat her with a branch and sodomized her. Another said he asked her for oral sex while her seven-month old daughter was on her lap. A witness also said Buckingham agreed to write her a prescription for painkillers, but only if he could have half.

Throughout the seven-week trial, witnesses told the court the incidents happened in Buckingham's office, his home and his vehicle, sometimes after he picked them up at Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

At the time of his arrest two years ago, Buckingham was under police surveillance "from dawn to dusk." Police recorded more than 3,000 phone calls during which the doctor occasionally spoke to people about "candy bars" and "cigarettes."

The Crown said the items were code for drugs, in particular the highly addictive drug OxyContin, known as "hillbilly heroin."

Damn! A bona fide predator with an MD. So he was convicted - now what? Per The Aurora:

The Newfoundland and Labrador College of Physicians and Surgeons have the power to revoke or suspend his medical licence, but they need to 'investigate' first. They acknowledged his conviction but as an 'allegation against Buckingham'.

Wow, is there any such thing as automatic anymore? Seriously, who would even trust a doctor of his record with an ingrown toenail after all this?

What the hell is going on up there? To read more, click here and here.

Update: Click here to find out Buckingham's sentence.

Cliff Blake got nailed twice - first, literally, when a nail went into his foot. Then by Milwaukee podiatrist John S. Lanham. For an office visit that took one hour, the tab was $4,378.93! How could that be?

For a cortisone shot (including the numbing shot), $1,700! (The cost of the medicine: $15!)

For 2 sterile syringes with needles (that cost about 10 cents each): $85!

A "new patient fee" of $265.00.

This is a risk you take when you use the yellow pages to find a doctor! Oh, and I'll bet you can't guess the name of the only podiatrist disciplined by Wisconsin in the past 5 years - Dr. Lanham! As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A few years ago, patients complained about Lanham's high bills to the state podiatric society. That prompted an investigation into the doctor on suspicion of fraudulent billing. The state eventually suspended him for 90 days. Lanham's suspension ended in April, one month before Blake's visit.

You can read more (plenty) here.

You'd probably be better off having your palm read than having your x-rays or CT scans read by Oregon and Washington radiologist David Shoemaker. Both states have suspended Dr. Shoemaker's license. Here are a few of the "Findings of Fact" by the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners:

"On May 18, 2001, Patient I underwent CT scans (with contrast) of the abdomen and pelvis. [Dr. Shoemaker] noted small cysts in the ovaries, and noted a normal uters. The patient did not have ovaries or a uterus." [Emphasis mine. Can you blame me?]

He x-rayed the foot of a patient complaining of foot and toe pain. He noted a hammertoe deformity, but "failed to note the presence of a metallic foreign body in the toe area." [!]

"On May 18, 2000, [Dr. Shoemaker performed a CT scan on Patient K's pelvis and hips, noting a normal uterus. Patient K did not have a uterus." [Yes, the emphasis is mine again. Shazam!]

He did a chest x-ray of a patient, and thought she might have a tumor "masquerading as pneumonia." So he ordered a CT scan, and concluded that there was evidence of a tumor. Wrong! The patient had pneumonia, not a tumor.

He performed a mammogram and noted that NO right-sided lymph notes had been visualized. There were right lymph nodes.

In Patient A, he failed to note a mass in the neck that turned out to be cancerous. Said Dr. Shoemaker, it was a "terrible miss on my part."

SFM. You can read the entire Oregon Board of Medical Examiners Final Order (if you're really bored - it's 14 pages) here.

... he has sex with her 12 days after operating on her! And then again 3 days after that!

Maybe he meant no sex with anyone but him? So what was the punishment be for California OBGYN Stuart Fischbein? An Administrative Law Judge who heard the matter recommended that Dr. Fischbein's license be revoked. The state medical board disagreed, and put him on conditional probation for seven years. When he sees female patients, there must be a chaperone in the room. He must also take ethics courses, and continue with his psychological counseling. You can read more here.

Did Dr. Rhys Cullen really think he could write prescriptions for 50,000 tablets of Sudomyl (used to make Meth) over a 2-year period without anyone noticing? And, did he really think that, after being told by the High Court in February 2007 not to prescribe Sudomyl, that they wouldn't be watching? (He must have, because he started doing it again that month!) That last bit led to his suspension. A hearing on the charges against Dr. Cullen will take place from September 24 - October 5, 2007. To read more about this New Zealand doctor, click here.

Not only did 64-year-old Dr. Suma Mondal repeatedly fail an English exam, as reported in This Is Lancashire,

She was under professional review by her peers since October 2001 as senior staff attempted to improve her levels of performance.

In January 2003, her colleagues became so concerned about progress that they reported her to the General Medical Counsel ("GMC").

When her case was heard in May 2006 (quite a backlog, there!) the GMC required her to undergo a five-month assessment.

In September 2006, she was banned from practicing medicine for a year.

That year having passed, Dr. Mondal applied for reinstatement. Guess what? She got it! There are conditions, though. She must pass an English language test within 12 months, and must pass a GMC competency test too. Kind of makes you wonder about all of those patients she was seeing during the 3 1/2 year it took for the case to get to the GMC hearing. To read more, click here.

No, you didn't say these things Dr. Lau, did you?

When asked by Patient A if the cramping she had experienced was normal, Dr. Lau said “I wouldn’t know, I’m not a woman.” [So I guess he would know if cramping is normal for insensitive, unprofessional clods?]

When asked by Patient A if the sex of the baby could be determined from the ultrasound, Dr. Lau said “I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been pregnant.”

Patient B said the only question Dr. Lau asked her was: “If she was pregnant, would she be keeping the baby?”

Oh, and Dr. Lau recorded that various tests had been performed on Patients A, B,C and D. Think they were done? Nope. And it turns out Patient A had chlamydia, which can cause eye infections and pneumonia in babies.

What do you think happened to Ontario, Canada Dr. Alvin Lau? He was suspended for a year. Just a bit light, I'd say. I'm sure Patients A, B, C and D would agree. You can read more in The Observer article here.

They both sew with a steady hand, right? Somehow, a 30-year-old Indian man posed as a doctor for almost a year without raising even an eyebrow. So how was he caught? A security guard overheard the "doctor" telling a patient that he did not know the way to the pathology lab! And what did the man say when he was caught? He said he was a surgeon in India, had a applied for a job, and was just wandering around waiting for word on his application. But when the police checked him out, they learned that he works in a women's tailor shop! No doubt that's where he made (really) the doctor's uniform that he wore around the hospital. You can read more here.

So 12 years ago, a woman saw a man acting suspiciously in the Vanderbuilt Hospital parking lot. Said Kristi Wilson, "He looked like he had a wig. It was just really bizarre." The man was Dr. Ray Mettetal. As reported by NewsChannel5.com,

he was wearing a wig and a fake beard, and he had fake ID, a giant syringe, and was stalking another doctor, his former boss at Vanderbilt. Later, investigators discovered he had a stockpile of the deadly poison, ricin.

Dr. Mettetal was convicted of having ricin and fake IDs, and served 7 years in prison. His medical license was suspended. He was released from prison when an appeals court determined that the search warrant used by the police was no good. So now Dr. Mettetal wants his license back. What do you think the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners decided?

Continue reading "Ricin Doctor Wants Medical License Back" »

Adam Scioli, then an anesthesiology resident at Temple University, sold the date rape drug Ketamine to an undercover detective. Think about the lives that could have been ruined with that drug? Scioli should have lost the ability to ever practice medicine, and received a hefty jail sentence. Nope. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, obtaining the controlled substance fraudulently (from the hospital pharmacy), and violating the Controlled Substances Act. His sentence? Two months in jail! Cocaine gets you 5 years. This guy gets 2 months! Oh, and Pennsylvania suspended his medical license because of his felony conviction for violating the Controlled Substances Act.

So Scioli is done with medicine, right? Wrong. On July 1, 2007, the Delaware Psychiatric Center took him on as a resident despite the fact that his medical license in Pennsylvania is still suspended. And what does the Director of the Center have to say about this brilliant hire? Don't know. She didn't return a reporter's numerous calls and e-mails. I'm guessing Scioli will be looking for a new job soon. You can read more here.

At least one of them, anyway. The allegations against Ohio Dr. Somnath Roy are as follows:

During the interview, Dr. Roy insisted on examining her breast and then fondled her. He also asked her to pull her pants down. (as reported by Brad Dicken of The Chronicle-Telegram).

Another woman said that, on her first day, Dr. Roy fondled her while demonstrating a breast exam that he said she would be assisting with as part of her duties. He also told her that she had small breasts and asked if that ran in her family. On her second (and final) day, he told her that she needed to wear a padded bra so she would “look bigger.”

Both of the above women have filed lawsuits against Dr. Roy. Here are a couple other allegations against the doctor:

A 47-year-old Elyria man said Dr. Roy rubbed his genitals on his knee and thigh during examinations about six times over the course of the eight years he was Roy’s patient.

A couple said that Roy had asked them explicit questions about their sex life that had nothing to do with the reason they were seeing him.

You can read more about the above story in Mr. Dicken's articles (from which the above information came) here and here.