DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS—OBLIGATIONS ACTIVE - the licensing board or department has disciplined the licensed practitioner and a penalty, which may include restrictions and/or additional requirements, was placed on the licensed practitioner. The licensed practitioner may practice his/her profession in the state of Florida under the conditions specified by the licensing board or department. Practitioner is obligated to update his/her profile data.
Dr. Sean Orr, Accused of MS Misdiagnosis Scheme, Back in Business
He was the top neurologist in town, full of charisma and credentials. He lived in a million-dollar home and tended to the local NFL team.
But federal prosecutors say that behind the prestige, Dr. Sean Orr was really a “greedy conman” who routinely misdiagnosed patients with multiple sclerosis so he could bill for painful and pricey treatments they did not need.
Lives were upended. One woman remodeled her home to be wheelchair-accessible. Another contemplated suicide and had her breast implants removed.
In 2013, Orr had his license suspended for a year for allegedly having sex with one patient, and two months ago he agreed to pay $150,000 to the Justice Department to settle a whistle-blower fraud suit over the bogus bills without admitting wrongdoing.
But an NBC News investigation has found that Orr — who maintains he “operated within the standard of care” — is back in business, practicing medicine in a new Florida city even as the U.S. attorney weighs possible criminal charges.
“That’s really scary,” former patient Amber Taylor said.
When her general practitioner referred Taylor to Orr because of stubborn migraines in 2010, the mother of two was impressed that he was the head of neurology for respected Baptist Medical Center and a team doctor for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Within months, he had diagnosed her with MS, an incurable disease that can disable the central nervous system, block signals from the brain to the body, and cause paralysis in the most extreme cases. The prognosis, she said, was poor.
“One day I actually remember him saying, ‘You need to come to terms with the fact that this is what you have,’” Taylor recalled. “I just had no reason to not to believe what he said.”
She said she quit her job and borrowed $50,000 to renovate her home to accommodate a wheelchair. Her daughter, then 10, ended up in counseling to cope with the health crisis.
The doctor put her on Copaxone, injections that cost $5,000 a month and left stinging welts all over her body, she said. She suffered shortness of breath, tightness in her chest and burning in her throat.
“It completely changed our life,” she said.
Other former patients told NBC News that Orr said he was able to diagnose MS by looking in their eyes. They said they were given spinal taps, Botox injections, steroid treatments and medications with eye-popping price tags.
Jackie Segal, who went to Orr for headaches, said she ended up on a drug that cost $37,000 a week. She had so much confidence in him that when she moved away and saw other doctors who said she didn’t have MS, she didn’t believe them.
Tanya Barr said she borrowed $10,000 to have her breast implants removed with Orr’s blessing because she feared they were hurting her health. The mother of two said the stress nearly broke her up marriage.
“I had my whole suicide planned,” Barr said. “I said, ‘I’m not going to have my family take care of me like this this.’”
Her fears were unfounded. As it turned out, Barr did not have MS. And neither did Taylor, Segal — and an unknown number of other patients.
The misdiagnoses came to light through a fast-moving series of events in 2011.
After a patient’s husband accused Orr of having an affair with his wife, the doctor was placed on administrative leave and the hospital began poring over his files and scheduling patients for re-evaluations, according to court documents.
Three months later, Verchetta Wells, a patient coordinator in the Neurology Department at Baptist, filed a whistle-blower suit, alleging Orr and the hospital had been charging Medicare and other federal insurance programs for unnecessary services.
Lee Bentley, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, said when his investigators began looking into the allegations, they uncovered massive billing fraud.
“Dr. Orr was a greedy conman,” Bentley said. “He was able to convince patients who trusted him that they had MS and other debilitating neurological diseases and disorders. He used that to enrich himself and to also enhance his credibility as a top neurologist in Florida.’
Orr was collecting a salary from Baptist that reached $600,000 depending on how many patients he saw, prosecutors said. He also raked in $250,000 in consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies that made some of the high-priced drugs he was prescribing, according to Bentley.
He was the top prescriber of Acthar, a gel for MS symptom relief that costs $25,000 for each prescription, the feds say. He racked up more office visits, more tests and many more prescriptions than other area neurologists, they said.
The cases they reviewed showed he misdiagnosed MS 65% of the time and had an error rate of 90% for some other neurological disorders, Bentley said.
"This was not simple error,” he added. “The numbers just simply can’t be explained.
"He was a conman. Just like other conmen, he relied upon his charisma to close the deal.”
In May 2014, Baptist Health System settled the whistle-blower suit for $2.5 million, and Wells collected more than $400,000. Orr’s settlement was much lower, because his assets had been so depleted by then, the government said.
“We decided that collecting $150,000 from him was better than nothing,” Bentley explained.
Orr declined to be interviewed by NBC News, citing patient confidentiality. In a written statement, he described himself as a “believer in a proactive treatment” and said neurology is an evolving science marked by “differences of opinion” about diagnosis and treatment.
“I sought to be proactive and use neurological innovations where they were safe and available,” he said. “Not all physicians agreed with my treatment or methodologies. Recent further peer reviews of my work, however, have concluded that I operated within the standard of care.”
Baptist Health said it reviewed Orr’s records as soon as his peers “raised questions” about his practices. “We did not know then, nor do we know now, if Dr. Orr’s early diagnosis and treatment approach was inappropriate. We only know it was different than the pattern of his local physician peers,” it said in a statement.
While Orr is no longer working at Baptist Health, he is in practice 300 miles away in Panama City, Fla. Bentley said that’s a source of concern “but at this point the federal government cannot do anything else with respect to his license,” beyond barring him from Medicare and other federal health programs.
The Florida Health Department said it could not confirm if there is an open investigation into the alleged fraud.
Orr still faces lawsuits from individual patients. “The only recourse these women have in our country through the civil justice system is through money damages,” said lawyer Seth Pajcic, who is representing some of the patients. “We intend to get them every dime they’re entitled to.”
His legal problems may not stop there. “It’s possible there may be criminal charges,” Bentley said.
Some of his former patients want to see that happen.
“I am very angry about what happened,” Taylor said. “I am very angry about what it put my family through.”
Added Segal, “It hurts really bad because he took stuff away from us that, you know, we can’t regain.” (LINK) — 8/18/2015
Licensed Physician Accused of Sexually Assaulting Patient During Exam
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department arrested a licensed physician Tuesday after an investigation revealed evidence of sexual assault during a medical evaluation, the department said.
Logan Vincent Ford, 31, was arrested Tuesday on charges involving rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation by a physician. Ford is being held at the Sacramento County Jail on $1 million bail.
In March, a woman says she visited a medical marijuana evaluation center on the 2100 block of Watt Avenue so she could obtain a medical marijuana prescription, investigators said. During the examination, the victim reported that Ford had sexually assaulted her.
The investigation eventually led to Ford’s arrest in Oakland. Ford is believed to have worked at two other offices in Oakland and Berkeley.
Detectives are asking the public to come forward with any additional information pertaining to suspicious or criminal behavior during the course of Ford’s practice, and to contact the Sheriff’s Sexual Assault Bureau at (916) 874-5070.
Tip information may also be left anonymously at www.sacsheriff.com by entering the keyword ‘SSD’, or by calling (916) 874-TIPS (8477). (LINK) — 8/19/2015
Doctor Accused Of Sacramento Rape May Have More Victims
Investigators believe there may be more victims of a doctor who is charged with raping a patient.
Dr. Logan Ford is smiling in his mugshot, but he faces felony charges of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation by a physician.
“We have that trust in our medical professionals..and this was violated obviously by this subject,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Lt. Lisa Bowman.
Investigators say it happened at the 420 Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center off of Watt Avenue, where Ford works.
“During the patient’s exam, it was actually at the facility she was sexually assaulted; she was raped,” Bowman said of the alleged March incident.
Ford also works as a physician at medical-marijuana facilities in Berkeley and Oakland.
“We don’t believe this is an isolated event,” Bowman said. “We believe that likely, due to the business that he practiced and this actually happened during a medical exam..this may have happened before.”
According to Ford’s attorney and records from the State Medical Board of California, he has experience as a doctor and a surgeon. He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his graduate degree from Howard University College of Medicine.
He has no prior record of discipline.
Chi Chang came to the clinic on Wednesday for an evaluation, but changed his mind after he heard about the allegations.
“I think I’m just going to change my mind and just go somewhere else,” he said.
Ford’s bail is set at $1 million. He’s expected in court on Friday. (LINK) — 8/19/2015
Patient Says Pot Doc Sexually Assaulted Her
SACRAMENTO (CN) - A woman who sought a medical marijuana evaluation at a Sacramento clinic claims in court that a doctor stripped her pants off and sexually assaulted her.
In her Nov. 13 lawsuit in Superior Court, C.B. says she saw Dr. Logan Vincent Ford on March 26 at the 420 MD clinic “for a consultation for a marijuana recommendation.”
She says Ford, alone with her in a room, “took a detailed medical history, including her complaints of abdominal pain. He also asked her about her sexual history.”
She says Ford had her lie on an examination table and “proceeded to palpate her abdomen,” then told her to unzip her pants “so that he could determine whether or not she was constipated.” His hands “drifted lower and lower until he pulled down her pants and underwear,” the complaint states.
It continues: “He moistened his index and middle finger with saliva and then pushed them into her vagina which caused plaintiff a great deal of pain. He then pulled plaintiff from the table, turned her quickly over, and from behind inserted his erect penis into her vagina against her will, all to satisfy his sexual perversion.”
“Throughout the ordeal,” she says, Ford “placed his fingers firmly over her lips to prevent her calling out for help.” She says she “did not know what to do and was caught off guard because defendant was a doctor and she should have been safe with him.”
C.B. says she was stunned by the attack, which she reported later to police. Ford was arrested in August on charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation by a physician, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
“The Sacramento County Sheriff Sexual Assault Bureau made an arrest of a licensed physician after an investigation into a patient’s complaint revealed evidence of a sexual assault during a medical evaluation,” the sheriff’s office said at the time. The Sacramento Bee and other news sources identified the physician as Ford, then 31.
Ford is scheduled for a Dec. 4 hearing on criminal charges, according to Sacramento County Superior Court records. He is charged with two felonies and misdemeanors.
In addition to his Sacramento office, Ford is believed to have worked at practices in Oakland and Berkeley.
C.B. seeks punitive damages from Ford for sexual battery and medical malpractice and from the 420 MD clinic for negligent hiring and supervision. She is represented by Parker White, with Poswall, White & Brelsford of Sacramento. White did not respond to a voicemail left Wednesday morning. (LINK) — 11/19/2015
CALIFORNIA—A Bakersfield gynecologist who also practices cosmetic surgery is under fire from the Medical Board of California for allegations that his care and treatment of two patients was grossly negligent, that he attempted to fraudulently gain a refund from a manufacturer of breast implants, and that he engaged in and paid for a sexual relationship with one of his patients.
The allegations come four years after the board issued a public letter of reprimand against Dr. Jason Helliwell for “negligence in the treatment of a patient who underwent a SmartLipo procedure.”
As a result of these allegations, the state medical board is seeking to revoke or suspend the license of Helliwell, 43, who maintains an office on Brimhall Road on the city’s west side.
A statement approved by Helliwell’s attorney was read over the phone Monday by a member of the staff at Helliwell’s office.
“We plan to contest the allegations from the medical board,” the statement reads. “We have no further comment.”
According to the public accusation against Helliwell, filed Aug. 4, Helliwell performed breast augmentation surgery in May 2013 on a patient identified in the accusation document only as C.T., a 23-year-old woman.
Within two weeks of the surgery, one of the incisions was oozing. She was prescribed antibiotic and antifungal medications, but a few weeks later returned complaining of discomfort and presenting a wound rupture along the surgical suture.
The wound was closed with a suture, but according to the accusation there was no debridement, the medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue.
“There was no debridement of the skin opening,” the accusation alleges, “merely a single suture to close a contaminated wound that has been exposed.”
Nearly two months after the original procedure, the incision had opened again, but Helliwell was on vacation. The patient was referred to another doctor who was supposedly covering for Helliwell, but C.T. was told he could not see her.
After waiting six more days, C.T. returned to Helliwell’s office. By that time, her left breast implant was exposed. Both implants were removed. Helliwell charged the patient $1,000 for this procedure.
According to the accusation, Helliwell told the patient he could poke a small hole in the implants and claim they were ruptured so she could get a credit for another augmentation. She refused.
The second patient, known in the accusation as S.B., also age 23, underwent breast augmentation surgery in March 2011. She was not satisfied with the results, so a second surgery was performed in January 2013.
S.B. also experienced wound healing issues, and about six weeks after the second surgery, her right breast implant was exposed through the open wound. When Helliwell attempted to replace it, the implant ruptured.
Helliwell “told S.B. he did not have a replacement at his office so he sutured the incision closed and did not place a surgical drain,” the accusation alleges.
S.B.’s symptoms worsened. She developed a high fever, pain and swelling, and was admitted to a local emergency room with sepsis, a serious complication of an infection that can potentially progresses to septic shock, a dramatic drop in blood pressure and even death.
Helliwell’s “attempt at salvage by reclosing the wound showed a fundamental lack of knowledge,” the accusation alleges.
The case also alleges sexual misconduct on the part of Helliwell. According to the document, S.B. first met Helliwell when they arranged a sexual encounter. By coincidence, S.B. had made an appointment for a consultation with Helliwell prior to that first sexual encounter.
Following their encounter, S.B. saw Helliwell for a consultation and later underwent two surgical procedures in 2011 and 2013.
The sexual relationship continued, but with a twist.
“When they had sex, (Helliwell) would pay S.B. for her services in cash,” the accusation document says. “They met in motels, her apartment or his office.”
She was his patient for two years, the allegations continue, and “their sexual relationship continued through most of this period.”
Medical Board spokeswoman Cassandra Hockenson said the next step is to schedule a settlement conference, during which officials with the state attorney general’s office will meet with Helliwell and his attorney to determine whether a settlement can be reached before the case goes before an administrative judge.
“We start with the big guns,” Hockenson said. “Because this is serious.”
Along with the new allegations, the public letter of reprimand against Helliwell in 2011 will also be taken into consideration.
Revocation or suspension of Helliwell’s license to practice medicine is being sought, Hockenson said. However, other outcomes could include placing Helliwell on supervised probation, the cost of which he would have to bear.
It’s not unusual, however, that a settlement is reached that does not require the accused even to admit wrongdoing. (LINK)—8/10/15
His friend had just died of cancer. He was smoking more and more marijuana and experimenting with pills.
On the eve of his friend’s funeral, Barber, 19, passed out on the family couch in Laguna Niguel while watching a late-night movie.
Slumped in a corner, he looked to friends as if he was sleeping. He was actually dying.
Barber fatally overdosed Jan. 8, 2010, on a cocktail of Opana, a narcotic painkiller, Seroquel, an anti-psychotic and Clonazepam, an anti-convulsant often used to treat anxiety, coroner’s records show.
Abuse of prescription drugs has risen nationally among teens and young adults, experts say, because these drugs are easy to get and seen as a “safe” high. The names of doctors who are an easy touch for prescription narcotics spread quickly among teens. Some users get huge prescriptions and then sell pills on the street to finance their own habit.
Here in Orange County, coroner records show that accidental fatal overdoses rose steadily from 130 in 2003 to 266 in 2009. Preliminary figures for 2010 show at least 240 overdoses although final toxicological findings are still pending in some of the cases.
Barber didn’t have a prescription for the Opana.Jarrod’s mother, Jodi Barber, believes he purchased it from a now-deceased friend who was a patient of Dr. Lisa Tseng of Rowland Heights – an osteopath under state and federal investigation. There’s no mystery about the other drugs: Dr. Paul D. Corona of Laguna Niguel prescribed the Clonazepam, and a few months later, the Seroquel.
Coroner’s records show that drugs prescribed by Tseng – including Xanax, methadone and morphine – were found in the bodies of at least three fatal overdose victims in Orange County since 2000. Additionally, the parents of two other dead youths, Jarrod Barber and Ryan Winter, blame Tseng for the drugs that led to their overdoses. Jodi Barber says she has taken her suspicions to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
In August, after discovering that Tseng had written more than 27,000 prescriptions over a three-year period, federal agents revoked Tseng’s license to prescribe narcotics. DEA investigators alleged in court papers that Tseng was operating “outside of the ordinary course of a professional practice.”Meanwhile, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California is working to revoke her medical license, officials confirm.
Unlike Tseng, Corona, who specializes in the treatment of mood disorders, has not been named as a target by state medical investigators or federal drug authorities. But records show that Corona is on five years probation with the state medical board for using drug samples to treat his own manic disorder. Additionally, a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court in 2007 accuses him of negligence and wrongful deathfor his treatment of a woman who crashed her car while driving under the influence of prescription drugs, killing a young mother. Corona calls the suit “nonsense.”
In an interview, Corona described himself as the “guru” of prescribing mood-stabilizers to treat substance abusers; a regimen he says is effective at relieving the underlying depression or anxiety often at the root of addiction. He says he rarely prescribes pain killers. An author and former radio personality, Corona’s message is that psychotropic medicines are invaluable in healing the mind and, consequently, the body.
“I am the top prescriber of psychotropic medications around,” Corona said. “Ninety-five percent of my patients are very happy. The fact anyone would put me in that category (as Tseng) is laughable.”
Corona is praised by some local doctors, but a psychiatric expert who testified in the 2007 lawsuit said that Corona has no formal training in psychology and acted outside the scope of his training as a general practitioner. Two addiction experts interviewed by The Register criticized Corona’s wide use of psychotropic drugs to treat people already hooked on controlled substances.
Dr. Harry Haroutunian, physician director at the famed Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, says it is especially dangerousto prescribe drugs with sedative qualitieswhen treating addicts in an out-patient setting, where they mightscore more drugs on the street.
“If he is telling you he is the highest prescriber,” Haroutunian said, “that would be a dubious distinction by my measuring stick.”
PSYCHOTIC BREAKDOWN
Corona’s personal and professional lives have weathered considerable chaos over the last several years, public documents show.
On Dec. 17, 2007, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were sent to Corona’s Laguna Niguel home and found him in his backyard having a “psychotic breakdown” and threatening suicide, an accusation from the Medical Board of California shows.
“Respondent was acting bizarre and was very aggressive, yelling and screaming incoherently. The officers had to taser respondent several times in order to subdue him,” said the report by the medical board. Corona was hospitalized for nearly a month for psychological observation.
It was the same year that he published a book about treating mood disorders, entitled “Healing the Mind and Body.”
In a 2008 interview with the Medical Board, Corona said he suffered an episode of hypomania three years prior. State documents say that he was prescribed Seroquel by his psychiatrist, but admitted to self-medicating from his sample drugs after his psychiatrist moved away.
“His disorder has impacted his ability to practice safely and led to his hospitalization for a psychotic breakdown,” the state complaint said.
Corona was put on probation for five years in 2009.
Since opening a new office in 2008, Corona has focused on treating neuro-chemical imbalances that prevent the brain from reaching what he calls the “Wonder of Optimal Well-being” or the WOW state.
Sporting a flattop haircut and a Hawaiian shirt, Corona sees about 500 patients a month at his two-room suite, in a non-descript business center off Ivy Glenn Drive.Instead of a Rolodex, he keeps his phone numbers on a wrinkled piece of paper crammed inside his desk drawer.
Before his 2007 hospitalization, Corona said he had a 10,000-square-foot office with three other doctors. The practice foundered about the same time as his mental problems appeared. In 2008 he opened the solo practice.
Patient Madelyn Picascio, 72, of Laguna Niguel, said Corona brought her out of a deep depression.
“He is way better than any psychologist,” Picascio said. “There’s always a loony who will accuse the doctors of something. All I know is he helped me.”
Dr. Carlos Montano, who has a private practice in Newport Beach and works at the Chemical Dependency Recovery Center at Hoag Hospital, says he often refers addicts to Corona. Montano estimated that up to 75 percent of the addicts he sees require drugs to stabilize their mood swings.
“Dr. Corona is a wonderful mental health physician,” Montano says. “He gets referred some of the worst cases.”
But not all experts in this field agree with such an approach – or that general practitioners like Corona should be treating mental patients.
Addiction specialists agree the limited use of drugs can be necessary, especially for addicts so physically dependant that removing all drugs could be fatal. But they say some doctors are now too quick to prescribe a chemical course rather than let the brain stabilize itself.
With these cases comes the danger – especially in an out-patient setting – that the addicts will supplement their prescriptions with street drugs, unbeknownst to the doctor, as in the case of Jarrod Barber.
“It’s very dangerous out there,” Haroutunian says.
Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, a Harrisburg, PA, psychiatrist who specializes in addiction, agrees that fewer psychotropic pills and more exercise, better food and therapy is the best way to heal the brain.
“It’s better for the brain than adding more chemicals,” says Kruszewski. “You need to let the brain establish itself and detoxify and you can’t do that by adding more chemicals. You get more complications and more adverse effects when you administer more drugs. You can facilitate the brain’s restoration with time, support and healthy living.”
‘LUDICROUS’ STANDARD OF CARE
Corona was one of the doctors treating a mentally ill woman, Janene K. Johns, in August 2006. Johns fell asleep at the wheel with sedatives in her system, killing a young mother in Newport Beach, public documents show.
The family of the victim, Candace Tift, 31, is suing Corona and Johns’ other physician, Dr. Jeffrey Barke, for wrongful death. Although none of the drugs prescribed by Corona were in Johns’ system, according to a toxicological report, the family’s attorney alleges her doctors should have hospitalized Johns or otherwise prevented her from driving because of the severity of her illness.
Attorney Sidney Martin, who is defending both doctors, said “I don’t think there was any negligence of any kind on the part of Dr. Barke and Dr. Corona.”
Court papers say Johns displayed a series of bizarre behaviors, such as stating that the shower in her home was causing cancer and that the voice of her recently deceased husband was passing messages through the television. Johns started filling one-gallon bottles with water and placing them throughout her house, for fear of disaster, documents say.
Johns’ daughter took her to their family practitioner, Barke, who referred them to Corona as a “specialist in mood disorders,” court documents charge.
Dominick Addario, a psychiatrist and professor at University of California, San Diego, testified in a declaration for the lawsuit that Corona has no formal training in psychology or psychiatry.
Corona’s “assessment, care, treatment and handling of Ms. Johns’ situation …was not simply below the standard of care, but rather it was ludicrous,” Addario testified.
For example, Addario testified, Corona did not perform any type of psychiatric evaluation of Johns. He did not document the history of the patient’s behavior. He incorrectly assumed that Johns had stopped taking Ambien. He did not assess how much Xanax Johns was taking.
Corona prescribed Seroquel, which is commonly used for treating schizophrenia, and gave her a two-week supply from his samples, court documents say.
“Dr. Corona should have realized that Ms. Johns was in the midst of a psychotic breakdown and that she was irrational and her judgment impaired,” Addario testified. “At minimum, Dr. Corona should have instructed/insisted that Ms. Johns be seen by him in a minimum of 3 days and that she not be left alone, not drive, and have her medication administration strictly supervised.”
Addario said the accident would not have happened if Corona had been more diligent.
“It was ludicrous to assume that Ms. Johns could safely and reliably administer medication, drive a car, or be left alone,” Addario says.
In a deposition in response to the lawsuit, Corona testified that he didn’t recall talking to Johns about the details of her psychotic breakdown. He added her drug use would have been detailed in a questionnaire that his office gives.
In an interview, Corona labeled the lawsuit “lawyer fishing.”
“It’s nonsense, there was absolutely no basis for her hospitalization,” Corona says. “You can’t go back later and say, ‘You should have known.’”
Johns is serving a 6-year prison sentence for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
The Tifts’ lawsuit is scheduled for trial in June.
A BAD MIX
Seeking help for their marijuana-abusing son, Jodi and her husband, Bill, were referred by a local psychologist to Corona in October of 2009. Corona prescribed Clonazepam, at Jarrod’s request, the anti-depressant Pristiq and, later, the anti-depressant Cymbalta, according to a treatment chronology that Corona sent to the Register.
Corona saw Jarrod again two days before his death. He prescribed Seroquel because “it is not addictive and is safe, and could potentially help to resolve or decrease his anxiety and help to improve his sleep and appetite,” the chronology says. The document notes that Jarrod told Corona he wasn’t taking Clonazepam “as much over time.”
Jarrod came out of Carona’s office loaded up with Seroquel samples, so he could get started right away, Jodi Barber says.
Haroutunian as well as Kruszewski questioned why a doctor would prescribe Seroquel to someone taking Clonazepam – since both can act as sedatives.
“You’re getting unintended adverse consequences from taking Seroquel and Clonazepam. And when you mix them with more sedatives, you can end in overdose,” said Kruszewski, who has testified against the makers of Seroquel for marketing uses not approved by the federal government. Seroquel-maker AstraZeneca this week signed a $68.5 million settlement with attorneys general in California and 37 other states who had accused the company of marketing off-label uses for the drug.
Seroquel’s government-approved use is for schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, but Corona – as other doctors do – was using it off-label to help Jarrod sleep and eat. It’s legal for doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label uses, but illegal for drug-makers to promote them.
Haroutunian called Seroquel and Clonazepam “a bad mix.”
“Both depress the central nervous system. Together they can have an addictive effect,” Haroutunian said.
Monitoring her son’s drug intake, Jodi said she confiscated the drug samples from Jarrod, but missed a four-pill box of Seroquel. Jarrod apparently took three pills the night he died, which was the prescribed dosage, along with the illegally obtained Opana, the pain-killer. He also had Clonazepam and marijuana in his system, according to a toxicological report in the coroner’s records.
Corona says he didn’t mean for the Clonazepam and the Seroquel to be taken simultaneously.
“If they choose to do it anyway, against my advice, look what happens,” he said.
Corona says he is being vilified by a small group looking to displace blame.
“It’s disheartening when a few comments sway this completely imbalanced view of what I do by people who don’t know what I do,” Corona said.
Jodi Barber disagrees.
“He knew what he gave Jarrod,” said Jodi Barber. “I’m horrified; just devastated.”
THE DIAMOND PLAZA
Opana is a prescription drug relatively new on the street. A time-release pain killer, essentially synthetic morphine, it can induce euphoria but can also depress the respiratory system. Coroners weren’t finding it in Orange County overdose cases until 2009; since then it’s appeared in six cases.
Recovering addict Dimitri Zarate, 32, of Dana Point, said he got his Opana from Dr. Lisa Tseng.
“The hardest part was the drive to (her office in) Rowland Heights,” says Zarate. “Once you got in the room, it took five minutes.” Zarate said he paid $300 for the visit and got prescriptions for drugs with a street value of $4,000. His plan was to sell half the drugs and keep the other half – a typical pattern among abusers. Zarate entered a Dana Point recovery center late last year.
Tseng remains under investigation by the DEA, which searched her “AAA Advance Care Medical Center” in August and revoked her ability to prescribe federally-controlled narcotics. The osteopathic board is working with the state attorney general’s office to revoke her license, officials said. Until then, her clinic remains open.
The Register visited Tseng’s clinic earlier this month, but Tseng declined through a nurse to be interviewed. She provided the name of a lawyer, Mark Mermelstein of Los Angeles, but he also declined comment.
On one recent weekday night, her clinic remained busy, handling flu patients and young athletes seeking a quick physical.
Meanwhile, Dr. Corona is putting the finishing touches on his second book ontreating addiction and mood disorders. Aimed at physicians, it will be titled, “Healing the Mind and Body, Part 2.” He hopes to finish his probation with the medical board early. (LINK) — 3/11/2011
‘Guru’ doctor of mood-stabilizing drugs on probation for second time
A doctor who described himself in an Orange County Register investigation as the “guru” of mood-stabilizing drugs has been put on probation for the second time by state medical regulators.
The Medical Board of California put Laguna Niguel physician Paul Corona on a five-year probation Friday for gross negligence in treating five patients and failing to maintain adequate medical records. He was also put on probation in 2009 after suffering a psychotic breakdown.
Corona, who described himself to the Register as the most prolific prescriber of mood-stabilizing drugs anywhere, is prohibited from supervising physician assistants during his probation.
His attorney, Ronald Talmo, declined comment Monday.
Jodi Barber, whose son, Jarrod, overdosed in 2010 on a mixture of drugs, some prescribed by Corona, said the state was too lenient.
“This is ridiculous. Remove his license permanently. How many slaps on the hand is he going to be given?” said Barber of Laguna Niguel.
Her son did not appear to be one of the victims in the state complaint.
Corona was the subject of a 2011 investigation by the Register into how doctors overprescribed to teens, fueling a rise in Orange County overdoses. Coroner records show accidental fatal overdoses have risen steadily from 130 in 2003 to 291 in 2013.
Corona preached the use of psychotropic drugs to remove the mental traumas that feed drug addiction.
“I am the top prescriber of psychotropic medications around,” Corona said. “Ninety-five percent of my patients are very happy.”
But drug addiction experts questioned Corona’s tactics, saying it didn’t make sense to use drugs to fight drugs.
Dr. Harry Haroutunian, physician director at the famed Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, told the Register in 2011 it is especially dangerous to prescribe drugs with sedative qualities when treating addicts in an outpatient setting, where they might score more drugs on the street.
“If he is telling you he is the highest prescriber,” Haroutunian said, “that would be a dubious distinction by my measuring stick.”
Corona first came under the state’s attention after Orange County sheriff’s deputies were sent to his Laguna Niguel home in 2007 to investigate reports of a man having a psychotic breakdown and threatening suicide, according to a medical board accusation.
“Respondent was acting bizarre and was very aggressive, yelling and screaming incoherently. The officers had to taser respondent several times in order to subdue him,” said the report by the medical board. Corona was hospitalized for nearly a month for psychological observation.
It was the same year that he published a book about treating mood disorders, entitled “Healing the Mind and Body.”
In a 2008 interview with the medical board, Corona said he suffered an episode of hypomania three years prior. State documents say that he was prescribed Seroquel by his psychiatrist, but he admitted to self-medicating from his sample drugs after his psychiatrist moved away.
“His disorder has impacted his ability to practice safely and led to his hospitalization for a psychotic breakdown,” the state complaint said. He was put under suspension for five years in June 2009.
Under the latest probation, Corona must take courses in prescribing practices, medical record keeping, medical ethics and clinical education. He must also find another physician to monitor him, according to medical board documents. (LINK) — 8/04/2015
DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS—DISCIPLINARY RELINQUISH - the licensing board or department disciplined licensed practitioner, and the licensee offers to give up his/her license to practice in the state of Florida to avoid further prosecution in a disciplinary case. The practitioner is no longer obligated to update his/her profile data.
State suspends Boynton doctor, alleging he violated prior order
Mondays are supposed to be scalpel days for Boynton Beach plastic surgeon Mark D. Schreiber. But not today.
The Florida Department of Health issued an emergency suspension order against the doctor late Friday, saying it believed that the last time the state suspended Schreiber’s license, he continued to operate, performing liposuction and lip enhancement in 2005 during a month he was forbidden to practice.
On hearing of the suspension order, Schreiber’s attorney, Michael Salnick, said the surgeon has become a scapegoat for a system that hasn’t always policed its problem doctors.
“Over the years, people were critical that physicians were protected. Now all of a sudden, all of that vigilance seems to be directed at this individual,” Salnick said. “He appears to be taking the heat for many, many physicians who have done far worse and appear to have gotten away with it.”
On his Web sites, Schreiber emphasizes his artistic and socially conscious sides. There are intricate watercolor paintings and accounts of global volunteer work repairing children’s cleft palates.
A suite of before-and-after photographs depicts surgical artistry: thunder-thighs turned thoroughbred, eye bags erased, flat bosoms made ample.
There’s no mention, however, of the lengthy malpractice docket, the thickening state disciplinary file or a decade’s worth of press clippings that highlight out-of-court settlements and over-the-top marketing misadventures. No mention of the 1997 tavern T-shirt contest in which the winner won a free breast augmentation, courtesy of the doctor and a Miami radio station.
Schreiber is awaiting state action on a 2002 patient death and court action on a 2005 criminal battery charge filed by a disgruntled plastic surgery patient who called 911.
The Florida Board of Medicine has yet to act on either instance. But in a news release issued late Friday, the Department of Health’s top administrator, Dr. M. Rony Francois, said he felt compelled to take immediate action.
“His history of complaints strongly concerns the Department and the Board,” Francois wrote. “We have no choice but to suspend this practitioner’s right to practice medicine in order to protect the residents and visitors of Florida.”
It has taken more than 3 ½ years for the Florida Board of Medicine to act on the death of Boynton Beach developer Ralph DiGiovanni, who died in 2002 days after Schreiber performed an in-office neck lift and hernia repair.
The board’s delayed review has brought renewed scrutiny of doctors’ ability to police their fellow physicians. The Florida board is among the nation’s most lenient, according to Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, ranking 32nd in the issuance of severe penalties.
It’s not the first time Schreiber’s practice has brought scrutiny to the Board of Medicine itself. In January 1998, a Schreiber patient, 51-year-old Daniel Parish of Lantana, died after nine hours of multiple procedures: liposuction, penis enlargement and eye and neck cosmetic surgery.
Publicity over that case launched an array of new regulations intended to make in-office surgery in Florida safer. Since then, many of the restrictions and penalties for violating them have been weakened.
Schreiber, meanwhile, has faced continued turmoil.
His license was suspended in October 2005 because, according to the Florida Department of Health, “Schreiber gave the department reason to question his ability to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety when he appeared to be under the influence and inappropriately touched the patient. He was arrested for domestic battery against his wife in 2005.”
The suspension was lifted after Schreiber agreed to work with patients only in the presence of another doctor.
Salnick said both of those incidents have been misconstrued.
In the domestic case, a bystander called police upon hearing a verbal argument between Schreiber and his wife, Salnick said. The state attorney’s office dropped the charges, Salnick said.
In the case of the alleged “inappropriate touching,” Salnick said the police report makes clear that the alleged victim indicated the touching was not of a sexual nature.
Schreiber had agreed to come in on a weekend to remove sutures from a woman who had eye surgery. The woman has a history of filing nuisance lawsuits, Salnick said. As for the woman’s “under the influence” accusation, the doctor was on cold medicine but was trying to help, Salnick said.
“I’m disappointed that the administrative body didn’t wait for the criminal justice system to work through the process,” Salnick said. “Dr. Schreiber is a talented, well-respected physician. He looks forward to the time when he can return to practice.” (LINK) — 8/14/2006
Ex-Boynton Beach surgeon accused of mutilating man’s penis
A South Florida patient said his penis was deformed by a former Boynton Beach surgeon who did not have a license to operate.
Multiple media outlets report that Mark D. Schreiber, 60, of Tamarac, was arrested Friday on a charge of unlicensed practice of health care, causing serious injury.
Hialeah police said the unidentified patient paid Schreiber in February to remove a material that had been injected into his penis to make it longer and thicker.
Authorities said the man who performed the initial procedures, Nery C. Gonzalez, 48, is wanted on the same charge.
The patient said his penis is now severely deformed and is unable to function sexually.
Schreiber was given a two-year sentence in 2008 on similar charges of unlicensed practicing. (LINK) — 8/5/2015
Patient’s mangled penis lands notorious doctor in trouble again
MIAMI—One of South Florida’s most notorious plastic surgeons — linked to a string of high-profile botched surgeries and two patient deaths over the years — pleaded not guilty Friday to allegations he mangled a man’s penis during an illegal cosmetic surgery in Hialeah.
A Miami-Dade judge also ordered that Mark Schreiber must post a $250,000 bond and remain on house arrest while he awaits trial for what a prosecutor called the “butchery of a human being.”
“He has no business practicing medicine and touching another human being,” prosecutor Warren Eth said. “This man epitomizes the danger to the community. He is a flight risk.”
Schreiber, 61, is facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted. It wouldn’t be his first time: Schreiber earlier served two years in prison for the same charges: practicing medicine without a license.
Schreiber has a well-chronicled history of trouble in the medical profession.
Back in June 1998, Florida’s health department placed Schreiber on probation after he performed a botched penis enlargement and face lift that killed a 51-year-old patient.
Four years later, Schreiber came under scrutiny from the health department after 73-year-old developer Ralph DiGiovanni died of a heart attack two days after he had a neck lift at the surgeon’s office. The outcome of that investigation was unclear Friday.
But his practice imploded in 2005, when multiple patients came forward to complain about his work. His license was suspended that year after a woman complained he touched her inappropriately during a surgery. But he continued to practice medicine afterward, until he was forced to give up his license on year later.
Schreiber was eventually arrested and agreed to serve two years in prison for illegally operating on four different women.
He was later sued, along with a Palm Beach’s Bethesda Memorial Hospital, over a botched surgery that left a woman with ghastly scars. Just last April, a jury awarded the woman $7.7 million.
Since his release from prison, Schreiber has continued to practice covertly, according to prosecutors. He was also arrested in Broward County on a slew of drug possession charges, for which he accepted a plea deal.
He is accused of operating on a man in 2015 who has received a botched “penis filler” operation from another suspected illegal doctor. In a Hialeah warehouse, Schreiber performed the surgery for $1,000 cash, according to police.
When the man regained consciousness at home, he discovered that “blood soaked bandages” and that his penis has been “mutilated,” according to court documents.
The victim sent text-message photos of his mangled genitals to Schreiber, police said.
“At that point, rather than referring that gentleman to a hospital … he recommends to take two popsicle sticks and tie his penis together and wait for swelling to go down,” Eth said.
Schreiber’s defense attorney, Shahnam Yazdani, described her client as a devoted family man who, during his time as a doctor, traveled to Latin America to help the poor. “He gave back to his community,” she said.
But Circuit Judge Miguel de la O was swayed in the prosecution’s favor, although Florida law mandates Schreiber be allowed the chance for release on the charges. “If I could hold him no-bond, I would,” de la O said. (LINK) — 10/21/2016
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