Professional Documents
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CityWatch LA Article-Short
CityWatch LA Article-Short
It is estimated that over 40,000 patients die in California each and every year, from
preventable medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death behind cancer and
heart disease.
Fact: The Medical Board of California takes in nearly 11,000 complaints against doctors
every year, but only about 4%* of them end up with any discipline.
So, what about the other 96%? The Board is protected by laws that allow them to hide
their actions from the public, so it’s virtually impossible to find out. The Board will publish
disciplines against doctors -- but not the complaints they are based on, even though other
agencies do.
Even more frustrating is that the Medical Board takes on average, 2½ to 3 years (and
sometimes up to 6) to complete an investigation of a doctor and levy a discipline.
By not acting quickly enough (or at all), the Board puts consumers in danger. According to
reports, the Medical Board knew about sexual assault complaints against Dr. Michael
Popkin as far back as 2001. An accusation was filed against him in November of 2003,
but contained no charges of sexual misconduct. It became clear that he continued to
sexually assault patients when he was arrested in 2016. The court issued a court order
preventing him from treating female patients in October 2017 and the Board finally
revoked his license in April of 2018, some SEVENTEEN YEARS after first receiving
sexual assault complaints about him. Because of the Board’s inaction, more people were
harmed.
Alex Smick of Downey was overdosed to death after he checked himself into a hospital
after taking too many pain meds for sports injury. Dr. Daniel Headrick prescribed him a
lethal cocktail of medications and then instructed the staff to NOT check on him while he
was sleeping. The next morning he was found face down in his bed in a pile of vomit,
dead. It had been so long since anyone had checked on him that he was already in rigor
mortis. Alex died in February of 2012. His family filed a Medical Board complaint against
Dr. Headrick in November of 2013. The Board didn’t even interview Headrick for almost
two years. It took another year for the Board to file an accusation against him. Finally,
right before Christmas 2017, 5½ years after Alex’s death, the family received the Medical
Board’s decision. Dr. Headrick was given a “Public Reprimand,” a disciplinary action that
is reserved for minor violations, certainly not a death. In total, it took 4 years and 16 days
(or 1477 days) for the Board to process the complaint, and Headrick was allowed to
practice the whole time. He later went on a television show, bragging about his lenient
discipline from the Board and putting the blame on everyone but himself.
Watch Alex’s parents as they hold the Medical Board accountable at one of their
quarterly meetings.
Ponder this. The Medical Board derives the bulk of its working capital from the license
fees of the very doctors they oversee. How is that not an automatic conflict of interest? If
they revoke too many licenses, they lose those license fees. The Board complains about
not having enough money to pay staff and investigators (even with a budget over $60
million) and that’s with closing 96% of the consumer complaints. If even 50% of the
closed complaints were legitimate, how could they possibly investigate them all, when
they don’t even have enough money to investigate the 4% they do get to?
In January 1993, the L.A. Times published an article detailing how a few Medical Board
whistleblowers claimed their superiors had been literally throwing consumer complaints in
the trash.
Example...Annette Ramirez was harmed by a doctor who sliced her bowel after a routine
surgery. For more than 36 hours nurses failed to report her abnormal vital signs and her
doctor failed to adequately follow up to check her condition after surgery. An infection
rapidly spread through her system causing her to go into septic shock. Gangrene spread,
which led to the amputation of her arms and legs.
Annette filed a complaint with the Medical Board only to have it shut down, claiming no
lapses in the standard of care. Does the standard of care really allow for the amputation
of a patients’ limbs after a doctor harms them??
And lest you think Annette’s story is an exception, here are links to other stories of victims
who had their complaints closed without a proper investigation: Robert Downey, Mario
Guzman, Daniela Zelig, Morgan Westhoff, Cali Andrist, Eric Andrist.
This past November, we helped 10News in San Diego with a story on more than 150
doctors who were disciplined for sexual abuse and other serious violations. In December
NBC-LA chronicled a story we found of Sarah Al-Habib and how she had been sexually
assaulted by her doctor. In February, our data led NBC to the story of three L.A.-area
doctors, all of whom are on the Sex Offender Registry, but are still practicing medicine,
and how the Medical Board makes no effort whatsoever to warn patients about them.
Here’s 32 California doctors who appear on the Sex Offender Registry.
SOME OF OUR LAWS AREN’T PROTECTING US
To show how bad the laws are that govern the Medical Board, take a look at the case of
Dr. Ryszard Chetkowski, who ran a fertility clinic. Chetkowski was accused by at least six
women of sexual misconduct. Even after the Medical Board detailed the multiple horrific
sexual assaults, they still only gave him a Public Reprimand. By law, Public Reprimand’s
disappear from the Board’s website after 10 years, unlike other documents which remain
visible indefinitely. Chetkowski’s page on their website is clear; there’s not one mention of
the sexual assaults.
Recently, the Medical Board and the Attorney General’s Office had to admit that one of
their own medical “experts” (Dr. Aaron Stone) behaved in such a way that the accusation
against Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Hughes, had to be dismissed. Hughes’
attorney basically called the Medical Board’s expert a liar and corrupt. So, while the
accusation very well could have had legitimate concerns in it, the Board was forced to
dismiss the action and now, Hughes’ profile on their website provides no information
whatsoever to the public in regard to anything a patient might need to be concerned
about. You can watch key portions of the hearing exposing the “corrupt expert” HERE.
Hughes has at least two pending court cases in the Los Angeles Superior Court, but you
won’t find that information on the Medical Board’s website, either.
We started our little nonprofit, The Patient Safety League, so that we can officially try to
help victims of medical errors, warn the public about doctors with all degrees of
disciplinary actions, and monitor state agencies like the Medical Board of California and
the Department of Public Health, both of which are not properly protecting us. We started
our website due to the lack of information on the Medical Board’s website. Right now
we’re existing hand to mouth, and it often costs us a lot of money from our own pockets to
do our job. Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Patient Safety League on their
website.