Dr. Alan Gumer, 64, of Tamarac, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud after being charged on Feb. 15, 2011, along with 19 others involved in the scheme, on various counts of health care fraud, money laundering and other offenses.

Gumer was a psychiatrist at American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a Miami-based corporation that supposedly operated partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) in seven locations throughout South Florida and Orlando. Co-defendants included ATC; its management company, Medlink Professional Management Group Inc.; and the owners and lead manager of ATC, Medlink and the American Sleep Institute (ASI).

PHPs administer intensive treatment to patients suffering from severe mental illness, and Gumer admitted signing evaluations, notes and other medical documents for patients he knew didn’t need the intensive — and expensive — treatment for which ATC billed Medicare.

Gumer admitted signing papers without examining the patients or even writing and reading the statements he was signing. He also confessed to writing prescriptions for unnecessary psychiatric medications in order to fool Medicare into believing the patients qualified for PHP treatment.

The crooked doctor also referred hundreds of ATC patients to a related company and co-conspirator, ASI, for pointless diagnostic sleep disorder testing. Gumer’s co-defendants, ATC’s owners and operators, paid kickbacks to owners and operators of assisted living facilities (ALFs), halfway houses and patient brokers in exchange for ineligible patients which ATC and ASI could use to defraud Medicare. “Patients” sometimes received a cut of the kickbacks as well.

Overall, the ATC and ASI paid out millions of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for bogus Medicare beneficiaries who didn’t qualify for PHP services to attend illegitimate treatment programs so ATC and ASI could swindle Medicare for more than $200 million in unnecessary medically services.

Gumer’s role in the scheme was responsible for $19.3 million in fraudulent Medicare billing alone, and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Gumer’s sentencing is scheduled for January 2012.

ATC, its owners, and the lead manager of ATC, Medlink and ASI were charged with various counts of health care fraud, money laundering and other offenses in a separate superseding indictment unsealed on Feb. 15, 2011.

Two of the three ATC owners and the lead manager, as well as both ATC and Medlink, have pleaded guilty to more than $200 million in fraudulent Medicare billing and are scheduled for sentencing in September 2011. The trial of the third owner charged is scheduled to begin in August of this year. The remaining 17 co-defendants named in the indictment in which Gumer was charged are scheduled to stand trial in November 2011.

The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 1,000 defendants who fraudulently billed Medicare for more than $2.3 billion.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.

URL: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/07/08/psychiatrist-pleads-guilty-in-200-million-medicare-kickback-sch/

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Misconduct charges include accepting kidney from patient

The New York State Health Department has revoked the license of an Elmira psychiatrist who has admitted charges of misconduct including accepting a kidney from a patient.

Dr. Carlos Delos-Reyes received his license to practice medicine in New York in March 1987. His license will be permanently restricted, effective June 21, and he will be prohibited from practicing in New York State.

According to a statement of charges issued by the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct, Delos-Reyes provided psychiatric care to patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira, Family Services of Chemung County Mental Health Clinic or at the patients’ homes.

The misconduct charges filed against him include gross negligence, moral unfitness, willfully making a false report and failure to maintain adequate records for each patient.

» Between January 2010 and October 2010, Delos-Reyes failed to document a patient’s psychiatric, drug and alcohol use histories, and didn’t notice the patient’s adverse reaction to lithium, a mood stabilizing drug that Delos-Reyes prescribed without first evaluating the patient’s baseline kidney and thyroid function. Delos-Reyes was also charged with prescribing Xanax, used to treat anxiety attacks, without documenting the prescription. He also transcribed a prescription for Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, in the patient’s medical records but didn’t actually prescribe the medication.

» Between December 2008 and October 2009, Delos-Reyes failed to coordinate his treatment of a patient with her therapist, did not appropriately follow up on the patient’s levels of Valproic acid, a mood stabilizer used to treat conditions such as epilepsy, and did not refer the patient for metabolic lab studies.

» Between November 2005 and April 2009, Delos-Reyes accepted a kidney from a patient while serving as the patient’s psychiatrist. He also prescribed several medications for the patient without adequate medical justification, failed to document the prescriptions, and, in one instance, allowed the patient to write his own prescription. He was also charged with keeping inadequate medical records for the patient.

» From August 2005 to April 2008, Delos-Reyes failed to consult a patient’s primary care physician before treating the patient for hypersomnia, a disorder characterized by excessive amounts of sleepiness, failing to maintain an appropriate medication list for the patient and allowing the patient to complete the physician’s section of his behavioral health intake evaluation.

» From January 2004 to February 2009, Delos-Reyes did not perform an adequate psychiatric evaluation of a patient and failed to refer the patient for lab work to monitor his blood glucose and triglyceride levels.

URL:  http://www.stargazette.com/article/20110616/NEWS01/106160393/Elmira-psychiatrist-lose-license

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Dr. Ramaro Makkena, who has a child-and-adolscent practice on West Vine Street, was arrested Friday on prostitution-related charges after entering a decoy house set up for the week-long investigation, according to police.

“Prostitution can bring with it drug related crimes, robbery and burglary,” Police Chief Fran Iwanski said in a statement released Monday. “By conducting operations like this one, we are taking steps on curtailing these types of crimes within the City of Kissimmee.”

Besides prostitution, detectives targeted unlicensed contractors by trying to lure them to the undisclosed residence to make repairs, the report stated.

“The detectives had all the appliances in the home inspected by a master electrician to ensure they were working properly. The detectives then unplugged the dryer and placed service calls to handyman services on the dryer,” the report stated. “The elderly decoy would explain to the handyman the dryer was not working.”

Javier Medina, 46, was accused of fraud after spending an hour taking apart a clothes dryer, putting it back together and charging $60 without explaining his repairs, according to the report.

Police sent a recommendation that he be charged with organized fraud less than $300 by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

“On the positive side, handyman John Deja plugged in the dryer and gave the decoy a reduced service call rate. Mr. Deja was contacted by the detectives and was commended for his honesty,” the report said.

“It is important to hire only licensed, reputable contractors to do work in your home,” Iwanski said. “The Better Business Bureau is an excellent tool to use when deciding who is trustworthy enough to allow into your home.”

Dr. Makkena, who charged with assignation of prostitution and entering a dwelling for prostitution, was released Friday on $500 bail from the Osceola County Jail. He could not be reached immediately Monday afternoon at his office.

Fifteen others were arrested on similar charges, according to police.

hcurtis@tribune.com or 407-420-5257

URL: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-prostitution-sex-sting-craigslist-20110613,0,1658874.story

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Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: 06/09/2011 06:12:59 PM PDT
Updated: 06/10/2011 12:11:49 AM PDT

The wife of Dr. William Ayres, a once-renowned child psychiatrist now accused of molesting several of his young male patients, testified in court Thursday that her 79-year-old husband can’t remember conversations, mixes up his words and once forgot his son’s name.

“He asks a question, he asks the same question 10 minutes later,” Solveig Ayres said during her husband’s competency trial, which began this week in San Mateo County Superior Court.

Defense attorney Jonathan McDougall is seeking to prove that his client suffers from Alzheimer’s-related dementia to such a degree that he is not competent to stand trial again on nine counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with minors under the age of 14.

Several of the doctor’s former patients — now in their 20s and 30s — claim he molested them during physical and genital exams he conducted as part of psychiatry sessions. Ayres was prosecuted for the alleged crimes in 2009, but a jury could not agree on a verdict and a mistrial was declared. The district attorney’s office announced in August 2009 it would refile charges, just a month after the first trial ended.

In opening statements Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said she does not dispute that Ayres suffers from dementia. But she said he is capable of understanding the legal proceedings well enough to aid in his own defense. She told jurors that two court-appointed doctors will testify that Ayres is competent.

In
a competency trial, the burden of proof falls on the defense to prove that the defendant is incompetent, she added.

“I will never disagree with the fact that he has some cognitive impairment,” McKowan said. “That is going to be obvious. … But the fact that he is suffering from this mental defect does not mean he cannot stand trial for the crimes he is accused of.”

McDougall said he plans to call as many as seven doctors to the witness stand to cast doubt on Ayres’ competency.

“How is that person that is not able to remember the name of his son, able to function in the legal world?” McDougall asked during his opening statement.

Solveig Ayres, the first witness called by the defense, said her husband began worrying about his memory at the end of the 2009 trial — he couldn’t remember former patients who testified.

“He said, ‘There’s something wrong in my brain,’” Solveig Ayres said.

His condition has worsened since then, she said. William Ayres could not remember what time the judge had told them to be at court the day before. During meetings with McDougall to talk about the case, Solveig said she takes notes and reviews them with William to remind him what was discussed.

On one occasion last December, he couldn’t remember his son’s name, she testified.

Lately, she added, he has been mixing up his words. For example, while talking with her about the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, her husband said “Republican” instead of “Rachmaninoff.” Solveig testified that William makes lists of the words he switches and tries to find a correlation between them.

Under cross-examination, Mc-Kowan portrayed that as an indication that William Ayres is well enough to be aware that he is making mistakes and is trying to figure out why.

“So he will think rationally and logically even though, at a moment in time, he switched a word?” she asked Solveig Ayres.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

Email Diana Samuels at dsamuels@dailynewsgroup.com.-

URL: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18242724?nclick_check=1

Related stories: Ayres’ Dementia Too Severe For Him To Face Molestation Charges

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Opening statements were given in San Mateo County Superior Court this morning in the competency trial of William Ayres, 79, who has been charged with nine counts of performing lewd acts with seven boys during psychiatric examinations that took place between 1991 and 1996.

Ayres admitted in a 2009 trial that he conducted exams in which boys were naked from the waist down, but said that nothing inappropriate happened. The trial ended in a hung jury when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the counts.

The district attorney’s office decided in August 2009 to retry the case, but criminal proceedings have been suspended to allow a jury to decide whether Ayres remains competent enough to face charges.

In his opening statement Thursday morning, defense attorney Jonathan McDougall said Ayres’ mental deterioration has made it increasingly difficult for his client to understand his place in the legal proceedings or aid in his own defense.

McDougall said that at times, Ayres is unable to remember his own address, what he ate for dinner or the name of his son.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan said court-appointed psychiatrists agree with the defense that Ayres is showing signs of early-onset dementia and mental atrophy, but that the defendant remains well aware of the charges against him and is fit to stand trial.

Testimony in the competency trial began later Thursday morning.

URL: http://www.ktvu.com/news/28185802/detail.html

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina » A psychiatrist who has spent a lifetime traveling the world, meeting famous people and giving spiritual awareness lectures has been arrested in Argentina on charges of falsely billing $1 million in health insurance claims in Hawaii, authorities said Tuesday.

Dr. Carlos Livio Warter, 61, was arrested Monday afternoon at his home in a wealthy Buenos Aires neighborhood, where he had been working as a psychiatrist and leading seminars based on his latest book, “Pathways to the Soul.”

He will be extradited to the United States, said Osvaldo Magnoli, chief of fugitives investigations for Interpol in Argentina.

A Chilean-born naturalized U.S. citizen, Warter traveled regularly to Argentina, Chile and Hawaii, FBI special agent Tom Simon said in Honolulu.

Simon said FBI agents working out of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires were coordinating with their Argentine counterparts on the extradition.

Warter says on his website that he has spent 30 years “journeying between the fields of western medicine and the deep exploration of spiritual practices from around the world,” doing his residency at Harvard University’s Children’s Hospital and later lecturing at Esalen Institute.

He has written dozens of books in Spanish and English, and his site shows photos of him meeting with world leaders from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Brazilian soccer legend Pele and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. The site says his nonprofit groups include the World Health Foundation for Development and Peace, Heartnet International and Gota de Miel (Drop of Honey), which aided orphanages in Latin America.

A federal grand jury indictment accuses Warter of knowingly sending about $1 million in inflated bills to Medicaid, the Hawaii Medical Service Association and TRICARE, a federally funded program that provides care to military personnel. It alleges he overbilled for sessions that didn’t last as long as he claimed, and even billed for sessions when he wasn’t physically in the state, pocketing more than $530,000 to which he wasn’t completely entitled.

In addition to the federal indictment, Warter was charged in August 2009 with 37 state felonies accusing him of Medicare fraud, each punishable by up to five years in prison. This February he voluntarily surrendered his medical license for failure to comply with professional conduct laws, said Connie Cabral, executive officer of the Hawaii Medical Board, which is attached to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Argentine police said Warter, who is married and has four children, has been living for more than a year in Argentina. A woman answering his phone in Buenos Aires refused to comment Tuesday.

Jim Carter, listed by Warter as a U.S. contact for his seminars, said the arrest “has got me flabbergasted.”

“Everything I’ve done with him has been on the up and up, and he’s made a big positive impact on my life. I’m sure a lot of other people will say the same thing,” said Carter, who lives in the Lansing, Mich., area and began following Warter’s advice years ago.

“His day job is psychotherapy, and the other stuff he does is life coaching, with a spiritual bent,” Carter said. “A lot of his work is showing people how their ego is interfering, and to get that out of the way so their essence can grow.”

Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires and Jennifer Kelleher and Mark Niesse in Honolulu contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/hawaiinews/20110525_Psychiatrist_accused_of_overbilling.html

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A third former Hernando County Jail inmate filed suit against a psychiatrist accusing him of sexually harassing her.

The lawsuit, filed by a woman identified as “Jane Doe III,” was filed Tuesday in Hernando County Circuit Court, less than two weeks after the first suit was filed against the same doctor.

Dr. James Yelton Rossello is accused of fondling and molesting the three women while they were under his care last year. All three plaintiffs were inmates at the jail while Yelton was on the medical staff.

Corrections Corporation of America, which managed the jail, also has been named in the suits.

The latest plaintiff said CCA kept her in solitary confinement for 10 days after she reported the incidents to a correctional officer.

She alleges Yelton asked her intrusive questions about her sex life, propositioned her to have sex with him and told her to pull down her pants so he could touch her tattoo.

No criminal charges have been filed against Yelton, but the State Attorney’s Office is still investigating.

When the allegations first came to light in March, the Florida Surgeon General restricted Yelton from treating female patients.

Yelton is no longer employed by CCA.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

URL: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/jun/07/071406/another-suit-filed-against-embattled-jail-psychiat/

Related stories: Florida restricts license of ex-Hernando jail psychiatrist accused of molesting female inmates

Updated information.

By TONY HOLT | Hernando Today

She was offended, violated and wasn’t going to take it anymore, she said.
The former Hernando County jail inmate reported the alleged sexual harassment by her psychiatrist to a female correctional officer.
She consoled the shaken inmate. The two women talked. They cried. The officer promised to report it to her supervisors.
Less than an hour later, the inmate was led to a dark, isolated cell with no windows. She remained in solitary confinement for another nine days, she said.
She only received one visitor – an investigator from Corrections Corporation of America, the company that ran the jail.
Feeling ignored and intimidated, she was too scared to push the matter further, she said.
When she learned last month two of her former inmates filed lawsuits against Dr. James Yelton Rossello, she changed her mind and joined them, said attorney Samuel Rogatinsky.
Rogatinsky, of South Florida, is representing all three women in the lawsuit.
The latest plaintiff, identified in court documents as Jane Doe III, filed her suit Tuesday in Hernando County Circuit Court.
She sobbed during a conference call with her attorney.
“It wasn’t about me getting money,” she said. “It’s about him not being able to do this to anyone else.”
Jane Doe III was incarcerated at the jail from May to October 2010. CCA managed the jail until late August of that year.
She was released from solitary confinement about two weeks before the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office took over jail operations.
By then, the officer who consoled her was no longer employed at the jail and the other CCA managers who supposedly handled the complaint were gone. Yelton also had transferred.
CCA eventually fired him following a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.
Yelton has never been criminally charged, but the State Attorney’s Office is still investigating the Hernando cases.
Jane Doe III described Yelton as a large, broad-shouldered man who weighed about 250 pounds.
“He could have restrained one of us easily if he really wanted to,” she said.
In his court filing, Rogatinsky stated Yelton “sexually molested the Plaintiff on numerous occasions by touching the tattoo that was just above her buttocks while counseling her.”
Jane Doe III said Yelton repeatedly asked her about her sexual preferences, including whether she was bisexual or had any “lesbian relationships” in the jail. He also asked her to describe her favorite sexual positions.
Rogatinsky said Yelton initially would ask his patients sexually charged questions, but made them think it was part of his psychoanalysis.
Eventually, he stopped asking questions and started beckoning his patients to shed their clothes or perform other sexual favors, Rogatinsky said.
During her second visit with Yelton, the latest plaintiff told him she had gained weight. She assumed it was a side effect from one of the drugs the doctor had prescribed her.
“He told me to pull my pants down,” she said. “He told me he wanted to have sex with me.”
At one point, Yelton ordered her to show him her tattoo. When she lifted her shirt and revealed her lower back, he caressed it, she said.
The other two plaintiffs accused Yelton of rubbing, kissing and fondling them during their visits.
Yelton would invite his patients into a small office and he would lock the door to prevent correctional officers from entering, Rogatinsky said.
Jane Doe I accused Yelton of “threatening her with additional criminal charges and threatening to withhold her medications if she refused to cooperate with his deviant behavior,” the attorney wrote.
Jane Doe II accused him of forcing her to sit on his lap while he was sexually aroused, grabbing her crotch area and sexually battering her.
When the allegations first came to light in March, the Florida surgeon general restricted Yelton from treating female patients.
Rogatinsky said Yelton told at least one of the plaintiffs he was “98 percent faithful” to his wife and claimed he had an expense account and a hotel room for when she would be released from jail.
Rogatinsky said he would contact the State Attorney’s Office about the latest allegations.
CCA, based out of Nashville, Tenn., has declined to comment on the Yelton lawsuit.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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When Judge Robert Heinrichs renders sentence on August 4, will your portfolio be the one to take the fall?

On that date, it is expected that the judge will make his rulings on sentencing for a teenage boy, arrested after allegedly killing a fellow teenager in what one doctor calls a clear case of “Prozac reaction.”

“There is no reason other than a Prozac reaction,” said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York state-based psychiatrist and author of the book, Talking Back to Prozac. “(The killing) is a mystery without that.”

The entire affair starts with, of all things, an accidental dent put in the wood floor of the home of the accused by the victim. The accused, who was not home at the time of the accident, later invited the boys back to his house to hang out. When they were hanging out, the accused pulled out a knife and stabbed the boy in the chest.

The accused had been treated for depression and was prescribed Prozac three months prior to the killing. Some studies link the drug Prozac, first patented by Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) with behavioral and emotional changes in users under 18 years of age, including an increased risk of suicide.

After days after he began taking Prozac, the accused attempted suicide with some medication of his grandfather’s. His parents complained to the physician that, rather than help, the drug was making the boy’s condition worse. Rather than switch to a different drug, doctors increased the dosage of Prozac.

“It was a prescription for violence,” Breggin wrote in a report for the defense.

“Within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, I believe that Prozac drove (the accused) into a state of severe agitation with manic-like symptoms including mood swings, confusion, irrationality, extreme irritability, hostility and violence.”

Breggin said the teen should have stopped taking Prozac immediately after he attempted suicide.

“Right then and there should have been the end of the Prozac,” Breggin said. “When you have a drug that is causing mania, you stop taking the drug.”

Now, one boy is dead and another is in the morgue. Will Eli Lilly’s stock take a tumble after the verdict, or will the judge find the boy’s Prozac defense is nonsense? Will other lawsuits emerge? It could be a rough season of discontent for Eli Lilly.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/news/global/11/06/1142243/will-prozac-murder-trial-doom-eli-lilly-stock

Related stories:  Did Prozac Cause Teenager to Kill? Psychiatrist Says Yes

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Admits to prescribing drugs online without seeing patients

St. John’s psychiatrist Dr. Mohamed Mekawy fought back tears Thursday at a medical board disciplinary tribunal hearing while apologizing to his family, patients and colleagues for causing them shame.

Mekawy, who admitted to prescribing medications online to patients in the United States without seeing or assessing them, was given a four-month suspension, dating back to March 7 when his licence was suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador (CPSNL).

He’s also been ordered to complete a prescribing course, sign a written undertaking that he will not prescribe medications via the Internet and pay a portion of the costs for Thursday’s hearing, in an agreed amount of $10,000.

These sanctions, which were proposed in a joint legal submission by his lawyer Peter Browne and the college’s lawyer Lewis Andrews, were accepted Thursday afternoon by the disciplinary tribunal.

The full decision will also be published by the CPSNL.

After the tribunal’s decision, Browne asked if Mekawy could make a statement. The doctor said he was “ethically blinded” by assurances he was given by an Internet drug company that he could prescribe to patients in this manner.

Mekawy had his medical licences suspended in Indiana, Michigan and South Carolina in 2007, but failed to report that to the Newfoundland board and falsely answered no to questions regarding any suspensions, reprimands, restrictions or disciplinary actions in other jurisdictions in a 2008 application for licence renewal in this province.

In a letter of response to the Newfoundland board in 2010, after it discovered he provided false answers on the applications, Mekawy said his “profound sense of shame” affected his judgment to the point that he chose not to mention the incident with the U.S. medical authorities.

He told the tribunal Thursday he takes full responsibility for his actions, has learned some serious lessons and promises to never engage in such unethical practices again.

The tribunal, chaired by Dr. Jody Woolfrey, with members Dr. Ed Collins and John Whalen, heard that Mekawy began practising medicine in Newfoundland in 2003. He also held licences in the U.S. states of Indiana, Michigan and South Carolina.

The Newfoundland medical board received information from the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States in August 2010, providing a summary of reported actions regarding Mekawy’s medical licences in Indiana, Michigan and South Carolina. His licence was temporarily suspended in Indiana in late 2007, after which he voluntarily withdrew his Indiana licence prior to or in lieu of an inquiry and agreed to never again apply for a licence in that state.

Mekawy’s licences in the two other states were subsequently suspended.

Mekawy explained in his letter to the Newfoundland board, he received correspondence in 2007 from a company expressing interest in having him provide prescribing services to its Internet pharmacy, USACHOICEMEDS.com.

He said he spoke to a man by phone who said the company provided assistance to people in the U.S. who had difficulty obtaining health insurance.

Mekawy agreed to issue prescriptions for a fee and said he provided this service for about two months in July and August, 2007.

“The general protocol I followed involved the receipt of a completed questionnaire by a patient on my home computer which contained pertinent medical information along with a request for medication. I would review this information and either agree or disagree with the request,” Mekawy said.

He also said he didn’t knowingly prescribe controlled medications because he was not aware that one drug he prescribed, Soma, was considered a controlled drug in some U.S. states.

After the Indiana medical board informed him his licence was being suspended, Mekawy said the Internet drug company provided him with no support or assistance.

He said his licences in Michigan and South Carolina were also suspended, “likely due to a reciprocity agreement with the Indiana Medical Board,” but Mekawy said he didn’t use his licence in either of these two states when issuing prescriptions for the online company.

Documents filed with the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana say the investigation into Mekawy began when the Office of the Attorney General initially contacted an investigator with the Arkansas State Police who interviewed people who had obtained prescription drugs over the Internet.

In one case, a wife admitted she used her husband’s credit card to obtain the drug Soma from the online Internet pharmacy to feed her drug addiction. She admitted she never saw the doctor prior to receiving the medication. Another patient obtained Soma with his personal credit card without ever seeing Mekawy.

Indiana documents also note that Mekawy is under investigation by the Medical Board of California after an individual that he prescribed Soma to was hospitalized after overdosing on this medication.

Other drugs he was reported to have prescribed included pain medications, sleep aids and drugs to treat sexual dysfunction. Tramadol, Butalbital, Viagra, Rozerem, Ultracet, Cialis and Levitra are cited in one of the documents.

The Indiana board concluded that Mekawy’s actions represented a clear and immediate danger to public health and safety.

His lawyer, Peter Browne, expects Mekawy’s Newfoundland licence to be reinstated in July. He said he has enrolled in a two-day prescribing course in Ontario in September.

Brown also presented to the tribunal two letters of support from Eastern Health managers, Dr. Kevin Hogan, a former clinical chief of mental health and addictions and Dr. David Atwood, the current clinical chief.

Atwood said Mekawy’s online prescribing didn’t “creep” into his psychiatry practice and he had no issues with his competency. In fact, Atwood said his prescribing of psychopharmacology drugs was on a “more conservative range.”

Praising his clinical skills, Atwood said Mekawy has “strong character and reliability” and he has high personal and professional regard for him. He said if Mekawy’s licence is reinstated, he would have no problem returning him to his position at Eastern Health.

dss@thetelegram.com

URL: http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2011-05-13/article-2503165/Psychiatrist-gets-fourmonth-suspension/1

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Statistics from Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust show that, in the last year, 51 people in the city were treated with the controversial therapy, of which 22 were detained against their will.

According to guidelines from the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), the treatment should only be used for severe depression where a life is at risk.

But the Birmingham figures show it was also given to catatonic and prolonged manic cases.

A trust spokesman said it was difficult to quantify the effectiveness of ECT as it was given in conjunction with other therapies.

Michael Dunn, aged 59, of Erdington, was first treated after attempting suicide in his teens.

Diagnosed with bipolar at Highcroft Hospital, in Erdington, he was administered a weekly course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Over the next 20 years, he received the treatment more than 20 times.

Michael said it was only effective in the short term at jolting him out of his depression and the more he had it, the less effective it was.

What’s more, it left him with severe memory loss. “I feel like I’ve had parts of my life blanked out. There’s whole chunks that I can’t remember,” he said.

“I suppose it did lift the depression for a short while but it always came back.

“I would never have it again. I have found that just talking to people and taking medication has been far more effective.

“In this day and age, it shouldn’t be used. It’s barbaric.”

Dr Andrew McCulloch, from the MHF, said it should only be used “as a last resort”.

“It can have very serious side-effects, including memory loss, yet it can lift a person quickly out of a life-threatening depression,” he said.

In Birmingham, the treatment is used at the Oleaster unit, at the Queen Elizabeth hospital. The unit is currently undergoing its three-year audit by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

URL: http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2011/05/05/electric-shock-therapy-blanked-out-parts-of-my-life-says-erdington-man-97319-28638091/

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