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Docs return despite felonies, negligence

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Health reporter Courtney Perkes has an eye-opening report on the number of Southern California physicians who have lost their medical licenses because of misconduct or negligence, only to get reinstated and return to caring for patients.

Sixty-six of the 123 doctors who sought reinstatement “were able to satisfy a judge and the (California Medical Board) that they were fit to practice,” Perkes writes. “Among the 66 who were reinstated, 16 got into trouble again.”

One of those doctors is Andrew Rutland, an OB/GYN who could lose his license for a second time after a second patient death.

“The board has accused Rutland of gross negligence after a patient died last summer following an abortion procedure,” Perkes writes. “The board had first taken Rutland’s license in 2002 after the death of a newborn from a botched forceps delivery.”

Even being convicted of a felony and being sentenced to prison time wasn’t enough to permanently revoke a doctor’s license in some cases. Carlsbad dermatologist Vincent Nicholas Galluzzi pleaded guilty in 1997 to hiring an undercover police officer in an unsuccessful attempt to kill his ex-wife. She wasn’t harmed, but the medical board revoked his license in 1998.

Galluzzi was released from prison in 2000 and spent three years on parole before the board reinstated his license in 2004. A judge hearing his request wrote: “The kind of aggressive feelings he had toward his ex-wife were never focused on his patients (or anyone else.)”

Galluzzi now practices in Modesto.

Here are some of Perkes’ other recent stories doctors and discipline:

Docs return despite felonies, negligence is a post from: Healthy Living - The Orange County Register


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