Medical License

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Thursday. The California medical board sends a message: Help a woman become an Octomom, lose your medical license. ( Los Angeles Times ) Seeking relief from fame, Kevin Bacon once wore a $500 disguise to the Grove and realized he didn't like being one of you people. ( Los Angeles Times ) Original "King Kong" visual effects wizard Harry Redmond has died at the age of 101. ( Hollywood Reporter ) "The Hunger Games" book trilogy will become a movie quadrilogy.

A West Hollywood psychiatrist who pleaded guilty to felony drug dealing after pills he prescribed turned up for sale on Craigslist will be able to get his medical license back in a year under an agreement announced Friday by the Medical Board of California. The sanction, though harsh by board standards, allows Nathan Kuemmerle, 40, a former methamphetamine user, to treat patients again as soon as next February. As a result of the criminal charges, Kuemmerle had lost his privilege to prescribe controlled substances and must apply to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration if he wants it restored.

A San Francisco man with no medical license performed liposuction on a woman while smoking a cigar, then flushed 6 pounds of fat he removed down her toilet, a newspaper reported Friday. Carlos Guzmangarza, 49, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of posing as a physician assistant to perform cosmetic surgery on the woman and treat her daughter for acne, said Stephanie Ong Stillman, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney's office. Guzmangarza is accused of operating a bogus clinic on Mission Street called the Derma Clinic, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

A prominent Wisconsin pediatrician who admitted molesting two boys while serving as a Boy Scout camp doctor in the 1980s voluntarily gave up his medical license Tuesday after additional complaints of abuse surfaced. Thomas Kowalski, 75, became the target of an investigation by the state's Medical Examining Board after The Times reported in September that he had been expelled from the Boy Scouts in 1987 after admitting to molesting two scouts. The parents declined to press charges, and Scouting officials used their connections with the publisher of a Milwaukee paper to keep the story out of the press, confidential Scouting records show.

California's medical board Wednesday rejected a judge's recommendation that the Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets be allowed to keep his medical license. Dr. Michael Kamrava has been accused of gross negligence and incompetence in his treatment of Suleman, 35, of La Habra, and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

A prominent Wisconsin pediatrician who admitted molesting two boys while serving as a Boy Scout camp doctor in the 1980s voluntarily gave up his medical license Tuesday after additional complaints of abuse surfaced. Thomas Kowalski, 75, became the target of an investigation by the state's Medical Examining Board after The Times reported in September that he had been expelled from the Boy Scouts in 1987 after admitting to molesting two scouts. The parents declined to press charges, and Scouting officials used their connections with the publisher of a Milwaukee paper to keep the story out of the press, confidential Scouting records show.

A doctor who co-wrote a popular 1960s song performed by the Beach Boys has surrendered his medical license after medical authorities accused him of prescribing medications for himself. Dr. Donald Jay Altfeld called in prescriptions for himself for drugs including Xanax and Norco, the Medical Board of California alleged in a 17-page decision made public Monday. Altfeld co-wrote the song "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena," which was performed by the Beach Boys and included in their No. 1 album "Beach Boys Concert" from 1964.

Saying that Dr. Jack Kevorkian poses a clear and present danger to the people of California, an administrative law judge on Tuesday suspended the state medical license of the Michigan physician who admits having assisted in 15 suicides. The suspension means that Kevorkian--who had been licensed in California and Michigan--can no longer legally practice medicine anywhere in the country.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will soon require physicians to post their medical licenses and certificates in a prominent place in their offices and clinics. The board instructed the Department of Health Services to distribute fliers to libraries, medical offices, clinics and other public areas urging people to ask a physician about their certification before receiving treatment, said Cam Currier, spokesman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

A court commissioner Friday suspended the medical license of a Laguna Beach physician who is charged with murder in a head-on collision that killed a Mission Viejo couple and critically injured their daughter. Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk ruled that although Dr. Ronald J. Allen is being held without bail, he "may be in a position to harm the public, and that's certainly something we want to prevent."

Wisconsin's medical examining board has launched an investigation into a prominent Milwaukee pediatrician who practiced for years after he admitted to the Boy Scouts of America that he had molested two boys in 1987. Dr. Thomas Kowalski was expelled from the Boy Scouts that year after saying he had masturbated while fondling two teens under his care at a Wisconsin Scout camp where he was serving as a volunteer doctor. The allegations were detailed in one of hundreds of confidential files on suspected sexual abusers reviewed by The Times in recent months.

A Kentucky doctor accused of shooting and killing one person and seriously injured another during a homeowners association meeting in Louisville pleaded not guilty Saturday. Mahmoud Hindi awalked into the meeting at a local church late Thursday and stayed for a short while before he pulled out a gun and began shooting, police said. Hindi tried to leave but was stopped by two people in the room, Louisville Metro Police Lt. Barry Wilkerson said at a news conference Friday, which was posted online by the Courier-Journal.

Re "Probation in Lap-Band patient death," Business, Aug. 14 I am opposed to applying an automatic three-strikes punishment for all transgressions. But anesthesiologist Daniel Shin deserves one. In 2007, he was convicted of assaulting someone with a meat cleaver. In 2009, a woman he was treating died, and Shin was disciplined by the California Medical Board but continued to practice. And most recently, a Lap-Band patient under his care in 2010 died; the medical board accused him of "gross negligence.

The undercover sheriff's deputy pretending to be a patient in pain presented a Glendora physician with an X-ray to accompany her tale of an injured back and neck. The only problem was the X-ray revealed a "tail" of a different kind - one belonging to a dog. Though the X-ray for a German shepherd had the dog's name, Recon, and the name of an animal hospital printed on it, the doctor wrote the deputy a prescription for a powerful narcotic painkiller and a muscle relaxant, law enforcement officials said.

Dr. Conrad Murray faces new accusations in an ongoing inquiry that will determine whether officials will revoke the already suspended medical license of the man convicted in the 2009 death of music icon Michael Jackson. The state attorney general's office, which submitted its first round of accusations to the Medical Board of California in February, has added three allegations to the original complaint, according to papers filed June 27. In addition to the original filing, which said Murray's license could be revoked because of his criminal conviction and alleged failure to maintain adequate records, Murray is now accused of "gross negligence," "repeated negligent acts" and "incompetence" for the "inappropriate administration of dangerous drugs.

A doctor who co-wrote a popular 1960s song performed by the Beach Boys has surrendered his medical license after medical authorities accused him of prescribing medications for himself. Dr. Donald Jay Altfeld called in prescriptions for himself for drugs including Xanax and Norco, the Medical Board of California alleged in a 17-page decision made public Monday. Altfeld co-wrote the song "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena," which was performed by the Beach Boys and included in their No. 1 album "Beach Boys Concert" from 1964.

A Burbank physician has surrendered his medical license to the Medical Board of California following accusations of incompetence, negligence and fraud. By surrendering his license, Jack Eglin, 88, is barred indefinitely from practicing medicine in the state, board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said Thursday. The action becomes effective on July 5. Eglin could not be reached for comment.

A state prosecutor told a Los Angeles judge Tuesday that state medical officials acted properly in revoking the license of a Canoga Park doctor who treated as many as 6,000 allergy patients by injecting them with their own urine. Dr. George R. Borrell had his license revoked Dec. 4 by the Medical Board of California, which said the urine treatments constituted gross negligence and an "extreme departure" from proper medical care.

A Rowland Heights physician who previously had been accused of recklessly prescribing addictive painkillers was linked Thursday to the deaths of three patients, according to state medical board documents. Dr. Lisa Tseng prescribed powerful narcotics after little to no examination of three men, all in their 20s, who died after overdosing on the types of drugs she prescribed to them, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California alleged in a new accusation made public Thursday. A Times investigation published in 2010 identified eight former patients — including the three named in the accusation — who fatally overdosed on the types of drugs Tseng prescribed.

A San Francisco man with no medical license performed liposuction on a woman while smoking a cigar, then flushed 6 pounds of fat he removed down her toilet, a newspaper reported Friday. Carlos Guzmangarza, 49, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of posing as a physician assistant to perform cosmetic surgery on the woman and treat her daughter for acne, said Stephanie Ong Stillman, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney's office. Guzmangarza is accused of operating a bogus clinic on Mission Street called the Derma Clinic, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.