Wampum

What does it take for a medical doctor to lose the right to practice in every state? Via Stephanie Mencimer we learn that it takes a whole lot too much.

From the Birmingham News:

Renee Blackman walked into an American Family Care clinic in Irondale on Nov. 1 to have her skin infections rechecked and to get results from lab tests. The 29-year-old Moody resident left in convulsions in an ambulance after getting an overdose of an anti-nausea medication, according to a lawsuit she recently filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court against the treating doctor and the clinic.

With his wife on a ventilator, in a coma for 26 hours and hospitalized for a week at Trinity Medical Center, Sloan Blackman knew something had gone terribly wrong. What he didn't know was that Dr. Christopher Martin, a doctor of osteopathy, had moved from job to job and state to state for much of his 21=year career, with a trail of litigants and medical regulators behind him.

The young couple later learned that Martin, 48, had:

Legally changed his name in March from John A. King.

Been a defendant in more than 100 malpractice suits over care given in less than 12 months in 2002 and 2003, at a hospital in Hurricane, W.Va. Those cases are pending.

Been accused in lawsuits of maiming or killing patients through malpractice.

Been sued by his parents, Herman and Wynell King of Birmingham, for failure to repay school loans they made to him.

Surrendered or lost his license to practice medicine in at least five states.

Martin let his license expire in two other states. He still has a medical license in Alabama and in seven other states - Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

There is something seriously wrong when a butcher like Martin/King retains a license to practice medicine in seven states. There is also something wrong with a legal system that allows him to legally change his name, thereby avoiding having potential patients learn of his record.

If the medical licensing system can not get its act together to make sure that guy never treats another patient, the tort system may have to provide a substitute. One eight figure punitive damage award against a hospital or clinic for allowing Martin/King to practice should do the trick. Perhaps an Alabama jury will send American Family Care a message that it should not be hiring doctors like Martin/King.