Announcement

Collapse

Advertising Inquiries

See more
See less

Doctor in steroid investigation surrenders medical license

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Doctor in steroid investigation surrenders medical license

    Dr. Jesse Haggard, former clinical director of Revolution Medical Centers in the Valley, agreed to surrender his medical license on Thursday.

    Under the consent agreement with the Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Board of Medical Examiners, Haggard admitted to altering medical records and failing to maintain adequate patient files.

    The ABC15 Investigators first reported on Revolution Medical Centers in April.

    The Drug Enforcement Administration has launched a criminal investigation into the clinics and its doctors related to allegations of illegally prescribing anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, and the Arizona Board of Chiropractic Examiners is looking into the clinics' owner, Dr. Jeremy Bula.

    Haggard's attorney, Timothy Holt, would not comment to ABC15 on the criminal investigation.

    While the agreement asserts Haggard was "prescribing and dispensing steroids and human growth hormone other than for therapeutic purposes," Haggard will not face Board penalties on this claim.

    According to Dr. Craig Runbeck, executive director of the Naturopathic Board, there was enough evidence to revoke Haggard's license, but the consent agreement "accomplished the same goal," he said, "which is getting the man’s license so he cannot practice medicine."

    The deal did not sit well with Doreen Atchley, whose son Aaron was a patient at Revolution Medical Centers.

    The Maricopa County medical examiner originally listed the cause of Aaron's death in April as an accidental overdose, a fatal mixture of alprazolam or Xanax, oxycodone, and trace amounts of cocaine.

    Additional independent testing paid for by the family later revealed large amounts of anabolic steroids in his system at the time of his death, with a testosterone level 13 times higher than normal.

    That determination prompted the medical examiner to add steroids as a "contributing factor" in his death.

    Atchley was one of a small number of people now dead who had at least two things in common. They were taking steroids and they were getting them at Revolution Medical Centers.

    Doreen Atchley wrote a letter to the Board, which was not read at Thursday's meeting.

    "Why is there no mention in the Attorney General's and the AZ Naturopathic Board final report of Haggard's about the deaths of four men, including the death of my first born son, Aaron Michael, after being prescribed dangerous anabolic steroids on 4/2/08 for no apparent medical reason?" Atchley wrote.

    The Naturopathic Board on Wednesday also renewed the licenses of Dr. Carole Eastman and Dr. Ryan Krch, who also worked at Revolution Medical Centers.

    Eastman's renewal includes limitations on her license related to prescribing anabolic steroids and growth hormone.

    "If their licenses were to expire, then we would have no authority to deal with them," Runbeck said.

    Doctor in steroid investigation surrenders medical license - Phoenix Arizona news, breaking news, local news, weather radar, traffic from ABC15 News | ABC15.com
Working...
X