The Public Sector Full Employment Act, Part IV - Medical Malpractice

There was an interesting story in the newspaper today providing yet another example of the indestructibility of Public Sector jobs vs. their Private Sector counterparts, not to mention how insulated are Public Sector employees from the same rules that govern the rest of us. OffHisMeds was drawn to this story because, well, the name of this blog is OffHisMeds. That will make more sense in a minute. The key to this cautionary tale is whether or not the government runs your profession through any kind of "Review Board", and if that "Review Board" consists of members of your profession. If so, you're Golden. If not, you're screwed.

In the most recent example, a psychiatrist - Dr. Alan T. Lloyd - was accused of giving a female patient from Houston drugs and having sex with her after he began treating her for depression and suicidal thoughts. He saw her twice per week for four years, starting in January of 2003 and continuing through 2007. Assuming either the woman or Dr. Lloyd took a couple weeks off for vacation every year, that would come to upwards of 400 "sessions" wherein the good doctor administered to the woman some combination of drugs, counseling, therapy and bodily fluids, no doubt guided by his peculiar understanding of the Hippocratic Oath.

Before we discuss the drug and sex angle, let's review the financial impact on this whole affair, shall we? After all, it was you and I as taxpayers and victims of the insurance cartel that paid for all of this "counseling", making us in some small way victims of his predations as well. If the good doctor was knocking down a mere $150 per hour - small change in the psychiatric profession - his take for having "treated" this unfortunate woman for four years would have been $15,000 per year. Not bad work if you can find it. At those rates, he would need to work only twenty hours per week to gross $150 thousand per year and get his rocks off more than Wilt Chamberlain on a road trip. That's also thumping good money considering the tens of thousands of dollars per year he would otherwise have to spend pursuing more conventional options to satisfy his sexual needs, such as marriage or Hookers, since this arrangement didn't involve the inconvenience of a wife, much less the embarrassment and other consequences of hiring a prostitute, which is illegal.

Since the government does such a good job of policing its own, it took the TMB (Texas Medical Board) only four years to swing into action, so intent were they to right this horrible wrong, and restore public confidence in their ability to protect the populace from sexual predators. For reasons not explained in the article, the TMB did not refer Dr. Lloyd for criminal prosecution, although that was certainly an option. His punishment? Dr. Lloyd was subject to "administrative" penalties, including a fine of $10,000, mandatory attendance at a workshop on "professional boundaries", and a job at the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center, a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio. No mention of who is to pay for the workshop.

Way to go, State of Texas. It's nice to know you've set the bar so high for anybody else in the medical profession who wants to administer psychotropic drugs to persons they are treating so as to abuse them sexually. And Shades of Deja Vu'. Doesn't seem like it was all that long ago we were reading about a Dentist who did much the same thing to his female patients. If this keeps up, we might all have a hard time submitting to drugs or anesthesia for any future medical procedures. If the only thing between you and your doctor's fly is his sense of right and wrong, you might want to opt for the temporary discomfort of treatment without meds.

After the TMB administered the slap on the wrist, the woman's ex-husband delivered a classic example of understatement - not to mention restraint - when he said the he was amazed that the doctor didn't lose his license after the malpractice was discovered. I can think of other punishments the Ex could have claimed in amazement that Lloyd was not subject to, including tarring, feathering and being run out of town on the proverbial rail.

But that's me.

There appears to be no end to the perks of Public Sector employment. Not only was this Hump earning substantial Jing off this one woman for seeing her only two hours per week, he was banging her like a Drumline Walk-on looking to make it to the First Squad. That has got to be the ultimate dream for the under-motivated, not to mention morally challenged Public Servant: having sex with a mental incompetent during work hours, getting paid for it to boot, and then getting a nice promotion to a publicly funded psychiatric facility.

You might think that getting paid for malpractice would be as bad as things could get where the Public Sector is concerned, but is it really all that different than what we Private Sector types are subject to every time we pay our taxes, or have to endure yet another "stimulus" package whose sole purpose is to confiscate our money so that it can be pissed away satisfying the political needs of the Democratic Party? Minus actual penetration of our bodily orifices and the fact that we weren't administered any drugs whilst being fleeced, there's really not a hill of bean's worth of difference, except of course that this woman was only abused for four years, whereas abuse of the Taxpayer is never-ending.

As to the consequences in this case, I know what you're thinking. If a truck driver or office manager was to drug a mentally ill woman in the workplace and then molest her even once, they would likely be subject to something more than a small fine and some sensitivity training, much less get a promotion. Heck, last time I checked, sex with subordinates in the workplace under any circumstances was grounds for immediate dismissal with 99% of all private companies in America (the notable exception being the radio business); but, the Government takes care of its own.

In the Irony department, the article also revealed that at one point in their "professional" relationship, the woman attempted to take one of the prescriptions the good doctor had previously given her, photocopied it, and tried to get it filled. She was arrested and charged for attempting to fraudulently obtain drugs. There was no information on the outcome of the charges, but hopefully her punishment options also included a small fine and a workshop. And I wonder if the good doctor was shocked by this woman's betrayal, not to mention her breach of ethics? Apparently the government was, since she was prosecuted, whereas he was not.

The whole sordid affair did have a heartwarming conclusion: Dr. Lloyd is now living with his victim in San Antonio. The lack of a proposal of marriage at this point is certainly understandable, what with her background and her forging his signature and all. Either that, or he's got commitment issues. I'll have to defer any judgment on that, since I'm not a Psychiatrist.

This story reminds me of the time back in the mid-90s when then-President Bill Clinton attempted to molest the distraught wife of a friend who had died unexpectedly, when she came to our randy Chief Executive for comfort. Kathleen Willey was her name. The resulting scandal led to Impeachment for Clinton, who nonetheless served out his term, and then went on to knock down a quarter billion lobbying on behalf of sundry Middle Eastern potentates and other unsavory characters. In the larger scheme of things, though, Clinton was deprived of his reputation - whether he valued it or not - as well as his law license, and he was most certainly not given any promotion after doing once what Dr. Lloyd apparently did hundreds of times over the course of four years.

The lesson the State of Texas apparently wants us to draw from all of this is, if you want to molest women who are emotionally vulnerable or even mentally ill, use drugs, have a bunch of high-placed Enablers with a really distorted sense of Professional Courtesy sit in judgment, and under no circumstances attempt this unless you are a trained professional.

In the department of small consolations for Houston area psychiatric patients, Dr. Lloyd is now practicing his craft in San Antonio. Good news for Houston, unless his current employer, the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center, reimburses him for mileage.