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Surgeon Accused of Taping Sex Assaults; MD Chokes Nurse; Sex for Pain Pills

— Bad Practice: A weekly roundup of clinicians accused, convicted, or under investigation

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Dr. Manish Raj Gupta next to a bag spilling out sex toys and used syringes

This weekly roundup features arrests, criminal proceedings, and other reports alleging improper or questionable conduct by healthcare professionals.

An Ohio at various hotels across the country sexually assaulting them while they were unconscious, and capturing it on video was arrested after an FBI raid reportedly turned up explicit recordings at his Toledo medical office. According to investigators, the recordings "clearly depict" the unconscious state of the women, and show the physician's face and a medical bag that employees shipped to him when he travelled to out-of-state medical meetings. FBI said his staff had previously discovered empty anesthesia bottles, a tripod, and sex toys in one such bag. (Fox8)

An upstate New York ob/gyn was sentenced to over 4 years in prison for that were then filled by her lover and co-conspirator, a nurse she met at a drug treatment center. The nurse would impersonate patients to fill the opioid prescriptions and was ultimately sentenced to over 2 years in prison for her role in the scheme. Originally, the nurse had told a federal grand jury that she was blackmailing the physician into providing the prescriptions, but in reality the ob/gyn had bribed the nurse to make false claims in court so she could keep her license. (Times Union)

After until she was "seeing stars," a Colorado anesthesiologist has pleaded guilty to a felony strangulation charge, agreed to permanently give up his medical license, and will get 3 years' probation. The physician was reportedly turning off vital sign machines around the recovery room to reduce noise when the nurse asked him repeatedly to stop, leading to the assault. The nurse has also filed a civil lawsuit. (CBS Denver)

Also in Colorado, a plastic surgeon who delayed alerting emergency personnel when a will have restrictions placed on his medical license for a period of 3 years, after reaching an agreement with the state medical board there. According to the probation agreement -- in which the physician admitted to "unprofessional conduct" -- the surgeon performed CPR, but when the patient did not respond, he did not facilitate a transfer to a hospital for approximately 5 hours. The family of the patient, who was age 18 at the time of the surgery and is now in a minimally conscious state, also filed a lawsuit against the surgeon. (CBS Denver)

Four years after he was initially arrested, a West Virginia doctor in exchange for sexual favors and faces up to 20 years in prison. The family medicine physician would bring female patients into the office before other staff arrived, or see them at home, where the exchanges would take place. (WVNews)

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    Elizabeth Hlavinka covers clinical news, features, and investigative pieces for app. She also produces episodes for the Anamnesis podcast.