State medical board suspends license of Glendale doctor accused of sexual assault, overprescribing
A Glendale physician accused of sexually assaulting a patient and overprescribing “dangerous” drugs to 15 patients — some of whom were undercover officers — was suspended last month from practicing medicine, records show.
Manasseh Nwaigwe is also accused of failing to comply with the terms of his probation with the Medical Board of California, which stemmed from a 2012 conviction for failing to file income-tax returns.
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Kimberly Kirchmeyer, the board’s executive director, filed a petition last week that seeks to revoke Nwaigwe’s medical license. An administrative hearing on the case has not yet been scheduled.
Nwaigwe’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last year, a patient visited Nwaigwe twice for her back pain and anxiety. During the second visit last July, Nwaigwe allegedly reached into her sweatpants and touched her inappropriately without explaining why, according to board records.
He subsequently asked her on a date and reportedly prescribed her anxiety, pain, blood pressure and cough medications, though she never complained about pain or a cough.
Records show that he later told Los Angeles police that he was checking for a tumor “or anything of that nature.”
Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges in the case due to insufficient evidence, according to Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Before the sexual assault allegations surfaced, the Drug Enforcement Agency had started investigating Nwaigwe’s prescribing practices.
Nwaigwe, who worked in East Los Angeles, allegedly prescribed two undercover officers hydrocodone, a pain medication, as well as clonazepam, an anxiety medication, and promethazine with codeine cough syrup without properly examining them.
“During most of these visits, (Nwaigwe) sat in his chair and wrote notes and barely spoke to the patients,” according to board records.
A couple months later, three police officers obtained the same prescriptions from Nwaigwe, who allegedly failed to ask questions about their medical history or examine them beyond listening to their chest and back.
A representative of the DEA could not immediately be reached.
A medical board expert subsequently reviewed the records of a dozen random patients, who were reportedly prescribed the same medications — a combination of Norco or Vicodin, along with Klonopin or Valium, and Phenergan with codeine — each time they went to see Nwaigwe. Together, those patients logged roughly 225 visits.
“(Nwaigwe) prescribed dangerous, controlled-substance medications at nearly every visit for each patient without any regard to the complaint,” records stated.
Nwaigwe’s medical license was already set to expire at the end of March, unless it’s renewed, according to board records.
“We wanted to make sure that he wasn’t allowed to practice immediately because we felt he was a danger to the public,” said Cassandra Hockenson, the board’s public affairs manager.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, [email protected]
Twitter: @atchek
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