Liposuction doctor likely to lose license

Liposuction doctor likely to lose license

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 25, 2007 01:47 PM

A judge has recommended that Dr. Peter J. Normann should be stripped of his medical license.

Administrative Law Judge Daniel Martin ruled on Tuesday that practices at Normann's Anthem liposuction clinic led to the deaths of three patients and complications for countless others.


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Normann was banned from office surgeries in May, after two patients died, and was suspended in July, after the death of the third patient.

The suspension set the stage for the administrative hearing, a procedure resembling a trial. Normann offered no defense and did not attend the hearing, which was closed to the public to protect patients' privacy.

The first patient died at Normann's office in Anthem in December 2006, according to a medical board investigation. The second died in April, triggering the May practice restriction that Normann dodged by hiring a homeopathic doctor to perform surgeries.

After another patient died in July, Normann's license was suspended, pending the administrative hearing.

Investigators believe Normann conducted only one of those surgeries, leaving the others to individuals not licensed to practice medicine.

Since then, the license of the homeopathic doctor, Gary Page, also has been suspended.

Anne Froedge of the Arizona Attorney General's Office said in her opening and closing remarks - the only portions of the hearing open to the public -- that besides the deaths, the complication rate at Normann's practice was “appalling.” She said he violated numerous provisions of the law governing medical practice, and quoted one witness who said work at the Anthem practice was “a surgical nightmare.”

Normann has not been heard from since the suspension, nor has he hired legal help in lawsuits filed by survivors of the first two victims. He has declined to respond to numerous inquiries from the media.

The judge's decision now goes to the medical board, which is likely to revoke Normann's license at its Oct. 10-11 meeting.


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0925phx-liposuction0925-ON.html?&wired
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