Fines & Sanctions

Med Board Fines Hamden, West Haven Doctors

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The state Medical Examining Board Tuesday disciplined four doctors, including fining a Hamden doctor $3,500 for allowing medical assistants to give patients medication, including a nasal anesthetic. The board also reprimanded the physician, Craig Hecht, an ear, nose and throat doctor, after the state Department of Public Health found he failed to maintain appropriate infection controls in his Madison office, a consent order he signed with the board said. The order said he kept expired medications, failed to follow proper sterilization procedures and failed to keep appropriate sterilization records. Hecht also has offices in Hamden and Milford, but the problems were confined to his Madison office, the order said. Hecht chose not to contest the allegations while admitting no wrongdoing.

Fines & Sanctions

Med Board Disciplines Doctor, Rejects Request To Lift Restriction On Pulmonologist

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The state Medical Examining Board Tuesday placed a Westport doctor on probation for abusing alcohol and continued a requirement that a Woodbridge pulmonologist who had sexual contact with two women during medical exams have a chaperone present when examining female patients. The board unanimously rejected a request from the pulmonologist, Dr. Sushil Gupta, that the chaperone requirement be dropped. His lawyer, James Biondo of Stamford, wrote to the board that the restriction was keeping Gupta from gaining privileges at a hospital. Biondo wrote that Gupta will never stop using a chaperone even if the restriction is lifted because Gupta “will forever be at risk for a predatory patient given his history.”

At the meeting, Biondo said Yale New Haven Hospital and Griffin Hospital have rejected Gupta’s request for privileges, creating a hardship when Gupta’s patients are hospitalized. Over the objections of state Department of Public Health lawyers, the board reinstated Gupta’s medical license in 2013 and placed it on probation for one year.

Fines & Sanctions

Medical Board Disciplines Six Doctors

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The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday disciplined six doctors, including fining a Norwalk doctor $5,000 for prescribing high doses of opioids to a prison inmate and other patients without proper safeguards. The board also suspended the license of a family medicine physician from Westport, saying his excessive drinking of alcohol presents a “clear and immediate danger” to the public. In the Norwalk case, the board also reprimanded Dr. Martin Perlin and limited his ability to prescribe painkillers. Between 2013 and 2015, Perlin prescribed high doses of opioids without adhering to standard safeguards, state Department of Public Health records show. One of the patients was incarcerated during the time that Perlin prescribed drugs for him, the records show.

Fines & Sanctions

Stamford Doctor Surrenders License, Avoids Disciplinary Charges

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A Stamford doctor has surrendered his Connecticut medical license rather than face disciplinary charges for letting two unlicensed men perform liposuction on two unsuspecting patients at his spa in Stamford in 2011. Dr. Marlon Castillo voluntarily surrendered his license Feb. 29, according to a consent order presented to the state Medical Examining Board Tuesday. The board agreed to drop the pending charges against Castillo, who was convicted in New York in 2014 for aiding or abetting in the unauthorized practice of unlicensed medicine. The board dropped the charges on the advice of lawyers from the state Department of Public Health, who said that continued prosecution of the case was unnecessary because Castillo no longer has a medical license.