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A lawmaker who chairs a state Senate committee on children has asked the state to investigate the doctor who treated a foster child who
killed himself in Margate.
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER
A powerful Florida lawmaker has asked two state agencies to investigate a Broward County psychiatrist who had been treating Gabriel
Myers, a 7-year-old who hanged himself last month in the bathroom of his Margate foster home.
In separate letters to the Florida Board of Medicine and the Agency for
Health Care Administration, state Sen. Ronda R. Storms, a Brandon
Republican who chairs the Children, Families and Elder Affairs
Committee, requested investigations leading to a ``full report.''
Gabriel died April 16 after locking himself in a bathroom and hanging
himself with a retractable shower cord. His death spurred DCF Secretary
George Sheldon to appoint a work group to study the agency's use of
psychiatric drugs, and its compliance with a 2005 reform law on the use of
such medications on children in state care.
`SERIOUS CONCERNS'
The work group will meet for the first time Thursday in Fort Lauderdale.
''In my view, this case raised serious concerns which demand attention
and answers,'' Storms wrote in a May 1 letter to AHCA Secretary Holly
Benson. Under the 2005 law, AHCA oversees a state program that
monitors the prescribing of mental-health drugs to children under
Medicaid, the state insurance program for the needy.
psychiatrists whose practices veer outside generally accepted protocols.
Among the practices that might draw attention: doctors with a high volume of prescriptions of mental-health drugs or potentially dangerous
combinations of the medications. The program looks at the practices of about 17,000 doctors who prescribe medications to children on
Medicaid, and about 300 to 450 end up red-flagged.
Dr. Sohail Punjwani, who was treating Gabriel, had been red-flagged by the medication program every quarter that the list was kept, one of
the administrators told The Miami Herald.
Punjwani did not return calls from The Miami Herald for a comment.
In her letter to Benson, Storms asked what AHCA was doing to monitor the activities of doctors whose prescribing practices were
identified as ``problematic.''
''What guidelines or repercussions for red-flagged physicians are in place to prevent practices that result in a loss of life?'' Storms wrote.
``What actions, legislative remedies or otherwise, should be taken which would provide the citizens of our state a greater level of
protection?''
Spokespersons for both state agencies declined to discuss the requests by Storms.
`VERY SERIOUS'
Eulinda Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, which oversees the Board of Medicine, said the agency does not
comment on investigations of doctors unless or until a finding of probable cause has been made. ''If someone files a complaint,'' she said,
``that's how we begin our disciplinary process.''
''It's very serious when we get a head's-up from a legislator,'' Smith added. ``That would prompt us to begin the disciplinary process.''
Punjwani has not been disciplined before by the Board of Medicine, Smith said.
Shelisha Durden, a spokeswoman for AHCA, would only confirm that her agency received Storms' letter and that the agency is reviewing it.
See related issues
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- Harvard Medical Students Rebel Against Big Pharma Ties.
- "Fox, Douglas Kennedy, Lilly pays $1.42 billion in Zyprexa suit".
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- The "Business" of Drugs: Seroquel's Falsified Studies Exposed
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- The "Business" of Drugs: What it takes to spur the FDA into ACTION
- WINHS UPDATE: The European Court of Justice, Following EU Food Supplements Directive Mandates, Takes on Food
Supplement Health Claims - CANADIAN FOOD SUPPLEMENTS ALERT: Canadian Consumer Product Safety Act Bill C-6 Launched
- WINHS ALERT: POWDERED BABY FORMULA WARNING
- Conflicts for FDA committee set to weigh risks of Seroquel
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- FDA Demands Pharma Stops 'Misleading' Ads on Google, Yahoo
- Grassley Probes Financing of Advocacy Group for Mental Health.
- Psychiatry's Prescription For Violence.
- Clarification of Codex and its predicted influence and impact on the natural health industry in non-European Union countries
- Senator questions NAMI about big pharma financing...
- Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
To see more about Big pharma, the FDA's neglect &/orcriminal involvement, See my page "Links to FDA, FTC, and EPA Crimes"
For resources to take action on various situations in the world today see my page Thomas Jefferson
For a fun way to perhaps make some difference in the world see my page HELP SAVE the WORLD!
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