Letter to the Editor:
The Texas Medical Board Harshly Confronted
and People Were Left With No Answers
Dear Editor,
I will never forget that last day in Doc LJ's office. His actual name and title is William D. Littlejohn, M.D. but most of us patients affectionately call him Doc LJ. Without any warning or notice I was having my doctor for the last fourteen years taken away from me. The Texas Medical Board
(TMB) had "temporarily" suspended Doc LJ's license to practice medicine because of one lone complaint they had received against him.
He was made to lock his office doors and turn away---NO---he was FORCED AGAINST HIS WILL TO ABANDON his over 300 chronic pain patients! To his patients, he wasn't just their doctor but considered as a member of their families.
At 72 years of age, a tall man with graying hair and seasoned features, he was a perfect Norman Rockwell picture of everyone's wise and lovable family doctor. As I walked out of Doc LJ's office I couldn't help but think, "Of all people, why is this happening to this man? He could be retired and enjoying his life. Instead, his love and devotion to his patients keeps him from turning them over to another physician. And this is how the Texas Medical Board rewards his more than five decades of medical practice and devotion to his patients!"
I was determined that I would not take this sitting down and simply ignore the atrocities that the TMB had just committed against Doc LJ and his patients. I began to contact Doc LJ's other patients and quickly discovered that I wasn't the only one who felt this way, which led to the foundation of the DOC LJ - PCAG (William D. Littlejohn - Patient Class Action Group).
Before long, I had in my hand the notarized Power of Attorneys for 64 of Doc LJ's patients that allowed me to be the Group's Agent and Representative in all matters, legal and otherwise, for which we were formed. Our first two goals were to seek the immediate reinstatement of Doc LJ's license and secondly, to institute a federal class action suit to take the TMB and the attorney who filed the perjured complaint to court for the violation of our group's constitutional rights.
About this time I was grateful for the three years of experience I had as an investigative reporter on a nationally distributed magazine. I was going to need it.
As I confronted the TMB, I immediately ran into their well-known "you-be-damned" brick wall of absolute resistance and non-cooperation as I was given their famous silent treatment. I took my insistence to the Texas Attorney General's office to get them to intervene and force the TMB to release documents to me under the Freedom of Information Act.
It didn't take me long to discover just how corrupt the TMB was and how they had put the absolute "royal screw" to Doc LJ and his patients. In short time, Doc LJ and I were able to bring forth the irrefutable proof that the complaint that the TMB based Doc LJ's license suspension on was a total pack of lies and obtained by the renegade attorney through perjury and suborning perjury in order to get back at Doc LJ for his reporting the attorney for assaulting a petite female patient in his office.
Yet despite receiving this documented proof of the erroneous complaint the TMB to this day continues to refuse to reinstate Doc LJ's license. Meanwhile, Doc LJ and his lovely wife have lost everything they have worked for the last five decades. At 73, he is fortunate to put food on his table and a roof over his head. The over 300 patients haven't fared much better either. Many have regressed back into disabled and invalid states. Some have been hospitalized and others must make weekly trips to their hospital ER to be treated. Many have lost their jobs and families. Then there are those who are considering that last final solution with suicidal ideations rather than having to live any longer with the unbearable and excruciating 24/7 pain they must endure. At the end of this letter I will tell you about one such patient.
It has been 21 months since Doc LJ's "temporary" suspension. Fortunately, the TMB has been under much pressure this last year from groups such as the Public Health Alert, our DOC LJ - PCAG, the AAPS with their federal lawsuit filed and various other physicians and citizens. To try and rectify some of their PR damage, the TMB has been going to various towns across the state to hold Town Hall Meetings. They had such a meeting in Fort Worth on July 2, 2008. I couldn't wait to attend, along with Doc LJ and a few members of my PCAG.
At the Fort Worth TMB Town Hall Meeting, when it came time to allow members of the audience to stand and ask questions of Mari Robinson (of the TMB) I was the first to raise my hand and stand. It was obvious that the 30 - 50 attendees sitting in the audience were taken by complete surprise by this first question as they all sat up and turned to see who would dare confront and ask the "venerable" TMB such questions as I did.
When they turned to see who was speaking---they saw a 58-year-old man wearing his old Army fatigue jacket with all of
the medals and decorations that he had won in Viet Nam and military service. I had never done anything like this before. But I wanted to make a statement. I wanted everyone to see that I fought for my country and for what it stands for. And this included my right to stand and address, and fight against the crimes and corruption committed by the TMB against the physicians, patients and citizens of the State of Texas.
I was standing in behalf of my fellow warriors who gave their lives on the battlefield and, in doing so, allowed me to stand there that night to do my part in rectifying the wrongs committed by the TMB. I asked Ms. Robinson, "Can you please tell me that when the TMB "temporarily" suspends a physician's
license and 21 months pass since the "temporary" suspension---just what does the TMB consider as "temporary"? “And can you tell me that when the TMB receives "one" lone complaint by "one" lone renegade attorney in behalf of "one" lone former patient of a physician-- why it is that without a thorough investigation of the allegations in the complaint, and without your questioning the over 300 of the other patients to get their opinion of that physician and the medical care they are receiving from that physician--but based only on that one lone, sole, unsubstantiated and unproven complaint---you believe you are justified in "temporarily" suspending that physician's license?"
“And can you tell me why it is that when the TMB receives written documented proof from the complainant in the complaint---and in her own handwriting---describes that the complaint was all a pack of lies that was obtained by the renegade attorney by way of perjury and suborning perjury as a promise to this woman to get custody of her children in her divorce trial if she would sign the fraudulent complaint, as his means of personal retribution against the physician from another matter---can you tell me why, when the TMB receives this absolute proof of the fraudulent complaint and the physician's innocence, that you ignore this evidence and still refuse to reinstate this physician's license?”
“And can you tell me why it is that if a Texas physician closes up his practice overnight and does not give his patients significant warning or notice, and thereby abandons his patients, that he has committed a crime and could have his license revoked for his having abandoned his patients? “
“Why is it then that the TMB can take a physician who is not a threat to the lives of any of his patients and strip him of his license and cause him to close his practice overnight at the expense to the health and welfare of his over 300 patients and yet the TMB is not held responsible? Why is it that the TMB can cause the physician to be placed in a position of the FORCED abandonment of his patients and not be responsible for their abandonment as the physician is for doing the same thing?"
Just as I expected, Ms. Robinson answered not one of my questions. All I got were meaningless words that didn't even come close to answering any of my questions. When Dr. Littlejohn was given the opportunity to ask questions---the response from Ms. Robinson was much the same. It is my hope that Ms. Robinson, all of the other TMB members who were present, and every member in the audience will remember one thing from that meeting.
You see, another member of my PCAG was also present at the meeting. DOC LJ - PCAG patient/member Ben D. also stood to address the TMB regarding the atrocities they had committed against Doc LJ's chronic pain patients causing them to lead daily lives filled with terrible and unnecessary pain all because of the TMB's actions in denying them their doctor and life-saving medical treatment. The TMB turned a deaf ear to his cries as well.
Ben D. knew the TMB didn't listen to a word he said. Last week, just a few short days after the TMB Town Hall meeting, Ben D. chose that final solution to end his miserably painful life. Yes, Ms. Robinson, do you remember this man, his cries, and his face? Maybe, in your dreams.
David Noblett
Fort Worth, Texas 76114
David Noblett is the
agent/representative for the DOC LJ - Patient Class Action Group. He may
be reached at sky_pilot@att.net
