Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jun 2004
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2004 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Author: Dana Beyerle
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

HERRERA TO GET LICENSE BACK

Montgomery County Judge Reverses Commission's Decision

Dr. Pascual Herrera Jr. Says He May Try To Re-Establish A Practice In Gadsden

MONTGOMERY - A Montgomery County judge on Monday ordered the state medical 
licensing agency to immediately reinstate the license of Gadsden doctor 
Pascual Herrera Jr.

Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick in a 24-page order told the Alabama Medical 
Licensure Commission to reinstate Herrera's medical license "and his right 
to practice medicine forthwith and without any further delay."

Herrera said he was pleased with the decision, but wasn't sure how soon his 
medical license would be reinstated.

"I'm excited because I've been waiting for this for quite a while," Herrera 
said in a telephone interview.

Herrera, who was bitter over the commission's April 2001 decision to revoke 
his license, said he may try to re-establish a practice in Gadsden. He said 
it's an uphill climb even though a revoked license is reinstated.

"I'm looking into it, but I have my doubts I'd stay here very long because 
the medical board would come after me again," he said.

The Medical Licensure Commission's attorney, Wayne Turner, couldn't be 
reached for comment.

Herrera's lawyer, Al Agricola, said Herrera was investigated because of an 
OxyContin scare in Gadsden several years ago following the deaths of 
several youths.

"I think that a very unfortunate series of events in Gadsden during the 
period prior to the proceedings resulted in an almost hysterical atmosphere 
about doctors who prescribed OxyContin," Agricola said. "There was no 
testimony that Dr. Herrera prescribed OxyContin to any of these teenagers."

Herrera said he "fired" one patient who demanded OxyContin.

OxyContin is a powerful pain reliever that can kill if used illegally and 
incorrectly.

Testimony against Herrera centered on allegedly inadequate record keeping 
and his poor handwriting.

But Hardwick, in his final judgment, wrote there was no substantial 
evidence that Herrera's treatment strategy for patients endangered anyone's 
health.

"On the contrary," Hardwick wrote, "the record as a whole demonstrates that 
Dr. Herrera was 'cognizant' of the Board's guidelines for the use of 
controlled substances for the treatment of pain and that he conformed his 
practice to those guidelines."

Hardwick said the record demonstrates that Herrera had compassion for his 
patients, treated them without regard to whether they could pay and even 
made house calls.

"Given the scant evidence presented by the Board to supports its charges, 
the court is left with the unmistakable belief that the 'MLC' was motivated 
to revoke Dr. Herrera's license to practice medicine by something other 
than the evidence presented to it," Hardwick said.

"However the evidence in this case cries out for reversal," he said.

Agricola said the evidence presented to the Medical Licensure Commission by 
the Board of Medical Examiners failed to satisfy the legal standard for 
substantial evidence to support the charges against him.

Herrera, 49, said he believes he was singled out for treatment because he 
is foreign-born, does not belong to a large group of physicians and isn't 
affiliated with a hospital.

He said the main testimony against him was by a family practitioner who 
reviewed his records but never interviewed his patients or doctors who 
substituted for him when he was recuperating from an automobile accident.

"OxyContin happened at the perfect time for me to be the perfect 
scapegoat," Herrera said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth