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Lawrence Hansen

Licensed for Life? Nearing 90, Doctor Finally Strikes Out (for Now)

What does it take for a doctor to lose his license to practice permanently? A patient dead from "therapeutic misadventure?" A formal finding of unprofessional conduct? Advanced age? Maybe not.

Licensed For Life: 87-Year-Old Doctor Accused Of Marketing Pot To Patients

What's an 87-year-old doctor to do when he's banned from performing surgery but still allowed to practice medicine? Prescribe medical marijuana in a dubious clinic.

Licensed for Life: Botched Abortions Lead To $6.2 Million Payout

An aging doctor has been ordered to pay part of a $6.2 million judgment for negligence in performing two abortions. Why is he still practicing?

When is a Doctor Too Old to Practice?

Should doctors be checked for competence as they age, as elderly drivers are? A negligence case involving a 75-year-old obstetrician raises some tough questions.

Shadow Practice: Surgery center where patient died survived on painkiller scheme

The new filing by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency against Dr. Scott Bickman for his role in a California painkiller mill reveals a very sad truth. Maria Garcia’s death could almost certainly have been avoided.

The Shadow Practice, Part 13: Court records are both gold mine and minefield for documenting clinic’s troubles

Maria Garcia’s death after a cosmetic surgery procedure at Anaheim Hills Surgery Center has so far failed to roust the Joint Commission or the Orange County district attorney. The Medical Board of California is attempting to discipline one of the doctors involved.

The Shadow Practice, Part 11: Joint Commission overlooks risky practices that led to patient death

The surgeons at Anaheim Hills Surgery Center had to be sweating.

The Joint Commission, one of the most powerful arbiters of whether a health center is deemed worthy of federal funding, showed up at the surgery center’s doorstep in April 2008 to review its records, its practices and its staffing.

The timing was terrible.

Just one month earlier, the center had added a brand new skeleton to its bulging closet.

The Shadow Practice, Part 10: Coroner rules mistakes that killed patient a "therapeutic misadventure"

When Dr. Harrell Robinson walked into the surgical suite to start a liposuction procedure on Maria Garcia he was already in a world of trouble.

The Shadow Practice, Part 9: Woman dies during cosmetic surgeries at unlicensed clinic

Maria Garcia smoked.

That was her one big vice, according to her brother and her estranged husband.

This otherwise healthy 39-year-old visited the doctors at Hills Surgical Center in Anaheim because she didn’t like the way she looked. To remedy that, the surgeons scheduled a series of procedures, all to happen in one day.

On March 13, 2008, Garcia died on the operating room table after a vaginal rejuvenation surgery and liposuction, another victim of the bad decisions made by the doctors at 145 S. Chaparral Court.

What is vaginal rejuvenation surgery?

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