Arizona's homeopathic board is the second chance for doctors who may not deserve one

"There's a reason why another state revokes a doctor's license," Prassa says. "For that to happen — and then they can waltz right into our state and get a license — that's a problem. It's a crime."

DR. GARY PAGE

In 2004, Dr. Gary Page, a dermatologist and M.D. from Utah, sent an application to the Arizona Medical Board. The Arizona Medical Board sent Page's application right back. Because his Utah license had been surrendered for Internet prescribing (and his California license revoked, as a result), Page wasn't eligible by law to apply for an M.D. license in Arizona.

If Arizona didn't have a Homeopathic Board of Medical Examiners, Page's story would likely have ended there.

Unable to practice medicine as a conventional M.D., Page sent an application to Arizona's homeopathic board.

Even though Page had no history of practicing homeopathic medicine, and though he'd been previously stripped of his medical licenses, Arizona's homeopathic board welcomed Page into the state.

Page was issued a homeopathic M.D.h. license. He moved to Gilbert with his wife and five kids — supposedly to practice alternative medicine.

But on July 3, 2007, Page was not practicing homeopathy, or any form of alternative medicine. He was performing a standard liposuction — a surgery not allowed under a homeopathic license.

According to records from the homeopathic board and the Arizona Medical Board, Page's patient, a 53-year-old woman, prepaid for liposuction on her thighs. Page injected the patient with anesthesia, which was allowed by his M.D.h. license, and then performed the liposuction, which wasn't.

The patient died shortly after surgery. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner cannot release the cause of death because board documents have concealed the victim's name.

That death — the third fatality at the Anthem cosmetic surgery clinic — was reported by the media. What wasn't reported is that Page walked right through the homeopathic board's loophole, securing an Arizona M.D.h. even after he'd lost his M.D. licenses in other states.

On March 18 of this year, Page surrendered his homeopathic license as the board was preparing to revoke his license because liposuction falls outside the scope of "minor" surgery homeopaths are allowed to perform.

He never could have practiced in Arizona, if not for the loophole that lets previously revoked doctors practice here as homeopaths.

Page did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.

DR. GABRIEL COUSENS

In 1998, Charles Levy, 57, booked a flight to Arizona. Levy, an insurance agent, told his family he was in good health and planned to visit the Tree of Life Spa for a time of rejuvenation with a homeopathic doctor.

He looked forward to the live organic vegan diet and spiritual rest described by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, whose Web site promotes him as an M.D. and M.D.h.

Cousens is not eligible for an M.D. license in Arizona because his license was once taken away (but reinstated) in California and remains censured in New York. According to Arizona Medical Board spokesman Roger Downey, that makes a doctor ineligible for an Arizona medical license. If Cousens were a D.O., he would be eligible. But he's not. He's been practicing here as a homeopath for 15 years.

According to court records from a civil suit filed by Levy's family, Levy showed up at Cousens' secluded campus in the green hills of Patagonia, Arizona. He was hoping for a time of physical and spiritual rest. Cousens told him that injections of cow adrenaline and/or sheep DNA could energize his body. Levy agreed to five injections, which aren't a homeopathic treatment but are allowed by Arizona's homeopathic board.

Unfortunately, the injection site — on Levy's right buttock — grew infected, so he went to see Cousens about it. Cousens didn't recommend an antibiotic. Instead, he treated the growing abscess with acupuncture and massage.

The infected area became green and black. It spread down Levy's thigh, and on March 1, 1998, Levy did not wake up in his dorm room at the Tree of Life Spa. Cousens found Levy unconscious and attempted CPR, with no success.

Cousens did not call 911. Instead, he called an air ambulance, and arranged for a helicopter pickup on the football field of a nearby high school.

Cousens and a nurse carried Levy — draped in a bathrobe, bleeding from his mouth and groin — to a car and drove him five minutes to the field.

A Patagonia police officer was driving by the school when he saw Cousens and a number of spa guests gathered around an unclothed body lying on the grass.

Levy's buttock and thigh were black and swollen. His eyes were wide open. He was dead. After the helicopter took the body, Dr. Cousens told the officer that he'd injected Levy with sheep DNA. Later, Cousens contradicted his statement, saying the injection was actually cow hormones.