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

Susser's discipline culminated when he advised a patient who was jaundiced and experiencing severe abdominal pain to not go to the emergency room. Paramedics forced the patient to go to the ER, where she was diagnosed with severe liver and pancreas damage, due to the all-natural injections.

After two years of community service at 25 hours a week, Susser's California medical license was restored in 2000. His New York license is still surrendered.

In 2002, Susser secured a homeopathic license in Arizona. He's been practicing in Scottsdale ever since. In 2005, the California Medical Board again took away Susser's license (he's on probation again) for prescribing ketamine, an anesthetic and animal tranquilizer.

In 2006, Arizona's homeopathic board examined the same charges and dismissed them.

Known as "Special K" in the club scene, ketamine is similar to PCP. It can cause hallucinations along with extreme detachment from reality. The homeopathic board concluded that Susser was not in the wrong to prescribe ketamine to fibromyalgia patients — even though it falls outside the conventional standard of care.

In an interview for this story, Susser calls ketamine the pain reliever of the future for patients with chronic pain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration begs to differ. The FDA approves ketamine only as an anesthetic and veterinary tranquilizer.

Susser also says the details in the California Medical Board's paperwork are charges and not facts. He says they weren't proved and that he signed the agreements only to avoid court fees.

DR. ELLIOTT SCHMERLER

On January 9, 2007, a physician stood before Arizona's homeopathic board and told his personal story of redemption. Too bad it wasn't all true.

It had been five years since Dr. Elliott Schmerler pleaded guilty to felony tax fraud. According to IRS documents, Schmerler funneled more than $500,000 through a corporation in the Bahamas and then used the money for personal expenses. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison and stripped of his Nevada medical license.

Two of Schmerler's cosmetic surgery patients had poor results, and he paid out money in lawsuits to two others, according to his homeopathic application and records from the Nevada Medical Board.

By December 2006, Schmerler had served his time in prison and finished his probation for the tax fraud case. He wrote the IRS a check for $96,533 to settle the score. That month, the Nevada Medical Board issued Schmerler a restricted medical license that specifically banned him from performing cosmetic surgery in the state.

Because of his revocation and felony conviction, Schmerler could not perform cosmetic surgery as an M.D. in Arizona.

One month after Nevada issued him a restricted license, Schmerler was in Arizona, petitioning for his homeopathic license. Standing in the basement boardroom at the state building for regulatory boards, Schmerler told the board a big lie.

"Since our previous meeting, I was issued a new, unrestricted license by the Nevada Allopathic Medical Board," he said.

None of the board members mentioned that Schmerler's printed license restricted him from ever performing any kind of cosmetic surgery.

Instead, the discussion focused on giving doctors second chances, particularly when their history involves felonies.

"I fully recognize we may take a little heat from the media because 'that homeopathic board is back to licensing felons again,'" then-board president Dr. Garry Gordon said as he made a motion to accept Schmerler's application. "But I take the full responsibility of recognizing everything I've seen and read about this doctor going forward."

The board members didn't ask Schmerler why Nevada banned him from cosmetic surgery. They didn't ask about the liposuction patient who ended up with an infected, oozing stomach or the breast augmentation patient who woke up with a lopsided chest — both documented in his own application and in Nevada Medical Board records.

Nobody asked Schmerler why the Nevada Medical Board disciplined him for "intent to deceive" or whether he would attempt to practice his specialties — liposuction and breast augmentation — in Arizona. Those procedures aren't allowed with a homeopathic license.

Instead, the board took Schmerler at his word. Gordon asked his fellow members to give Schmerler another chance at honesty.

"Physicians are really not well suited to digging ditches, but they don't have a lot of other things they're good at doing," he said. "They shouldn't be used car salesman. When I was in California, I was astonished how everyone who serves their time and does their probation is finally re-licensed."

Arizona law doesn't let the conventional board give M.D.'s such second chances. The only way Schmerler could bring his services to Arizona would be through the homeopathic board's loophole.