I have heard about him a couple times b/c I read about his issues and probation on another blog and read about James Van Der Beek's wife's breech baby home birth (cringe) that he attended as the main care provider but did not realize he was so, um, in my community. My immediate community. He apparently has won (two times) Physician of the Year at the Doulas Association of Southern California awards - an association of which I am a member. And recently I saw photos of him on Facebook at a home birth with a midwife I know (she taught childbirth ed classes to my husband and I).
Anywho, all this mention of him so close to home and of course I had to Google him. I came across his website and saw that he's asking for money. I read the explanation for what the money is supposed to go toward but I'm still confused? It didn't make much sense to me and I still don't understand what his fund is for. Anyone know what he is using the money for?
I read a couple articles about him, like this one here which states:
"In Los Angeles Superior Court last year, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of sexual exploitation involving the same patient and was sentenced to three years probation. A second count of the same offense was not prosecuted."
and:
"According to findings presented by Reyes with his proposed decision, Fischbein first met the patient at his Camarillo office. They had sex twice, both times during a period when Fischbein had advised against sex because of the surgery."
eek!
and:
""It's illegal under the business and professions code 726 for a physician to have sex with his or her patient," [Medical Board spokeswoman Candis] Cohen said. "And consent is no defense.""
So that explains his trouble with the law. So, I had to go to the Medical Board of California to see if I could find out more and see if they took any action. I did (find out more). And they did (take action).
Here's what I found at the Medical Board of California. There are two public record documents.
The first document (2007) details out the relationship between Dr. Fischbein and his patient. Things of note:
- respondant = Dr. Fischbein; S.K. = his female patient
- he performed surgery on S.K. on September 16th. S.K. was in a relationship at the time.
- Then there's this:
- on September 28th (12 days after surgery), he visited her at her home and "the two had consensual sexual intercourse"
- on October 1st, they had sexual intercourse again
- another physician weighed in on this:
- I'm pretty sure he deviated from the standard of care by having sexual intercourse with S.K. period. Well, obviously, the law and the Med Board agree see it that way as well. Anywho.
- soooooo... her doctor told her she shouldn't have sex with anyone for 4-6 week (which would mean for her to not have sex with her then boyfriend).... and yet, 12 days later, her doctor has sex with her. Did he not care about the surgery he just performed on her? Or did he just not want her to have sex with anyone else?
- He ended up getting 7 years probation, more details of the order and his probation begin on page 11 of the above Med Board link
The second document (2011) details out his request to have his 7 year probation cease. I had read about this on another site as well. Things of note:
and
Can you imagine that poor patient of his if he actually made that movie about their relationship?! I would FREAK. That is horrible.
So he's still on probation. And I don't know if he has hospital privileges anywhere? It says he was asked to leave as Medical Director at a clinic and that he resigned from Cedars-Sinai hospital.
Anyway, apparently he does home births now. And he's asking for donations from people.
I don't know.... this all sounds horribly fishy to me. I can't say I'd be comfortable having him as my doctor. B/c I wouldn't be. At all. Sorry, my exact thoughts can pretty much be summed us as "ew, noooooooo."
He seems to have so many supporters and followers and people who worship him. Do people not know about this stuff? Do they know and not care? Thoughts?
