http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky...l/11953337.htm

Posted on Wed, Jun. 22, 2005



Indictment says fake doctor gave illegal treatment

By ******* Ortiz
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

A man with a history of posing as a doctor has been indicted on felony charges that he illegally treated patients in Lexington.

***** M. Lammers, 50, is accused of practicing medicine without a license from June to September 2003 when he was an employee of Accident Injury Medical Center at 271 Southland Drive. A grand jury indicted him Monday.

Sandra S. Kidd of Lexington has told authorities that Lammers posed as a doctor and prescribed medicine and shots for her neck, back and spinal injuries. Kidd alerted authorities in March 2004 after she saw that Lammers had been arrested in Michigan, according to court records.

The charge is the latest in a string of accusations that have followed Lammers from Florida and south-central Kentucky to Michigan and Lexington. He has been convicted three times of similar charges -- in Kentucky, Florida and Michigan -- and has been sued at least seven times in the last year in state and federal courts.

Lammers is currently being held in the Fayette County jail.

He was sentenced in February 2003 to two years' probation in Orange County, Fla., after pleading guilty to practicing medicine even though he was only a chiropractor, according to a spokeswoman in the state attorney's office. Florida officials are now seeking extradition.

In Pulaski County, Lammers was indicted in August 2003 on accusations he was illegally injecting patients with shots of painkillers at a clinic in London, Commonwealth's Attorney Eddy Montgomery said. He pleaded guilty in January 2004 to a felony charge of wanton endangerment.

"He's nothing," Montgomery said. "He claims to have been a doctor."

A judge sentenced him to a year probation, which has since been revoked.

In March 2004, he was arrested in Michigan. Lammers, the son of a well-known doctor in Monroe County, Mich., started treating patients when his father went on vacation to California, Monroe County assistant prosecutor Jack Simms said. That prompted the father's staff members to alert authorities.

It's not clear Gerald Lammers knew his son was illegally posing as a doctor, Simms said. Gerald Lammers could not be reached for comment last night.

"I know the father liked having him around to help," Simms said. "But there is no direct evidence that he knew or actually encouraged practicing medicine without a license."

***** Lammers was convicted in April of practicing medicine without a license in Michigan. He received a one-year sentence but had already spent a year in jail awaiting trial. He was extradited to Lexington later in April.

Three days after Lammers' March 2004 arrest in Michigan, the Fayette County attorney sought an arrest warrant after being flooded with complaints.

The Michigan arrest also triggered six Fayette Circuit Court lawsuits against Lammers and the company that owned Accident Injury Medical Center, Florida-based Injury & Rehabilitation Centers of Kentucky.

A Lexington attorney representing four former patients said Lammers prescribed medicine and gave shots -- which he allegedly called "cocktails" -- as he treated automobile accident victims. The clinic sent patients to "Mobile MRIs" and exhausted their $10,000 in injury protection coverage, then cut them loose, attorney Robert L. Elliott said.

Attorney Louis P. Winner, representing Injury & Rehabilitation Centers, vigorously denied the claim. He said most of the plaintiffs -- and their insurance companies -- never paid their bills.

Lammers has told officials that he was a student at St. Luke School of Medicine, which claims to be an internet medical school. The school is based in Liberia and has a California information office.

Winner said Lammers worked under the supervision of doctors, and that no patients ever complained about their care until he was arrested last year. Lammers saved one patient's life when he recommended that he see a radiologist, who then diagnosed cancer, Winner said.

He added that the clinic never claimed he was a doctor, although the lawsuits say staff called him one.

"He every day wore a badge that was labeled 'medical student' on his coat," Winner said. He said the clinics have since stopped employing medical students.

Allstate Insurance Co., Liberty Mutual Group and Grange Mutual Casualty Co. are also suing Lammers and several doctors and owners of medical clinics and billing centers in federal court on allegations the clinics and doctors filed more than $1 million in fraudulent claims.

After a complaint made by Grange, an administrative law judge in October 2004 fined Injury & Rehabilitation Centers $90,000 for illegally operating nine medical clinics in Kentucky. The centers are appealing.

Attorneys for the insurance company presented evidence to Judge ***** B. Wicker that Lammers developed the company's medical protocols. Wicker ruled that the clinics tried to avoid licensing and employed a director, Gregory Mack, who was not a licensed doctor.

Winner said the federal and state lawsuits are merely exploiting Lammers' arrest for financial gain. The insurance suit, he said, is a response to the injury centers' litigation trying to seek insurance payments.


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Staff writer Valarie Honeycutt Spears contributed to this article.

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Still skeptical after all these years.
This is it. There are no hidden meanings.WYSIWYG

http://www.internetmedicalschool.homestead.com

http://www.chiropractormds.homestead.com/index.html

Doc with doctored documents to prove that he is a doc, in the dock!!

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