Doctor Pleas Guilty to Charges of Elder Abuse and Fraud

Los Gatos doctor pleads guilty to performing unneccessary, painful procedure
By Leslie Griffy

Mercury News
01/30/2008

A Los Gatos urologist who performed a painful cancer treatment on a patient who didn't have the disease has pleaded guilty to felony charges of elder abuse and insurance fraud, authorities said today..
Ali Moayed, 41, of Monte Sereno, is facing up to one year in jail under a plea agreement with Santa Clara County prosecutors. He has already surrendered his medical license.

Moayed created fake lab reports indicating that three of his patients suffered from prostate cancer, which they didn't have, according to court documents.

Another doctor reviewing Moayed's files in 2005 noticed that a pathology report - the document that would contain the cancer diagnosis - was missing from the file for a patient about to undergo treatment. When radiation oncologist Abhinand Peddada finally got the report, he saw that the report from the lab said something different than the document from Moayed's office.

The lab said the patient never had prostate cancer.

Peddada canceled a painful procedure, called brachytherapy, for the patient and a second man. But the conflicting reports weren't discovered until 87-year-old Dung Le had already undergone the procedure, which involves sedating the patient and inserting radioactive seeds the size of a rice grains into the prostate.

Peddada told Good Samaritan Hospital, where both were on staff, about the incident. The hospital forwarded the results of its investigation to the state medical board and law enforcement officials.

Moayed resigned from the hospital in August 2005.
Initially he pleaded not guilty and faced seven years in prison. He changed his plea on Friday, when prosecutors dismissed three other felony charges. Moayed will be sentenced in March and expected to serve up to one year in jail and 100 hours of community service, while paying $65,000 in restitution costs. He can no longer practice medicine in California.
About 218,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.

SOURCE: Mercury News