A Rowland Heights doctor accused of recklessly prescribing narcotic painkillers and other addictive drugs has been charged with murder in connection with three fatal overdoses, a rare attempt to hold a physician criminally liable for patients' deaths.
Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng, 42, was arrested Thursday and led handcuffed from her office in a strip mall off the 60 Freeway where authorities say patients -- many of them men in their 20s -- once came to get prescriptions for drugs as potent as heroin.
The charges represent a bold move sure to spur debate in the medical and legal communities and come as public health and law enforcement authorities are grappling with rising prescription drug deaths.
"Prescription drug overdose deaths have reached epidemic proportions," Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said in a statement issued shortly after Tseng's arrest. "Enough is enough. Doctors are not above the law."
As she was escorted from her second-floor clinic by sheriff's deputies and state medical board investigators, Tseng stared at the ground and shook her head when asked by a reporter for comment.
In an interview with The Times in 2010, Tseng acknowledged that she had been confronted about her prescribing habits by her patients' loved ones, but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
"They call me all sorts of names -- drug doctor, drug-dealing doctor.... I tell parents a lot of times it's their problem," she said.
Tseng is being held on $3-million bail and is expected to be arraigned Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Continue Reading: latimes.com
Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng, 42, was arrested Thursday and led handcuffed from her office in a strip mall off the 60 Freeway where authorities say patients -- many of them men in their 20s -- once came to get prescriptions for drugs as potent as heroin.
The charges represent a bold move sure to spur debate in the medical and legal communities and come as public health and law enforcement authorities are grappling with rising prescription drug deaths.
"Prescription drug overdose deaths have reached epidemic proportions," Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said in a statement issued shortly after Tseng's arrest. "Enough is enough. Doctors are not above the law."
As she was escorted from her second-floor clinic by sheriff's deputies and state medical board investigators, Tseng stared at the ground and shook her head when asked by a reporter for comment.
In an interview with The Times in 2010, Tseng acknowledged that she had been confronted about her prescribing habits by her patients' loved ones, but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
"They call me all sorts of names -- drug doctor, drug-dealing doctor.... I tell parents a lot of times it's their problem," she said.
Tseng is being held on $3-million bail and is expected to be arraigned Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Continue Reading: latimes.com
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