The News Herald (Morganton, North Carolina)

December 19, 2009 Saturday

Medical board suspends local doctor’s license

BYLINE: Staff reports

SECTION: NEWS

LENGTH: 431 words

Raleigh, NC – The North Carolina Medical Board has suspended a Morganton psychiatrist’s license.
The board issued a consent order on Oct. 8 suspending the license of Dr. Kurian Chiramel Abraham. The board immediately stayed the suspension, except for 30 days from Dec. 1 through Dec. 30. Dr, Abraham will remain on probation until April 8.
Every two months, the N.C. Medical Board produces a complete bi-monthly report of all its disciplinary actions such as revocations, suspensions and disciplinary consent orders, as well as non-disciplinary actions such as reentry agreements.
The September-October report released Friday says Dr. Abraham “failed to mention an April 1998 guilty plea to Level 5 DWI [driving while intoxicated] on his N.C. medical license application, which he submitted in May 2001. In July 2001, when appearing before a panel of the board to discuss his application, Dr. Abraham falsely answered ‘No’ when asked whether he had ever been convicted of any crime other than a minor traffic violation.”
The N.C. Medical Board report continues, “On Jan. 1, 2005, Dr. Abraham was arrested and charged with driving while under the influence in Burke County. On Nov. 2, 2005, he was convicted of a Level 2 DWI. In November 2008, the board received information about Dr. Abraham’s 2005 DUI. A board investigator interviewed Dr. Abraham and inquired about both the 2005 and 1998 DWI convictions. Dr. Abraham initially denied the existence of the 1998 conviction. He later contended that he relied on the advice of local counsel in responding to this question.”
According to his biographical information on the Web, Dr. Abraham earned his undergraduate degree at Baselius College in Kottayam, Kerala, India and obtained his medical degree from M.R. Medical College, Gulbarga, Karnataka, India.
He completed a pulmonology residency at KEM Hospital, Bombay, India, and a psychiatry residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va. He also completed a Duke and GlaxoSmithKline Psychopharmacology Fellowship with advanced training in central nerve system new drug development and clinical trials at Duke University Medical Center in Durham. He is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association.
Abraham was on the medical staff at Grace Hospital in Morganton five years ago, but is no longer associated in any way with the hospital or Blue Ridge HealthCare, according to vice president Jerry Davis.