Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

September 14, 2011 Wednesday
Final Edition

3 Austin doctors disciplined by Texas Medical Board

BYLINE: Mary Ann Roser AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B03

LENGTH: 435 words

Three Austin doctors were among 108 disciplined recently by the Texas Medical Board, including a psychiatrist who was fined $20,000 after the board said he improperly wrote prescriptions and performed an evaluation on a longtime patient’s wife that got used against her in court.
The board accused David Williams Cardwell, 63, of failing to get consent from the patient’s wife for the evaluation when she came to Cardwell’s office in 2006 for what she thought was “marriage counseling,” according to the board’s Aug. 26 order. Based on two office appointments, Cardwell labeled the spouse as having a “progressive paranoid thought disorder,” which the patient then used in a child custody dispute, the order said.
The board also said Cardwell improperly wrote prescriptions, including for controlled substances, to himself and nine family members without maintaining adequate records and did not keep proper records on two other patients.
Cardwell said he disagreed with the board’s findings but agreed to the order “so I could put it behind me.”
“For five years, including through quadruple bypass surgery, I have disagreed with the allegations and process. Ultimately, it cost me money and anguish, so I agreed to end it,” Cardwell said Tuesday.
The board reprimanded Cardwell and said he can no longer treat or prescribe to family members or himself. It also ordered him to pay a fine of $20,000, be monitored by another doctor, pass a test in medical jurisprudence and take courses in medical recordkeeping and ethics.
It also ordered that:
* Dr. John A. Luker, who practices addiction medicine in Austin, be monitored by another doctor and take courses in prescribing, risk management and recordkeeping. The board said Luker failed to properly evaluate and document his care of several patients before and after treating them for alcohol and drug abuse. Luker did not return a call for comment.
* Dr. Marisol Fernandez, a pediatric infectious physician in Austin, take a course in recordkeeping and risk management. The order said that Fernandez consulted on a child born in 2005 who was hospitalized several times because of illness and that immune system testing turned up some abnormal results that she did not see. In 2006, after the child had routine immunizations, including with live chickenpox vaccine, the child developed chickenpox and died.
The board considered it a mitigating factor that Fernandez did not know the abnormal lab results were in the child’s file. She now reviews and signs all documents before they’re placed in the patient’s file, the board said. She did not return a call for comment.