Las Vegas NowEmbattled Doctors' Backgrounds Questioned

Embattled Doctors' Backgrounds Questioned

Eyewitness News has learned that the State Board of Examiners is now looking into the case, trying to see if the doctors will lose their licenses.

As the scandal grows and a panic sets in, attention turns to the doctors at the heart of the problem.

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One of the doctors, Vishvinder Sharma is currently on the State Board of Health. But according to board records, he did not attend the last meeting in December and has a track record of doing little and saying even less over the past year.

His partner, and majority owner of the clinics, Dipak Desai, has a track record of problems. In 1996, he was fined $2,500 for false advertising. He claimed members of his staff had experienced medical backgrounds in gastroenterology.

The state board said the workers did not.

Desai was also a member of the governor's transition team for health care, likely due to his previous position on the Board of the Medical Examiners, the very group investigating him right now.

While he was on the board, law journal filings say he was embroiled in a bitter malpractice suit. According to the Nevada Law Journal, Desai misdiagnosed a patient with Crohn's disease.

Read the Malpractice Case

Because of his expert testimony, another doctor performed what was called an "unnecessary and overly aggressive procedure on the colon and intestines." That doctor faced the malpractice suit, not Desai.

The State Examiners Board says they could spend months piecing together what happened and who is to blame. Until then, past transgressions and present allegations have come together, with 40,000 Nevadans possibly just the tip of the iceberg.

The chief investigator for the medical examiners says if the doctors face formal charges, they will be tried separately. Right now, the case is only in the early stages, but they will prioritize the investigation and move it to the top of the list.