Teflon wears thin on former local doc

We called him the Teflon Doc: Jerry Jackson Lee II, a physician who set up shop last year in Columbia County and soon came under scrutiny when charges of malpractice from his former middle Georgia patients began to surface.

Lees Evans gynecology practice abruptly shut down after he was arrested for beating up his wife. The charges against Lee looked like an open-and-shut case; but then Kandace Lee recanted after her husband was released from jail.

Lee was later acquitted on two felony charges and convicted on a misdemeanor. He then packed up and left town, next popping up in Mississippi, where his practice never really got off the ground. Then he moved to south Georgia, setting up the Magnolia Womens Center in Hazelhurst earlier this year.

Now word has filtered northward that Lee is in trouble again.

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Lees medical license has been suspended, according to Georgias Composite State Board of Medical Examiners. The investigatory file on the doctor is shocking and repulsive - and lays out in detail why Lee license was yanked.

The suspension results from several incidents, according to the state board, including:

One patient accused Lee of injecting himself, in front of her, with a dose of the powerful pain killer Demerol after having given her an injection of the drug.

Another patient said Lee had sex with her.

The board found evidence that Lee was writing prescriptions in the names of his patients and picking them up himself at area pharmacies. The drugs included lots of Demerol, and Nubain, Cyanocobalamin, Nifedipine and methylprednisolone. He also wrote multiple prescriptions for the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam for his wife.

Lee was injected with Demerol and Phernagan at Jeff Davis Hospital on a night in which he was the on-call physician.

Lees privileges at Jeff Davis were suspended the day after he showed up at the hospital, unkempt and unshaven, complaining of a migraine headache and seeking a room.

Operating-room staff members cancelled Lees scheduled surgeries because of the doctors mood swings, extreme perspiration and shakiness of hands.

Because Lees continued practice as a physician poses a threat to the public health, safety and welfare, the Board report says, Lees license is suspended until further proceedings.

All that happened more than two months ago, and since then weve had little luck in getting Board officials to tell us anything except that Lees license is still suspended pending an appeal.

But at least it looks like the Teflon has finally worn off.

A footnote: In February, we took Judge Bernard Mulherin to task after he acquitted Lee on a felony charge of possessing a machine gun. Specifically, we were shocked when Mulherin admitted that he took the probable impact on Lees livelihood into account when he turned Lee loose.

The medical boards recent action means Mulherins ruling did nothing more than allow Lee to practice a few more months before losing his license. The judge should count his blessings that the allegations leveled since then against Lee dont involve serious harm to patients.