Judge considers complaints that five practice medicine without license

Art Nadler

Wednesday, April 29, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

Attempts to remove a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction against five people accused of practicing medicine without a license were delayed by District Judge Kathy Hardcastle Tuesday.

Hardcastle is expected to rule on Thursday whether University of Nevada School of Medicine resident physician Dr. Rafael Mirchou and four other people in the Santa Ana Medical Center, 865 N. Eastern Ave., Suite D, were practicing medicine without a license.

As a resident medical student, Mirchou had to be supervised by a Nevada licensed medical doctor. The office personnel -- Francisco Peraza Gonzalez, Marisol Crespo Dominguez, Juan Saul Echevarria and Juan Francisco Barajas Mota -- are not licensed by any medical governing body, the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners has reported.

Richard Legarza, the Board of Medical Examiners general counsel, said all five individuals were examining patients, diagnosing illnesses and prescribing courses of treatment.

"We license people who do this," Legarza said. "These people are practicing medicine and should be stopped."

Donald Green, Mirchou's attorney, is seeking to remove the restraining order and permanent injunction on the grounds that the medical board had set a June 15 hearing to determine whether to permanently suspend his client's residency license.

"The board itself has invited Dr. Mirchou to defend himself on June 15-16," Green said. "Where is the eminent danger, when his license has already been revoked? There should be no injunction because there has been no threat that Dr. Mirchou will hurt people."

The Board of Medical Examiners suspended a licensed physician at Santa Ana Medical Center 2 1/2 months ago. That physician's name, Legarza said, was the one listed as seeing several patients.

"It's a felony to practice medicine in Nevada without a license," Legarza said.

He plans to ask the district attorney's office to prosecute all five people within the next two weeks.