Board revokes doctor’s medical license

Molly Ball

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.

The state Board of Osteopathic Medicine on Wednesday voted to revoke the license of a doctor who was found to have committed malpractice in prescribing huge amounts of narcotic medications to several patients, one of whom used the medicines to kill herself.

Dr. Gary Lutz was found guilty of multiple counts of malpractice and excessive prescribing in the administrative hearing that ended Wednesday evening. The board voted 4-1 to take his medical license away.

"I'm saddened by this case," board member Dr. Daniel Curtis said. "But I don't think the community will stand for a physician who has committed gross malpractice and the board has met that with anything but revocation."

Lutz was accused of overprescribing controlled substances such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine to Rae Anne Distasi and three other unnamed patients.

According to Lutz's own records, Distasi talked about suicide and was hospitalized for a suicide attempt while under his care. But the doctor kept prescribing the medications in ever-larger dosages.

Distasi was found dead in her apartment in January 2004. She was 34. The death was ruled a suicide, caused by an overdose of the medications Elavil and Xanax.

Lutz admitted wrongdoing in the cases of the other three patients, who were shown to be taking doses as much as 100 times the recommended amount of powerful narcotics.

Lutz also had a disciplinary history, including board sanctions in Nevada and Ohio for sexual overtures to patients dating back to 1998.

Even after his license was suspended a year ago, Lutz continued to write prescriptions, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration document introduced as evidence in the hearing. Federal drug agents seized 11 prescriptions for Lortab, Xanax, OxyContin, Percocet and Soma that Lutz wrote during the month after his suspension.

The board's chairman, Dr. Rudy Manthei, said that he doubted Lutz could be reformed based on his record of unethical behavior and his violation of his suspension.

"I am sympathetic to...seeing if you can be rehabilitated, but I don't believe it," Manthei said.

Lutz's attorney, John Spilotro, argued that Lutz had made mistakes but the problem was "isolated."

In focusing on a few egregious cases, the board, Spilotro said, was "not taking into account all the good this man has done."

Lutz has struggled financially since his license was suspended, working for $8 an hour at a retail electronics store, Spilotro said. "Nobody's perfect. We all have flaws," Spilotro said. "His flaws can be addressed."

Spilotro suggested putting Lutz on probation, putting restrictions on his license and ordering him to attend training on medical ethics.

One board member, Dr. Paul Mozen, agreed with that approach and voted not to revoke Lutz's license.

"I don't know whether I'm ready to completely give up on Dr. Lutz," Mozen said.

Licensed doctors of osteopathy, or D.O.s, can practice medicine in all the same ways as M.D.s, but their training differs and they are regulated separately. M.D.s, physicians' assistants and respiratory therapists are regulated by the state Board of Medical Examiners.