When a Trusted Pediatrician Loses His License
He’s worked at one of the best known children’s hospitals in the country and earned acclaim for caring for children. Now pediatrician Dr. Melvin Levine has been barred from practicing medicine anywhere in the country after accusations that he improperly touched five children’s genitals.
Levine, who once worked at Children’s Hospital in Boston and more recently practiced in Chapel Hill, N.C. where he co-founded a research institute at the University of North Carolina, has been accused of improperly performing examinations on the children’s genital regions. The allegations prompted the North Carolina Medical Board to call for Levine’s resignation of his medical license. It will keep him away from kids in North Carolina and around the country.
He’s just one doctor, but the story highlights the stress any parent feels when it comes time to pick a pediatrician. We want someone we can trust – and not just in terms of their sexual proclivities. We want to know that they’re good at their job; a lot of us will take what the health insurance doles out for our own general practitioner, but we want a pediatrician who is on top of his or her game. We want someone we know we can talk to too, someone who will field our calls and answer our dumbest questions when we are nervous about the clogged tear duct or the fact that he’s eight months and no teeth are popping through.
My first pediatric choice was simple – the neonatologist whose office my mother (a healthcare practitioner) had shared for years, there was no question. But when he retired on my late last year, I was in a tizzy. How do you replace the man who could look you in the eyes, tell you “everything is just fine, she’s developing at a perfect rate,” and make you realize you were just plain old neurotic? How do you find another doctor who refuses to pawn off the basics of childcare on his nurse (I’ve heard horror stories from friends whose pediatrician is in the room for maybe two minutes, leaving all the heavy lifting, including the vaccinations, to an RN)?
We depend on our pediatricians like few other people in our kids’ lives. What would you do if your pediatrician were charged with a crime? Line up for his defense or smack yourself for trusting him?
Image: Boston Globe
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Why were these children left alone with the doctor to begin with? I don’t recall my mother leaving me alone with any doctor or nurse ever; in fact, the first time I was alone with a doctor was when I turned 18 and had my first pap smear.
Also, what Bettywu said. He’s been accused, that’s all. Let’s not forget all the lives ruined in the 1980s by fabricated accounts of child molestation.
This guy has been accused. That’s all. Accused. We don’t know yet if he’s guilty.
A 60 year old beloved pediatrician in our community was forced to retire in disgrace after the local media put in the paper and on TV that he had been accused of molestation. The charges were proven false. Do you think the TV stations and papers put out big stories apologizing or clearing his name? Not so much.
The nurses give the shots to my kids – the doc said he does it this way so the children won’t associate him with shots (and fear him). Makes perfect sense to me.
I prefer nurses for immunizations. They are faster, cause less pain and tend to wash their hands more than doctors. They are trained in nursing school to give shots. They are also usually mothers themselves and sympathize with my tears.
My kids’ pediatrician gives them all of their shots himself.
anno5: Now you know why it hurt to lose my pediatrician!
I’ve had both docs and nurses give me shots over the years, but my daughter has ONLY had a pediatrician administer her shots because we had a doc who was there for the entire visit and very active in the care of his patients.
Wait, isn’t it standard for nurses to administer vaccinations? I’ve never experienced a doctor administering a shot in any adult or child medical situation I’ve ever been in.