Doctor Loses Medical License After Panel Cites Public ‘Danger’

In a rare, punitive action, state medical officials Tuesday announced that they have revoked the license of an El Toro physician accused of administering a hormonal treatment that officials said posed a public danger and caused harmful side effects to at least 18 women.

Dr. Norman King Beals Jr., 55, who hosted a call-in radio talk show in Orange County and advertised in local newspapers, admitted that the allegations by California Medical Board were true and declined to contest them at a state evidentiary hearing, according to documents filed last week by the state attorney general’s office.

Beals, a general practitioner, had touted “hormonal replacement therapy” as a cure-all for a number of female afflictions, including breast cancer, menopausal hot flashes and premenstrual syndrome. He also claimed that the treatments could combat fatigue, night sweats, weight gain and heart disease.

But medical board officials said no scientific evidence exists to support Beals’ claims. Board investigators also alleged that Beals prescribed massive doses of hormones for almost any ailment, without first conducting a physical examination.

Eighteen women filed complaints with the medical board after undergoing treatment at Beals’ Hormone Replacement-Women’s Health Care Center in El Toro, claiming that they suffered a variety of side effects from the treatments, said Susan Fitzgerald, a deputy attorney general representing the medical board.

Fitzgerald said Beals’ admission of wrongdoing was made after the state obtained a 60-day temporary restraining order in Orange County Superior Court barring him from practicing medicine unless supervised by another physician in the other physician’s office. The Jan. 24 order, signed by Judge William F. Rylaarsdam, expired last Thursday, one day after the medical board revoked Beals’ license.

Under state law, Beals will be eligible to reapply for a medical license in one year. However, Kathleen Schmidt, a senior medical board investigator in Santa Ana, said it could take as many as 10 or 12 tries for a doctor to get his or her license back.

Beals’ license revocation is the first in Orange County in more than a year and is among only a few such actions taken each year in California, Schmidt said. Last year, she said, the medical board revoked licenses of 18 doctors out of about 3,000 investigations into physician misconduct.

Beals, a 30-year practitioner of medicine, deferred comment to his lawyer, Christopher B. Marshall of Los Angeles. Marshall said Tuesday that Beals chose not to go through the expense and “emotional distress” of a protracted medical board hearing.

“My only comment would be that the doctor and myself considered the merits of the allegations and the accusations and weighed fighting it and what was in the best interest of Dr. Beals as well as his patients,” Marshall said. “And we agreed to accept the recommendation of the attorney general’s office for a revocation.”

In a past interview, Beals complained that state medical officials were conducting a “witch hunt” against him because his hormonal-treatment program is not recognized by the U.S. medical establishment. The treatments involve massive and prolonged injections of such hormones as progesterone and estrogen.

Instead of ridding patients of their ailments, however, the medical board contended that patients’ medical conditions worsened and that some developed such side effects as vomiting, nausea, anxiety attacks, rashes and even hepatitis.

The medical board originally filed a 25-page accusation against Beals in November, citing complaints from six female patients. However, additional complaints from 12 more women were filed in Orange County Superior Court as state officials sought a restraining order against Beals in January.

One patient said in a complaint that Beals advised her to ignore a lump in her breast, even though another doctor had told her to see a surgeon about it.

The patient went to a surgeon anyway and found that the lump was malignant, according to the complaint. She underwent a successful mastectomy.

Another patient said in a complaint that she consulted Beals in May, 1988, about a lifelong problem with migraine headaches. Beals ordered that the patient immediately begin hormonal injections, the complaint said.

“After two to three months, (the patient) became very irritable, moody, her menstrual periods stopped, her breasts became swollen, her legs and breasts ached and she started to vomit and lose weight,” the complaint said. “She became very depressed and the migraines continued.”

Fitzgerald said in court documents that Beals’ “unprofessional conduct is widespread, that there is a pattern of incompetence and dishonesty, not to mention gross and/or simple negligence in his treatment of patients. He is a danger to the public.”

Under an agreement between Fitzgerald and Beals, the doctor admitted “the truth and accuracy” of the accusations by the first six patients who had filed complaints, in exchange for the state dropping the additional accusations by the 12 other patients, Fitzgerald said. By so doing, Fitzgerald said, Beals avoided a hearing that could have lasted as long as two months, she said.