State Alleges Negligence by Doctor

The Medical Board of California has accused a Santa Ana doctor, Rajendra Desai, of gross negligence for allegedly prescribing the wrong drugs, overprescribing drugs and general incompetence, especially when caring for seriously ill cancer patients.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Heidi R. Weisbaum, who is seeking to revoke or suspend his medical license, said Friday that some of Desai’s patients were given “too much chemotherapy,” leaving them more depleted than before Desai’s care began.

The 67-year-old Desai, who recently retired from a 38-year practice in oncology and hematology, was said to be traveling and could not be reached for comment.

Weisbaum noted that Desai had formally contested the Medical Board’s accusation. She said the case will probably be heard in September in Santa Ana.

A board official said the investigation began two years ago after the medical executive committee at Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana revoked Desai’s staff privileges.

The board official said Coastal’s action came after “it was determined that Desai’s medical management contributed to the patients’ death” in seven of 11 cases that were reviewed.

In compliance with state law, Coastal Communities forwarded a copy of its disciplinary action to the Medical Board, and its civil case began.

The board was also notified, the official said, when Desai was disciplined in 1982 and again in 1984 by Fountain Valley Hospital, which required that his admissions be monitored by another doctor.

In its seven-page accusation, the board described Desai’s care of 11 patients in 1986 and 1987. Two suffered “extremely serious” brain tumors. Others suffered breast or other forms of cancer, and several had blood disorders.

In the case of a patient identified as Fred K., a 47-year-old man with renal-cell carcinoma, the board charged that Desai administered 6 million units of the anti-cancer drug Interferon at the same time as three other powerful drugs. The drugs were supposed to be administered sequentially, the board said.

After receiving his medical degree from Bombay University in India in 1949, Desai worked at New England Center Hospital in Boston, where he was a Fulbright Scholar in hematology and oncology from 1952-1955.

He told the medical board that he served as a Stanford University research fellow in hematology from 1957 to 1962. And he came to Orange County in 1965 to serve as chairman of hematology/oncology at Orange County Medical Center, the county hospital later sold to UC Irvine. A member of the Orange County Medical Assn., Desai has been in private practice here since 1969.