Doctor Arrested After Abortion of 26-Week Fetus

A recently suspended doctor with a long history of medical complaints has been arrested on suspicion of murder after performing an abortion that left his patient bleeding uncontrollably and a 26-week-old fetus in the trash at a Van Nuys clinic.

Gordon Sean Goei, 57, was arrested at his home on Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City on Thursday morning after his 42-year-old patient was taken by ambulance to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, said Det. Richard Blankenship of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Goei, who has a history of disciplinary action dating back to 1979, was placed on probation by the Medical Board of California last September after eight women complained he had misdiagnosed them and performed unnecessary gynecological procedures.

But effective March 13, his license was suspended because he failed a medical certification exam required to maintain his probationary status, according to a medical board spokeswoman. As a result, said spokeswoman Candace Coen, Goei should not have been practicing when he performed the abortion Thursday at the Family Medical Group clinic at 6900 Van Nuys Blvd.

“If you’re a doctor with a suspended license, you are not supposed to be practicing,” Coen said.

Goei, who was being held at Van Nuys Jail on Friday in lieu of bail, could not be reached for comment. A lawyer who has represented him in the past also could not be reached.

Before hanging up, a man who answered the phone at the Family Medical Group clinic said, “We have no information for you. Don’t call back again.”

Goei’s unidentified patient was listed in guarded but stable condition Friday after undergoing surgery. But the aborted 6.5-month fetus may have been viable outside the womb, police said. Third-trimester abortions remain illegal, except in extreme cases in which the mother or fetus is medically at risk.

The district attorney’s office is expected to review the case Monday and determine whether a murder charge is warranted, Blankenship said.

The coroner’s office performed an autopsy on the fetus Friday morning but declined to release results, citing the ongoing investigation.

Goei has been disciplined by the Medical Board of California four times, and his disciplinary history fills a 99-page file, according to state records and officials. The board licenses physicians and other medical professionals. It also investigates complaints and issues disciplinary actions.

The most serious penalties issued by the board are license revocation, suspension and probation.

Goei’s most recent case culminated Sept. 19, after the board found him guilty of “negligence and incompetence in his care and treatment of several patients,” according to a copy of the board decision.

The board voted to revoke his license, but its decision was overruled by an administrative law judge in Los Angeles who placed Goei on seven years’ probation. In issuing his decision, Judge Humberto Flores cited the thousands of patients Goei had treated over the years and the fact that no patients testified against him during the 1997 case.

“Instead,” Flores wrote, “three of the patients named in the Accusation testified that they were satisfied with respondent’s treatment and that their pelvic pain had been alleviated after respondent [Goei] performed surgery on them.”

As a condition of his probation, Goei was ordered to enroll in an educational program and take exams to demonstrate his knowledge and right to practice medicine, state records show. Failure to pass the test would return him to a suspended status until he could pass a repeat exam.

Goei’s disciplinary history began when he was found guilty May 4, 1979, of using a fictitious name in his practice without a valid permit. He was placed on a one-year probation.

On June 25, 1984, Goei was found guilty of gross negligence and incompetence for wrong diagnoses and unnecessary surgeries. Once again, he was placed on a one-year probation.

In 1992, Goei was disciplined by the board for “knowingly making” a false medical document. That time, according to state records, he was placed on three years’ probation.