Court overturns punishment of 'inexcusably rude' vet (GRRR)
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centr...s/10360973.htm
Court overturns punishment of 'inexcusably rude' vet
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A veterinarian who told an elderly woman she would "rot in hell" for complaining to state regulators about how he euthanized her sick dog can't be disciplined, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled Tuesday.
The court called Dr. James W. Nelson's conduct "inexcusably rude" but said it did not amount to incompetence.
"'Unprofessional conduct' is not the same as 'professional incompetency,' and we reject the board's attempt to treat them as identical concepts," wrote Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt.
The decision overturned Nelson's public reprimand by the State Board of Veterinary Medicine and its requirements that he undergo anger-management counseling, attend classes in dealing with owners of euthanized animals and write a letter of apology.
Nelson's lawyer, April McClaine, said the ruling limits the licensing board's authority.
"The bottom line is that the board overreached its authority in attempting to sanction a doctor for conduct that was not prohibited in the (veterinary) act," McClaine said.
Veterinary Board spokeswoman Allison Hrestak said the decision probably won't be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
"It is how the court ruled, and their interpretation of the statutes are a more narrow reading and not as broad as we interpreted it," she said.
Franklin resident Betty Voorhies brought Lady, a cockapoo, to Nelson's clinic in Seneca on Sept. 4, 2001, after the veterinarian had urged her repeatedly to put down the dog. Lady, 17, was blind in one eye and suffered breathing problems from an enlarged heart.
After two failed attempts to inject the fatal solution into Lady's front legs, Nelson injected it into the struggling animal's jugular vein, "causing the dog to howl and collapse," according to the court opinion. Voorhies became highly upset and accused him of torturing Lady to death.
"It was awful. I was so upset. I came home and I'd lay awake at nights. It was all I could think about," Voorhies, 65, said Tuesday.
Voorhies filed a complaint. The same day a state investigator visited Nelson's office in northwestern Pennsylvania, the veterinarian phoned Voorhies to pressure her to drop the matter.
"When (Voorhies) refused to answer his questions, (Nelson) loudly told the client that her soul would rot in hell for what she was trying to do to him," wrote board attorney Teresa A. Lazo-Miller.
Leavitt compared Nelson's appeal to two prior court cases that addressed the meaning of "incompetence" in the context of regulated professions. A 1978 Commonwealth Court decision found that actions of an optometrist who didn't inform patients of the location of his new office and told one patient to "go to hell" were "reprehensible, but not incompetent."
Commonwealth Court in 1989 also overturned the punishment of a funeral director for making an irate phone call to a priest's secretary to complain that the priest was directing parishioners to another funeral home.
