SAN DIEGO – Team 10 was first to learn about a national push that would require doctors to tell you if they are on probation before they treat you.
A petition has just been launched by the Consumer’s Union Safe Patient Project, and the group says 400 doctors are on probation in California for things like sexual abuse, violence and even death.
Advocates said many of those doctors can still practice and they don’t have to tell you anything related to their probation. Parents like Jodi Barber told Team 10 they support the push for transparency.
“I lost my son Jared and three of his friends in the same year,” said Barber.
Barber now educates kids and parents about prescription drug abuse and overdose.
“While they are probation they can still prescribe and their patients are dying,” said Barber.
Barber said she found her teenage son out of it and on pills when he was 19.
“My husband and I went to a psychologist and he referred us to ‘the best doctor in Orange County’ and he just basically prescribed more pills,” said Barber.
The Barbers were sent to Dr. Paul Corona in Laguna Nigel.
“If I knew Dr. Corona was on probation, I wouldn’t have gone to see him. He was on a five-year probation for prescribing himself Seroquel,” said Barber.
Barber said Jared was put on Clonazepan, the anti-depressant Pristiq and then Cymbalta. She said Corona gave Jared Seroquel samples two days before his death.
“Jared, I thought, gave me all the samples, but he kept one box and he took them the night he passed,” said Barber.
RELATED: Local physician says she was punished after others falsified her prescriptions
Barber said Jared took the pills he was prescribed, the sample medication and another prescription drug he received from a friend.
Patient safety advocate Marian Hollingsworth is working with Consumer’s Union on this national campaign to get the California Medical Board to require doctors to tell patients they are on probation.
“That’s something you should know before you decide who’s going to deliver your baby or do your surgery. You don’t want to have your last thought before you go under for an operation, ‘I should have checked my doctor,'” said Hollingsworth.
You can look up a doctor’s past on a state website but Hollingsworth said it takes too many steps and can be confusing to sort though.
“I would have never taken my son to this doctor if I knew that. This should be required,” said Barber.
Team 10 reached out to Corona for a comment on this national campaign for transparency. He did not return our request for a comment.
