Doctor found guilty of spiking fellow physician's drink with ecstasy

An Alberta doctor has been found guilty of slipping methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) into the drink of another physician, who ended up in the emergency department of an Edmonton hospital. Dr. Max Klein, whose registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta has been inactive since August 2015—about six months after the actions in question occurred—did not attend the hearing. Sanctions will be determined in another hearing, which has not yet been scheduled. Shortly after the college received the complaint in 2015, Dr. Klein was terminated by Alberta Health Services and banned from campus by the University of Alberta. The college at the time agreed, at Dr. Klein's request, to a stay of proceedings pending a criminal investigation into the case, which was subsequently dropped by police. Read: Licence stripped from doctor who falsely logged mental instability in patient's medical file after she ended their affair According to the hearing tribunal’s decision document, in January 2015, when Dr. Klein was a fifth-year resident at the University of Alberta, he asked a female doctor—a fellow at the University of Alberta Hospital head and neck fellowship program—to go out for a beer. She declined at first but later agreed to the meeting. According to the decision document, the female doctor believed Dr. Klein was struggling at work and thought he wanted to meet so he could explain his “absences and behaviour.” On Jan. 23, after having dinner with her husband and returning to the hospital to observe an emergency room case at the hospital, the female doctor met Dr. Klein. She told the hearing she was “under the impression another resident might be joining them, but this did not happen.” They got in Dr. Klein’s car and were supposed to go to a restaurant but, according to the female doctor, Dr. Klein said he would rather get a snack from a fast-food place. They did and he parked his car in the fast-food restaurant’s parking lot so they could eat. Read: $5 million in fraudulent billing: Alberta Health wants doctor to pay it all back The female doctor told the tribunal that Dr. Klein gave her a drink which he made from gin and grapefruit juice that was already in his car. She said her drink tasted “bitter and strong,” but she attributed this to the gin. She later took a sip from Dr. Klein’s drink and found it tasted different from her drink. The two then drove around the city. The female doctor said at this point the conversation became “increasingly inappropriate,” with Dr. Klein making comments about her appearance and previous sexual experiences. He also tried to touch her knee and thigh, the tribunal heard. At around 10:00 p.m.—roughly two hours after the start of their meeting—Dr. Klein dropped off the female doctor at her home. By then, she told the tribunal, she had started to feel “strange sensations of numbness.” These symptoms intensified and her pupils became dilated. At one point, according to the decision document, the female doctor was “crawling on the floor.” Read: Six-month suspension and $16,000 in costs for physician who faked prescriptions with other docs' names At around 11:30 p.m., she asked her husband to take her to emergency. She also sent Dr. Klein a text, describing her symptoms and asking if he had put something in her drink. Over multiple texts, he denied spiking her drink and said her symptoms were probably due to alcohol. The toxicology report ordered by the emergency department doctor showed the female doctor’s alcohol level was so low as to be undetectable but returned positive results for MDMA. While Dr. Klein did not attend the hearing, in his initial response to the college he suggested that the female doctor had administered the MDMA herself and that she had initiated their meeting. However, reviews of the text messages he had sent her contradicted the latter statement. Read: Doctor slammed for using unapproved, unproven cancer treatment treatments, even on a patient with no cancer

Doctor found guilty of spiking fellow physician's drink with ecstasy

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