Clients, Doctors Back Clinic Checks

Patients who crowded waiting rooms at several storefront medical clinics in Santa Ana on Saturday said they were relieved the police would investigate all such clinics in the wake of a toddler’s death after treatment by an impostor doctor.

“It’s a good thing, because you never can be sure,” said Rosalinda Gomez of Orange, who waited with her feverish 19-month-old son at the First and Bristol Medical Group. “You come to see a doctor when you’re sick, so you don’t usually think to ask for their qualifications.”

A clinic doctor also said the death, and the unease it has caused among patients, warranted citywide investigation.

“All clinics need to be investigated to show clearly that they’re credentialed, properly titled--everything,” said Tyrone Arce, a Peruvian-born internist whose license is listed as valid by the state Medical Board. “Medicine must be a very serious profession.

“There is no reason to resist or oppose it,” he said. “If everything is OK, why worry about it?”

In late April, 13-month-old Christopher Martinez died after three days of treatment at a clinic, and investigators later learned the man who treated him was not licensed. The clinic, Consultorio Medico de Santa Ana, has since been closed.

Police on Friday issued a murder warrant for Gamaliel Moreno, the man who posed as a doctor, and disclosed they had arrested his wife, Eulalia Moreno, for allegedly tampering with the medical files of Christopher.

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters announced Friday that police and state medical examiners would start visiting clinics Monday in an attempt to verify the license of every physician at a clinic in the city.

A check by The Times of 27 doctors at private clinics near the closed Consultorio Medico de Santa Ana found that all have licenses in good standing, according to the Medical Board of California computer databank.

Dozens of such clinics are tucked into strip malls and older buildings in Santa Ana, which is home to a large population of impoverished immigrants.

The five patients interviewed at three clinics Saturday, all of whom were immigrants from Mexico without health insurance, said they had confidence in their doctors. But they said they had heard stories about botched diagnoses and treatments elsewhere.

Godofredo Tepayotl, who waited at the Consultorio Medico Familiar on Bristol Street, said he knew of at least one man practicing medicine in Orange County who was licensed only in Mexico. That man worked out of his house, Tepayotl said.

He prefers the storefront clinics, Tepayotl added, because the atmosphere felt comfortable and familiar, because the evening and weekend hours were convenient, and because at $30 per visit, the fees were affordable.

He and his wife, Maria Flores, said they had tried using public health clinics, which offer services at reduced rates or at no charge, but were discouraged by long lines and the need to make appointments.

They also visited a hospital emergency room one evening, when their 10-year-old son cut his head. They said they were shocked by the $600 bill.

The parents of Christopher Martinez said they took their only son--who was feverish, was vomiting and had diarrhea--to the clinic because it was recommended by a friend. Over the next three days, Moreno, who reportedly told them he was a doctor trained in Mexico, gave the boy five injections of an unknown substance, said the father, Salvador Martinez.

Martinez said Moreno also advised the parents not to give the boy fluids for several hours after each injection.

The patients interviewed said they knew it was important to give fluids to a child suffering those symptoms. “But when a doctor tells you to do something, you usually do it,” said Mario Lopez, who waited at the First and Bristol Medical Group with his 3-year-old son, who had diarrhea.

Lopez, who lives in Huntington Beach, said he was confident in the clinic’s doctors but was still glad their records were going to be reviewed by investigators.

“They should check them all,” he said. “It makes you feel safer. It’s important to have faith in your doctor.”