Teen Arrested for Practicing as Holistic Doctor
There is a lot of strange news thats come out of our lovely home state of Florida.
And now there is a Florida teen who claims to have several degrees, at the age of 18, and had a medical practice, patients and investors. The whole nine yards.
From the article:
“Malachi Love-Robinson tugged Wednesday at the lapels of the suit he often wears underneath a white, medical lab coat, and with the eloquence of someone twice his age, defended himself.
‘You mean to tell me that opening up a practice at the age of 18 years old and studying holistic and alternative medicine is fraud?’ the teen told The Palm Beach Post in an exclusive interview.”
Love-Robinson has denied all the accusations brought against him but he is still in hot water. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office claim the teenager has been posing as an MD and practicing medicine without a license and for this reason, his “medical practice” was raided. However, on both his personal Facebook profile and his medical practice’s profile, he claims to have a Naturopathic License, or as many refer to it, an N.D. (rather than the M.D. he’s been accused of impersonating).
More from the Palm Beach Post article:
“Love-Robinson says he received a Ph.D. from a private, Christian university based in California, which he enrolled in and attended online but declined to name. He claims to be certified by several alternative medical organizations, including the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and the American Alternative Medical Association.
His business partner, who says he invested more than $10,000 in the medical practice, says he believed Love-Robinson’s licenses were all valid, and thought he was older when he first met him.”
Perseus Wells, 30, his business partner, was shocked when he learned about the allegations brought against Love-Robinson. “If you have a conversation with this kid, you’ll realize he’s not your average kid,” Wells said. “His memory and retention of information is incredible. He’s extremely smart and well-spoken. You would never believe how young he is”, reports The Palm Beach Post.
Wells said he had degrees and certificates hanging on the walls of the practice (they were seized by the sheriff’s office during the raid) and that he had no reason to suspect they were fake. Again, Love-Robinson maintains that all of his certificates are valid and he expects all charges will be dropped. He also plans to get a medical degree once the charges are dropped. Legitimacy is always good.
In January, an 86-year-old woman went to the authorities after she said Love-Robinson stole nearly $2,800 from her in forged checks. The woman told the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s investigators that she saw him for homeopathic care after her doctors could not figure out why she had continuing stomach pain.
She said she met with “Dr.” Love-Robinson several times for treatment, including some home visits. During one visit she became so ill that Love-Robinson called an ambulance to take her to a hospital. It was at that time that Love-Robinson suggested she leave behind her purse. When she returned from the hospital, she checked her bank account and found three fraudulent checks made out to, “Dr. Malachi A. Love” and “New Birth New Life Medical Center,” the office he opened in January.
This was enough to schedule an undercover detective. From the Post:
“An undercover detective posed as a patient at the practice and complained of ailments. Love-Robinson checked the detective’s vital signs and said she was perfectly healthy. He told her to take over-the-counter allergy medicine, an arrest report says.
Love-Robinson told the detective that while he was only a doctor of homeopathic medicine, he had an “M.D.” on staff who could prescribe antibiotics. Love-Robinson and Wells said they had planned to hire a medical doctor before practicing, and the patients they saw were never diagnosed or treated.”
The teen Dr. also had an online Health Grades profile which has since been taken down. On it he claimed to use psychotherapy, minor surgery and natural medicines, as forms of treatment. Previous statements read, “This excludes major surgery, therapeutic use of x ray (sic) and radium, and use of drugs …”. He also stated that everyone he met knew his practice was holistic and while he couldn’t write scripts, someone in his office could.
Late Tuesday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office also added “fraudulently obtaining a Naturopathic Medical License” to the list of charges.
We’ll keep you updated on this story here on the East Coast of Florida.
Source: http://mashable.com, NBC, and the Palm Beach Post.
