A doctor accused of falsely claiming that a stroke patient died after receiving the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the former Fountain Valley Regional Hospital is facing disciplinary action from the California Medical Board.
Dr. Tam Ky Nguyen, a Garden Grove internal medicine specialist, has been charged with gross negligence and improper record-keeping for allegedly false billing and COVID-19-related diagnoses for two other patients in the Fountain Valley area. He was indicted by the board in September for failing to do so.
Nguyen previously had his clinical privileges removed in 2021 after sending a coronavirus communication to staff at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, which UCI Health acquired along with three other Southern California hospitals from Tenet Healthcare in March. It had been stripped away.
Nguyen declined comment when reached by phone Wednesday, Oct. 9, and referred questions from Southern California News Group to his attorney, who did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls.
UCI Health declined to comment on the medical board’s allegations, saying they occurred before the acquisition.
“Dr. Tam Ky Nguyen is not and has never been an employee of UCI Health,” said spokesperson John Murray. “As a community practitioner, Dr. Nguyen does not have privileges to practice or see patients at UCI Health – Fountain Valley.”
Mr. Nguyen, who received his license from the medical board in 1996, will be allowed to challenge the medical board’s charges in a court-like hearing presided over by an administrative law judge.
After the hearing, the judge will prepare a draft decision that will be sent to the Medical Board’s panel for consideration. Panel members are responsible for making final decisions on disciplinary matters and may adopt, modify, or reject recommendations.
If disciplinary action is taken as a result of the medical board’s investigation, Nguyen’s license could be publicly reprimanded, placed on probation, suspended or revoked.
The medical board began investigating Nguyen in September 2021 after receiving a report from the Fountain Valley area that he did not undergo a psychiatric evaluation and did not meet the requirements for co-hospitalization.
The investigation included reviewing records in the Fountain Valley area and interviewing multiple witnesses who cooperated with Mr. Nguyen.
According to the medical board, according to patient records, Dr. Nguyen explained in July 2021 that a 67-year-old woman’s diagnosis of novel coronavirus pneumonia may have been an adverse reaction to the Pfizer vaccine she received two months earlier. It is said that he did.
Nguyen is said to have prescribed the malaria drug Plaquenil to the woman, but the drug did not appear to be effective in speeding recovery from the new coronavirus infection, and long before the woman was hospitalized, the drug was released to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2020. The department’s emergency authorization was revoked.
Medical records reportedly state that an infectious disease doctor advised the patient to stop taking Plaquenil.
In response, Nguyen allegedly documented that without consulting a medical professional, he instead administered Plaquenil to patients for their rheumatoid arthritis at twice the normal maximum dose.
The medical board said Nguyen also advised women at high risk of contracting COVID-19 to avoid COVID-19 boosters, an “extreme step” from standard treatment. It is said to mean “a deviation”.
In another case, Nguyen allegedly diagnosed a 58-year-old woman who was hospitalized with a stroke as a sudden side effect from receiving the Moderna vaccine. After she died on May 19, 2021, Nguyen listed the cause of death as respiratory illness in records. The medical board said the multiple organ failure caused by the Moderna vaccine amounted to gross negligence without “evidence or objective information.”
Additionally, Nguyen said in medical records that a 66-year-old man admitted to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in July 2021 with pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs, was coughing up blood and experiencing flu-like weakness. It is said to have been stated in the medical records. Adverse autoimmune response to COVID-19 vaccination. ”
The medical board said the records also include a note from Nguyen advising patients to avoid further COVID-19 vaccinations.
