Dr. Hsui-Ying “Lisa” Tseng, referred to as “Dr. Feelgood” by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, has been arrested and charged with three murders that occurred in 2009 as a direct result of her over prescribing drugs, as reported by MSNBC and several other news sources.
Cooley has alleged that the three men that died were all considered healthy and young – and were among Tseng’s patients that had received tens of thousands of unneeded prescriptions.
After a long investigation, involving drug enforcement agents posing a patients wanting prescriptions, Tseng was charged with over prescribing drugs that included Xanax and oxycodone.
Tseng was known for treating young men with chief complaints of either neck, back or wrist pain. According to records by the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, Tseng gave them cursory exams and then, upon learning that opiates they had taken weren’t enough, prescribed them more medications.
Tseng and her husband, also a physician, had been operating out of a storefront office in the Rowland Heights area of Los Angeles since 2005.
The California Medical Board, along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, began investigating Tseng in 2008 – prompted by reports from pharmacies over problems with her prescriptions.
A DEA affidavit shows that beginning in January of 2007 Tseng was writing an average of 25 prescriptions a day – and within three years she had written over 27,000.
There are 14 people in the complaint that survived though overmedicated, and three that died: Vu Nguyen, 29, of Lake Forest, on March 2, 2009; Steven Ogle, 25, of Palm Desert, on April 9, 2009; and Joseph Rovero III, 21, of San Ramon, on Dec. 18, 2009.
While Tseng’s husband still works at their medical office, Tseng had her license to dispense prescriptions suspended in 2010. Her medical license, according to the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, was willingly surrendered.
Cooley states that Dr. “Feelgood” only gave prescriptions for patients to get high, and not for valid medical reasons. The benefit to Tseng was in receiving large amounts of money for her willingness to write the prescriptions.
Cooley wrote in a statement, “Those victims die while the doctor gets rich.”
Attorney Ellen Garafalo, with experience in defending physicians in cases such as this, commented, “…a doctor can't control what a patient does with the drugs. A doctor can't be a policeman. The doctor has some deniability.”
Garafalo also noted that Michael Jackson’s doctor is serving time for involuntary manslaughter and not murder for the singer’s overdose.
Along with the three murder charges, Tseng also faces 21 felony counts for prescribing drugs using fraud and without a legitimate purpose. Four of the 21 counts are for four undercover DEA agents.
In 2010, Tseng told reporters, “I was really strict with my patients, and I followed the guidelines. If my patient decides to take a month's supply in a day, then there's nothing I can do about that.”
Tseng faces 45 years to life in state prison if convicted on all charges.
Facing criminal charges? You must contact a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible to begin working on your case and plan a solid defense.
