License yanked over prescription

Board also rescinds action to discipline second doctor

A state board Thursday suspended the medical license of a doctor who admitted that he prescribed Valium and pain medication to his former girlfriend, whom he identified as a Nevada prostitute featured on an HBO television show.

Also Thursday, the Arkansas State Medical Board rescinded a 2014 order revoking the license of a Little Rock surgeon who had been accused of providing substandard care to four patients.

And the board’s attorney said a Hot Springs doctor who had been scheduled for a hearing Thursday on accusations that he had sexual contact with a patient has surrendered his license.

Robert Martin Jr., the doctor whose license the board voted to suspend, was asked to appear before the board in Little Rock after it received a complaint from his former girlfriend, said Kevin O’Dwyer, the board’s attorney.

Martin, whose mailing address is listed on the board’s website as being in Monticello, identified the girlfriend as Deanne Salinger, who works under the name Air Force Amy and is featured in Cathouse: The Series, along with other workers at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Carson City, Nev. Salinger had not responded to an email by 7 p.m. Friday.

Martin told the board he became friends with Salinger after he “had this gut feeling telling me to contact her,” and he sent her an email. He lived with her in Nevada while she was “medically disabled,” and she later visited him in Arkansas, he said.

He said he wrote her a prescription for Valium and tramadol, a pain medication, because he couldn’t find another doctor she was willing to see and who was in her insurance plan’s network.

“I was backed into a corner,” Martin said.

Medical board regulations prohibit doctors from having romantic or sexual relations with their patients.

Martin, who has a temporary license from Wyoming issued April 20, told the board he now works “out West” for a federal Indian Health Service hospital.

The board voted 6-5 to issue an emergency order suspending Martin’s Arkansas license pending a hearing in August.

“I think there is a grave question as to his judgment,” Dr. Joseph Beck, the board’s chairman, said.

Little Rock surgeon Victor Williams’ license was revoked April 3, 2014, after he failed to show up for a hearing on accusations that he “exhibited gross negligence and ignorant malpractice” in the treatment of four patients on whom he operated.

Williams, who denied the accusations, said the attorney representing him at the time didn’t notify him of the hearing.

He had appealed the revocation to the Pulaski County Circuit Court.

The board’s action Thursday came after Williams agreed to drop his appeal of the revocation and remove the board as a defendant in a lawsuit that had accused it of conspiring to drive him out of the practice of medicine because Williams is black.

The lawsuit also accuses Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock and several hospital staff members of racial discrimination in the termination of Williams’ medical privileges at the hospital in 2011.

The board agreed Thursday to place the hearing on Williams’ treatment of the four patients on hold until the lawsuit is resolved.

In the meantime, Williams agreed that he will perform surgery only under the supervision of another doctor.

The Hot Springs doctor, Roy Puen, had been scheduled to appear before the board Thursday. The board’s website listed his license as having been surrendered effective Friday.

Puen had been accused by a patient of engaging in sexual contact with a patient without her consent and showing her “nude photographs,” according to a Jan. 8 board order.

A recorded phone message at Puen’s office phone number said he had retired May 10. A message left at the number wasn’t returned Friday.