Students at St. John Emmanuel Lutheran School duct-tape Principal Axel Green to the gym wall Wednesday after they met a goal of raising $1,000 for the Lutheran Malaria Initiative, which supports disease control in Africa.INDIANAPOLIS – Dr. William Hedrick on Thursday agreed to a temporary suspension of his medical license, three days after the state attorney general's office leveled accusations that the pain medication specialist has used dangerous prescribing practices.
The agreement moves action on the case to Jan. 24.
If the Medical Licensing Board had ruled on the suspension request, it could have imposed up to a 90-day suspension.
Hedrick is the founder and president of the Centers for Pain Relief, based in Fort Wayne and with more than a dozen locations in northern Indiana.
His attorney, Stacy Cook, released a statement saying, "while we deny the allegations, we take them very seriously. To reassure his patients and the communities he serves, we voluntarily agreed to a short and temporary suspension until next month … to allow us to time to present all the facts necessary to satisfy the Medical Licensing Board regarding his practice."
The statement also said Hedrick is committed to his patients and the continuity of their care.
"He has already made arrangements for his patients to be treated by other qualified physicians in his practice," Cook said.
On Monday the Attorney General's Office filed the suspension request alleging his prescribing habits are not "medically sound and pose substantial risk to the safety of his patients."
The Attorney General's Office also said numerous patients have died from multiple drug toxicity while in Hedrick's care.
The filing also said some of the specific concerns include the use of unsafe pharmacological mixes and unusually high pill counts frequently associated with diversion, or the illegal reselling of medication.
