Pet Doctor Ravenshead

[Germaine Greenweig]

Thedoctors at Katzen Eye Group are pioneers, employing the latest technology and effective procedures to best serve our clients. Katzen Eye Group was the first in Maryland, and among the first in the nation, to use intraocular lens implants for surgery as well as some of the first ophthalmologists in the nation to utilize Phacoemulsification for the removal of cataracts. Dr. Katzen and his colleagues of retina specialists were also some of the first doctors in the country to perform surgery to correct nearsightedness (radial keratotomy).

ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- University of Michigan officials were warned more than four decades ago that one of its doctors was fondling patients during medical exams, but he continued working there despite a demotion and went on to allegedly abuse again as a physician with the school's athletic department, records obtained Friday by The Associated Press show.

In 1980, the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson was pressed to step down as head of the University Health Service amid such concerns, according to a statement that his former supervisor gave to a campus detective who had started investigating the physician more than a year ago following a complaint from a former university wrestler.

When the detective told Tom Easthope, a former university administrator who oversaw Anderson's department, that he was investigating "inappropriate behavior'' by Anderson, Easthope replied, "I bet there are over 100 people that could be on that list,'' according to the records.

Easthope told the detective that he had confronted Anderson about "fooling around in the exam rooms with the boy patients'' and told the doctor, "You gotta go." He said the doctor didn't deny the allegations against him. By 1980, at least two students had made complaints to Michigan officials about Anderson inappropriately touching them, according to interviews and records.

When the detective informed Easthope that Anderson had continued working on campus, including with Michigan's football program, up until 2003, Easthope became "visibly shaken'' and added that "he was sure that he had left the university.''

On Thursday, Michigan President Mark Schlissel said in prepared remarks at the open of the school's board of regents meeting that its police investigation, launched in 2018, had found "indications'' that staff was "aware of rumors and allegations of misconduct.''

A prosecutor concluded that summer that no criminal charges could be authorized because the primary suspect had died and none of the offenses fell within Michigan's six-year statute of limitations, Hiller said Thursday.

But the records obtained Friday by the AP add much more detail to what those indications were and show that complaints about Anderson, who died in 2008, spanned much of his tenure at Michigan, up to 2002.

More men came forward this week after the investigation became public, including Olympic wrestler Andy Hrovat, who told the AP that Anderson touched him inappropriately during medical exams in his freshman year in 1998.

The records were released by the Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The prosecutor's office had reviewed complaints following the university police investigation, which was triggered after a former wrestler in July 2018 sent a four-page letter to current athletic director Warde Manuel detailing decades-old abuse.

That wrestler wrote that in 1975, five years before Anderson's demotion, he had informed his coach, Bill Johannesen, and then-athletics director Don Canham that he had been fondled and given unnecessary rectal exams. Athletes on other sports teams had similar experiences with Anderson, the wrestler wrote.

"I am fully aware that it was the 1970s and it was an entirely different world then," the wrestler wrote in his letter. "I am also aware that 40-plus years is an extremely long time ago. I expect nothing. I want nothing. I just feel the need to report this.''

The student, whose name was redacted in the records released to AP, also recalled Anderson being known as "Dr. Drop your drawers Anderson" by athletes in the 1970s. He accused the doctor of touching his penis and testicles, and inserting his finger into his rectum "too many times for it to have been considered diagnostic or therapeutic for the conditions and injuries that I had.''

The first time this happened was during the student's freshman year in 1972, when he went to the doctor for treatment for facial cold sores, according to the letter. The wrestler saw the doctor several more times for that condition and was inappropriately touched each time, he wrote.

Johannesen, who coached the Michigan wrestling team in the 1970s, told police that while none of his athletes told him they were violated by a doctor, he did remember them "laughing'' and "joking'' about one particular doctor who told them to "take your pants down'' for a "hurt elbow.'' Asked by police to recall the doctor's name, Johannesen said: "Dr. Anderson.''

Another member of the Michigan wrestling team in the 1970s told police that the doctor gave him a rectal exam when he went for treatment of an ankle injury. His name also was redacted from the documents.

A physician's assistant who worked at the school in the 1970s, Deborah Kowal, told police that Anderson conducted annual physicals of the athletes, including rectal exams. She said she did a couple of rectal exams, until then-football coach Bo Schembechler found out. "She said that coach Schembechler did not want a women performing rectal exams on his male players, so Dr. Anderson did the physicals after this," according to the report.

The nearly 100 pages detailing the police investigation also include interviews with people who said they had not heard any complaints about Anderson. Among them was Russell Miller, who was an athletic trainer when Anderson worked with the Michigan football team. He told police that Anderson was an "unbelievable team doctor.''

According to the police report, Miller said when Anderson left his job as director of health services, Canham, who died in 2005, ironed out a deal so Anderson could work with the football team. Miller said Anderson served as a primary care physician for most of the football staff and their families.

Jack Harbaugh, who was an assistant football coach at Michigan in the 1970s and is the father of current Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh and Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, told police he did not know of anything negative about Anderson. He said he had "great admiration'' for Anderson.

Authorities also contacted the state's licensing and regulatory affairs agency and found that it had received a complaint of sexual misconduct against Anderson filed in May 1994. The records don't describe the outcome of the complaint, which was closed within 10 months, and the agency's records on the case were purged seven years later. But an agency official managed to find the name of a man who filed the complaint and provided that to the detective.

The man, whose name is redacted in the records, told the detective that he was a student at the University of Michigan starting in 1973. Once he went for a routine physical at a campus health center, and during that exam, Anderson fondled him to the point of ejaculation. He said Anderson "did not appear to react to this, nor did he say anything,'' according to the detective's summary of the interview.

The police report also describes an alleged sexual assault from 2002. A man affiliated with the university said in 2018 that he was sexually assaulted by Anderson while being examined for a brain tumor.

The man said he was told to take off all his clothes and lay down on the exam table. Anderson allegedly started to feel his feet and legs with both hands -- in a rubbing, prodding fashion -- before moving to his genitals.

Sometimes you might see a note on the blank side of your prescription telling you that you are due for a medication review. This is an opportunity for a GP (or in some cases our practice nurse) to check that your medication is still the best treatment for your condition and that you have had the appropriate monitoring and health checks done for your condition.

Please note that all of the clinical reasons above are unanimously agreed by all of the GPs at the surgery. If your prescription was not issued, this would have been for a clinical reason and would have been decided by a doctor. Decisions about whether prescriptions are issued, or not, are not made by members of our reception or admin team - only by the GPs.

You should not bring us prescriptions issued by hospital outpatient clinics. It is often not possible for us to issue these prescriptions without the accompanying clinic letter which the hospital may not send to us until a few weeks later. Please take these prescriptions to the hospital pharmacy as you should have been advised at the hospital.

The GPs at the Abbey Medical Centre believe that providing the best possible care to our patients is our top priority. When a prescription is necessary our main considerations are effectiveness and safety. We would never let cost come before patient care but at a same time we try to provide the best value to the NHS by prescribing from an approved list of medications which meet these considerations.

This list is known as a formulary and we are sometimes asked by a hospital doctor to prescribe medications which are either restricted to the local hospital formulary or are not on either the local hospital or GP formulary. It is not always possible to prescribe these medications but when these situations arise, we will seek advice from the Camden Medicines Management Team in order to find a solution for our patients.

Before a NHS prescription can be issued, your GP must have received a letter from the private consultant explaining the precise details of the prescription; what it is being used to treat; how long treatment is intended for; and what monitoring or follow up is required.

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