Doctor shot while treating patient

[Tim Dixon]

It's time for that second course.

(Courtesy of Zagumba)

"And in 1986, a psychotic former dentist, "

Doctor shot while treating patient | National City man in for exam is
sought by police

19-Feb-1994 Saturday

A prostate-cancer patient, described by detectives as depressed, shot
and wounded his doctor in the groin yesterday during an office visit,
then escaped an intensive manhunt, authorities said.

Urologist George Paul Szollar, 45, was in good condition last night,
said Jim McBride, a Kaiser Permanente spokesman. The bullet struck no
vital organs and Szollar will recover fully, McBride said.

Hospital officials were mystified by the shooting.

"Dr. Szollar is not a person that anybody ever gets angry at," said
Joanne Jones, a urology nurse. "All his patients love him."

Szollar was examining Arcadio Arguilez, 62, of National City at the
Kaiser Permanente Medical Offices building on Vandever Avenue about
4:45 p.m. when the shooting occurred, police said.

Arguilez shoved Szollar into a chair and shot him once with a
25-caliber handgun, said Officer Barry Johnson. Arguilez then fled as
about eight clinic workers and a handful of patients scattered,
authorities said. The gun was left at the clinic.

It was unknown if Szollar and Arguilez argued before the shooting.

Jones, a nurse at the clinic, said Arguilez was the next-to-last
patient of the day.

Jones said she led Arguilez into Szollar's office, where the two men
began to look at Arguilez's most recent X-rays. Jones didn't notice
anything unusual and left them alone.

Suddenly, she heard a gunshot.

"There was someone screaming and it was Dr. Szollar," Jones said.

Szollar raced by her and into the clinic waiting room, chasing after
Arguilez, who disappeared into a nearby parking garage, Jones said.
Szollar then stopped, nearly collapsed, and Jones helped him back into
his office, where he was examined by another clinic urologist.

"He was hunched over and I'm sure he was in shock," Jones said.

The other urologist drove Szollar several blocks to the Kaiser
Permanente Foundation Hospital on Zion Avenue, Jones said. The
small-caliber bullet, which was just under the skin, was removed
quickly in emergency-room surgery, and Szollar was admitted to the
hospital overnight, officials said.

As he was being wheeled from the emergency room, Szollar was sitting
upright and seemed alert, talking with hospital orderlies. Szollar's
wife was at his bedside last night, officials said.

Hospital officials said Szollar could not say why he had been shot.

Little was known about the gunman last night.

During the course of his 1 1/2 years of treatment, Arguilez had been
to the clinic a number of times and never had expressed anger toward
the doctors, officials said. He saw several of the 10 clinic
urologists and often would ask for a second opinion when considering
treatment for his cancer, officials said.

Detectives said, however, that Arguilez had become depressed over the
course of his treatments, according to police Lt. Tom Orden.

Hospital officials would not say whether Arguilez -- who recently had
surgery for the cancer -- was improving or if the cancer had gotten
worse.

Police using helicopters and search dogs combed the area around the
clinic before staking out and then searching Arguilez's National City
home.

Police also were looking for Arguilez's vehicle, a 1978 white or
light-colored Chevrolet pickup with California license plate 1K73675.

In the hope of locating Arguilez, police had contacted his wife. She
could not help, but expressed concern for her husband's safety,
detectives said.

Szollar, a respected urologist and surgeon, has been with Kaiser for
about 10 years, the last two at the San Diego clinic. Before coming to
San Diego, Szollar practiced at the Kaiser facility in Fontana,
officials said. The Grantville clinic, which also houses a pharmacy,
usually is crowded but was nearly deserted at the time of the
shooting.

Four years ago, in another health-care-related shooting in the county,
Bradford Powers Jr., 46, shot four people in the Mission Bay Hospital
emergency room, killing a nurse and an emergency-room technician and
wounding a physician and a patient's father.

Powers, who later hanged himself in his jail cell, allegedly was
unhappy with the medical treatment his 75-year-old father had received
at the hospital.

A year ago this month, three doctors in Los Angeles were shot when a
patient, apparently irate at having to wait for pain medication at the
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, opened fire in the emergency
room.

And in 1986, a psychotic former dentist, Steve Alan Larsen, fatally
shot Dr. Craig Blundell in his Escondido medical office. Larsen was
sentenced to treatment at a state mental hospital and was released two
years ago.

[fishn...@gmail.com]

This is the THIRD urologist in southern california.. that I know of personally.
George Szollar, Reynaldo Hernandez, and now.. Dr. Gilbert.
What the heck?

http://news.yahoo.com/doctor-shot-dead-exam-room-man-custody-085250156.html