Eric Scheffey has been arrested in Colorado for practicing medicine without a license.
He is charged with five counts of practicing medicine without a license, Aspen officials said. The charges stem from allegations that Scheffey illegally attended to patients at his clinic, East Harris County Orthopedics Associates at 9343 N. Loop East, after his license was suspended in August 2003, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Robert Freyer.
Freyer would not provide further details on the charges, which he said were contained in an indictment unsealed Tuesday in Harris County. Freyer said practicing medicine without a license is classified as a third-degree felony.
An attempt Tuesday night to reach Scheffey’s attorney for comment was unsuccessful.
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office in Aspen said Tuesday in a prepared statement that it was contacted by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office last week requesting assistance in locating Scheffey, “whom Harris County considered a flight risk.”
Investigators found Scheffey at a private residence where he was arrested “without incident,” the statement said.
Scheffey’s license was finally revoked this February after a 20-year career of mayhem and malpractice. I look forward to hearing more about what he was doing up in Colorado.
UPDATE: Scheffey is out on bond.
Scheffey’s longtime lawyer, Ace Pickens of Austin, called the charges — five counts of practicing medicine without a license — “ludicrous.”
Scheffey is accused of seeing patients in his clinic after his license was suspended in August 2003. The Texas Medical Board revoked his license in February and fined him $854,000.
Pickens said the allegations of seeing patients illegally were dismissed by another legal entity last year. In 2004, administrative law judges in Austin who heard the medical board’s case against Scheffey said two reported instances of Scheffey seeing patients after his license was suspended amounted to nothing more than “transitioning” patients to another doctor.
But Harris County Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer said, “There’s information out there that shows there’s more to it than that. … We received information he was continuing to engage in conduct that was in defiance of the board’s order. We investigated that. That information had validity to it.”
Freyer said he does not know whether Scheffey plans to waive or fight extradition.
Stay tuned.
I just wanna say that doctor Eric Scheffey is just a great person. He worked very hard for 20 years, did the best he could do for his patients.
I feel very bad for the families who lost someone, but… didn’t Eric Scheffey pay enough? He was stripped of his medical license, paid out millions of dollars in fines, and has even re-located out of the U.S. what else can he do? Knowing Eric, it amazes me that
in all of the articles written about him, not one mentions how generous and caring he actually is.
Give the guy a break!
Hey, Tara! Read this:
http://www.texaswatch.org/media/tm082905.htm
Then decide how badly you feel for ol’ Doc Scheffey. He’s able to walk around. He’s not in constant pain. He’s living a pretty excellent lifestyle of the rich and undeserving. Compare and contrast with his former patients who are still living with crippling pain. And if you still think we’re being too hard on him, then YOU consult with him there in Colorado. I’m sure he’ll have an opening for you.
(By the way – he didn’t pay millions of dollars personally. His insurance company(ies) did. He paid around $840,000 and some change in fines when stripped of his license to practice.)
If you have an oportunity please read the Reader’s Digest article “Dangerous Doctors” (June 2004). This “caring” doctor – Eric Scheffey, subjected many patients to unnecessary surgeries – some with tragic consequences. The paying of millions of dollars will never bring justice to the many patients that were injured by this most uncaring doctor.
Personally I only hope that this man can rot in hell or at the very least a Texas prison. The only thing that Eric the red has done is prey on hard working Texans. His lack of skills has hurt far more than he has ever helped. The only thing Eric cares about is money, sex and more drugs. Anyone that needs more information should have seen this man work! I hope every patient that he has ever treated (mistreated) jumps on the bandwagon and sues his sorry ass. These poor people have to live with the pain that was not necessary because Eric needed a new car or a better house in the Heights. Have we all forgotten about the patients that have killed themselves because of the chronic pain he caused them? Give me a break. Hang the bastard. Read the Texas monthly magazine article on him and see him for his true identity. Better yet talk to any nurse that had to work with him. Basically he has been tossed out of every quality hospital in the greater Houston area.
I didnt know him as beiing one of his patient, but he was a client of us, has always been a great person to all of us on the island.
This man is a shame to the world of medicine. He may be nice as a friend of yours, but the devil when it is about patients.
As a former patient, I can’t emphasize what a thoughful and caring doctor Dr. Scheffey was. He not only reached out to me in a time of need, but was attentive to the concerns and needs of my whole family, who also feel that he is a man of great honor.
Harvad Med, Lisa- cannot give you anymore, Hector Santiago, Scratch and all others who have posted here, were you patients of Dr. Scheffey? You only seem to know what was printed in the media. Anyone that knows him personally or was a patient has a completly different view here. Anyone notice that…? It will never cease to amaze me how people who know nothing more than what they read in the media can believe it so wholeheartedly. Are any of you nurses or doctors that can understand exactly what happened in the O.R.? Anyone know anything about the author of the Texas Monthly article? How he has been accused before of completly lying and fabricating stories? Eric Scheffey is the most caring, concerned, genuine, sincere, loving man that I have ever met. Anyone that actually knows him would only agree. He has risen above everything that has happened time after time, kept quiet, worked with dedication and has changed more lives for the better than most people could ever dream of. If anyone of you think you could be a better doctor, get off of the internet and go to medical school, become a surgeon and than and only then are you qualified to judge. Good Luck.
i have had 9 back surgeries and 2 total knee replacements from dr. scheffey.i first i thought he really cared for his patients, but i think it was for the money.i had good insurance so he really got to me good.after the surgeries i got worse, but no other doctor wanted to touch me because of what he did to me. i am still in pain after all these years,and can hardly walk. it has been so bad sometimes i want to end it all, but i think of my family.i would have sued that man if i could,but they said my time had run out. after one of my surgeries one time over at doctor hospital they could not wake me up, my daughter thought i was dead, she went screaming down the hall for the nurse’s to come to my room, they could not find dr.scheffey anywhere, so they had to get dr. hardimon up there. they had to flush out my system and i don’t remember what else. i would have died if my daughter had not been with me. dr.scheffey came to see me the next day and did’t say a word about it. i think of him everyday and i really do because of the pain i am in every minute. he has taking my life away from me because i can not do what i love to do anymore. i have went to court 2 times with one of my friends that he done 9 or10 on her. she feels the same way i do about him,in fact they talked to her about him and she was named in the paper. there was one time he said i needed surgery on my hand, well i went for a second appendment and that dr. said all it was, was a pulled musile. i had already set my time for my surgery but i did’t show up. i am sure glad because i heard there were 2 cases that turned out bad. i don’t think i would be here today if i had gone and had it done. this lady heidi i don’t know her but i thought the same way she felt at first,he was caring but only about the money he was going to make. i was a patient for years and i knew alot of others. you need to talk to them and see if you would want this man to ruin your life like he did ours. i hope he gets what he deserves,i could go on for ever, but every thing you have seen or read is true.
I worked with the guy for his last few years in practice. it was hard to stomach. But you have not really seen the extent of it. the big picture here is not published or really talked about. But consider this, how do you think a man like scheffey can maintain the respect and admiration of houston’s high society while KILLING people — for 20 YEARS! Believe me, after 20 years of dishing out human suffering and death to grab mo money than most of us can really comprehend, people notice.
his circle of blue blooded jet setter friends know how he got there. of robbing insurance carriers of tens of millions of dollars for unnecessary barbaric procedures that kill and cripple. this silver tongued used car salesman convinces volunerable, usually disinfranchised and misinformed, people to undergo maximally invasive procedures that they dont need. The outcome is consistent. The surgery will disable or kill.
While practicing, he made alot of other people rich too. No, not me. He was East Side Surgery Centers sugar daddy. Without scheffeys surgeries that place was empty. When Scheffey is cutting, the only thing that flows heavier than blood is money. His millions are just the tip of the iceberg floating in the cess pool.
He is not the only one blinded by the bling. I’ve worked around many others associated with him that were almost as bad and even more that would give their eye teeth for a practice like his. If you don’t think people with money are judged differently, consider OJ simpson, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, and on and on.
PT
I worked for San Jacinto Hospital in Baytown in the early 80’s and his reputation was already in trouble. I can honestly say that I don’t know what makes him tick, but for all the people sticking up for the guy, did you ever wonder why he has been sued so much or written about so much? This didn’t happen by mistake.
Since I am not sure what I can say or not say (legally) I won’t say what I really want to say but, he is a handsome and charismatic man. And pretty people always get away with more things. Need I say more.
I am currently writing a report on Dr. Scheffey for school and let me just say I was horrified when I read the article in the Texas Monthly Sept. 2005 magazine. I take in consideration that he might have been good to people. What about the ones who were less fortunate. There are alot of bad doctors out there, but they aren’t killing their patients or making them live in agony and pain. He should have got alot worse punishment than losing his license. Even that didn’t stop him from practicing. He should get manslaughter or even homicide. In my opinion he is a serial killer that should be stopped. For the people who think he was great they obviously were never patients. For the victims my heart goes out to them for even having the strength to stay alive. What is wrong with the world today? For me, money isn’t everything, but to Scheffey he can just buy himself out of the punishment he deserves. What is wrong with this picture?
Personally I wish that Eric H. Scheffey could feel all the pain that all his, dead and alive, patients have had to feel, and also all of the sorrows that the families have went through! I am a relative of one of his patients. Not to mention my Uncle is no longer with us because of this man. He went in for back surgery, that was supposed to last four hours, but lasted FOURTEEN hours!!! What was he doing during these fourteen hours?? He lost so much blood, and died in the hospital. I’m not even going to give this evil man the benifit of the doubt!!!
I was an ex-patient of Eric Scheffey. While many of your comments tell a story of this man being so nice and charming. Allow me to tell you my story, between the years of 1996 to 2001, I had a total of ten painful back operations. The first time I met Eric Scheffey, he did come off as being nice and charming and he let me know then that only the best of the best worked for him. At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about and later I found out. After I had my first operation, in which I thought of many things, mainly about killing myself because the pain was too great to bear, but I talked myself out of it, due to my family and children. I was the kind of patient, who thought of asking the right questions, I always had a pad with questions to ask Eric Scheffey. The more questions I asked the more the man yelled and screamed at me. He told me one time, I knew the drill. While in the hospital after months after back operations, I formed friendships with some of his other patients, many of those people are dead now. Yes he made so many people rich like his nurses, he send them on world-wide travels, brought them new cars every year, and the other people who worked in his office as well. I did not sue Eric Scheffey, I felt at the time the only way to stop him is to tell my story and testify against him to as many people who would listen too me and thank-God someone finally did! This man had a medical degree to kill people, and leave many people including me disabled for life. If he had no money and was poor, he would be under the jail house now, but since he’s rich off the blood of many people I guess he will try to buy his freedom so he can go to another state or country and begin the killing all over again.