March 25, 2004

Doctor on a slide down

A strange tale of a Doctor who had everything going for him and then, whose life took a 180 and started down a very slippery slope. I remember reading about the first incident in mid-2002. I was shocked then but forgot about the story. For the Doctor in question, this was only the beginning. From The Boston Globe with a tip 'o the hat to No Watermelons: bq. The son of a prominent Boston doctor, David Arndt was on his way to becoming a leading surgeon in his own right when a bizarre blunder interrupted his climb: He left his patient on the operating table so he could cash his paycheck. A series of arrests followed, exposing a life of arrogance, betrayal, and wasted promise, leaving only one question left to answer: What Went Wrong? bq. The kid was born into medicine. He was on track to becoming one of Boston's next great spine surgeons, taking his place alongside his father among the city's medical elite. But on this day in January, the 43-year-old sits on the dark bench in the dimly lit gallery of Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, watching the parade of career criminals take their familiar positions, wearing expressions of defiance or boredom. Look in his eyes, however, behind the boxy glasses, and you can see flashes of bewilderment. How did I get here? He watches as a paunchy guy charged with conspiring to kill a cop asks the court officer if he can give the large, weeping woman in the front row "a kiss and my lottery tickets" before being led away. And then the clerk calls out his number: "Case number 38 - David Arndt." Charges from the arrests include: bq. ...statutory child rape, indecent assault, and drug possession. He would file a "poverty motion," the surgeon in one of medicine's most lucrative specialties asking the court to pay his costs. And then, in a separate case nearly a year later, he would face one more charge, this one for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute. A bit of a long article but the author goes into a lot of background. Fascinating reading if you like watching psychological train wrecks... This guy "had it all" and lost it with some amazingly stupid life decisions. Posted by DaveH at March 25, 2004 8:36 PM