Doctor’s license revoked for having affair with patient

ALosGatos doctor is losing his license to practice next month because he had an affair with a patient. The decision against Dr. John E. Massey was handed down last month by the California medical board.

Massey was a co-founder of the Bay Area Pain and Wel lness Center that opened in 2005 at 15047 Los Gatos Blvd.

According to medical board documents, Massey began treating a 45-yearoldwoman in 2008whowas determined to be unemployable because of chronic pain. The documents also say she was sometimes suicidal and experienced depression, sadness and anxiety during her approximately five years of treatment.

In late 2011, the documents say, Massey began making the patient un- comfortable when he intimately hugged her “with her breasts pressed into his chest.” Massey also asked the woman if she was involved in a sexual relationship and made comments that her body “was hot.”

Massey is said to have taken the patient into an exam room to kiss her.

The medical board findings say the woman at first resistedMassey’s advances, but eventually gave in.

The relationship reportedly continued into 2013, at the same time Massey was reportedly prescribing the patient psychoactive drugs, includingmorphine, Xanax, Dilaudid, Lyrica, Lunesta and Prozac.

According to the findings, the woman was conflicted about the relationship because Massey was married and it was morally contrary to her Christian faith.

Massey denied he had an affair with the woman and said he did not kiss her in an exam room. He also denied pressing himself into her breasts and said he did not remember calling the patient 54 times between May and November 2013.

This was the first time a sexual misconduct complaint was filed against Massey; a second complaint fromanother female patient was dismissed by the board.

Numerous Wel lness Center employees and fellow doctors testified on Massey’s behalf, but the medical board determined his behavior was “particularly egregious” and revoked his license effective May 9.

He has until then to appeal the ruling.

Massey has practiced medicine for 24 years and received his medical degree in anesthesiology from Stanford.