MD claims ‘witch hunt’
Former Scarborough resident accused in U.S. of lying on medical school application and of Medicare fraud vows to fight bid to revoke his licence
BUFFALO— In the State of New York, Dr. Fitzgerald Anthony Hudson is accused of medical fraud, has had his doctor’s licence revoked, and faces a pending lawsuit in the death of a 5-year-old former patient.
But in Michigan, a few states over, the former Scarborough resident is still licensed to practise medicine.
In a Buffalo courthouse on Wednesday, assistant U.S. attorney Aaron Mango asked a judge to impose bail conditions to prevent Hudson from practis- ing in Michigan. Hudson faces charges of defrauding Medicare of $200,000 and is alleged to have obtained his medical licence fraudulently because he lied on his medical school application.
Hudson, 51, is pleading not guilty to the charges and says he is determined to continue with his medical career.
Speaking publicly for the first time since being charged by the U.S. Department of Justice, he said he has done nothing wrong and is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
“It hurts,” he said, looking every bit the medical professional in glasses and a charcoal grey suit. “Really, sometimes I want to cry because of all the work that I put into (my career), to have these questions surrounding me.”
Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. refused to keep Hudson from practising in Michigan as he has no jurisdiction there. “Revocation of professional licences rests with the jurisdiction of the state. You can’t just take his licence away because you want to take it away.”
Hudson’s medical career in the U.S. may prove short-lived but it has been decades in the making.
After emigrating from Jamaica, he lived in Scarborough and attended Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute. He knew he wanted to become a doctor “straight out of Grade 13.”
“I think it’s a very noble profession,” Hudson said. “I love to help people and I felt that this is something that I could do.”
After a short stint at the University of Toronto, Hudson transferred to York University, where he dropped out after flunking an ideology and morality course. It is here, U.S. investigators allege, that he began falsifying his way to a medical career.
According to a criminal complaint, Hudson claimed to have graduated from York when applying to the Ross University School of Medicine in the Dominica. He took nine years to complete a program that typically requires only four.
But Hudson counters he never lied on his application and only indicated that he attended York. He claims the Caribbean medical program did not require an undergraduate degree, and that he graduated after nine years because he took time off due to financial difficulties.
“They’re going back 10 years to try and eliminate him as a doctor to obtain money,” said Richard Lustig, Hudson’s lawyer. “It’s absurd. In 40 years of practice, I’ve never ever seen anything like that.”
Upon graduation, Hudson moved to the United States and entered a residency program at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, N.J. He spent less than a year here. According to the criminal complaint, he was dismissed due to performance problems. Hudson said he left of his own volition because of a lack of “camaraderie” with the other residents.
Hudson completed a residency at the State University of New York and was granted his licence in New York and Michigan in 2007.
But his New York licence was revoked in 2010 after the Deaprtment of Health found him guilty of gross negligence and incompetence during his time at Claxton-hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, N.Y., where he spent four months.
Over the past year, Hudson has worked in Michigan with a company called House Calls Physicians PLLC. He would have been seeing 40 to 50 patients a week, said owner Dr. Hicham Elhorr.
Elhorr says he had no idea about Hudson’s medical history in New York and dismissed him on March 14 after learning of the allegations.
Hudson says he has pushed ahead with his medical career, in spite of the many obstacles, because he is not a quitter. “I always finish what I started. That’s something I’ve always held myself to do.”