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And
for those of you who asked WHO NEIL RATNER is: "The
government's star witness was Dr. Neil Ratner, Lauersen's
former anesthesiologist, who testified to a deliberate
office policy of falsifying insurance forms. The prosecution
knew Ratner would be a shaky witness, so the attorneys
started the questioning by having him admit to dodging
the draft, to being unable to get into an American med
school, to dealing drugs, and to being "pretty
stoned a lot of the time I was giving anesthesia,"
once accidentally injecting himself with a paralyzing
agent on the job."
Click
Here to Read the Ratner
Vanity Fair Article; and read more about
the Stoned Doc..." 6 Years Ago
Crocked Doc Won't Say If He Gave Drugs To Jax
New York Daily News ©
February 09, 2000
An
upper East Side doctor who shot himself up with morphine
while treating patients said yesterday that he was pop
star Michael Jackson's tour doctor in 1997.
Dr.
Neil Ratner, testifying yesterday in the insurance fraud
trial of high-profile infertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen,
was evasive when asked if he had administered drugs
to the Gloved One. "Would you give Michael Jackson
drugs?" Lauersen's demanded attorney, Theodore
Wells.
"I'm
not going to discuss a patient's personal medical condition,"
Ratner replied.
In
a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Jackson's attorney,
Brian Wolf, said the singer "denies that Dr. Ratner
ever prescribed any inappropriate medications or treatments."
Wolf
insisted that any medical treatment is confidential
and said Ratner was correct not to disclose it.
Ratner,
a 49-year-old ex-rock 'n' roll drummer and manager of
Peter Frampton and Edgar Winter, has been on the stand
for days, admitting he repeatedly took drugs while caring
for patients during the 1980s. In May 1989, he collapsed
after shooting himself up with a paralytic agent during
cosmetic surgery on the upper East Side.
Ratner,
who still practices in Manhattan, pleaded guilty to
insurance fraud and is cooperating with Manhattan U.S.
Attorney Mary Jo White in the case against Lauersen
in hopes of reducing his prison sentence.."
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