A Fredericksburg surgeon has been summoned to appear before a committee of the Virginia Board of Medicine on charges that he abused alcohol.
Dr. R. Shane Palmer faces disciplinary action for incidents that are alleged to have occurred in 2004, including threatening to retaliate against a Stafford County deputy who arrested him on charges of public intoxication.
Palmer said yesterday that he regrets what happened, that he said things in anger and has since apologized for them.
"I am not an impaired physician," he added.
The alleged threat occurred in September 2004, while the 38-year-old Palmer was being booked into the Rappahannock Regional Jail. Palmer is alleged to have told the arresting officer that he hoped the officer would someday need care at the emergency room, so he could "fumble" with his chest tube, according to the police report written at the time.
"I'll get you back," Palmer said, according to a second officer's report.
In a letter to the Mary Washington Hospital administration and the Virginia Board of Medicine, Stafford Sheriff Charles E. Jett called Palmer's threats "disgusting." Jett asked that Palmer be barred from ever treating a Sheriff's Office employee.
The incident began about 3 a.m. on a Saturday night, Labor Day weekend in 2004, when Stafford deputies responded to complaints of loud music coming from a party at Palmer's house in southern Stafford.
The deputies spoke with Palmer about the noise. In their reports, they described him as angry, aggressive and intoxicated. He was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, public intoxication and noise ordinance violation.
The deputies took Palmer and one other man from the party to the regional jail.
In his report about the incident, deputy Alex Smith said Palmer told him that there would be a day when the deputy would arrive at the emergency room with a gunshot wound to the chest.
When that happened, Smith wrote, Palmer said he would "fumble" with his chest tube.
"Palmer then began to smile after his threatening comment and began to walk away from me yelling," Smith wrote.
Palmer's case reached trial one year later, in September 2005, in Stafford Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. The other charges were dropped.
He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, which were suspended. He also was fined $500 and required to do 25 hours of community service.
One month after the incident, Palmer agreed to be evaluated for a substance-abuse program sponsored by the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
Palmer disagreed with the recommendations of the program and sought a second opinion from a source not recommended by the program. He was dismissed from the program for noncompliance in November 2004.
The Stafford incident and Palmer's dismissal from the treatment program are listed in a public document called a "notice" that the Board of Medicine sent to Palmer in June.
The board also alleges that in February 2004, Palmer was under the influence of alcohol when he met with another doctor at Mary Washington Hospital to discuss a patient's care.
Palmer said he was called to the hospital early that morning after a party, but insists he was not impaired.
Of the incident at his home, Palmer said he turned down the music immediately, when the deputies asked him to, and that the deputies overreacted after that.
He said he has since sought out the deputy he threatened, apologized to him, shook his hand and promised that he would treat the deputy as he would any other patient.
When hospital administrators learned about the incident, they insisted that he take a two-month leave of absence and be monitored for one year, Palmer said. He has full surgical privileges, he said.
"I did what the hospital wanted me to do," Palmer said.
Palmer also said that he has passed the "test of time," that he has received no other complaints since the 2004 incident.
Palmer is a board-certified general surgeon and a graduate of the University of Arkansas College of Medicine. He established Commonwealth Surgery, a solo practice in Fredericksburg, in 2003.
Palmer will appear before a "special conference committee" of the medical board in Fredericksburg on Aug. 15. He has no prior appearances before the board.
The committee will hear evidence and then either exonerate him, place him on probation, reprimand him or fine him. Palmer can appeal the decision to the full board.
To reach JIM HALL:
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com