A Houston urologist had his clinical license revoked after trying out certain for cocaine, following earlier allegations of him acting surgical procedures underneath the affect.
Dr. Nathan Robert Starke reportedly exhibited indicators of impairment whilst consulting a affected person sooner than a prostate biopsy in August 2024. Data indicated he was once absent for all however 3 mins of 1 surgical process, regardless of being the attending doctor, as reported by way of KTRK.
By way of September, Houston Methodist had suspended him and later showed that he was once not running on the health facility.
After the Texas Clinical Board to droop his license in September, drug exams submitted in October indicated the presence of cocaine and kratom in Starke’s gadget. Kratom is a debatable complement continuously related to power boosts and managing withdrawal signs, as reported by way of ABC13.
Since incomes his clinical license in 2017, Starke’s felony troubles shadowed his occupation. Inside of a month of being approved, he was once arrested for using underneath the affect. His file additionally features a 2023 price for assaulting a former female friend, leaving her with a chipped teeth and bruises.
Those incidents raised purple flags about his health to apply, resulting in mandated drug and alcohol screenings ultimate 12 months.
“You’re hanging folks’s lives on your arms,” a former affected person informed ABC13.
Starke up to now served as the top of the boys’s well being medical institution, a place he held till the hot suspension. The health facility has since erased his profile. Houston Methodist’s Fannin Side road location, the place Starke carried out surgical procedures, is these days indexed on-line as “completely closed.”
What is subsequent for the physician stays unclear, but FOX26 reported that he may just get his license again.
Substance use was once the main explanation for movements in opposition to U.S. physicians’ licenses, comprising 76.3% of instances between 2004 and 2020, a 2022 study found.
