Call Kurtis

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― If your doctor did something wrong and you file a complaint with the California Medical Board, it could take years before the doctor gets disciplined or removed from practice.

Kurtis brings us the final interview granted by Becky Anderson of Citrus Heights. She passed away, April 6th.

I've had a lot of time to do some thinking, says Becky Anderson.

Sitting on a swing on a fall afternoon in her backyard, Becky Anderson thinks about the cancer that consumed her body. It's affect on her life dominated her mind.

"I think about how I would've done things different", Anderson told Kurtis. "I also think about what it's going to be like as a Christian (when she passes away)".

It's been a long, difficult nine year battle.

"I've come to terms with it. I'm not afraid of dying. It's going to happen, and I'm at peace with that. I don't want to die, but I'm ok with it. It didn't have to happen so soon. I believe Dr. West played a huge role on that, because it affected my treatment", Anderson said.

Becky didn't know Doctor Brian West had a drinking problem.

She also didn't know he crashed his car drunk on the way to the hospital to treat her.

Becky originally went to the plastic surgeon in 1999 for a breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.

She, like many other Dr. West patients says he made medical mistakes.

She says it kept her from chemotherapy causing her cancer to spread eventually to her brain and liver.

Dr. West performed so many operations on her including one she told him not to do.

She showed us in 2006, how he left her horrifically disfigured with a skin graft covering her intestines.

Becky sued Dr. West and got a quarter million dollars..

In the fall of 2005 she filled out this complaint form with the medical board asking it to take away his license.

Call Kurtis has copies of more than 20 other patient complaints on Dr. West.

They range from not properly treating their flesh eating infections, to touching their wounds without gloves, to leaving them permanently disfigured.

Some of these patients treated years ago detected alcohol on his breath during treatment.

A year ago, the state formally charged Doctor West with gross negligence in connection with five patients. To date, he has not stood before a judge and continues to practice in Southern California.

"The medical board has known about me for two years, so why is he still out their practicing", says Anderson.

Julie D'Angelo Fellmeth of the University of San Diego audited the Medical Board. She says the time frame is egregious. On average, it takes the state agency and the attorney general's office 2 1/2 years from when a complaint is received to when a doctor may be disciplined.

She says that slow process could compromise patient safety.

Fellmeth says, a lot can happen in 2 1/2 years and doctors treat twenty to thirty patients a day. For a doctor any moment of impairment or incompetence can mean irreparable harm to a patient.

Fellmeth blames a lack of money to pay experienced investigators and experts and a system that could be better organized.

To Becky, it's nothing but bureaucracy to blame.

Her fear... She'd leave this world before going to court.

That fear came true. She died April 6th peacefully at home surrounded by her family and friends before a hearing date was set for Dr. Brian West.

She never had the chance to see the justice system go to work.

In her final interview she left us with hope.

"I just hope somehow the laws do get changed. I know it won't be in my lifetime."

"The laws have got to get changed or this is going to continue", Anderson told Kurtis. 

If you have an opinion on this, let your state lawmaker know.

Following our more than 2 1/2 years of investigating, the medical board says they will no longer talk with us about the Dr. Brian West case.

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