Colorado Dentists Who Used Dirty Needles Arrested in Nevada–Cocaine Intoxication

 

Dentist Who Reused Needles Faces First Criminal Case

DENVER (CBS4 ) – A dentist who reused needles and put thousands of patients at risk of contracting deadly diseases has been arrested in Nevada.

Stephen Stein was arrested just after 1 a.m. Aug. 12 for cocaine and driving under the influence near Lake Tahoe in Nevada.

Court documents state Stein was speeding, 48 mph in a 35 mph zone, while intoxicated with cocaine.

Officers said they found “a hollowed out ink cartridge” in the Chevy Traverse he was driving.

In Colorado last year, Stein had been investigated by police in Denver for prescription fraud for alleged practices out of his two offices in the Denver metro area. State charges were never filed.

Stein agreed to surrender his dental license last year after the Colorado Department of Health discovered he had been under the influence of painkillers while treating patients.

Examiners said Stein admitted to being a drug addict. The board also found he had been using drugs intended for patients.

Since Oct. 1, 2012 six former patients of Stein have tested positive for either hepatitis or HIV.

It’s not known whether they contracted the diseases from Dr. Stephen Stein’s office. Stein has since surrendered his license as an oral surgeon.

About 8,000 of Stein’s patients were sent letters asking them to get tested. The health department says it’s impossible to definitively tell if the infected patients got sick from Stein.

Stein had offices in Cherry Creek and Highlands Ranch.

Stein is scheduled for court in the Lake Tahoe area on Sept. 17. Court officials said that is when the results of his blood tests will be released.

---

Related:

Patients of Dr. Stephen Stein urged to get tested for HIV and hepatitis

More legal troubles for Dr. Stephen M. Stein, but still no criminal charges or personal injury cases. Why?

DENVER (CN) - A dentist's history of "getting high before performing surgeries" and reusing needles ruined his partner's dental practice, the partner claims in court.
     Neil G. Dobro, D.M.D., sued Stephen M. Stein, D.D.S., in Denver County Court.
     Dobro claims Stein concealed his troubled history to persuade Dobra to form the New Image Dental Implant Center with him.
     Eventually, Dobro says, he uncovered disturbing allegations about his partner, including that the Colorado Dental Board had recently "voted to summarily suspend Dr. Stein's license to practice dentistry."
     "Among other things, Mr. Stein had been stealing medications from patients and Dr. Dobro realized that Mr. Stein would eventually face criminal charges," the complaint states. "With this inevitable and damaging public disclosure on the horizon, Dr. Dobro proposed a means by which Mr. Stein could smoothly exit the practice of dentistry-Dr. Dobro would buy all of Mr. Stein's dental practice assets (equipment, supplies, etc.), together with Mr. Stein's putative membership interest in New Image."
     Dobro says he prepared an asset purchase agreement for this, in November 2011.

 

Cheapskate, dentist, Dr. Stephen Stein, has Patient Test Positive for Hepatitis C

KUSA TV

DENVER - A 9News viewer, who wanted to remain anonymous, says her husband tested positive for hepatitis C this week after a major health warning from Colorado's Public Health Department.

The positive lab results for hepatitis C, shown to 9News, comes nearly two weeks after 8,000 people received letters from Colorado's Health Department about oral surgeon Dr. Stephen Stein.

Dr. Stein is accused of re-using needles and syringes for days at a time on his patients over the course of 12 years. He had two practices - one in Denver and one in Highlands Ranch.

The 9News viewer's husband went to Dr. Stein for several procedures. His last procedure, done September of 2009, Dr. Stein pulled her husband's wisdom teeth, she said.

She received a letter from the state, much like many of Dr. Stein's other patients, saying her husband should be tested, she said.

The positive results for hepatitis C came from her husband's doctor's office this week, and they have ordered further testing.

Hepatitis C is an infection caused by a virus that attacks the liver and leads to inflammation.

"Most people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have no symptoms," according to the Mayo Clinic's website. "In fact, most people don't know they have the hepatitis C infection until liver damage shows up, decades later, during routine medical tests."

The 9News viewer said tests for HIV and hepatitis B came back negative for her husband.

A nurse at her husband's doctor's office said there was no definitive way to link the positive hepatitis C results to Dr. Stein's practice, she said.

A letter from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment warned patients that testing could not determine how or where patients would become infected.

To date, the health department has not released numbers of patients that might be infected after the warnings went out.

Colorado Department of Public Health Spokesman Mark Salley said they are surveying patients and will release numbers of people infected, if there are numbers to be released, next Wednesday.