Feb 14, 2008 8:39 pm US/Eastern
N.J. Doc Accused Of Being Drunk On The Job
Prosecutor: Jose Romillo Administered Expired Vaccines
Reporting
Jay Dow
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (CBS) ―
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Dr. Jose Romillo is accused of being drunk on the job and administering expired vaccines to more than 1,000 patients.
CBS
A New Jersey pediatrician was without his medical license Thursday evening and more than 1,000 of his patients are at risk of exposure to several childhood diseases.
They reportedly got expired vaccinations.
Dr. Jose Romillo's pediatric office was bustling with activity Thursday. But instead of seeing patients, the disgraced physician, who recently lost his medical license, was returning medical records to his patients.
"If something was going to happen to him, it would have happened already," former patient Ed McCaffrey said. "Like I said, my daughter is 19 and she's going to be 20 and she's never had a problem with him."
During a recent raid of his office, local state investigators determined Romillo had administered expired vaccines to his young patients.
And because his records were in "disarray," officials can't verify proper vaccinations for any of Romillo's patients dating back to 1999.
"It's serious in that there were many children we think in the area of 1,100 children that may not be immunized appropriately and may not be protected," Ocean County health coordinator Dr. Ella Boyd said.
The concern is that all those children now need to be re-immunized for whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio and the list goes on.
In addition to allegedly being drunk while treating patients, prosecutors say Romillo was also a threat to his own staff.
He's already charged with aggravated assault for allegedly pointing a loaded gun at two assistants, a staggering fall from grace for a doctor who prosecutors say once had a solid reputation.
"We hope that this is a doctor who's just going through a personal crisis and not somebody who has been acting like this for an extended period of time," Ocean County prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said. "That's what I think we're all hoping for."
Romillo is currently free on $35,000 bail
The state board of medical examiners may bring additional charges against Romillo.
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