Doctor who gave daughter surgical anesthetic at home sees license suspended

A Northridge doctor's license was suspended Thursday after medical authorities found he had been injecting his daughter at home with propofol, the same drug that killed pop star Michael Jackson.

Robert S. Markman, 66, a retired anesthesiologist, constructed a treatment area in his adult daughter's "filthy" house, in a bedroom she rarely left, the Medical Board of California alleged in petition for an interim suspension order made public Thursday.

Markman injected his daughter, whose name was not given, with the surgical anesthetic about 500 times over five years to treat the severe genital pain she had experienced for years, the order states. 

Markman began treating his daughter after her efforts to find treatment from numerous medical centers and other physicians were unsuccessful, according to a declaration by Markman cited by the board.

"This is a tragic case of a woman who has suffered excruciating pain for 17 years and had not been able to get any relief," said Mitchell J. Green, a San Francisco attorney representing Markman. "The only relief she ever received was from her father, who is an anesthesiologist who has made what is, by all accounts, a breakthrough."

Interim suspension orders are a rare move by the medical board, sought when it is believed a doctor in question could cause harm before a formal decision can be made in a  case, said Dan Wood, a spokesman for the board.

"It doesn't happen all that often, but our mission is to protect the public's health, and in order to do that,  sometimes we have to move this way," Wood said.

Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November in the death of Michael Jackson, with prosecutors saying his intravenous administration of propofol in Jackson's home was recklessly outside the bounds of accepted medical practice.

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-- Hailey Branson-Potts