06/01/2026
"They over-punish some and they under-punish some."
A physician with Covid was accused of being drunk and lost his license. A physician with 70 ma*****na plants in his basement got three months in a treatment clinic and went back to work.
Alan Lindemann, MD, is an OB/GYN who spent his career practicing in North Dakota and training family practice doctors in obstetrics and gynecology.
In September 2021, he had Delta Covid. He was tired, weak, dizzy. When he turned too quickly, he braced himself against the wall to keep his balance. Another physician watched him for hours without saying anything. The CEO called him in, told him he was drunk, and walked him out that day.
Later, the hospital came to his house and tested him for fifteen things, alcohol included. Every test came back negative. A neurologist examined him and found him completely neurologically normal. The same physician who originally accused him of being drunk later wrote to the state medical board to say he had long Covid. The board had that diagnosis from the start. It did not matter.
He had five days to respond to seven complaints. Not weeks. Five days. The letters never described a single instance of patient harm, which is supposed to be the threshold for board action. The board took his license. He can reapply in three years, when he will be 78.
After he lost his license, two of his patients died. A 33-year-old diabetic. A 38-year-old who died of DIC from untreated pneumonia. He had kept them alive for six years.
In the same regulatory system, another physician was caught with seventy ma*****na plants in his basement and a record of dealing to high school students. He got a two-year suspended sentence, three months in a treatment clinic, and was placed in a birth control clinic in an underserved area. He kept his state license until Medicare flagged him as a federal felon.
Lindemann put it this way:
"They over-punish some and they under-punish some."
Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the comments.
