Los Angeles Time - 08.08.2019

A12 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 LATIMES.COM

“Have you ever wanted some-
thing so badly in your life, and you
knew you were never going to get
it? What it would be like, what it
would feel like to be that person,
even if just one day?” Litwin said.
On a recent Saturday after-
noon in Chicago, Litwin chats over
pizza at his favorite restaurant. It
is one of several interviews he’d
give for this article, saying he
hoped to explain his efforts over
the last several years to redeem
himself.
Litwin is a tall, middle-aged
man with dark, expressive eyes.
He loves to use air quotes. He
cringes when he talks about what
happened at UCLA, often covering
his face with his hand as if to hide
his shame.
Litwin grew up in a suburb of
San Jose. A friend from that time,
Marc Silver, said that through
high school Litwin “would just
bring up medicine all the time.” If
you said your toe hurt, Litwin
would rattle off possible diag-
noses, he said.
After high school, Litwin
enrolled at San Jose State, then
transferred to St. Louis University
because it offered a pre-med pro-
gram in which students interacted
with patients. The clinical rota-
tions were “probably the happiest
I had ever been,” Litwin said.
But when they ended, he said,
he felt depressed and couldn’t
concentrate on his schoolwork.
Litwin dropped out of college, and
in 1998, he decided to move to the
San Fernando Valley for a change
of scenery.
Litwin said he felt awful that he
would never be able to become a
physician. But he still loved medi-
cine, he said, and began poring
over textbooks in UCLA’s medical
library.
At some point, someone mis-
took him for a resident and he
didn’t correct them, he said. In-
stead, he made up a backstory
that he began to widely share: He
was a surgery resident who had
recently transferred from a nearby
hospital.
Litwin was 26, about the same
age as most doctors-in-training.
For months, he fooled them.
He ate lunch in the cafeteria at
UCLA Medical Center and
watched doctors perform compli-
cated surgeries, allowed because
senior doctors thought he was a
physician.
He parked his car in the doc-
tors’ lot using a parking pass he
pilfered from another physician.
He began hanging out in the resi-
dents’ lounge after he stole a key to
enter.
He sometimes even slept in the
on-call rooms when a case
stretched late into the night.
But his disguise was far from
perfect. Litwin wore a lab coat
unlike anyone else’s: It carried a
silk-screened picture of his face
and name.
“Personally, I would’ve thought
that if you were trying to blend in ...
you wouldn’t have your picture on
your white coat,” said Mark Lamb-
ert, a now-retired deputy city
attorney who prosecuted the case
in 2000.
Litwin said he had gotten the
coat for free at a pharmaceutical
conference and wore it at UCLA
because it was the only one he had.
“People were coming up to me
asking, ‘Adam, where did you get
that coat? Where can I get one? I
want one. It’s so cool,’ ” he remem-
bered.
Litwin said he arrived at UCLA
every day about 5:30 a.m. to do
rounds with residents. It’s unclear
exactly how many days Litwin
spent at the hospital and what he
did there. He claimed he was there
nine months, though prosecutors
said six.
Small groups of residents see

patients together, and they all

know one another, said Dr. Raja-

brata Sarkar, a vascular surgeon

who trained at UCLA and was

chief resident in 1998.

“The other residents would be

like, ‘I’ve never met you — what

program are you in?’ ” said Sarkar,

who didn’t know Litwin. “You

might get away with it for a day or

two.... but the idea that you mas-

queraded as a physician on rounds

for months? I find it hard to be-

lieve.”

Litwin said he made a few

friends at UCLA but could not

remember their names. The Times

contacted several dozen people

who were UCLA residents in the

late 1990s and all either said they

did not remember Litwin or de-

clined to be interviewed.

Throughout his time at UCLA,

Litwin said, he was careful to never

touch or treat a patient. Once, a

physician asked him to scrub in on

a surgery he was observing and

Litwin said he was late for clinic

and raced out of the operating

room, he recalled.

Still, Litwin said that when

supervising doctors caught a

glimpse of his medical acumen,

they were impressed.

“If I was ever asked a question

it would be like” — Litwin snapped

his fingers three times — “I would

be able to give the answer.”

But the charade didn’t last. His

unusual white coat raised suspi-

cion. Litwin also drew the atten-

tion of a pharmacist when he

forged prescriptions for cough

remedies and tranquilizers in the

name of another UCLA physician

who shared his surname, accord-

ing to a Times article from 2000.

Litwin says he wrote the prescrip-

tions to help a friend.

A medical center supervisor

also noticed that she could never

read Litwin’s ID badge because it

was covered with a meal ticket.

She checked the resident roster.

In June 1999, security guards

entered the doctors’ lounge, look-

ing for Litwin. They escorted him

to his car. Litwin knew the gig

was up.

“My house of cards wasn’t

falling, it had collapsed,” he said.

Inside his car, police found a

scalpel, X-rays and orders for

medicine.

In the UCLA doctors’ parking

lot, police handcuffed and ar-

rested Litwin.

b

A year later, at age 28, he

pleaded guilty to three misde-

meanors: forging a prescription,

impersonating a doctor and steal-

ing state property. He was sen-

tenced to six months of psychiat-

ric counseling and two months in

jail, which Litwin said he served at

the Azusa city lockup.

Litwin moved home to the Bay

Area. He went to therapy for long-

er than mandated by the court

and dealt with what he said are his

narcissistic tendencies and low

self-esteem.

From then on, he has been

reformed, he said; what happened

at UCLA was an aberration. “My

narcissism clearly got away from

me.”

“Quote me. Write this. If I could

just get you to write one thing,”

Litwin said over pizza. “It is a very

wise man who learns from his

mistakes and a very stupid one

who doesn’t. Remember that. I

have learned from my mistakes

and that’s why there’s no chance

that anything like that could or

would ever happen again.”

For a few years after his convic-

tion in 2000, he said, he ran a

healthcare consulting company

with his grandfather, where he

kept the books while staying away

from the medicine.

But Litwin still yearned to be a

doctor.

In 2006, he married Lisa Viens.

When they met through mutual

friends, Litwin had been intro-

duced by his nickname, “Doc,” and

claimed he was a cardiologist.

“I’m like, ‘You look awfully

young to be a cardiologist,” said

Viens, whose divorce from Litwin

was finalized in 2010. “I thought,

‘Gosh, doesn’t that take a long

time?’ ”

As he approached 40, Litwin

decided to stop playing doctor. In

2012, he enrolled in St. James

School of Medicine on the island of

Bonaire.

“My love and my passion for

medicine persevered and I said to

myself, ‘You know what? This is

my dream,’ ” he said.

He graduated from medical

school last year, according to a

school official, and now lives in

Chicago, where he moved to com-

plete his third- and fourth-year

medical school rotations, some of

which were at Cook County hospi-

tals, he said. He passed all four

exams that doctors are required to

take to apply for a medical license.

Sitting in the restaurant,

Litwin pinches his arm through

his shirtsleeve. He is a doctor now.

“With people who impersonate

doctors, how many people end up

becoming myself?” Litwin said.

“You’re looking at him.”

b

But his past continues to im-

pede him.

Missouri’s medical board de-

nied his application for a license

last year, saying it did not believe

he could have spent so much time

pretending to be a resident at

UCLA and not have treated pa-

tients.

“The lack of complete forth-

rightness about the incident in the

UCLA Medical Center reflected

negatively on your credibility and

weighed against a finding of suffi-

cient rehabilitation,” the denial

letter reads.

Litwin is appealing the deci-

sion.

Lambert, the retired prose-

cutor, said investigators never

found evidence that Litwin cared

for patients. He said he hopes

Litwin is treated fairly as he tries

to become a fully licensed doctor.

“We send someone to counsel-

ing and they get punished, and the

hope is that they’re rehabilitated,

so I would hope that he has been

rehabilitated,” Lambert said. “I

have no ill will toward him whatso-

ever.”

Last fall, Litwin applied to

residency programs in surgery and

family medicine.

During his residency inter-

views, Litwin said, he explained

what happened at UCLA and his

subsequent transformation.

But documents Litwin had to

include in his application are

sullied by his past.

In early 1998, before his UCLA

stunt, Litwin was caught shop-

lifting. He walked out of a store

with a coat, he said.

When his lawyer asked for a

letter showing good character,

Litwin forged one. He penned a

letter as though he were the head

of the National Board of Medical

Examiners, saying Litwin had

scored in the 96th percentile on a

medical board exam, according to

records from the agency obtained

by The Times.

When the letter was identified

as a fake, police sent it to the medi-

cal examiners board to keep on

file.

So 15 years later, when Litwin

had legitimately entered medical

school and began to take his board

exams in 2014, the agency flagged

his scores.

Litwin was called in for a hear-

ing to explain his past. The agency

ultimately decided to let his scores

stand.

But the bottom of his official

exam score document notes that

“this individual engaged in irreg-

ular behavior,” with a memo ex-

plaining the details of the UCLA

incident and the forged letter.

In March, Litwin failed to win

acceptance into a residency pro-

gram. He said he will reapply to

residency training next year and

will consider switching to psychia-

try programs, which graduates of

foreign medical schools are more

often accepted into, according to

national residency data.

“I have had to overcome obsta-

cles that would’ve sunken the vast

majority of people in this world,”

Litwin said. “I have persevered

and I have struggled to be who and

where I am today way too much

and come much too far to give up

now.”

Dr. Anupam Jena, a Harvard

medical school professor who

studies the physician workforce,

said Litwin’s biggest impediment

may not be his past — having a

minor crime, such as a DUI, on an

applicant’s record is not uncom-

mon, he said — but the fact that he

went to medical school out of the

country.

Fewer than 60% of interna-

tional medical graduates matched

into residency this year, compared

with 94% of U.S. graduates.

“It’s not like this is a violent

crime he committed — it’s a

strange crime,” Jena said. “I could

certainly imagine a residency

program giving him a shot.”

If Litwin joins a psychiatry

program next year, he would be at

least 52 when he could begin prac-

ticing on his own.

Even without residency, Litwin

could advise pharmaceutical or

health insurance companies. He

could work in hospital adminis-

tration or do medical research.

He knows his options, but he

doesn’t like them, Litwin said. He

longs to see patients.

No longer playing doctor, he’s a real MD

[Doctor,from A1]

“I HAVE learned from my mistakes,” says Dr. Adam Litwin, at Chicago’s Stroger Hospital. He

went to jail for posing as a UCLA doctor in 1999. In 2012, Litwin decided to fulfill his dream.

Pinar IstekFor The Times

‘Have you ever wanted something so badly in your

life, and you knew you were never going to get it?’

—ADAMLITWIN,

on how his blind love of medicine led him to pretend to be a resident

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
— Justice Secretary Wanda
Vazquez became Puerto Ri-
co’s new governor Wednes-
day, just the second woman
to hold the office, after weeks
of political turmoil and
hours after the island’s
Supreme Court declared
Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in
a week ago unconstitutional.
Accompanied by her hus-
band and daughter, Vazquez
took the oath of office in the
early evening at the
Supreme Court before leav-
ing without making any pub-
lic comment.
“I will continue to focus
on helping our people regain
their way in an orderly and
peaceful fashion,” she said in
a statement in which she
promised to assume the po-
sition with “humility and
commitment.”
The high court’s unani-
mous decision, which could
not be appealed, settled the
dispute over who will lead
the U.S. territory after its po-
litical establishment was

knocked off balance by mas-

sive street protests spawned

by anger over corruption,

mismanagement of funds

and a leaked obscenity-

laced chat that forced the

previous governor and sev-

eral top aides to resign.

But it was also expected

to unleash a new wave of

demonstrations because

many Puerto Ricans have

said they don’t want

Vazquez as governor.

“It is concluded that the

swearing-in as governor by

Hon. Pedro R. Pierluisi Ur-

rutia, named secretary of

state in recess, is unconsti-

tutional,” the court said in a

brief statement.

Pierluisi said that he had

stepped forward to help is-

landers “in the best good

faith and desire to contrib-

ute to the future of our

homeland,” but that he

would respect the court’s

ruling.

“I must step aside and

support the Justice Secre-

tary of Puerto Rico, the Hon-

orable Wanda Vazquez

Garced,” he said in a state-

ment before she was sworn

in.

People began cheering in

some parts of San Juan after

the ruling was announced.

But late in the day, about

two dozen protesters gath-

ered outside the governor’s

mansion and called for the

removal of Vazquez.

“There’ll be no peace as

long as there’s impunity,”

yelled the crowd, which re-

mained calm as curious on-

lookers including tourists

took pictures and video.

Carmen Santiago, a

homemaker from San Juan

who joined the protest, said

Puerto Ricans still have en-

ergy to organize more pro-

tests.

“Especially the young

people,” she said. “It should

be the people who choose

the governor, not the party.”

But many Puerto Ricans

are physically and emotion-

ally exhausted and want an

end to the political turmoil,

said Xiomary Morales, a

waitress and student who

works a block away.

She praised the court’s

decision, saying that those

in power “are used to doing

what they want.”

“They should just hold

fresh elections,” Morales

said.

Tita Caraballo, a retired

nurse from the inland east-

ern city of Gurabo, disa-

greed with the court.

“I think they are playing

with the people and, I don’t

know, maybe they have

someone they want and that

is why they are doing this,”

Caraballo said.

Pierluisi was appointed

secretary of state by then-

Gov. Ricardo Rossello while

legislators were in recess,

and only the House ap-

proved his nomination. Pier-

luisi was then sworn in as

governor Friday after

Rossello formally resigned.

Puerto Rico’s Senate

sued to challenge Pierluisi’s

legitimacy as governor, ar-

guing that its approval was

also necessary, and the

Supreme Court decided in

favor of the Senate.

Puerto Rico gets 3rd governor in less than week

associated press

WANDA VAZQUEZtakes the oath as governor of Puerto Rico after the island’s

Supreme Court ruled that Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in was unconstitutional.

Dennis M. Rivera PichardoAssociated Press