Robert Hallett, M.D.

I have spent a large part of my 75 years on Earth helping others. This may have been as a physician, or as a friend. I may have contributed money. At times, all I could do was to pray.

Due to circumstances largely beyond my control, it is now my time to ask others for help. After you read my invitation to my GoFundMe account, please distribute this to anyone you know who might be willing to contribute. I have no access to many friends, colleagues, or former patients from my life in New York.

Those of you who know me well know that I first wanted to become a Cardiologist at the early age of 9. In 1955, I met and spoke with Dr. Paul Dudley White, the first American Cardiology Specialist, and the founder of the American Heart Association. One month after meeting him, he was the expert called in to treat then-President Eisenhower at the time of his heart attack. My future was set.

Medicine has been my passion and my self-awareness since I entered Medical School in September 1968. After nine years of training, I opened my own practice of Cardiology. That was a HUGE milestone in my life. Over the years, my patients became my extended family. I took extreme pride in providing all patients with the highest quality of ethical, safe, state-of-the-art, and loving care. I treated them like I would treat a family member. I treated them like I would want to be treated myself.

I was the first Cardiologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City to use intracoronary streptokinase (a “clot-buster”). I was the first Cardiologist in Lufkin to perform peripheral directional atherectomy with the SilverHawk. I have performed well over 1000 peripheral procedures in Lufkin, Texas.

In November 2018, an Ob-Gyn physician with no knowledge of the advanced level of Interventional Cardiology and Peripheral Vascular Disease that I was practicing, submitted a letter of complaint against me to the Texas Medical Board (TMB). Based on this single letter of complaint, the TMB held a secret 17-minute phone call, involving two TMB non-Cardiology physicians, one TMB non-physician, one attorney for the TMB, and one attorney for the State of Texas. I was not aware of this phone call, and I had no representation.

At this meeting, the TMB suspended my medical license as of 1/3/2019, preventing me from pursuing my passion and livelihood… and totally destroying my heart, my soul, and my financial life. This ruling also meant that each of my patients had to select a new Cardiologist, one who was not their first choice.

TMB published a horrible statement about me in the local newspaper, its website, and the National Practitioners Data Bank. They accused me of alcohol abuse, drug, chemical, and other substance abuse, and physical and mental disease which prevented me from safely treating patients. None of this was true. In 30+ months, the TMB has not been able to prove any single claim.

Since that horrific day, I have been fighting to clear my name, to get my license fully reinstated, and to allow my patients to return to their primary choice of Cardiologist.

On 2/20/19, the TMB finally held a hearing on my license suspension. The physician who originally wrote the letter of complaint admitted under oath that her statements were false. Nevertheless, the TMB did not reinstate my license on that date.

The TMB ordered me to pay $4750.00 for a 1-day evaluation of my ability to safely practice medicine. That 1-day evaluation took place in late April 2019. It took until August 5, 2019, for the TMB to hold a second hearing. I was finally getting my Medical License reinstated. On August 15, 2019, long after the 1/3/2019 suspension began, my License was reinstated – but with restrictions.

I was totally unaware that having a Medical License with restrictions was essentially useless. Such a license is not accepted by any government agency, including the VA system or Native American facilities.

I was unemployable. I was jobless. I have no ability to fight the TMB. They have all the power. I looked into starting legal action against the TMB, but the cost was prohibitive, and the likelihood of a positive outcome was exceeding small.

My inability to work as a physician continued throughout 2020, and on into 2021. Despite the nation-wide recruitment effort to have retired physicians return to work, to treat those with COVID-19, Texas refused to allow me to help in this time of need.

The 30+ month fight to clear my name and get my license reinstated without restrictions has cost me all my savings, and all my retirement funds. It has cost me my soul. It has cost me my financial life. I am selling my most prized possessions on eBay. Today, I struggle to maintain my home and feed my family.

Most recently I have learned that my local Judge may soon order me to pay $82,000 to cover the fees submitted by the team of attorneys representing those who first submitted the libelous information about me.

I have always put my patients first, their safety and well-being my priority. I have always been philanthropic, supporting a myriad of charitable causes. I have donated to multiple fundraisers over the years.

One of the biggest hurts for me is the inability to contribute to anyone else’s needs.

Today, I am asking for your help. If I have been your cardiologist, if I have been your friend, if I have touched you at all in some way over the past 7 decades, if you believe in me, if you would like to see justice prevail, if you would like to see me stay in my home… I ask you to consider a donation to my GoFundMe account.

I ask for help to pay the $82,000 the Judge will apparently order me to pay to the attorneys representing the persons who started this series of lies.

I ask you to help me to pay the exorbitant bills I have incurred during my two and ½-year battle to clear my name and help me get my Medical License reinstated with no restrictions.

Your donation will allow me to get out of debt and be able to age in place in my beloved home with dignity and joy.

Thanks,

Robert Hallett, M.D.

aka “Doctor Bob”