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CBS13) SACRAMENTO You trust your doctor with your life, but should you? A Roseville doctor left patients injured. The medical board knew he battled a dangerous addiction, but in Kurtis’ investigation, he found out the agency failed to protect patients.

Speeding away, is a California doctor arrested twice for driving drunk. Once, was after crashing his car on I-80 in the summer of 2000. That day, plastic surgeon Dr. Brian West was headed to the hospital, to treat a patient.

"He told me had a flat tire, and that's not true, he had a dui," says Dr. West’s patient Becky Anderson.
Becky Anderson, who can't help but think the doctor's drinking problems contributed to her condition, which to anyone's eye, is tough to see.

In for breast reconstructive surgery after a double mastectomy, she says Dr. West left her with multiple painful infections, keeping her from getting the cancer treatment she desperately needed. The flesh eating infections have now led to a dozen operations.

"I was filleted open like a fish," says Anderson.

Her cancer spread. She was left permanently disfigured. In the last surgery, Dr. West removed muscle from her leg, something Becky claims she told him not to do.

"What he did was a crime, a doctor can't go in and do what he wants," says Anderson.

Other patients too, wonder if the doctor's personal problems, lead to their medical mishaps.

One tummy tuck patient who also became infected, says she smelt what she believes was alcohol on the doctor's breath the day she went in for surgery. She woke up learning Dr. West had done liposuction she has told him she didn't want.

"He went ahead and did it anyway," says a woman we’ll call ‘Marion’, a patient of Dr. West.

Also infected, Linda Starr after her breast reconstruction.

KURTIS: How long did it take to heal?

STARR: 7 or 8 months.

KURTIS: 7 or 8 months you went without the chemotherapy or radiation you needed to stop your cancer from spreading?

Her cancer did spread.

"She was extremely special to me," says Ken Mickulecky, Widower of a patient of Dr. West.
As Ken Mickulecky's late wife recovered from a reconstructive operation, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"He stuck his finger without a glove on in my wife's wound," says Mickulecky. "When he came in to examine her she said ‘smells like he's got alcohol on his breath.’ I said doctors wouldn't do that."

CBS13 found more than two dozen patients with complaints about Dr. Brian west. Some have sued for malpractice, he's settled in at least 3 cases.

We've learned the California state medical board knew about his drinking problem, but he was allowed to treat patients anyway.

"If the medical board is here to protect people, then what the heck is going on? Because they're not protecting us. They didn't protect me," says Becky Anderson.

Normally the medical board would investigate a doctor with two DUI arrests to see if he or she deserves to keep their license to practice. But Dr. West found the one way to stop that investigation was to enroll in the medical board's alcohol monitoring program called Diversion, where the state is supposed to keep an eye on him to make sure his drinking is not putting patients at risk.

"This is really a horrible case, and it illustrates the shortcomings of the Diversion program," says Auditor Julie D'Angelo Felmeth.

Dr. Julie D'Angelo Felmeth of University of San Diego spent more than 2 years auditing the medical board. In her 400 page report she outlines how the diversion program has failed to protect the public. One of the biggest breakdowns? Random alcohol and drug testing. The diversion program was not screening doctors 4 times a month as required and according to the audit, on days they could anticipate.

"In many cases they are practicing while relapsing and the program is not adequately detecting those relapses or removing them quickly and decisively from practicing," says D’Angelo. "That means patients are not protected from physicians who are known to the medical board to have a serious substance abuse problem."

The way the program is set up, the only way a patient would ever know their doctor has an alcohol or drug problem is if they detect it on their own, or if the doctor fails out of the Diversion program.

Dr. West did eventually flunk out of the program. 2-and-a-half years after enrolling, meaning that for the first time the public would get a glimpse of his problems. Once you read through it, it's clear the Dr. West case is a prime example of the state's mistakes.

A Dr. West employee told the state she was aware Dr. West continued to drink. Occasionally he showed signs of the prior evenings alcohol use. Yet, the state's supposed random alcohol checks did not detect it in the same time frame.

The system failed.

Executive director for the medical board Dave Thornton wasn't in charge then, but is up front admitting the problems pointed out in the audit.

"I would have to believe the opportunity was there for a physician to game the system when they wanted to," says Thornton. "Like Dr. West found a way to do it, and did it."

The same Dr. West staffer who knew he continued to drink later told the state he directed her, to sign in for him at AA meetings he didn't attend. Even more surprising, the Diversion program approved the Dr. West employee to be his work site monitor - the person the state relied on, to report any relapses.

KURTIS: How can the diversion program allow someone he had the power to hire and fire, be his worksite monitor?

THORNTON: I agree with you, that never should've happened.

KURTIS: And his patients ended up getting injured during this time period.

THORNTON: I think the record supports what you just said, and I don't argue with that.

Since taking over two-years ago, Thornton says the program has had a complete overhaul, and claims you can now trust doctors confidentially enrolled in Diversion are properly being watched with regular and random alcohol testing. But even today, unless a doctor fails out of the program, you'll have no idea your physician may be battling a dangerous addiction.

KURTIS: Don’t you believe patients deserve to know if their doctor has an alcohol problem?
THORNTON: But the law does not allow us to disclose that information to the public.
KURTIS: It seems the doctors privacy is put before the patient.
THORNTON: Well I think what we put primarily out in front is the protection of the patient, and if we can achieve that, while getting the treatment for the doctor he or she needs, that's what we need to do.

KURTIS: How do I know my doctor isn't an alcoholic?

THORNTON: I suppose you can always ask them.

And hope a doctor tells the truth. Outside of that, you've got to trust the medical board is doing its job.

"I think he [West] needs to have his license revoked permanently. I don't think he should be allowed to diagnose a sore throat," says Becky Anderson

"We rely on the medical board to pull from practice doctors who have become incompetent, or negligent, reckless or impaired, and if the medical board doesn't do that, we're all at risk -- grave risk," says D’Angelo.

Dr. West shut down his Roseville practice in 2004, filed for bankruptcy and joined the military as a plastic surgeon, but we're told he was never allowed to touch a patient. A judge overseeing his case for failing out of diversion had the power to strip him of his license last year. Instead, Brian West got probation.

With his drunk driving convictions, and struggles with the medical board it's a mystery how Dr. Brian West landed an officer's job at Travis Air Force Base working at the David Grant Medical Center. But we've learned Lt. Colonel Brian West is no longer with the Air Force, having been discharged in March after serving just two and a half years of his four-year commitment. The military refuses to say why he was released early, citing his privacy rights. So where did he land?

You may be surprised to know we found Dr. Brian West open for business again. In fact, he's practicing in Long Beach. He’s a plastic surgeon at the Long Beach Surgical Institute where he's been treating patients for the past three months.

We found two potential patients, Peggy and Kelly who scheduled a joint consultation with Dr. West. They went in with a line of questions, and came out three hours later.

KURTIS: What did you guys think of him?

PEGGY: He was a down to earth nice guy, very likeable

They found him charming, but it didn't take long to detect lies.

"We specifically asked him if he had any lawsuits, in his history," says Peggy.

"He said yes he had one, and that he prevailed on that one," says Kelly.

Yet, we know of numerous malpractice filings, and three settlements. Becky Anderson says his malpractice insurance paid out a quarter million dollars. Peggy and Kelly also asked about his status with the medical board and were blown away by his answer.

"I never had my license my license revoked or suspended and ‘I said has your license ever been in jeopardy?’, and he said ‘absolutely not’," says Peggy.

No mention he's currently on probation with the state over his alcohol problem.

"No mention whatsoever, matter of fact he says he wants to be a happy man at night. He wants to be able to sleep at night, so he's straightforward and meticulous and a perfectionist and he does great work," says Peggy.

"Yeah, well he's a liar, a bold faced liar," says Becky Anderson.

He claims he's never had to admit a patient to the hospital, yet Becky Anderson, Linda Starr and Ken's wife Sharon Mickulecky all spent time there recovering from massive infections.

When he was in the military, Travis Air Force Base says he was never allowed to touch patients.
"He told us, yes he was," says Peggy.

They say Dr. West claims he did face lifts, breast lifts and tummy tucks for military wives.

"I asked him twice. I said this is while you were at Travis Air Force Base, you actually performed surgery on the military wives and he said 'I did'," says Peggy.

When we informed the folks at Travis Air Force Base of what he's telling patients, they once again deny he ever treated anyone. We waited for Dr. West after work to see if he had an explanation for his answers. He ran from Kurtis and avoided his questions.

It wasn't until our investigation that the state medical board launched its own medical malpractice investigation into Dr. West. That was a year ago. But in February the statute of limitations ran out in the case of Linda Starr.

"I believe our investigators moved very quickly on this case," says Thornton.

"I can't handle the chemo anymore. It’s just too hard," says Becky Anderson.

Battling stage four cancer, Becky Anderson is living off of her own prescription these days -- daily doses of laughter and family.

Despite being left disfigured she doesn't spend much time anymore thinking of Dr. West.

"Actually I do have to forgive him," she says. "If I didn't the anger would consume me, and I don't want all that hatred, all that anger."

Becky Anderson just hopes her story will wake up the medical board, doctors, and lawmakers.

"You tend to think doctors are gods, and they're not. We need to research them.... and doctors need to be more pro active and be aware of what colleagues are doing because all of this could've been avoided," says Anderson.

Dr. West is still practicing, and is still under investigation. Remember that state audit showing the failures of the diversion program? It caught the attention of lawmakers. They've told the medical board to fix the program by July of next year, or it's going away forever. Right now, there are more than 300 doctors still in diversion.