“I couldn’t believe all this had happened so long after one of our physicians busted him already.” ~source who worked with fired paramedic Samrat Mukherjee
(Baton Rouge, La) Multiple credible sources reached out to Unfiltered with Kiran claiming Samrat Mukherjee, a fired paramedic posing as a physician, presented himself as a fourth year medical student needing clinical hours at a Lake After Hours Urgent Care.
That urgent care is owned by Premier Health. The allegations date back to 2014-2015 in Baton Rouge.
The sources asked to remain anonymous to protect their jobs. Two separate sources provided UWK with the following messages:
“Samrat has posed as a medical student before at a local urgent care. He told the staff he was a student at Emory School of Medicine but was doing a rotation at an Urgent care in Baton Rouge. He was there for a few months treating patients. The urgent care was unable to verify his status as a medical student and allowed him to leave without taking any action. I’m guessing this was due to their status within the community.”
“Sam claimed to be a 4th year medical student when partnered with one of our physicians at Lake After Hours in 2014 or beginning of 2015. He was not providing solo patient care as this was more of a shadowing/clinical experience, but we became suspicious of his lack of skill set. It’s been so long now I can’t recall how it all came to light, but I remember his med school told one of our physicians that they didn’t even have a student with his name. It was incredibly bizarre!“
Unfiltered with Kiran brought to light that Mukherjee, a paramedic, worked for Acadian Ambulance from May 2015 until he was fired on Dec. 9, 2022. As soon as Acadian Ambulance learned that Mukherjee was not an actual doctor, he was fired immediately. Mukherjee also acted as Acadian’s “flight physician.”
One source, who worked with Mukherjee at the urgent care, said they learned Mukherjee had moved on to Acadian as a paramedic and was acting as a doctor through UWK’s reporting.
“How did this happen for four years? I’m upset that I live here and I didn’t know because we could have stopped this months ago, years ago. I couldn’t believe all this had happened so long after one of our physicians busted him already,” said the source. “He did not have the knowledge or skill set to truly care for patients. I would not be surprised if he was more harmful than helpful.”
Despite Acadian Ambulance telling UWK that Mukherjee never worked outside the scope of a paramedic, at least one parent disagreed saying Mukherjee treated her 3-yr-old daughter.
UWK reached out to Emory University School of Medicine, who confirmed that Samrat Mukherjee applied to the program but was not admitted as a student.
According to a source, Mukherjee shadowed with Premier Health claiming he was a fourth year medical student.
“As a fourth year medical student, they should be competent in taking blood pressure, making patient assessments and using sutures. Mukherjee had no competency in these basic skills despite his claim that he was a fourth year medical student,” said a source. “Other nurses would make jokes about him because of his incompetence. What is wrong with him? How doesn’t he know anything?”
Premier Health allows medical students or residents to shadow alongside doctors at their facilities to get clinical hours for the students’ programs. Mukherjee was shadowing one of the most senior physicians at the after hours at the time. Though the medical students are shadowing doctors and nurses, medical students are expected to assist the doctors with patients. The source said Mukherjee would ask if he could watch the doctor perform sutures on a patient, but “he should have known how to do that.”
In order to get on a shadowing opportunity at Premier Health as a medical student or resident, applicants have to complete a form provided by Premier Health. The student then has to have their school submit a form to Premier Health. The source believes that anything Mukherjee submitted to Premier Health was likely forged since the medical school had no records of Mukherjee.
UWK did get documents showing Mukherjee allegedly forged his match letter, a letter medical students receive in March showing where they have matched for their residency.
“Mukherjee would ask a lot of questions, which was bizarre for a fourth year medical student. His questions related to treatments for simple diagnosis,” said the source. “Mukherjee just wanted to make sure he was on the same page as the doctors and nurses for treating an illness like in the respiratory system. He would also ask for assistance with treating a child who had the flu. At first, we thought that Mukherjee wasn’t confident in himself. However, Mukherjee continued to ask these basic questions, which made us believe his questions were related to his incompetence.” Mukherjee never performed on patients but shadowed the medical staff.
After about 2-3 months, sources said one of the senior physicians at the after hours became suspicious of Mukherjee’s credentials, and met with Premier Health’s Human Resources Department. That’s when the source source said Premier Health learned Emory did not have any student records for Mukherjee. Mukherjee was confronted and then told he could not continue his shadowing experience at After Hours.
“The staff at After Hours began referring to Mukherjee as “Catch that Kid,” after the movie “Catch Me If You Can” starring Leonardo Dicaprio,” said a source.
UWK called Emory University Medical School on January 6, 2023 to investigate these updates. Staff from the Medical Education and Student Affairs Office stated that Samrat Mukherjee’s name appeared in their system as an applicant for the program. There were no student records for Mukherjee, meaning he never attended Emory University Medical School as a student.
The question remains “How did OLOL not know about Mukherjee’s history at Lake After Hours?” The source stated, “There is a common misconception that OLOL and After Hours are the same entity. They are not the same entity, so OLOL wouldn’t have had the access to this information.”
After Hours is owned by Premier Health. According to a source, a long time ago, there was an investment partnership between OLOL and After Hours where OLOL has their name on After Hours, but OLOL has no authority over the management or human resources of After Hours.
At least one source could not understand how Mukherjee’s alleged deception went on for four years because “he did not have the knowledge.” The source commented that Mukherjee learned a lot during his time at After Hours in or around 2014-2015. But, “We caught him so fast. Mukherjee tried too hard to fit in and he was very strange. We never had a medical student like Mukherjee in all the time I worked there.”
After Mukherjee was let go from the shadowing opportunity, the source did not know that he was still in Baton Rouge. The source said had they known, they would have reported “his deception. He should go to jail. He should never touch a patient.”
“I don’t understand why Mukherjee’s information was never verified by the organizations he worked with. All After Hours had to do was call the medical school to verify. The organizations could have easily checked the medical board’s website to verify his licensure number. Those numbers would be listed on the medical board’s website after a medical student passed their board exams,” said the source.
DID YOU HAVE RUN-INS WITH MUKHERJEE? TELL US
If the source could speak to the organizations that hired Mukherjee, they would say, “I am incredibly disappointed in them. They let this incompetent person lay their hands on patients and quite possibly, have failed outcomes. Think of the babies, kids, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, that’s someone’s child. He did not have the knowledge or skill set to truly care for them. As a doctor, you must do no harm. Would not be surprised if he was more harmful than helpful. That’s heartbreaking to me because if it was my family member, I would be irate.”
UWK contacted Premier Health twice during the first week of January. So far, they have not responded as of this report.
UWK also checked in with multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. All agencies said they could not confirm or deny any investigations into the paramedic.
UWK did reach out to Mukherjee and his lawyer for this report. His lawyer said they had no comment.
Patients: “Didn’t you verify his credentials?”
Premier Health: “He said he was Indian!”