In an update to an investigation into a fired paramedic posing as a physician, Unfiltered with Kiran learned multiple state and federal agencies are now aware of Samrat Mukherjee. Plus, Acadian Ambulance has issued a clarified statement after Wednesday’s report.
Mukherjee was a paramedic, who worked for Acadian Ambulance since May 2015, and was fired allegedly for fraudulently asserting himself as a doctor the last four years. He has since voluntarily surrendered his paramedic license to the Louisiana Dept. of Health.
Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”), the FBI & the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office have all responded that they cannot confirm, deny or comment on investigations. UWK has also reached out to the Louisiana State Police inquiring if they’re investigating. The Louisiana Bureau of EMS and National EMS Registry are also aware of Mukherjee and were contacted for further investigations.
The response is standard procedure from state and federal agencies not to confirm any ongoing investigations, but credible sources say all the above agencies were notified and some have now launched investigations into whether Mukherjee and his alleged actions and claims were criminal.
DEA will likely look at Mukherjee allegedly using a fellow doctor’s DEA number or NPI number to call in prescriptions posing as that doctor.
Since the initial report, several people have reached out to UWK with their own interactions with Mukherjee, including a mother of a 3-yr-old girl who said Mukherjee treated her daughter.
DID YOU INTERACT WITH MUKHERJEE? TELL US
Madison Terrell said it was around 4:30pm on Oct. 20, 2022 when her 3-yr-old daughter Dallas Terrell fell off a golf cart in Grosse Tete.
“I was just mind blown because she’s a 3-yr-old girl with a skull fracture and he made her get up and walk around like it was fine. When we were in the hospital, she wasn’t allowed to move around much but he made her walk around to make sure she could walk. At the hospital, they told us she needed to be limited for six weeks in what she could do,” said Terrell.
Photographs of Dallas Terrell provided by Madison Terrell
Medical experts recommend limited physical activity with a skull fracture to keep from causing further damage to the spine or skull. Terrell said she learned Mukherjee was not a doctor from UWK’s report.
“We were all just in shock really when we realized he wasn’t really a doctor. If something more would have been wrong with her, then he wasn’t the one to make the call. He told us he was on the AirMed and whenever he heard it was a child injured, he flew from Lafayette to come to our house to make sure she was okay,” said Terrell. “He told us he was a doctor. He told us he was the attending physician. If you would have been talking to him in person, you would have thought he was a doctor with everything that he was saying. He actually did a physical exam on her to make sure she could still see, like the vision test.”
Terrell said if she could say anything to Mukherjee, it would be, “He should be ashamed of himself because if something would have severely been wrong, we would never have known and things could have gone very south.”
UWK asked Acadian Ambulance about Terrell’s specific case:
If Sam Mukherjee responded to a call as a doctor, he did it without Acadian’s knowledge or consent. Our Air medics would not be coming from a hospital to a scene. They are dispatched with the air asset to the scene. Again, we encourage the patient’s mother to contact us for further investigation.
Randall Mann, Vice-President of Marketing & Public Relations
Several of Mukherjee’s former co-workers have also reached out. In fear of retaliation, all information was provided under the basis of anonymity. Multiple sources have said Acadian presented Mukherjee as a paramedic who had graduated medical school and if anyone needed additional medical guidance, they could call him.
One former co-worker said:
“I’m still dumbfounded and they (Acadian) are trying to act like they didn’t know. Dr Burnell, the medical director, even had him talk about the importance of the covid vaccine because so many people knew him and even referred to him as Dr. Sam, a resident physician. I know for a fact that Dr. Sam, he did in fact perform medical procedures and things that are outside the practice of even a nurse. Acadian was fully aware of the things he did because I remember days he would be on the phone with the billing department about how to document some of the things he did. I’m ashamed to call him my friend. Numerous times, I would talk with him about med school and this whole time, it was all a lie. Also, they would put him on AirMed as a physician and even put it in the schedule as physician.”
Anonymous former co-worker
Acadian Ambulance also responded to this specific allegation:
“As we have stated and we want to make very clear, Acadian is not aware of any time in which Mukherjee, while in performance of his duties for Acadian, worked outside of the scope of a paramedic. He was not provided with any additional equipment or protocols to perform in any manner other than as he was employed in the position of a credentialed paramedic. We understand that others may make assumptions or even state blatant untruths to disparage the company and work that we do as a result of this situation, but to Acadian’s knowledge, this statement is unconditionally false.“
Randall Mann, Vice-President of Marketing & Public Relations
Another former co-worker said “Acadian’s management was absolutely aware of Mukherjee wearing the flight physician patch. They either turned a blind eye or allowed him to portray himself as a flight physician because he walked around Acadian calling himself Dr. Mukherjee. I saw him sitting at the computers at OLOL looking at patient charts with the EPIC program. How did he obtain the credentials or access to EPIC? Someone at OLOL had to have given him access to their EPIC system so he could log in to the system or he stole someone’s login and used it as his own.”
UWK also asked if Acadian knew Samrat Mukherjee was not a physician, why did they not address him wearing a white coat and scrubs with MD (medical director).
“As soon as we learned that Mr. Mukherjee lied about his educational status, he was promptly terminated and reported. He was not allowed to wear anything other than an Acadian uniform while in the course and scope of his work with Acadian or representing Acadian. Outside of this, we did not monitor his dress and because he was not allowed to and not hired as a physician with Acadian, we did not monitor his dress when he was working with or at other facilities or coming from same,” said Mann.
Acadian Ambulance has held steady to the statement that Mukherjee has not acted outside the scope of a paramedic. That begs the question why their own social media post referred to Mukherjee as a “Flight Physician” prior to his termination. After he was fired, the post was updated to remove his name and title.
“As included in our statement, Mukherjee fraudulently represented himself to fellow Acadian employees as a resident physician. This included members of our social media team when they took notes at the event to create the post,” said Mann. “In our HR system and credentialing system, he was properly classified as a paramedic.”
Acadian did issue a longer, clarifying statement after Wednesday’s report. Their full statement is as follows:
Samrat Mukherjee was employed with Acadian Ambulance Service as a paramedic with confirmed paramedic credentials. He was at no time employed as a physician and never performed any duties related to Medical Control or beyond the practice of a paramedic in the course and scope of his employment with Acadian. He is no longer employed by Acadian.
While Mukherjee may have fraudulently represented himself as a resident physician, Acadian never gave him the title of flight physician, physician in training or any other status beyond the level of a paramedic. The company did not issue any name badge or patch identifying him as a physician, doctor or M.D. Any such identification was fraudulently created and/or displayed. To be clear, his title and the extent of his duties and authority to act while at Acadian was soley as a paramedic.
“At no time was Mukherjee authorized or allowed to practice as a physician, and he was never allowed to provide medical control or to act in any capacity other than as a credentialed paramedic. Our medics are trained to follow protocols to access medical direction from the company’s approved and named medical directors, of which Mukherjee has never been listed or allowed to function as such,” said Acadian’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Charles Burnell.
All employees’ credentials are checked and verified based on their employment status. Accordingly, Mr. Mukherjee’s credentials as a licensed paramedic were verified annually.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Mukherjee chose to deceive and create confusion among his peers regarding his educational status. Nonetheless, as stated above, regardless of his fraudulent representation, he was never allowed to practice beyond his verified scope as a credentialed paramedic.
Furthermore, upon learning of Mr. Mukherjee’s fraudulent behavior, Acadian immediately terminated and reported him to state and national authorities.
Randall Mann
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