After watching his grandfather, a podiatrist, mend a patient’s fractured foot, 9-year-old Adam Litwin knew at that moment there was nothing else he wanted to do with his life.   

Decades later, after a jail term at the age of 28 for impersonating a doctor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Litwin, now 47, finally achieved his dream by graduating from a medical school in the Caribbean. 

Though he must still complete some training and licensing before he can treat patients on his own, he is now legally a medical doctor in the United States.

‘Tenure’ at UCLA

After dropping out of college, Litwin moved to California in 1998 and would spend hours pouring through medical books at UCLA’s medical library. 

At the library, someone mistook him for a resident, a misunderstanding Litwin nurtured by fabricating a backstory. He claimed to be a surgery resident transferred from a nearby hospital.

According to authorities Litwin’s charade lasted for six months, and in to the Los Angeles Times, piece by Soumya Karlamangla, during this ‘tenure’ at UCLA:

• Litwin ate lunch in the cafeteria at UCLA Medical Center.
• He attended patient rounds with other residents.
• Watched doctors perform complicated surgeries because senior doctors thought he was a physician.
• Forged prescriptions for cough remedies and tranquillizers in the name of another UCLA physician who shared his surname
• Parked his car in the doctors’ lot using a parking pass he stole from another physician.
• Hug out in the residents’ lounge after he stole a key to enter.
• At times slept in the on-call rooms when a case stretched late into the night.

Litwin’s Grave Error

Litwin’s grave error was his lab coat. It raised suspicion because, at the time, unlike those of the other residents, it had a silk-screened picture of his face and name. A medical center supervisor who noticed his ID badge was covered with a meal ticket, checked the resident roster.

In 1999 he was arrested and pleaded guilty to forging a prescription, impersonating a doctor and stealing state property. He was sentenced to six months of psychiatric counselling and a two-month jail term.

Before UCLA, Litwin was caught shoplifting. When his lawyer asked for a letter of good character, Litwin forged it, pretending to be the head of the National Medical Examiner’s Board.

Last year, his application for a medical licence was denied by Missouri’s medical board, declaring they couldn’t believe he did not treat a patient.

Adam Litwin, MD, claims that throughout his ‘tenure’ at UCLA, he never touched or treat a patient.

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