Nashville doctor in drug case served time

Before this week’s arrest on charges of drug-related organized crime in Kentucky, the anesthesiologist Visuvalingam Vilvarajah was a convicted murderer in Tennessee.

He served five years for the 1986 murders of his wife and mother-in-law. While on parole for the felonies, Vilvarajah got his medical license back. Vilvarajah, a native of Sri Lanka, was arrested along with his partner, Mirielle Lalanne, by Metro police on Wednesday on charges of engaging in organized crime, assault and wanton endangerment.

“It astonishes me that he is still practicing, to be quite frank,” Palmer said. “It astonishes me that he only did five years in the penitentiary for murdering two people.”

When his medical license was reinstated in 1993, Vilvarajah was granted a probationary license. He was restricted to practicing at one hospital and ordered to appear before the state medical board annually.

The next year, he was allowed to practice at more hospitals but still only anesthesiology. In 1997, he was allowed to join a family practice, and in 2001, all restrictions on Vilvarajah’s license were lifted.

The board exists partly to protect society from negligence and also to protect it from the powerful knowledge doctors possess, said Joshua Perry, an assistant professor in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society.

Perry said allowing doctors to practice after homicide convictions might hamper the trust relationship doctors have with patients.

“A doctor who has been convicted of a homicide has demonstrated a failure to use appropriately a physician’s power and specialized knowledge,” said Perry, also a law professor who teaches professional responsibility.