Doctor Dragged From United Flight Has Questionable Past (Video)

David Dao, the Kentucky doctor who was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight and whose story became the subject of national outrage, reportedly had a troubled past as a medical professional in the state (video below). 

Dao moved to the United States in the 1970s after going to medical school in Vietnam, and worked as a pulmonologist in Elizabethtown until 2003. That year, he was arrested for fraudulently giving prescription pills to patients and ultimately convicted on multiple felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud or deceit, the Courier-Journal reported.

A criminal complaint obtained by Heavy showed that during the time he was giving out fraudulent prescriptions, he also solicited homosexual sex with a male patient in exchange for Hydrocodone. 

The patient was arrested and interrogated by police, and he subsequently confessed to the relationship with Dao. The patient then began cooperating with authorities to bust the doctor. 

When he was arrested, Dao was in a hotel room that was under surveillance by the Louisville Police Department, and had his shirt off and pants undone when the patient handed him cash for a bottle of pills. It was then that authorities stormed into the room and arrested him. 

Dao surrendered his medical license in 2015 but was permitted to resume practicing medicine in 2015 under certain circumstances.

The incident on the United flight occurred after the airline overbooked the Chicago to Louisville flight and offered passengers compensation if they volunteered to take another flight. When nobody volunteered, the airline decided to select four passengers to exit the plane and take another flight.

Dao was one of the people selected, but refused to exit the aircraft. United agents then called Chicago Aviation Police to remove him from his seat. He was dragged through the aisle and off the plane, but he returned a short time later and kept insisting that he had to get home. 

During the fight with police, Dao reportedly hit his face on an arm rest and his face became bloody.

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz later apologized for the overbooking, but stopped short of apologizing for the way the situation with Dao was handled. The Chicago Department of Aviation, however, wrote in an emailed statement to the Courier-Journal that the incident “was not in accordance” with their “standard operating procedure” and that the security officer who dragged Dao from the flight was placed on leave pending an investigation. His actions, the statement read, were “obviously not condoned by the department.”

Sources: Heavy, Courier-Journal (2) / Photo credit: Instagram via Heavy