The celebrity rehab doctor linked to the death of Indianapolis Colts boss Jim Irsay has been previously accused of medical malpractice and involvement with poorly-treated addict patients, Daily Mail can reveal.
Dr. Harry Haroutunian prescribed Irsay hundreds of opioid pills and up to 14 ketamine injections a day, raising concerns among those around the Colts CEO, before a string of secret overdoses and his eventual death in May, a new Washington Post investigation has claimed.
Police and county records do not hold Haroutunian, 78, known to patients as ‘Dr. Harry’, responsible for Irsay’s death from cardiac arrest at age 65 in a Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow on May 21.
But the Post’s story has caused uproar in the NFL, with questions swirling around Dr. Harry’s treatment of his longtime friend, heightened as it came after criminal convictions for the doctors who helped supply Friends star Matthew Perry with a fatal ketamine overdose.
Daily Mail can reveal that this is not the first time Dr. Harry has been linked to questionable care of addicted patients. He did not return calls requesting comment.
Haroutunian gained notoriety as a psychiatrist to the stars at the elite rehab, the Betty Ford Center, and has written about his own recovery from addiction.
Jim Irsay was reportedly prescribed hundreds of opioid pills and up to 14 ketamine injections a day by Dr. Harry Haroutunian before a string of secret overdoses and his eventual death in May
The billionaire Colts CEO officially died of cardiac arrest at age 65 in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel on May 21
The doctor served as the medical director of the center from 2005 to 2016 before branching off to his own independent services.
But a 2016 California lawsuit filed against him and the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage accused the doctor of ‘lying’ and fabricating records to force a patient into a $100,000, three-month program.
Clarkston, Washington, surgeon Dr. Mark Hiesterman got a DUI in 2013 and had a three-day substance abuse evaluation at the Hazelden Betty Ford Center, his lawsuit said.
Three doctors there found no abuse problem, and he was discharged, he claimed. But then Haroutunian, who never met Hiesterman, wrote a discharge summary diagnosing him with ‘an alcohol abuse disorder’, the legal complaint said.
Hiesterman claimed Dr. Harry ‘made up’ that he would drink while on call as a doctor, and ‘lied’ that the Ford team had a ‘unanimous’ recommendation of a $100,000, 90-day rehab stint.
Hiesterman alleged Haroutunian’s report was ‘motivated by financial gain,’ not his patient’s interests.
Haroutunian, 78, rose to prominence as a star psychiatrist at the Betty Ford Center and wrote about his own recovery, but Daily Mail can reveal the doctor has a history of questionable care despite police clearing him in Irsay’s death
In 2016, surgeon Dr. Mark Hiesterman filed a lawsuit against Dr. Harry and the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, claiming the doctor lied and falsified records to force him into a $100,000, three-month treatment program
Both the doctor and the clinic denied the claims. The case was dismissed the following year, appearing to have been settled out of court.
In 2022, Haroutunian got tangled up in a civil complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against one of his business associates.
Steven Doumar created R360 LLC, a platform to market rehab clinics to potential patients, and had Haroutunian appear in TV commercials for it, filmed in 2017.
In the ads, the famous Dr. Harry lavished praise on R360, saying it is ‘guaranteeing that the personnel that are delivering the personalized service are qualified’ and urged viewers to sign up, telling them: ‘You have to act like death is imminent’.
He was also cited in a separate civil complaint by the FTC against R360 LLC founder Steven Doumar since he appeared in a TV commercial promoting the company
However, the FTC complaint stated that at the time, Doumar had no rehabs actually signed up for his referral service, and only four companies were on his roster by the time the ads aired.
As a result, the FTC said, patients were routed to Doumar’s few rehab clients without proper consideration for their medical needs.
In May 2022, a Florida federal judge gave Doumar a suspended fine of $3.8million and banned him from making any inaccurate claims of ‘personalized assessment’ for patients.
Haroutunian was not a defendant in the case and was not implicated in the judgment.
The FTC complaint noted that when the ads aired, Doumar had only four rehab companies on his roster and no rehabs formally signed up for his referral service, resulting in patients being directed to those few providers without proper regard for their medical needs
The celebrity doctor has previously vouched for a colleague who prescribed dangerous drugs without meeting or properly examining patients, including an addict to the medication prescribed.
Dr. Elsworth Williams surrendered his license to the California Medical Board in 2005, admitting he prescribed hydrocodone, Soma, Valium, Vicodin ES, Adipex, Vicoprofen and Klonopin to patients, including an addict, after just one $100 telephone consultation.
Williams, a recovered addict, also had a previous five-year probation on his license from 1993 to 1998 for ‘sexual misconduct in the treatment of two patients’ and an ‘incompetently performed breast examination’.
But Haroutunian vouched for Williams, 83, in a 2014 filing to have his license reinstated.
‘I have known [Williams] for approximately seven years,’ he wrote, ‘as a friend and colleague and fellow gentleman in recovery. In that time, I have grown to know him to be a man of integrity and patience, compassion and tolerance.
‘I find [Williams], without question, an honorable and dignified man and can wholeheartedly recommend him, without hesitation, for reinstatement of his licensure for the practice of medicine in the State of California.’
In the ads, Dr. Harry praised R360, claiming it ‘guarantees that the personnel delivering the personalized service are qualified,’ and urged viewers to act quickly, warning, ‘You have to act like death is imminent’
The Betty Ford center where Dr. Harry worked as the medical director for 11 years
Williams’s license was put on probation, but after twice failing the Special Purpose Examination, which tests physicians’ basic medical knowledge, he surrendered it in 2018.
The Post released its bombshell report on Haroutunian on Thursday, citing five sources close to the late Colts CEO.
The article claimed he prescribed more than 200 opioid pills to Irsay just days before he had two overdoses in December 2023.
Irsay had a history of drug addiction, but was outspoken about his recovery and campaigned for addiction awareness.
The Post’s sources claimed the doctor began treating Irsay with up to 14 ketamine injections per day, administered by a nurse, in his final months.
Though approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under certain circumstances, ketamine is still a deeply controversial drug.
Dr. Harry was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel with Irsay’s entourage when the Colts owner died, signing his death certificate that listed cardiac arrest from pneumonia and heart complications as the cause
Even his former colleague at Betty Ford warned that it should only be used for ‘people that are very depressed and suicidal and not responding to the first medication’.
‘People with these Ketamine clinics are giving it to a lot more people than those,’ said Dr. Marv Seppala on a Hazelden Betty Ford podcast episode from 2022.
‘But the folks that are doing this right are just providing it for treatment-resistant depression, because that’s how the FDA approved it.
‘We don’t because it’s still really new,’ he added. ‘Since it hasn’t been studied for those with substance use disorders, if we were going to go into its use, we’d start with a study.
‘I think we have to be extremely careful as people in recovery about such use of any kind of a potentially addictive medication.’
Haroutunian was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel as part of Irsay’s entourage when the NFL team boss died, the Post reported.
The death certificate listed the cause as cardiac arrest due to pneumonia and heart issues, signed by him.
Dr. Harry, who now runs his own boutique rehab near Palm Springs, told the Post he knew Irsay for more than 20 years and spent 18 months caring for him ‘as a brother’.
‘We did everything we could to make him as comfortable as possible,’ he said, declining to comment further citing medical privacy laws.
