The medical school at Tufts has a little of everything.

It has the heroic Dr Jerome Kassirer, who writes, and testifies in front of Congress, about the “thinly disguised bribes” that pill and device marketers offer to physicians.

It has the appallingly inept Dr. Kajoko Kifuji, who does little these days other than testify in multiple courtrooms about her malpractice.

And it has, most recently, a whole bunch of cardiologists who seem to be involved, along with the device manufacturer Medtronic, in a false claims investigation.

Kajoko Kifuji, a professor at Tufts, prescribed homicidal amounts of anti-psychotics to a child.

I mean, of course, she handed the prescriptions to the child’s parents – the child was only four at the time.

Kifuji had been giving her powerful drugs since she was two.

Rebecca Riley’s parents killed her (the mother has been convicted of second degree murder; the father’s trial begins soon) via doses of the multiple non-FDA-approved (for use in children) drugs Kifuji gave them.

Kifuji – who prescribed the same drugs to the parents’ other two children – based these prescriptions on what the mother told her about her children.

Kifuji testified that her diagnosis was primarily based on Carolyn Riley’s description of her daughter as aggressive and disruptive. She in 2004 prescribed Clonidine to Rebecca for ADHD; the next year, she prescribed Depakote to treat bipolar disorder.

Kifuji went on to approve a double dosage of the medication after Carolyn Riley told her that she was giving Rebecca twice the daily recommended amount.

That’s from the Tufts newspaper. Here’s Lawrence Diller with more detail:

Dr. Kifuji determined that Rebecca at age two had hyperactivity and began prescribing drugs to her at that time. Kifuji changed her diagnosis to bipolar disorder at age three. She also made the same diagnosis for Rebecca’s brother and sister who were nine and seven. All three were receiving variations of these sedating psychiatric medications. Kifuji, who was granted immunity against prosecution to gain her cooperation, testified during the trial that she relied almost exclusively on reports from Rebecca’s mother on the children’s aggressive behavior, sleep problems and history of mental illness in the family to make the diagnosis for the three children.

… [A] three year old was prescribed three psychiatric drugs for bipolar disorder…

… Joseph Biederman, head of Harvard’s Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic, has long espoused the bipolar diagnosis in children. He and his group have claimed the diagnosis can be made in children as young as two and should be followed by aggressive psychiatric drug interventions…

Once Kifuji’s finished with her busy court appearance schedule, she will be hiring lawyers to defend her against a malpractice suit from the estate of Rebecca Riley.

Tufts thinks she’s great. Happy to have on her board.