State reprimands psychiatrist Sumana Suresh for failure to order routine tests for patient on lithium

March 1, 2011

On January 7, 2011, the Virginia Board of Medicine issued a reprimand on psychiatrist Sumana Suresh.

According to the Board’s document, Suresh failed to order or perform any laboratory testing for serum lithium levels on a patient to whom she’d regularly prescribed lithium drug Lithobid from September 2006 until June 2010.

The document states that Suresh failed to order such required tests “even after [the patient] reported on July 8, 2009 that she was suffering severe muscle twitching that made writing difficult and when…she knew [the patient] had been experiencing symptoms including diarrhea, stomach upset, memory problems and shaking.”

The patient’s primary care physician diagnosed lithium toxicity in the patient in May 2010.

Source: Consent Order In Re: Sumana Suresh, M.D., License No. 0101-237866, Before the Virginia Board of Medicine.