The more I read about Dr. Anthony Galea and his ties to professional athletes the less I believe that this story will end well for all those even tangentially related to this physician. After his arrest on Oct. 15th, Dr. Galea has been under intense scrutiny by law enforcement for his involvement with performance enhancing drugs (PED).
Dr. Galea is a Canadian family-practice trained physician that has re-branded himself as a sports medicine guru. Dr. Galea openly discusses his personal use of human growth hormone and has been a physician for who's who list of professional and Olympic athletes that have gone on to fail performance enhancing drug tests. He has also admitted to traveling to the United States to perform medical procedures, which is illegal for a gentleman that is not licensed to practice medicine in the US.
Galea said the story of his case is being hyped up because some in the U.S. are resentful that a Canadian doctor is treating such high-profile athletes in Canada.
"There's reasons people put legs on it. Obama's trying to bring in a health care system like ours and the private sector is trying to say it's a lousy system. It doesn't look good if the icons of sports are coming up to a Canadian health care system," Galea said.
"They want a story and they got it," he said. "They already destroyed and embarrassed my children, embarrassed me." -Associated Press
None of his reasoning makes any sense. Why would superstar athletes go to Canada to have legitimate medical procedures or drugs administered? What legal drug or procedure do they have in Canada that cannot be found in virtually every major US city? They have a legal drug, therapy or procedure in Canada that doesn't exist in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, LA, Houston or with Dr. Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama? Really?
Did the good doctor supply or administer PED's to any individuals on the ever growing list of his professional or Olympic athlete patients? I have no idea and fortunately in America you are supposed to be assumed innocent until proven guilty.
But a word to the wise.
If you are a professional athlete and have had relationship with Dr. Galea and he goes down for this, you should be very, very afraid. Physicians historically don't man up and handle the weight. They don't do time well and quickly broker a deal to lessen their punishment. Unfortunately, that deal invariably requires them to tell on you. They may have been lousy and unethical doctors but they make great witnesses for the prosecution.
You've been warned. Again.