Controversial doctor meets untimely death
Blanchard had devoted patients, and harsh critics of her procedures

02/06/01

By Stephanie Grace, Staff writer/The Times-Picayune

Her neighbors in the faded, Florida resort town heard the screams, smelled the smoke, bashed in the door of the nondescript, one-room apartment. But it was too late to save the woman, a 50-year-old not long enough a resident of Florida to have replaced the Louisiana plates on the black Mazda RX-7 parked in back.

Firefighters in Fort Pierce, on Florida's Atlantic coast, declared the woman dead at the scene of the Jan. 22 blaze, only to see her revive temporarily. Whisked across the peninsula to Tampa General Hospital, she would struggle another two weeks before dying of the burns that covered three-quarters of her body. She died Saturday.

It was a grimly harrowing end to a life that, for a time, had lofted Annelle Blanchard to the highest echelons of social and professional acclaim in New Orleans area, and it was not the only time she had been hurled down hard. If New Orleans has celebrity doctors, Blanchard, an obstetrician, was one of them. By the early 1990s, her remarkably devoted patient base included doctors, lawyers, and famous names such as former City Councilwoman Peggy Wilson, who called her "one of the best doctors that I have ever been to." Anne Rice, another patient, dedicated a book to her. Blanchard's income ran into the high six figures, and she and her lawyer husband and large family lived in an elegant neighborhood near Lake Pontchartrain.

As with any tragedy, though, outsized achievement hid outsized flaws, say those who questioned her medical practices. Critics accused Blanchard of duping terrified patients into expensive treatments to prevent early childbirth, even when there was no sign of risk. In some cases, they charged, Blanchard funneled the expectant mothers through a home health agency she partly owned. There were also allegations of drug abuse.

Even before her legal troubles began, Blanchard was a polarizing figure, said Brobson Lutz, former director of the city's Health Department.

"Dr. Blanchard was well-known in the medical community for controversial and unconventional treatment approaches," Lutz said. "Yet she seemed to have had the ability to mesmerize many of her patients."

Central to the controversy was Blanchard's regular use of aggressive and costly treatments to prevent premature delivery, including a surgical procedure to keep the cervix from dilating and a combination of monitoring and pump-administered muscle relaxant to stem early contractions.

Blanchard, a self-styled "high-risk" pregnancy specialist, claimed she prescribed the practices more often than others because her patients were more likely to need them. 

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In 1994, East Jefferson General Hospital revoked Blanchard's right to practice after an investigation by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that 16 of 20 cerclages, the controversial surgical procedure, were unjustified. The panel also questioned "what appeared to be a near universal use" of the pump-administered muscle relaxants following surgery. Blanchard sued, alleging sexual discrimination, breach of contract, defamation and anti-trust violations, but a judge granted summary judgment to the hospital and ordered her to pay attorney fees.

There was more. In 1996, she lost her privileges at Kenner Regional Medical Center. In 1998, the Louisiana Board of Medicine suspended her license. It offered no public reason at the time, but a complaint by Florida's Department of Health linked Louisiana's action to allegations of "continuing and recurring excessive use and abuse of controlled substances, which renders her unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients."

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Despite the deaths of three of the story's major players -- Elkins died in 1998, Trail early last month -- the battle continues in state court ....

Problems follow

Blanchard had obtained a Florida medical license in 1993, as her reputation in Louisiana began to unravel. Last May she had started working as an obstetrician for Trinity Medical Center in Fort Pierce, which treats mainly poor and Medicaid patients. Even so, her past had soon begun to haunt her.

"A month after Blanchard joined Trinity St. Lucie County Healthy Start Executive Director Sylvie Kramer ended Healthy Start's financial agreement with the clinic after what she had heard about Blanchard.

Blanchard later got temporary privileges to work at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce through June 2000.

But in June, the state health department filed an administrative complaint against Blanchard alleging that she violated Florida law by not informing medical authorities that her license had been suspended in Louisiana.

Blanchard responded with a proposed consent agreement in October, saying she would agree to a $1,000 fine, reimbursement of the cost to the state of the investigation and entrance into the Physicians Recovery Network. That's where negotiations appear to have been at the time of her death.

Investigators have leads

It remains unclear what caused the fire in the tiny $350-a-month apartment Blanchard had leased starting New Year's Day.

Fire officials had hoped to talk to Blanchard, but they believe they can solve the case even without her input.

"We're running down a few leads that the state fire marshal's office wants to explore a little further," said Capt. Buddy Emerson of the St. Lucie Fire District.

An investigation by Nationwide Insurance, which had written a policy on the apartment building, determined several bottles of narcotics were found in Blanchard's unit after the fire, according to local press reports. Emerson wouldn't comment on the report.

A Tallahassee attorney representing Blanchard said his client had complained about the apartment's wiring.

The apartment building owner told a reporter that someone from Trinity came to the apartment following the fire and removed several items, including Blanchard's Mazda and a small item wrapped in foil that was in the freezer. A Trinity representative said the employees went to the apartment because they were concerned Blanchard's personal effects might be stolen.

Whatever the outcome and whichever side of the controversy they're on, people in New Orleans remained stunned by the final chapter of Blanchard's life.

"This case has now claimed a third victim," said Norman Mott... "It's just a human tragedy," he said.

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Reporting published in the Fort Pierce Tribune was used in this article. Stephanie Grace can be reached at sgrace@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3383.