A former patient of the doctor charged with supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with a lethal dose of ketamine has recalled an “incredibly strange” appointment with the unscrupulous doctor, who was the only person in his office and left her “horrified.”
Katie Forrester Editor of the US Sunsaid he visited Dr. Salvador Plasencia, better known as “Dr. P,” at his urgent care clinic last month seeking treatment for a kidney infection.
“He did things that appalled me,” she wrote about the bizarre appointment for the media.
Plascencia, 42, was one of five people indicted Thursday on charges of involvement in Perry’s death. The suspects are accused of helping administer ketamine to Perry in the final days before she died of an overdose last October and of defrauding him out of thousands of dollars.
Unaware of the doctor’s hidden past, Forrester and her partner made an appointment and were greeted by a “calm”-looking receptionist when they checked in.
“After filling out the paperwork and entering the cubicle, the same man emerged wearing a white coat and joked that he was not only a receptionist but also a doctor,” she wrote.
She found running the clinic alone “incredibly strange” and likened it to “a scene from a psychological thriller where the local bartender is also the postman and the minister.”
But she and her partner didn’t mind. Dr. Plasencia examined her and wrote her a prescription for a new antibiotic. When they returned to the reception area, she tried to make small talk with him, noting that he was the only one there, but that’s when the interaction started to feel “weird,” the journalist said.
She and her partner left feeling uncomfortable about the whole situation.
Then on Thursday, Forester learned of Plascencia’s arrest.
“When I found out who treated me and read the comprehensive indictment, I felt a little sick and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up,” she wrote.
“We should be able to trust our doctors and the people treating us in emergencies, but it’s disturbing to think what they might be doing off-duty,” Forrester added.
She returned to the emergency department on Friday, only to find a sign on the door reading: “Clinic is closed today.”
In the two months before Perry’s death on Oct. 28, Plascencia and another doctor charged, Mark Chavez, allegedly provided Perry with about 20 vials of ketamine in exchange for about $55,000 in cash, despite knowing Perry’s drug addiction was out of control.
Plascencia is licensed to prescribe and administer powerful tranquilizers and once texted Chavez, as his drug use worsened, asking “how much is this idiot gonna pay,” and also offered to help Perry get exclusive access to tranquilizers.
Just two weeks before the “Fools Rush In” star’s death, the actor suffered symptoms that saw him appear to “freeze” and his blood pressure spike after being given a “large dose” of ketamine, but doctors appeared to acknowledge the seriousness of his suffering.
“Let’s never do that again,” he texted in horror to Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s assistant for 30 years.
At the time of his death, Perry had been undergoing ketamine treatment for depression for several weeks, and prosecutors say he reached out to Dr. Plascencia in despair after a doctor at the clinic where he was receiving treatment refused to increase his ketamine injections.
In addition to Plascencia, Chaves and Iwamasa, two drug dealers known as Los Angeles’ “Ketamine Queens,” Eric Fleming and Jasbeen Sangha, were also charged with being involved in the A-list star’s overdose.
Plascencia is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine, and two counts of falsifying and forging a document or record in connection with a federal investigation.
