The Lake County Sheriff’s Office was conducting a death investigation Wednesday afternoon at the home of a local physician who has been under state scrutiny.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that a large presence of squad cars at 545 Lake Ella Road in Fruitland Park was connected to a death investigation. The sheriff’s office could not provide further details indicating it was in the “very early stage” of the investigation. An animal control officer was at the home. Acquaintances said there were two dogs living in the home.
The large home near the corner of Lake Ella Road and Micro Racetrack Road is owned by Dr. Sheri Ellen Bisby.
Late last year, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo slapped restrictions on the 57-year-old physician’s medical license due to apparent drug abuse.
An investigation was launched after employees of Neurology Center of Excellence reported that Bisby seemed “overly excited, appeared manic, had slurred speech, and was often visibly distracted while patients waited to be seen in the waiting room for up to three hours at a time,” according to a Dec. 19 report from the Florida Department of Health. Employees also said Bisby was falling asleep at work.
The situation grew worse on Sept. 13 when Neurology Center of Excellence employees transported Bisby to the ER at HCA Florida Hospital Ocala. She was disoriented and was giving “non-sensical responses to questions.” She had a near-empty bottle of the pain medicine Dilaudid in her purse which had been prescribed July 25 and should have lasted until Oct. 25. She also had in her purse an empty bottle of the stimulant phentermine, which had been prescribed to someone else. She claimed the bottle belonged to a patient and she was planning to refill it for the patient. A drug screen showed Bisby was positive for the presence of opiates and amphetamines.
An investigation also revealed that in 2012, Bisby was arrested for driving under the influence in Virginia, where that state’s medical board determined she could no longer practice medicine because she was self-medicating with Adderall.
