AUGUSTA — The state’s highest court recommended the dismissal of the appeal of a Lewiston cardiologist, who claimed a state licensing board violated his rights by requiring a mental health evaluation because he reportedly told a patient her COVID-19 vaccine contained “magnets and heavy metals.”

In July 2021, Dr. Wade T. Hamilton recommended a pediatric patient undergo an MRI scan, believing there was “probably something wrong with (the patient’s) heart,” Maine Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Catherine R. Connors wrote Thursday in an opinion for the court.

But, because the patient had received a COVID-19 vaccine, “she had been ‘injected with magnets and heavy metals’ and it would not be safe for her to enter an MRI machine,” Connors wrote.

The patient’s mother contacted the nurse practitioner who had referred the patient to Hamilton, noting that Hamilton had upset her and her daughter with his statements to the girl.

The nurse practitioner then filed a report with the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine.

Hamilton received his medical degree from Boston University in 1973 and was first licensed to practice medicine in Maine in 1991, according to the state’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, which said that, at the time Hamilton’s license expired on May 31, 2023, he had been affiliated with Pediatric Associates of Lewiston on Mollison Way, a privately owned pediatric outpatient practice.

He has also worked at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, but is no longer employed there. An email to the hospital requesting information about his departure date was not returned Friday.

The board began investigating the report about Hamilton and opened a complaint proceeding, requesting that Hamilton undergo an evaluation.

“Over time, this request evolved into a demand that Hamilton undergo a neuropsychological evaluation,” Connors wrote.

Hamilton was cautioned that failure to undergo the evaluation “may constitute an admission of the allegations against him,” Connors wrote.

In a December 2021 letter, Hamilton told the board that the patient and her mother’s “recall of their interaction during the visit grossly misrepresented and oversimplified their discussion, but he acknowledged that he did not adequately explain the ‘scientific and regulatory basis for (his) shorthand statements regarding the metallic content in the vaccines,'” according to the board’s order for the evaluation.

Hamilton’s attorney asked the board to postpone the evaluation and said his client wasn’t practicing and would notify the board when he resumed his practice.

His attorney notified the board when Hamilton was ready to return to his practice. The board asked for documentation from the professional who treated Hamilton for his condition that rendered him unable to practice and unable to complete a mental health evaluation, according to the board’s order.

“Neither Dr. Hamilton nor his legal counsel ever provided the documentation requested,” according to the board’s order.

Hamilton’s attorney emailed the board to say Hamilton would not attend the scheduled evaluation “because the Board did not make the required findings for ordering the examination,” and later asked the board to reconsider its request, according to the board’s order.

The board rejected that request.

After an effort to negotiate the scope of the exam, the board clarified that it sought a neuropsychological evaluation of Hamilton, “a more comprehensive evaluation which includes a neurocognitive component and a behavioral/psychological component,” according to the order.

On Sept. 21, 2022, Hamilton’s lawyer said his client would not voluntarily undergo a neuropsychological examination.

Hamilton filed a petition to have a court review the board’s actions.

The Maine Superior Court issued a decision denying Hamilton’s petition and entered a judgment in favor of the board.

But, shortly before that decision was issued, Hamilton’s medical license in Maine expired and he didn’t renew it, Connors wrote for the high court.

Hamilton argued that as long as the complaint is pending, he can’t get a medical license in Maine or elsewhere, Connors wrote.

“Even if we could accept this assertion as correct, it would indicate merely that a renewal application will be suspended until the complaint is resolved, which only underscores that Hamilton should have completed the complaint proceeding,” Connors wrote.

Hamilton complained about the stigma of having his name on the board’s disciplinary proceeding webpage.

“That a disciplinary proceeding was commenced, whether that proceeding had merit or not, is a matter of fact that cannot be undone,” Connors wrote. “Again, Hamilton’s avenue for redress was to proceed through the complaint process and, if dissatisfied with that result, to appeal from the board’s final ruling.”

Connors wrote that the case would be sent back to the Maine Superior Court for the petition to be dismissed.