Quack, quack.

Given that we’re faced with a choice at the top between the oldest, and second oldest candidates to vie for the presidency, I guess it’s only natural that one of the legitimate items on the table is their health.

Also, who is in charge of their care?

What we’ve seen in recent history is a rash of “celebrity” doctors, who have a very select clientele, and who are, otherwise, unwilling to give adequate care or say “no” to their clients, resulting in tragedy.

Today, the Guardian is reporting on the past legal entanglements of Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist of the last thirty years, Dr. Harold Bornstein.

Bornstein is the doctor who admitted that he hastily jotted down a note in five minutes, declaring that Trump would be the healthiest candidate to ever run for office, as Trump’s limo waited outside.

Meanwhile, the latest health reveal is that Trump is overweight and has high cholesterol.

Could that be called putting the whims of a wealthy, celebrity client over that client’s health and well-being?

Perhaps. However, Bornstein has allegedly made other questionable decisions, in regards to patient care, in the past.

Harold Bornstein agreed to pay $86,250 to the family of Janet Levin, who allegedly died after falling when she took “unhealthy amounts” of prescription drugs that Bornstein had given her unnecessarily, according to archived court papers.

Levin’s family accused Bornstein of being “negligent and grossly reckless” for prescribing her barbiturates, morphine and valium “greatly in excess of appropriate dosages” and despite the drugs not being suitable for any condition for which she was being treated.

Levin, 52, “became addicted to narcotics” and was “rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled”, according to the lawsuit, which blamed Bornstein squarely for setting in motion a series of factors “all leading to her death” from the apparent drug ingestion and fall in 1998.

Naturally, Bornstein denied the charges against him and declared Levin responsible for everything that happened to her.

The 1999 lawsuit seeking damages from Bornstein was brought in the New York courts by Levin’s husband, Kenneth. It said Levin was treated by Bornstein for an unspecified condition at his Manhattan office from July 1994 until her death in January 1998.

Bornstein prescribed Levin the drugs Tuinal, morphine and Valium “in amounts that were well above therapeutic levels” and despite the fact Levin had a “history of drinking”, according to the complaint.

It said Bornstein was “seeing the patient several times a week without providing medical treatment” and failed to notice her clear signs of “habitual addiction which he created or helped to create”.

Records recovered from New York court archives show that Bornstein has been sued for alleged malpractice on at least two other occasions.

Anybody who has followed Trump’s behavior for any amount of time, you can see he’s not the type to take advice in any matter (unless it’s to promote liberal policies from his Democrat daughter).

Combine that kind of personality with a doctor who may have a tendency to “let things slide” when it comes to his clients and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison for his role in catering to an addiction that led to the death of the pop star.

More recently, the entertainment world lost Prince to an opioid overdose. His doctors are under investigation, as well.

Am I saying Donald Trump is addicted to pain killers?

Not at all.

I’m saying this doctor who was willing to make such an outrageous claim about an overweight, 70-year old man’s health, initially, combined with a somewhat troubling past is probably not the right person to be trusted to give an accurate assessment of his client’s health.