A pediatrician in Brewer could lose his medical license for a month after a mother said he ignored her concerns that the baby’s father had shaken the child.

Dr. Albert Adams was on track to be suspended following an order on April 14 by the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine, which said Adams’ practice was an “immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of the public who might receive his medical services.” But that same board agreed to hold off on the suspension days later, pending a full hearing on his case in May.

Adams did not respond to messages left with his office Friday seeking to discuss the orders. Records filed with the state medical board show he has denied the mother’s allegations.

The board granted Adams’ request for a “stay” at an emergency hearing on April 17, during which Adams cited possible inconsistencies in the mother’s story and shared his concerns for the 2,000 patients he said he treats. State law allows for these types of delays when a doctor can show they face irreparable injury from a suspension, that they’re likely to win a case or that they pose no harm to the public.

Adams told the board that a one-month suspension “would be fatal to the practice, and that failure of the practice would require all of his patients to find pediatric care in the Bangor-Brewer area, which would be very difficult and perhaps impossible.”

Board records indicate Adams has “a longstanding relationship with the father’s family,” and met with him, the mother and their 9-week-old child on Jan. 7. Neither parent is named in the documents.

During the appointment, the mother told the board, she warned Adams that the father had shaken the child a day earlier and she was concerned about brain damage.

She said Adams flashed a penlight across the infant’s eyes and told the mother the baby was fine, without asking how severe the shaking was, or for any information about physical symptoms afterward, according to board records. He performed no other physical examination to check if the baby suffered any skeletal or neurological injuries, the documents state.

When the mother asked what she should do next, “Dr. Adams reportedly said that there was nothing else to be done and that they would keep this appointment ‘off the books.'”

He also didn’t report the allegation to the Department of Health and Human Services, the order states, despite an obligation to do so as a medical professional, and he failed to follow up on the reported shaking during a follow-up visit with the mother and baby in March.

“It is of great concern that Dr. Adams did not adequately or appropriately respond, or provide appropriate care to Infant S, despite the well-known risks of potentially life-threatening injury or injuries to Infant S of being shaken,” the order states. Medical board members also complained of his incomplete records from the mother’s visit.

All of these failings, the board said, violated “established professional standard(s) in the practice of medicine” to ensure quality care to patients and prevent abuse.

This is not Adams’ first time being scrutinized by the state medical board.

In 2023, regulators investigated a complaint by the Maine Prescription Monitoring program, which had concerns about Adams’ prescribing practices. They also looked into a father’s report that Adams had misdiagnosed his daughter and improperly prescribed her antibiotics.

As part of a consent agreement signed in February 2024, Adams admitted that he had engaged in unprofessional conduct and violated the board’s rules for prescribing controlled substances.

He agreed to one year of probation, where he would be monitored by another licensed pediatrician and a Controlled Substance Stewardship Program. He also agreed to take classes on medical record-keeping, professional boundaries, antibiotics and recognizing common psychiatric conditions in pediatrics.

Adams was automatically suspended that November after the doctor supervising him resigned and he failed to find someone new. His license was restored when a new doctor agreed to supervise him on Dec. 2.

The board then reprimanded Adams again last month after learning he wasn’t fully complying with his reporting requirements and that there were still concerns with how he was prescribing and communicating with his patients.

The board noted a “pattern of lack of follow up with patients” and “continued failure to document how diagnoses were made to support stimulant prescriptions.”