Updated April 10: Revised to include information about 1996 lawsuit settlement.

A pediatric doctor in Rockwall has been suspended by the Texas Medical Board after staff at two clinics reported that the physician had been acting erratically for much of the year.

A disciplinary panel of the board issued the temporary suspension of Dr. Kurt Loring Pflieger's license Friday and determined that his continued practice of medicine "would constitute a continuing threat to the public welfare."

Pflieger, 62, has been licensed to practice since 1994, according to the medical board. In addition to his primary practice at Rockwall Pediatrics on Ridge Road, he also works at a clinic on East U.S. Highway 80 in Forney.

Rockwall Pediatrics could not be reached for comment Monday.

Co-workers at both clinics observed a "pattern of impaired practice" since January, according to the board. During one incident, the doctor told his staff that that he hadn't been sleeping and he was experiencing "a full-blown manic episode," according to the state medical board. He also told staff he was seeing a mental health professional.

Pflieger often seemed distracted and lost focus during appointments, his colleagues said, and would mistakenly issue prescriptions or "obsessively" share personal information with patients and colleagues. He sometimes had slurred speech, and on three straight days in March, he wore the same red shirt and sweatpants and had mussed-up hair, according to the medical board's order.

Staff at the clinics also noted inappropriate behavior including Pflieger slapping an employee on the buttocks and kissing another employee's face, as well as making sexual remarks.

While roughhousing with a 2-year-old boy Feb. 11, Pflieger threw the child over his shoulder, resulting in the boy landing on his back and hitting his head on the floor.

The next day, the order says, Pflieger was reportedly in a manic state and yelled "Satan!" during an appointment with two patients at the Rockwall clinic.

The day before the board's order, Pflieger arrived at work in his pajamas and was crying. His co-workers sought medical help for him.

Pflieger's suspension will remain in place until the medical board takes further action.

Pflieger has not faced any previous disciplinary action from the board. In October, he was ordered to enroll in continuing medical education courses after he prescribed an uncommon — but recognized — bronchitis treatment without documenting an explanation.

In the mid-1990s, he was named in a lawsuit by a Waxahachie couple whose 14-year-old son died after his heart condition was misdiagnosed. In a 1996 settlement, the insurance carrier for the University of Texas system was required to pay $500,000 on Pflieger's behalf to the parents of Michael Peel.

Michael died in 1994 after a middle-school football practice, but doctors had cleared him to play after a family physician detected a heart murmur.

In their lawsuit, Cathy and Jerry Peel alleged that Pflieger had a drinking problem that caused him to misread their son's echocardiogram. Pflieger had been convicted twice in Georgia for DUI — causing him to lose his driver's license — and lied about his criminal record when applying to UT Southwestern Medical Center, the Peels' lawyer argued.

"They let a doctor with an alcohol problem interpret the studies on our child, and he's not with us today because of that," Cathy Peel said after the settlement.

Pflieger left UT Southwestern in 1995. He has owned Rockwall Pediatrics since 2002.