He is highly regarded in the field of ophthalmology and regularly addresses doctors at national conventions and training seminars. Over the last decade, he has coauthored more than 60 medical journal articles on retinal disease and other topics. Since 2008, he has served on the governing board of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state agency that oversees stem cell research.
It was a tip about the incident in the Pasadena hotel that led The Times to discover Puliafito’s other life.
Just before 5 p.m. on March 4, 2016, an employee of the Hotel Constance, an upscale Colorado Boulevard landmark, called 911 to report that a guest had suffered an apparent overdose.
The hotel employee transferred a Fire Department dispatcher to a third-floor room. A man answered, identified himself as a doctor and said his companion’s condition was not serious, according to a recording of the call.
“My girlfriend here had a bunch of drinks and she’s sleeping,” he told the dispatcher. Asked whether the woman had taken anything else, he replied, “I think just the alcohol.”
One woman told The Times that he was with her when she overdosed in a hotel room and that he had taken her to his campus office to use drugs. The woman, Sarah Warren, who worked as a prostitute, said they were “constant companions” after meeting in early 2015.
He resigned as the dean of the medical school less than a month after Ms. Warren overdosed. The Times, citing the Keck website, reported that he continued to accept new patients at campus eye clinics after his resignation.
A renowned eye surgeon responsible for several breakthroughs in ophthalmology, Dr. Puliafito led aggressive fund-raising efforts that garnered more than $1 billion for the medical school.
The university also announced on Friday that it had hired Debra W. Yang, a partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, to investigate the doctor’s conduct and the university’s response.
“Our priority now is to obtain a clear picture of exactly what happened and to ensure the well-being and trust of our students at U.S.C., the patients at the Keck School and our entire university community,” the university said in an email on Saturday.
On Tuesday, a day after The Los Angeles Times published its report, C. L. Max Nikias, the university president, wrote in an open letter that Dr. Puliafito had been placed on leave and could not treat patients.
“We are concerned about Dr. Puliafito and his family and hope that, if the article’s assertions are true, he receives the help and treatment he may need for a full recovery,” he wrote.
