RINGGOLD, Ga. -- A North Georgia doctor must pay a patient a quarter of a million dollars after almost killing him with medicine.

In September 2011, according to court documents, Steve Gables visited Dr. Robert Burkich's Preventive Medicine Anti-Aging & Chelation practice in Ringgold. Burkich told him he had low testosterone and prescribed him Tamoxifen.

Problem is, Tamoxifen is for breast cancer, not low testosterone. And it can cause blood clots. One day, about four months after Burkich told him to take the medicine, Gables was sitting in his living room when he felt his leg cramp.

"It was just hard," he said. "Hard as granite."

He had blood clots in his legs. One of those clots, according to court documents, broke off, traveled through his bloodstream to his throat and blocked an artery. He almost died.

Gables went to Memorial Hospital's emergency room, and a doctor asked to see all of his medication. When the doctor looked at the Tamoxifen, Gables said, he almost yelled.

"Who put you on this?" the doctor demanded.

Gables, of Ooltewah, said that was the first time he learned his medication was for breast cancer. He filed a lawsuit against Burkich. Three years later, on Oct. 24, a jury ruled in Gables' favor. Burkich now must pay him $250,000.

The doctor did not return a call seeking comment Monday. But according to his website, Burkich has been treating patients since 1989.

Gables said Burkich's prescription ruined his life. Because of the clots, he now has to take blood thinners. And because he is taking blood thinners, he said, he is vulnerable to dangerous injuries.

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Anti-aging doc charged $250,000 after nearly killing man with breast cancer drug