Law Med Blog

Whistleblower Oncologist: Stanilaus County Health Agency Threaten To Kill Me

February 25, 2012 lawmed 2 Comments

Dr. Robert Williams is suing Stanislaus County, California, its Health Services Agency, seven county employees, and the Scenic Faculty Medical Group, in Stanislaus County Court. His lawsuit claims the defendants demoted and defamed him and made “death threats against him and his family,” after he blew the whistle on their Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud and shoddy patient care.

Williams was hired by the county in 2003 to provide oncology services and promoted him to director of specialty clinics in 2004. From July 2010 to September 2011 he alleges that he complained in writing about unethical and illegal activity at the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, specifically:

(a) the unlicensed practice of medicine where patients’ lives were being put in danger,

(b) medical records missing from patients’ charts to hide the unlicensed practice of medicine,

(c) plaintiff’s medical orders being altered without his knowledge and patients’ lives being put in danger,

… (Continued…)

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Man Sues Baylor, Claims GPS Tracking Device Surgically Implanted

October 02, 2011 lawmed No comments

Michael B Woolman alleges he went to “Baylor Health Hospital” in Dallas, TX for tonsil and sinus surgery. After the surgery, and while in the recovery room, he says he noticed some blood in the area of his armpit. His conclusion? His surgeons had implanted him with a GPS tracking device. Woolman filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in the Northern District of Texas, demanding compensation for pain and suffering. He names “Baylor Health Hospital” and ‘Bryan LGH” as defendants, both of whom he claims are located at 2001 Bryan St. in Dallas TX. Woolman resides in Lincoln Nebraska.

His complaint is a rambling, nonsensical collection of disjointed babble. For example (all punctuation, spelling and grammar preserved as written, with our apologies):

Why,should the hospital think they should do something so assertiveness ,or they think that ,they are true to ,a feeling of willingness of physic logical awareness or something

… (Continued…)

Law Med Blog Targeted In Federal Lawsuit By Righthaven

May 24, 2011 lawmed 5 Comments

In an email received from a Las Vegas Sun reporter on May 6 The Law Med Blog was informed that a federal lawsuit had been filed against us claiming copyright infringement. Our first reaction was ‘nice try but jokes like this can’t fool us’ (not everyone likes what we blog about here as strange as that seems). But the email included a link to a NY Times story entitled “Enforcing Copyrights Online for a Profit” that stopped our laughter.

Indeed such a lawsuit has been filed, though we have yet to be served with the complaint. With the clear awareness that anything the Law Med Blog says or does going forward is potentially admissible as evidence in the case, including this post, our response is “Bring it on”. We have all seen defendants in lawsuits offer up the pat answer of “no comment” due to “pending litigation” which … (Continued…)

Serious Questions Exist About Cause Of Nevada Hepatitis C Outbreak

March 04, 2011 lawmed No comments

In what can only be described as EXPLOSIVE revelations, very serious questions are raised about the allegations made against a number of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) regarding their handling of the drug propofol and the relation of these allegations to the Nevada patients infected with Hepatitis C. Our friends at CRNAbiz.com spoke with one of the individuals who was involved in responding to the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) Outbreak Investigation. His leadership in the Nevada Association of Nurse Anesthetists and knowledge of the SHND investigation and findings , as well as his experience as a CRNA and attorney, result in an analysis which challenges basic assumptions which the state, the courts and the Clark County prosecutor seem to have embraced with little evidence.

Five CRNAs have lost their licenses and two more are in the dock for multiple felonies which threaten to jail them for the rest of … (Continued…)

Teva Appeals $500M Verdict In Nevada Hep C Case: Serious Issues

March 04, 2011 lawmed No comments

Serious questions exist in the procedures of Clark County Judge Jessie Walsh where Henry Chanin, 62, sued Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp., the two companies that made and distributed, respectively, the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, where Chanin was infected with hepatitis C during a routine procedure. The judge ruled, before the trail began, that contamination of propofol was to blame for the infection despite evidence to the contrary, thus preventing that evidence from being offered at trail. The jury never heard the testimony of a CRNA that while she did draw up propofol in multiple syringes from one vial, no syringes or needles were used on more than one patient. This procedure would make cross contamination with hepatitis c impossible. Improper sterilization of endoscopy equipment, which was found to exist by investigators, could easily have been the source of the infection.

Two nurse … (Continued…)

The Road to Incompetent to Stand Trial for Dr Desai

February 10, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

On February 8, Dr. Dipak Desai was determined incompetent to stand trial on a 28 count criminal indictment for his role in owning and operating 2 Nevada endoscopy clinics where shoddy practices and disregard for vital protocols led to over 100 patients contracting hepatitis C and the need for ~50,000 patients to be tested for a number of communicable diseases.

Lack of competency to stand trial stops the prosecution in its tracks. Trial competency is not the same as an insanity defense and competency issues are raised far more frequently. In fact it is not a defense at all but rather a pre-requisite for a prosecution to take place and describes the mental state of the defendant at the time of trial. Insanity is a defense at trial as a state of mind at the time the charged crime was committed. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 39,000 competency … (Continued…)

Petition to Remove Winkler County DA Fostel Withdrawn

February 07, 2011 lawmed No comments

From Odessa American

Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell filed a non-suit motion Tuesday to dismiss the petition for removal of office of District Attorney Mike Fostel.

The motion was granted the same day by Judge Robert H. Moore III and was filed Wednesday.

The petition was brought against the oft-ill Fostel by Kermit resident and Winkler County Hospital Board member John Walton, who claimed in the petition that, since March 2009, Fostel “has not exercised any duty of the office, including correspondence, review of files, assistance of law enforcement, appearances in court or any other matter.”

Fostel was in and out of the hospital, and at home recovering from surgeries from Sept. 30, 2009, until he returned to work full time at the beginning of this year. However, he said he worked half days for the majority of that time, and all the work required of the office was completed.… (Continued…)

Texas Medical Board “Suspends” Dr. Arafiles And Fails the Public

February 07, 2011 lawmed 3 Comments

In a move that begs the question “What does a physician have to do to REALLY get his license suspended in Texas?”, the Texas Medical Board (TMB) has decided to allow Winkler County medical darling, and multiple felony indicted, Dr. Rolando Arafiles to continue to practice medicine provided he pass the TMB exam on board laws and rules governing medical practice that all new licensees must take and pass, take a remedial medical education class of his choice and pay $5000.00. He will be on probation for 4 years.

The board also ordered Arafiles be monitored by another physician and submit patient medical and billing records for review. The monitor will report findings back to the board.

In the mediated order, in lieu of a formal hearing before an administrative law judge, signed in Austin Friday, the board concluded that Arafiles failed to treat emergency room patients properly and … (Continued…)

Anesthesia Standard of Care: Dr. Bernstein, the ASA, Maryland Board of Physicians, and Random GPS Locations: Part 4

August 30, 2010 lawmed 1 Comment

READ PARTS ONE – TWO and THREE FIRST!! Read the series in order and in one place on our Anesthesia Standard of Care page.

We last addressed the biased testimony of the expert witnesses, and peer review physicians, Dr.’s Lyles and Forbes, who both relied upon American Society of Anesthesiologists published “standards” as the basis for their testimony. As we noted, such testimony would never be allowed in a court of law since professional organizations or societies do not determine the standard of care, rather the standard of care is determined, through expert testimony, to be the care which the average practitioner would provide when similarly situated. But, as we pointed out, this case comes under administrative law where the rules of evidence are very different and almost anything goes.

Now, back to the hearing taking place before the Maryland Board of Physicians:

Bernstein called two expert witnesses, Timothy Gilbert, … (Continued…)

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes: And So It Goes At Winkler Memorial Hospital

August 25, 2010 lawmed 1 Comment

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes:

And So It Goes At Winkler Memorial Hospital

Let’s recap.

1. The Winkler County Memorial Hospital enacted a policy which forbid (quite contrary to state law) their staff from reporting concerns over the professional clinical performance of a member of the medical staff without first obtaining approval from administration.

2. Two nurses, Anne Mitchell and Vickie Galle, who worked there for decades and were in positions specifically responsible for Quality Improvement, Risk Management and Medical Staff Credentialing, brought serious documented concerns over one of the few physicians at the small hospital, to the administration and the chief of the medical staff. Dr. Rolando Arafiles had been recruited by the hospital, since physicians are often difficult to find for small, rural facilities. The hospital has 25 beds. He had already had a restriction placed on his Texas medical license, imposed by the State Medical Board

3. … (Continued…)

Winkler County, Mass.? RN Fired In Retaliation For Reporting EMTALA Violation: Lawsuit

August 23, 2010 lawmed No comments

Can it be Winkler County all over again? Winkler is hard to top, so it IS close, but no cigar. At least no one has tried to put Margaret “Peg” O’Connor RN in jail, but they sure have fired her.

O’Connor, a nurse for 38 years at Jordon Hospital in Plymouth, Mass., received glowing job reviews for her work as a Risk Manager in November of 2009 from the same boss who summarily terminated her in May of 2010. In an apparent attempt to whisk her out the door before Center’s for Medicare and Medicaid, who had just arrived to conduct an investigation, could interview her, the firing was the culminating event in the hospital’s retaliation against her for following state and federal law in reporting an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) violation.

O’Connor isn’t having any of it and she filed a lawsuit against the hospital … (Continued…)

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