Another case of Dr. Death

[chocomorsel]

Florida hospital ignored years of complaints about surgeon, patients and families allege

The orthopedic surgeon caused “hundreds of devastating injuries” while displaying signs of having a neurological condition, according to court documents.

www.nbcnews.com

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[2010houston]

“Several physicians and nurses voiced concern about Heekin’s ability to practice, the court documents say.”

I wonder if the hospital / med staff did anything to investigate, or if they swept the concerns under the rug given that he was a joint surgeon … very sad

 

[Ashers]

This guy seems to have had a medical condition, and it sucks for his patients and their families. And if what the news reported is true, he should've been stopped sooner. I also wonder if it was ignored as complications that happen; I've seen fractured femurs in THAs, but never anyone die from it. Could he get a criminal conviction like Dr. Death? I'm no where near being a lawyer. Dr. Death didn't have the physical brain pathology, but was narcissist, sociopath, what have you. This'll be interesting to watch though; I hadn't heard about it.

There was a neurosurgeon in my first job out of fellowship that I refused to work with because he had such a bad tremor I was afraid for his patients. I only did emergency cases with him, or if the schedule fell and I had to do spines with him, but another guy came in to help at that point and did most of the case. He was eventually forced to retire, and his wife put him in a nursing home (after I left). He was well loved by the hospital and community. He would occasionally ask me why I almost never worked with him.

 

[aneftp]

I don’t think he’s Dr death. Just old surgeon who didn’t know his declining skills. I’m sure he was finally forced to retire. He likely didn’t return on his own.

 

[coffeebythelake]

He isn't Dr Death. He had a number of complications one of them died after a femur fracture during hip replacement surgery (fat embolism?). I wonder if the surgeon himself was aware of his worsening neurologic issues.

 

[allantois]

We force students to be so long in training; once they finish training they really don’t have many years left to practice

 

[vector2]

So with supranuclear palsy:

"Dementia symptoms are also initially seen in about one in five cases of frontotemporal dementia.[5]

Other common early symptoms are changes in personality, general slowing of movement, and visual symptoms. The most common behavioural symptoms in patients with PSP include apathy, disinhibition, anxiety, and dysphoria."


I think anyone would be hard pressed to say that the ortho was criminally negligent given the behavioral changes of the disease. Even if he knew his diagnosis, it could be argued his frontal lobe was malfunctioning in such a way that one wouldn't be able to prove that he could've rationally acted on that information.

The hospital and administration though are absolutely at fault and should face civil and criminal liability given the number of complaints.

 

[narcotics999]

I feel sorry for the anesthesiologists who had to work with him.

 

[deleted875186]

Is this a criminal case? I was unclear after reading?

Hopefully not criminal, should just be malpractice. Should be case against the hosptial for not following up on employee concerns about the surgeon, absolutely terrible.

 

[coffeebythelake]

Is this a criminal case? I was unclear after reading?

Hopefully not criminal, should just be malpractice. Should be case against the hosptial for not following up on employee concerns about the surgeon, absolutely terrible.

this is not a criminal case.
they are talking about suing and malpractice.

 

[woopedazz]

He has PSP; he'll be dead within the next year or two. Even if they wanted to pursue criminal charges.

 

[Planktonmd]

The lawyers are probably going after the hospital more than the surgeon himself. The hospital has the deeper pockets, and if they knew about the issue and chose to ignore it, then they are about to make that lawyer much richer. The lucky lawyer might even give a small piece of his reward to these 350 patients he recruited in his law suit.

 

[chocomorsel]

I have worked in hospitals that had abusive and crappy surgeons. This was in the wild Wild West. Lots of bring backs for spine infections, ignoring acute brain pathology at night for one since the liability is higher and money is less than spine and lots of verbal abuse to all the staff from the another.
Hospital knew, didn’t care from what I was told. These were brain surgeons making and bringing in millions.
The abusive one had cocaine fall out of his pocket one time in the OR I heard.
Many admins don’t care and ignore long as the money rolls in. They don’t want to lose that business. Simple fact.

 

[coffeebythelake]

I have worked in hospitals that had abusive and crappy surgeon. This was in the wild Wild West. Lots of bring backs for spine infections, ignoring acute brain pathology at night for one since the liability is higher and money is less and lots of verbal abuse to all the staff from the another.
Hospital knew, didn’t care from what I was told. These were brain surgeons making and bringing in millions.
The abusive one had cocaine fall out of his pocket one time in the OR I heard.
Many admins don’t care and ignore long as the money rolls in. They don’t want to lose that business. Simple fact.

The individual administrators and suits that allow this to happen should be held responsible, not just the hospital system.

 

[chocomorsel]

The individual administrators and suits that allow this to happen should be held responsible, not just the hospital system.

Man, that would be a Utopia. Haha.

 

[coffeebythelake]

Man, that would be a Utopia. Haha.

I mean thats just taking some personal responsibility. Not being an ass hole. Admin and hospital suits think about money and how to extract as much as possible from the patients. Its not about the patients.

 

[kidthor]

I have worked in hospitals that had abusive and crappy surgeons. This was in the wild Wild West. Lots of bring backs for spine infections, ignoring acute brain pathology at night for one since the liability is higher and money is less than spine and lots of verbal abuse to all the staff from the another.
Hospital knew, didn’t care from what I was told. These were brain surgeons making and bringing in millions.
The abusive one had cocaine fall out of his pocket one time in the OR I heard.
Many admins don’t care and ignore long as the money rolls in. They don’t want to lose that business. Simple fact.

Yup... I've see similar things at more than one hospital. I spoke up once at a toxic place and the retaliation was unreal against myself and others. Sadly some hospitals are so bad the only thing one can do to save integrity is to get out as soon as possible (vs just being quiet and thereby knowingly facilitating bad care).

When it comes to short term money many of the suits don't want to be bothered by doing the right thing if it involves any hassle, work, or potential drying up a money stream. In the long term this hospital will lose tons of money, but the suits didn't care at the time and honestly they won't care much now - many of them probably got promoted up and out into other hospitals, leaving this nonsense in their wake. The patients and good healthcare workers (those who do the right thing and speak up) suffer.

Such is modern healthcare with a bloated administrative class enabling bad actors in the name of money.

 

[Guillemot]

Ive also worked at places with impaired physicians and have been the victim of retaliation for reporting the physicians.

FYI: I’d recommend against reporting and just look the other way. Nothing happens to the person you report and it just puts a bullseye on your back.

 

[IlDestriero]

Our hospital system has encountered this a couple times with surgeons that seem to have a problem. They’re secretly suspended and have to have an evaluation. Unfortunately a couple have had to retire. One still practices in the clinic.
That’s not how I want to go out. Retire early, live well, never look back.

 

[undalay]

These incidents happen more after 3 pm and after hours. Also I find that marginal nurses are in charge or the sole nurses available at these times and you are compensating for their insufficiency?