50-year-old Air Force veteran Bob Shank was admitted to am Illinois Veterans Administration hospital in August of this year for gallstone-removal surgery. He bled to death the day after the surgery.
The surgeon, Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, a Bolivian-trained physician with a thick accent, performed the surgery. Nine other surgical patients have died under Veizaga-Mendez's care in a six-month period ending in March 2007, during which time the hospital would have expected only two deaths.
Even before Veizaga-Mendez was hired at the Illinois Veterans Administration hospital, in January 2006, he had made payouts in two malpractice suits in Massachusetts and was under investigation there on suspicion of botching seven cases, two of which ended in deaths.
Even after the nine deaths he was still allowed to operate on another patient. How many deaths is acceptably attributable to one doctor? Why wasn’t nine deaths in six months enough reason to prevent this ‘doctor’ from practicing again?
Was he hired by the Illinois Veterans Administration hospital because someone did not follow through on the verification process with Massachusettes concerning past performance and job history?
Was his past performance in Massachusettes and the fact that he was under investigation for malpractice kept from personnel at the Illinois facility?
Veizaga-Mendez, 69, resigned three days after Shank's death, and the VA hospital suspended all surgery shortly after. The deaths involving Veizaga-Mendez are still under investigation, and details have not been released.
Someone at the Illinois facility finally decided that ten deaths, connected with this surgical doctor, was enough. Did his resignation have more to do with the fact that the media finally got wind of the deadly trend? Was hospital administration, through advise from their lawyers no doubt, perfectly willing to keep it all quiet until the story was leaked and they were now forced to do something? Instead of firing him they ‘allowed’ him to resign so he could keep his benefits package?
He had become a lousy, careless doctor responsible for the deaths and/or undue suffering of nineteen patients before being forced to resign. For him to be rewarded for his carelessness because he refuses to accept his responsibility to the families of those patients is beyond criminal. The hospital administration of both hospitals should share blame for him having access to those patients and should be punished for allowing him to continue his serial malpractice.
This is an extremely grave example of people, either singularly or collectively, not following guidelines that are in place to prevent this type of tragedy.
If guidelines are not in place to take action against a doctor whose death count is higher than statistically acceptable then the administration should be held accountable as well
If the Massachusettes hospital where Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez practiced was aware of his failures and failed to report that fact to the medical board, to insurance companies, to the next hospital who showed interest in hiring him, then they too should be held criminally liable.
Dr. Veizaga-Mendez had a valid, unrestricted medical license in Massachusetts and Illinois when he was hired in January 2006 and that background checks did not reveal any prior or pending disciplinary action. This background check should have revealed that he was under investigation for malpractice. Current law says that this information cannot be revealed and I think that policy is absolutely wrong for a person in this position. There should be a freeze on this man’s ability to practice until all investigations and lawsuits are completed or at the very least his license should be flagged due to pending investigation in order that everyone be put on alert. This responsibility lies with hospital administration and the state’s medical board. There should be no protection from the total scrutiny of a potential employer for a person in this field.
It turns out that at the time he was hired in Illinois, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine was investigating allegations of substandard care made against Veizaga-Mendez in 2004 and 2005, said board spokesman Russell Aims. The allegations involved seven patients, two of whom died.
There are a lot of people who have relatives receiving care at VA hospitals across this country and they all deserve the best care available in return for putting their lives on the line to protect us and those very same doctors and hospital staff.
Our veterans are placed under the care of doctors that we are forced to assume are qualified. They have no choice but to accept that every person who is responsible for that doctor being in charge of their care did everything humanly possible to ensure that the doctor is qualified and competent.
We have no choice but to have faith that if anyone has knowledge of a doctors shortcomings that the person will have the moral integrity to report that doctor to the proper authority and that the authority will not allow the doctor to practice.
Our veterans deserve to know that the hospital staff and administration are actually looking after the patients welfare above the liability of the hospital.
Bob Shank and his family should have every expectation that he would recover from this very common surgery.
Somehow we have decided that it is acceptable to hold back detrimental information concerning a job applicants past performance so we don’t have to appear to be the ‘bad guy’ by telling the truth. This misguided act of ‘helping’ the job applicant gain employment elsewhere is malicious and mean-spirited towards the new employer. And, as witnessed in this case, can lead to jeopardizing the health and well-being of a great many people and can even lead to death.
No comments:
Post a Comment