Surgeon has License Revoked for Removing Wrong Lung
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It’s bad enough that Dr. Santusht Perera removed the wrong lung from a surgical patient. He also attempted to conceal his mistake by lying to the patient about his condition, and altering the patient’s records.
The State Board of Medical Examiners found Dr. Perera guilty of gross negligence, assessed him a mere $81,000.00 in fines, and revoked his medical license temporarily. That’s right… temporarily. Under the ruling, Perera can appeal for an early restoration of his medical license after six months.
To me, this is “gross negligence” on the part of the Board of Medical Examiners. Let’s get this straight in our heads. The patient had a tumor on his left lung that was supposed to be removed. Instead, Dr. Perera cut out part of his RIGHT lung.. the healthy one. This leaves the tumor on the left lung, of course. This will significantly reduce the number of viable options for this man to live out a healthy life. Not only did the doctor remove the wrong lung, he also lied to the patient to cover his ass. He told the patient that he discovered a a life-threatening tumor on that right lung, and altered the medical records accordingly.
This is disgusting. We trust our doctors to perform the proper procedures. Yes, mistakes can be made, as doctors are humans too. However, the doctor should have done the right thing and admitted his error… instead of lying and trying to cover himself. My guess is that he was too worried over being sued, instead of the patient that he took an oath to practice medicine with ETHICS.
Does the truth mean nothing? This “doctor” should not be allowed to ever practice medicine again, in my mind. I simply cannot believe that the Board would give out such a minor slap on the wrist for something so major. Just goes to show you that even those whose Ethics are supposedly of the highest caliber will stand for one of their own kind.. even when they should be casting the first stone.
3 Comments
Carmen
June 26th, 2008
at 2:43am
Agreed, Kat. This guy should never be able to pick up a scalpel again. But your question about the truth meaning nothing is an interesting one because the fact is that according to the postmodern worldview (which is what currently is driving society), there IS NO TRUTH. So why are we surprised when stuff like this happens? Again, *ideas have consequences*. But the fact is that no matter what platitudes the masses mutter about there being no truth, when something like this happens (or 9/11 for instance), deep down we ALL know it was wrong, wrong, wrong.
dar
June 26th, 2008
at 3:44am
alas, this is just the tip of the iceberg
-:Dr.Mercola writes,
“Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Killing 250,000 People Every Year
This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is the best article I have ever seen written in the published literature documenting the tragedy of the traditional medical paradigm.
If you want to keep updated on issues like this click here to sign up for my free newsletter.
This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which hit the papers in December of last year, but the data was hard to reference as it was not in peer-reviewed journal. Now it is published in JAMA which is the most widely circulated medical periodical in the world.
The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and she desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health.
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
* 12,000 — unnecessary surgery
* 7,000 — medication errors in hospitals
* 20,000 — other errors in hospitals
* 80,000 — infections in hospitals
* 106,000 — non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!
What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a patient by a physician’s activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a complication of treatment…”
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx
Sue
August 25th, 2008
at 9:04am
This is a tragic case and I send my sincere sympathy to this man’s family and friends.
Unfortunately medical mistakes are not RARE at all. Apparently, this doctor made a mistake and did not want to be responsible. In this case, the coverup failed because the mistake was obvious and apparently the victim’s family acted quickly.
I am the victim of medical malpractice myself. Unfortunately, my doctors have successfully avoided malpractice lawsuits by either creating false records and/or by actually stealing my records that proved that medical malpractice occurred.
Medical mistakes destroy many people’s lives. Unfortunately, doctors do not want to be involved in helping these victims. It is generally your doctor who creates any evidence that you would need to file a malpractice lawsuit. (The evidence is your medical records!) In my case, my doctor actually told me that he routinely kept false records on patients injured by negligence. He also stated he never goes to court and says that another doctor did anything wrong. My doctor did not divulge this to me until it was much too late - he had already created a trail of false and misleading records to protect the negligent health care providers.
I believe that for every case that is actually reported by the media to the public there are probably thousands of cases that go unreported. In fact, a respected medical malpractice attorney told me that he thought 97 percent of legitimate malpractice claims are never filed because doctors cover up for each other by creating false medical records For some reason, this “make a mistake and cover it up” or “hit and run” policy seems to be a well tolerated and accepted practice here in the U.S.
It has always been my intention to join a group or even create a group to help victims of malpractice. If you know how I can make a contribution to this cause, please email me.
Thanks.
Sue