|
Top Of The List - 04/30/00
Doctors in the United States with a minimum of $3
million in malpractice payments and 25 or more
reports on file in the National Practitioner Data
Bank:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Escape To Lichtenstein
NPDB No. 40130 -- Dr. HERSCHELL BOYD, Washington:
$16.9 million in payments and 149 reports.
License revoked.
A Bellevue eye doctor and former president of a
national ophthalmologist association, Boyd
transferred his assets to Lichtenstein and fled his
$6 million mansion in 1995 - taking with him one of
the world's largest collections of medieval armor -
rather than face an avalanche of lawsuits alleging
he botched eye surgeries. Boyd began performing
radial keratotomy - a process whereby slits are cut
into the surface of the cornea to refocus a
patient's vision - in the early 1980s. By the 1990s,
he faced more than 100 malpractice lawsuits related
to the procedure. Teacher Timothy Brannon won a
$239,500 verdict after a jury found Boyd had ruined
Brannon's left eye by making 78 incisions during a
series of operations in 1984. Registered nurse Joan
Duke, whose case is pending, says when Boyd operated
on her eyes nine times during the 1980s, he falsely
told her he had no other unsatisfied patients. Duke
had no way of knowing it, but by the time she
stopped going to Boyd in 1992, his National
Practitioner Data Bank file had swelled to 45
malpractice payments totaling more than $3 million.
That year, the Washington State Medical Quality
Assurance Commission restricted his surgical
privileges. Boyd, who is believed to have left the
country, has not been seen in Washington since 1995.
His license was revoked in absentia in 1997.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Menace
NPDB No. 36673 -- Dr. ERIC SCHEFFEY, Texas:
$8.5 million in payments and 40 reports.
Still practicing.
A Houston orthopedic surgeon, Scheffey is on
probation and must operate in the presence of
another surgeon. Nicknamed "Eric the Red" because of
allegations his patients tended to bleed heavily
during operations, Scheffey has been accused of
performing unnecessary operations and overcharging
patients. He was busted for cocaine possession in
1985.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
California Dreaming
NPDB No. 5801 -- Dr. MELVYN ROSENSTEIN, California:
$6.4 million in payments and 233 reports.
License surrendered.
A urologist who hired a publicist and ran
advertisements for penis enlargements promising that
"Dreams Do Come True," Rosenstein reattached John
Wayne Bobbitt's severed penis and had a cameo role
in Bobbitt's subsequent porn flick "Frankenpenis!"
For more than 100 men who later sued, the dream
turned into a nightmare when Rosenstein's fat
injections failed to take hold, leaving them
disfigured, impotent or unable to urinate, according
to lawsuits. One of them allegedly tried to kill
himself. Rosenstein surrendered his medical license
in 1996 and is living in Santa Monica. He could not
be reached for comment. "He decided to cash in on
the field of urology by picking up on this craze of
enhancing one's body," said Steven Fabbro, an
attorney who represented 42 former patients. "He was
trying to capitalize on the male ego. Some of these
guys are now scarred for life."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tusch: 'Where Did I Rank?'
NPDB No. 13771 -- Dr. JEFFREY LAVIGNE, New York:
$6.1 million in payments and 64 reports.
License revoked.
A proctologist specializing in using lasers to
remove warts and hemorrhoids, Lavigne advertised in
Manhattan subways as "M.D. Tusch" until he was sued
by 60 patients who alleged he botched surgeries. He
lost his license in 1994 and pleaded guilty to tax
evasion. He now sells used cars in Seattle. He's had
to give up his own lavender Bentley. "I got
stretched too thin and probably made some poor
choices," Lavigne said in a telephone interview.
"After I started the M.D. Tusch advertising, I think
I became too big and the establishment just took me
down." Lavigne did not dispute The Courant's
conclusion that he was doctor No. 13771 in the data
bank. "There's nothing inaccurate there. Those are
the bare facts," said Lavigne. Told he was on The
Courant's list of problem doctors, he asked, "Where
did I rank?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Providing Fast-Food Surgery
NPDB No. 63060 -- Dr. GARY HALL, Arizona:
$5.3 million in payments and 27 reports.
Still practicing.
Hall, a Phoenix ophthalmologist, likes to conclude
his free seminars with a live example of corrective
eye surgery, beamed in on closed-circuit television.
Afterward, the patients emerge and express amazement
at their improved vision. Christine Hachey came away
convinced. "It's like watching these faith healers
on TV," said Hachey, a Scottsdale, Ariz., travel
agent. "I thought it would be nice to be able to
stop wearing glasses." Today, after several
operations by Hall, Hachey's vision is so bad she
cannot read or sew without using contact lenses,
eyeglasses and a huge magnifying glass -- all at the
same time. Hachey sued Hall for malpractice and won.
She wasn't the first to have problems with Hall. In
1996 the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners cited
Hall for unprofessional conduct and put him on
probation for three years. Resisting calls by some
unhappy patients to revoke his license, the board
last year responded to continued complaints by
banning Hall from performing radial keratotomy but
allowing him to do laser surgeries. A three-time
Olympics swimmer, Hall -- whose father-in-law is
Charles H. Keating Jr., the convicted former
savings-and-loan operator -- lives in a walled-off
$2 million home in Pleasant Valley, Ariz. He
advertises and maintains his own Internet Web site
that features glowing testimonials and virtual tours
of his comfortable office in north Phoenix,
incongruously situated in a neighborhood of pawn
shops, drive-through liquor stores and a trailer
park. In comments during a state Board of Medical
Examiners meeting last year, he conceded he may have
overextended himself, saying he learned that "you
can't create a McDonald's franchise for
ophthalmology." But in a letter to The Courant ?? in
which he did not dispute that he was doctor No.
63060 -- he blamed his insurance company for
settling cases "without my consent" and noted that
he had performed 25,000 radial keratotomy
procedures. "Therefore, though the number of entries
in the National Practitioner Data Bank appears high,
it still represents a very small percentage of the
total number of cases I performed," Hall wrote. "I
maintain that the vast majority of these cases filed
against me were not meritorious claims."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deadbeat Doc Who Gets Around
NPDB No. 17418 --Dr. EMMANUEL AMAYO, Michigan:
$4.3 million in payments and 26 reports.
Certified as surgical technician.
A plastic surgeon now living in Houston, Amayo fled
to Canada in 1992 to escape mounting malpractice
suits and alimony payments. He was arrested after he
was found practicing illegally at a Toronto
hospital's burn unit and sent back to the United
States. Among the malpractice allegations found in
35 lawsuits filed against Amayo in Michigan is that
he botched cosmetic or reconstructive surgeries and
performed unnecessary breast removal on a woman.
Most recently, he was living in Texas, where,
although his medical license has lapsed, he remains
certified as a surgical technician. Amayo is
awaiting trial on charges filed by Michigan
authorities in November that he dodged paying more
than $60,000 in child support to an ex-wife in
Dearborn. He could not be reached for comment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York's Finest, And Most Sued
NPDB No. 27822 -- Dr. HARVEY MANES, New York:
$3.9 million in payments and 26 reports.
Still practicing.
New York's most sued doctor, this Long Island
orthopedic surgeon who has a multimillion-dollar art
collection was reprimanded in 1998 and put on
probation for three years. Patients in 32 lawsuits
allege he left them infected, deformed or crippled
after surgeries. In a letter, Manes did not dispute
The Courant's finding that he was doctor No. 27822
in the data bank. He defended his conduct and said,
"Most malpractice cases result not from a doctor's
negligence but from unavoidable complication."
"Every surgical procedure and every medication has
its complications," Manes wrote. "This is not to say
mistakes are not made. We are human, and can and do
make mistakes."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drugs For Sex From Teenage Girls
NPDB No. 7729 -- Dr. ROBERT BROWN JR., Florida:
$3.3 million in payments and 38 reports.
License surrendered.
A Jacksonville gynecologist accused of performing
unnecessary surgeries for the money, Brown was
arrested in 1997 and charged with trading
painkillers for oral sex from teenage girls.
Although Brown's license to obtain narcotics was
suspended at the time of his arrest, police said
they found 2,000 doses of Xanax, an anti-anxiety
drug, and other prescription medicines in his
office. Brown, who surrendered his license, is
serving four years in prison. He could not be
reached for comment. |
