Federal suit: Baylor failed to stop cocaine-using surgeon from harming patients
A federal lawsuit is accusing Baylor Health Care System of failing to properly monitor or investigate a Plano neurosurgeon – recently barred from practicing in Texas – despite repeated warnings about his “drug problem” and “lack of competence.”
Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano didn’t seek Dr. Christopher Duntsch’s resignation amid months of botched spinal treatments until one of his patients died in March 2012, according to the suit.
Then the hospital gave him a “letter of reference” that allowed him to go on to harm patients at other Dallas facilities, it says.
The malpractice case was brought by Kenneth Fennell of Denton County. He claims Duntsch harmed him and several other patients over a nine-month stretch beginning in July 2011. Among the worst outcomes alleged: a woman who bled to death, and Duntsch’s “lifelong friend and roommate” who was rendered a quadriplegic. Duntsch performed an “unnecessary surgery” on Fennell, 68, operating on the wrong body part, the suit says.
More at http://watchdogblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/federal-suit-baylor-failed-to-stop-cocaine-using-surgeon-from-harming-patients-at-dallas-hospitals.html/ .
