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Surgeon Suspended for Cashing Check During Surgery

Aired August 09, 2002 - 10:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, state medical officials in Massachusetts have suspected the license of a surgeon accused of pulling off an ill-timed cut and run, you might call it. The state Board of Registration in Medicine claimed that Dr. David Arndt left the operating room and a patient with a gaping incision in his back in order to run to the bank. He returned 35 minutes later and completed the surgery. It was spinal surgery, on top of that. Joining us to fill us in on some of the specifics of this shocking case and what happens in something like this is our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, we have been hearing a lot about long cases this week, certainly the 22 hour case with the twins. This operation was six hours underway when the surgeon, apparently an orthopedic surgeon, decided that he needed to go to the bank. Apparently, there had been a lot of calls made during the operating room -- during the operation rather, to his office members, trying to figure out when the check was actually arriving. I think they actually had a code name for it, "Bob," when is "Bob" arriving.

KAGAN: "Bob" the check.

GUPTA: And when "Bob" arrived, he actually stepped out of the operating room, and I should point out, surgeons do step out from time to time, quickly grab something to eat, quickly go to the bathroom, something like that. Certainly he did more than that, left the hospital, and that was of great concern, certainly the patient was still -- his incision was still open, the patient was still under anesthesia. The operation was -- quote -- "still underway." There was not another surgeon in the operating room scrubbed, so a lot of reasons for concern there, no question.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Turns out the patient was OK.

GUPTA: Right.

KAGAN: Not like we are condoning the activity, but the patient was OK. I wonder how this kind of came to light.

GUPTA: Yes, you bring up a good point, the patient being OK, because when you talk about medical malpractice, you have to prove that there was a harm done to some extent, and it is hard to prove that there was actually a harm done. No question the patient was under anesthesia probably longer than the patient needed to be, but as far as harm goes, that is a hard thing to prove. So the patient did well, but again, as you said, no one is condoning that activity. If something had gone wrong, he wasn't even in the hospital, and I think that's what people are really concerned about.

KAGAN: Meanwhile, he is not in the hospital. He is in trouble, this surgeon.

GUPTA: That's right, and he is suspended, and he is suspended by the state board of Massachusetts. The way state boards work is that even though it is just the state board of Massachusetts, they all communicate. It is unlikely that he is going to move to Rhode Island all of a sudden and start operating. This is something that is going to need to be looked into for quite a bit.

KAGAN: And, you being in the business, you must hear stories. Where does this rank in terms of appalling?

GUPTA: This is pretty egregious problem, certainly, leaving the hospital. You know, patients -- the safety and stuff like that was jeopardized when a surgeon like this leaves the hospital.

Like I said, surgeons do step out, a lot of times in teaching hospitals, other private hospitals, you have other surgeons of the same discipline, and you will say, if you were another surgeon, I would say, Daryn, could you cover this for a little bit, I am going to go, I have to go do something. You would scrub in and do some of the operation. That happen, certainly, from time to time, but there was nobody around that could even do the operation. Nobody that could have gotten that patient out of trouble. If a problem occurred, he wasn't in the hospital.

KAGAN: Yes. Well, it sounds like there is something -- some other bigger picture going on too if this is a surgeon is so concerned with his paycheck that he has to go deposit it.

GUPTA: That is right.

KAGAN: Direct deposit, perhaps he should look into that. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Real quick, Sanjay, is there like a code of silence among hospital staffs on things like this?

KAGAN: Yes, like how would it come out?

HARRIS: You hear about that when the police -- when things happen like in the police or whatever.

GUPTA: You know, the way this one turned out, Leon, it's a good point is that the nurses and some of the other ancillary staff within the operating room rightfully actually reported this particular situation to the other staff. Yes, I don't know if I would call it a code of silence, but I think it probably happens more than we hear about for sure. I don't think doctors always "tell on each other" -- quote-unquote -- especially if nothing "quote-unquote" bad happens, so...

HARRIS: All right. Still the last thing you want to worry about if you are sitting there, watching that mask come down on you.

GUPTA: That's right.

KAGAN: And someone is cutting on your spine.

HARRIS: Exactly. Exactly.

KAGAN: Dr. Gupta, thank you.

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