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CNN Live Today

Surgeon in Massachusetts Accused of Checking Out Hospital in Middle of Surgery

Aired August 09, 2002 - 10:29   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to go back to that story that is catching the attention of a lot of people, and that is the surgeon in Massachusetts, who is accused of just checking out of the hospital in the middle of a surgery, because he had to go to the bank.
We have our own neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta back here with us to take a look at this.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was an orthopedic surgeon.

KAGAN: He was, not a neurosurgeon. Let's be clear about that. But doing spine surgery, too, not like there's a non-dangerous kind of surgery to do, but spine surgery.

GUPTA: And the patient's incision was left open. No one is condoning certainly what he did, but there are always stories behind the stories, and I would like to bring in Nancy Alchin Sullivan from the Massachusetts -- executive director of the Massachusetts State board of Medicine, bring her in, and she actually is part of the agency that's responsible for the doctor's suspension.

Dr. Sullivan, are you there?

NANCY ALCHIN SULLIVAN, MASS. STATE BOARD OF REGISTRATION AND MEDICINE: Good morning, Dr. Gupta. And unlike you, I'm not a doctor.

GUPTA: Right. And the question, obviously, I think people are just sort of outraged when they hear a story like this. Tell us what happened. Is it as bad as it sounds? Is sounds pretty bad.

SULLIVAN: Certainly it was very troubling and very concerned to the Board of Medicine in Massachusetts, in that after reviewing the facts, the board did vote to summarily suspend the license of Dr. Arndt, while we conclude the full evidentiary hearing and see what the final disposition will be. But the facts of the case, as they've been presented so far, are that well into a spinal fusion surgery, the doctor chose to leave the operating room and leave the hospital without make appropriate provisions for his patient, and left for -- to take care of some personal financial business.

GUPTA: We are hearing a lot about this particular story, but something people have been asking me, and I ask you as well, does this happen? Is this something we are hearing about because we're covering it? Or does this happen more than we know? SULLIVAN: Certainly this is the first time I ever happened to hear of any such thing in all the years of dealing with health care issues. I would say, and perhaps Dr. Gupta, you would be far more able to address this more than I, it is very normal, and patients should know that, for a doctor to step out for a moment, to go re- review an X-ray or an MRI or to -- especially a long surgical procedure, to use the rest room or to change scrubs, or some reasonable, medical reason to leave, and will communicate with the rest of the OR staff what's going on and why he's leaving. Those things are perfectly acceptable and normal within the practice of medicine.

I have certainly never heard of anyone walking out and leaving a patient open on a table for personal business.

GUPTA: Let's play devil's advocate for one minute, and I don't think anyone condones this, but was there harm done? And isn't that something that's important in your role as executive director? Was there harm done here?

SULLIVAN: Sure there was harm done. The harm is really to be undermining of public confidence and the practice of medicine, and the risk that we look at. I think we're all trying to look at ways beyond a simple discipline when there's an innocent mistake made and to try to prevent errors.

When you have someone who chooses not to comply with the policy and procedures of his own hospital or the generally accepted conduct of medicine, I think it does make for an unsafe system.

So I don't think the fact of the patient did not suffer an adverse outcome is the fact that really matters. I think that is more a tribute to other medical staff in that operating room and the quality of the staff at Mount Arbor Hospital.

The harm is to the reputation of all of medicine. The harm is to the potential risk of -- to that patient and to other patients. And I think that it's a very disturbing trend to see, or incident, to see patients really around the country, questioning the integrity and judgment of doctors. It is the position of our board that it is necessary to be more than just a good technical clinician, that one must demonstrate good medical judgment and ethics at all times also.

GUPTA: Thank you very much, Dr. Sullivan.

Daryn, a Harvard trained orthopedic trained surgeon, technically sounded like he was right on the mark, but a serious lapse in judgment.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

As a doctor, how do you live in fear of state board like this, because they're not people you want to cross, and not people you want to get in trouble with.

GUPTA: No, I mean, think they're doing their job here. And I think for the most part they side with public opinion here, and that's exactly the right side to be on. It's not a board you want to cross; it's not just a state board as well. They all communicate. I doubt if he's suspended by this particular state board, he will be working anywhere in the country.

KAGAN: Big trouble.

Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

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