“The Butcher Is Back”

It was an instance of medical malpractice so horrible that of all the many stories of medical negligence featured in the Hearst papers’ important series last year, "Dead by Mistake," the paper led with this: “Richard Flagg drowned in his own blood.” 

That’s right, in 2000, surgeon Dr. Santusht Perera removed the wrong lung (the only healthy lung) from our friend Richard Flagg (pictured here lobbying against so-called “tort reform” in Washington D.C.) while at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Hospital.  And then Dr. Perera covered it up by altering Richard's medical records. 

Dr. Perera then lied to Richard's face, telling him, according to his brother, “that he had an even larger tumor in his right lung, and that he, Perera, saved his life by removing it, according to a 2005 complaint filed by the state. But after several months, Flagg picked up his hospital records, and at the top of the folder was the pathology report that showed there was no evidence of a tumor in the removed portion.” 

For all of this, including what led to the death of Richard who passed away three years later, Dr. Perera  got a “six-month ‘active’ suspension of his medical license” and was fined about $81,000 or so.  This is even though the New Jersey Attorney General initially tried to get the Board of Medical Examiners to revoke his license. (New Jersey ranks # 41 in the nation for serious doctor disciplinary actions against dangerous doctors, according to Public Citizen)

But now for the really sick news. Dr. Perera is back, operating again at Hoboken University Medical Center. 

Richard’s longtime girlfriend Edith Bickoff, put it this way: “It doesn't surprise me that the butcher is back.”  But we are horror-struck.  

And let’s note a few other matters.  According to a 2005 interview with Richard’s attorney, Charles Rock, “the insurance companies waited for Flagg to die before settling the case, knowing that the value of his claim would drop dramatically after he died.” 

And who is insuring Dr. Perera now?  Who knows, but because medical malpractice insurers do not charge rates based on experience (and the medical lobbies won’t join consumer groups in pushing for insurance reforms to help them, fixating on limiting patients’ legal rights instead), all the good doctors in New Jersey may now be paying for this guy’s malpractice insurance, assuming he has it. 

And finally, as doctors in New Jersey and elsewhere call for “caps” on compensation for injured patients, remember that so-called "lawsuit abuse" has noting to do with "caps."  It's malpracticing doctors like Dr. Perera who are let off the hook by such a laws, and it's innocent patients like Richard Flagg who are hurt.