Patients in Peril: How Virginia's medical system lets dangerous doctors continue to practice

By LIZ SZABO, The Virginian-Pilot

More than 250 doctors are licensed by the Virginia medical board despite records of serious mistakes or misconduct, a review of board actions since 1990 shows.
They work in every corner of the state, in virtually every specialty. Their ranks include sex offenders, swindlers, tax evaders, felons, former drug dealers and even a convicted murderer. Some have been rejected by a string of hospitals or insurance companies.

Among those still licensed:

- A Norfolk physician who injected cancer patients with medicine made with tiny amounts of their own feces.

- An Abingdon surgeon who accidentally cut out most of a woman's bladder and lost another patient just hours after a hysterectomy.

- A Winchester ear, nose and throat specialist who fondled six young boys during office visits.

- An Army doctor imprisoned for sexual battery of two underage girls during examinations.

- A Norfolk doctor imprisoned for murdering his wife with a .22-caliber rifle.

An analysis of the National Practitioner Data Bank, which tracks physicians, found at least 70 Virginia doctors who have been disciplined five or more times by state and federal authorities, hospitals or professional societies. Only 28 of them lost their licenses.

The Board of Medicine's executive director, Dr. William L. Harp, said state law forbids him or any board member from discussing individual cases or decisions.

Robert Nebiker, director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, which includes the Board of Medicine, said he does not feel comfortable ``second guessing'' past decisions without reviewing all the evidence.

He said the board takes its responsibility for policing doctors seriously and revokes licenses only after careful consideration.

``A lot of money goes into making a health-care professional, and there aren't enough of them to go around,'' Nebiker said. ``So when you kill one off, you are potentially losing a scarce resource.''

The Virginia Board of Medicine, a state body whose 18 members are appointed to four-year terms by the governor, licenses more than 25,000 physicians and osteopaths. It can vote to reprimand doctors, fine them, place them on probation, suspend them or revoke their licenses.

Nebiker noted that the worst examples of physician misconduct represent a small fraction of the total number of cases that the board reviews.

Although patient advocates stress that the vast majority of doctors are capable and honest, they compare impaired or unethical practitioners to drunken drivers -- few in number but a threat to many people.

The General Assembly this month is considering a bill introduced by Del. Winsome E. Sears of Norfolk and another by Gov. Mark R. Warner that address how the state medical board operates.

``We're trying to rein in the bad doctors, but at the same time you have to rein in the Board of Medicine and the hospitals,'' said Sears, a Republican. ``This is about saving lives.''

Sears, who became interested in the issue last year after reading a report in The Virginian-Pilot about an incompetent Virginia Beach surgeon, said there have been wide-ranging problems with doctor discipline for years.

``It's not just about one doctor,'' she said. ``It's a whole host of people.''

In 1999, an audit by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the watchdog arm of the General Assembly, concluded that ``the Board of Medicine does not adequately protect the public from substandard care by physicians.''

For too long, critics say, the medical system has focused on protecting careers rather than consumers.

``The patient should always be put first,'' said Dr. AlanLevinstone, an internist on the ethics committee at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Northern Virginia. ``It's not just the Board of Medicine. It's the politicians and the people in Virginia who have not demanded a better system.''


Board rarely revokes licenses for incompetence
Goettert case
Dr. Judith Goettert of Abingdon
Practice area: Family practice and gynecology
Medical school: University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kansas City, Mo.
Year completed: 1984
Virginia law makes it difficult for the Board of Medicine to revoke a physician's license.

Nurses, dentists and others can lose their licenses for ``simple'' negligence, such as a single careless act. But doctors must be found guilty of ``gross'' negligence, such as a pattern of several serious mistakes.

A dozen patients suffered serious complications and another died after surgery by Dr. Judith Goettert, according to a board order, a formal document in which medical officials record their legal findings and disciplinary actions.

The October 2000 order catalogs Goettert's mistakes:

- Accidentally removing most of a woman's bladder.

- Operating on a pregnant woman after ``overlooking'' her pregnancy test.

- Accidentally tying off a woman's ureter, the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder.

- Perforating the uteruses of three patients.

- Dropping a uterus on the floor during a hysterectomy, then contaminating her gloves and sterile instruments by picking up the organ and placing it on a table, according to a hospital incident report. When meeting with the medical board, Goettert later said that she caught the uterus in her lap.

One of the doctor's patients, Sharon Raye Santolla, died just hours after surgery.

In 1999, Goettert settled a civil lawsuit filed by relatives of Santolla, who died after a hysterectomy at Russell County Medical Center in Lebanon, Va. Goettert agreed to pay the woman's family $225,000.

``People like this should not be allowed to practice medicine,'' said Charles Inlander, president of a national consumer group called the People's Medical Society. ``It certainly isn't very reassuring to people like you and me. There should be no room for this in medicine.''

In 2000, the medical board placed Goettert on probation and allowed her to continue practicing, with the exception of obstetric and gynecology surgery.

Last year, Goettert told the board that she had given up obstetric and gynecological surgery, no longer had hospital privileges and planned to see patients only in her office. She said she was pursuing not only conventional medicine but homeopathy, a widely disputed type of treatment in which minute quantities of natural substances are administered to improve the body's defense against disease.

Goettert declined to be interviewed for this story.

On Aug. 6, 2002, the board ended her probation and restored her license to ``full and unrestricted status.''

Sen. Janet Howell of Reston said such stories demonstrate the need for change.

``It has been clear for some time now that Virginia is protecting physicians more than patients,'' said Howell, a Democrat. ``The upshot has been true horror stories of patients suffering from actions of physicians. . . . It always seemed that the department bent over backward to defend the doctor.''


Doctors can practice even after ''gross'' carelessness:
The Dunkwu case
Dr. Anthony A. Dunkwu of Alexandria
Practice area: Obstetrics and gynecology
Medical school: University of Florida College Of Medicine, Gainesville Fla.
Year completed: 1973
Even doctors whose records meet the ``gross negligence'' standard are sometimes allowed to keep practicing.

Dr. Anthony A. Dunkwu of Alexandria received only a public reprimand -- the mildest type of sanction -- after botching an abortion.

Dunkwu scheduled the procedure in March 2000 after estimating that his patient was about 10 weeks pregnant.

Although he performed a pelvic examination, he did not order a sonogram, according to a board order. Medical experts say sonograms are not required in the first trimester, although Hampton Roads abortion providers say they perform them routinely. Experts say the procedures are recommended in the second trimester.

Dunkwu began the procedure in his office using a local anesthetic.

The abortion quickly went wrong.

The board order states that Dunkwu believed he might have perforated the woman's uterus and stopped the procedure. A member of his staff took the patient to Inova Alexandria Hospital so that he could complete the abortion under general anesthesia.

Dunkwu examined the woman again. This time, he estimated her pregnancy at 12 to 13 weeks. According to the board order, ``Dunkwu could feel a separate mass, which he identified as a fibroid,'' a common type of benign uterine tumor.

He cut open the woman's abdomen and, according to the board order, discovered that the ``mass'' he had mistaken for a tumor was actually the uterus. He cut open the woman's uterus and removed a lifeless male fetus weighing about 2.7 pounds. Dunkwu estimated that it was 20 to 22 weeks old.

In fact, the fetus was 30 weeks old. Babies delivered prematurely at that age and size usually survive.

Alexandria Hospital placed Dunkwu's clinical privileges on probation for 29 days, the board order shows.

Punishments that last 30 days or longer generally have to be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, a registry created by Congress in 1990. Only about 40 percent of hospitals have ever filed a report.

In 2001, when Dunkwu faced the Board of Medicine, he admitted to making ``an unintentional mistake.'' He also noted that he had begun routinely performing sonograms for more of his patients considering abortion, according to the board order.

An informal board committee found Dunkwu to have been ``grossly careless,'' according to the board order, and reprimanded him.

Dunkwu did not return telephone calls for this story.

Some state officials have questioned the medical board's decision.

``In cases like this, the public is not being protected at all,'' said Del. Robert G. Marshall, a Manassas Republican. ``We are elected to be guardians of the public good. If we are not going to pay attention when the public is not being protected, then we bear responsibility and we should pay.''



Sex abuse of children fails to trigger revocation
The Timberlake case
Dr. Byron B. Timberlake of Winchester
Practice area: Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat)
Medical school: Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Columbus, Ohio
Year completed: 1964
Virginia's medical board is not limited to disciplining doctors for incompetence. Only 3 percent of investigations involve medical care alone, according to the 1999 state audit.

The board also can act in cases of unprofessional conduct. For example, doctors can lose their licenses for selling drugs or assaulting patients.

A review of the cases of more than 600 doctors and thousands of pages of records, however, found that the agency allows more than 40 doctors to practice medicine despite offenses such as sleeping with patients, seducing teenage girls or sexually harassing co-workers. About 90 doctors hold licenses in spite of substance abuse or improperly prescribing drugs.

According to board orders:

- Dr. Daniel M. Calhoun Jr. struck a surgical patient at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News in 1992. In 1994, he struck a surgical patient, swore and knocked surgical instruments to the floor.

- Dr. Fang S. Horng, a Luray surgeon, fathered a child with a patient.

- Dr. Antony Joseph, a Richmond psychiatrist, impregnated a former patient and then told her to ``get rid of it.''

And then there is the case of Dr. Byron B. Timberlake.

Board members concluded that he fondled six boys between the ages of 6 and 13.

The board could have taken Timberlake's license but instead allowed the Winchester ear, nose and throat specialist to continue practicing.

The abuse began nearly a decade before Timberlake appeared at a formal hearing of the medical board in 1985, according to an official board order.

Timberlake saw an adolescent boy 22 times between 1975 and 1977, according to the board order. On nearly every visit, he took the child to an operating room alone. Out of sight of the boy's parents or his staff, he fondled the boy's genitals and, on one occasion, placed his ear on the child's belly below the navel.

Timberlake got another child alone by telling his mother that he planned to check the boy's lungs in a different room.

Board officials ruled that Timberlake's bizarre behavior had nothing to do with a legitimate exam. Officials found that he routinely examined boys' genitals behind closed doors while a nurse or other staff member waited outside.

At his hearing, Timberlake testified that he preferred not to examine children in front of their mothers or chaperones because ``the male adolescent patient would feel awkward and embarrassed.''

Timberlake did not return telephone calls for this story.

He was arrested in December 1983 and charged with committing aggravated sexual battery on a child under 13. A jury found him not guilty in June 1984.

The family of an 11-year-old boy filed a civil suit against Timberlake in 1985. The doctor settled the suit two years later.

In the lawsuit, filed in Winchester Circuit Court, the boy's family charged that the ``conduct of the defendant was of such a nature as to shock the conscience of reasonable men.''

Yet the board was forgiving.

Medical officials found Timberlake ``guilty of fraud or deceit'' and unprofessional conduct, ruling that his treatment of the six children was ``contrary to the standard of ethics,'' according to the board order. He was further found to have practiced medicine ``in such a manner as to make his practice a danger to the health and welfare of his patients.''

Authorities revoked Timberlake's license but immediately ``stayed'' the revocation, placing the doctor on indefinite probation, according to the board order. Officials ordered him not to treat boys under 18 and to see a psychiatrist.

The board commonly issues one sanction and replaces it with another if it believes there are mitigating circumstances, director Nebiker said.

The next year, in 1986, the board allowed Timberlake to begin treating young boys again. Officials required that such visits take place ``in the presence of an appropriate chaperone, preferably a parent,'' according to a board order.

To protect the identity of her son, the mother who sued Timberlake asked that her name not be used. She is still angry that the board allows Timberlake to practice and worries that other parents may not be aware of his history.

``We had such a sound case,'' she said. ``It's just astounding.''

In 1990 -- five years after the board found him guilty -- Timberlake was taken off probation, and his license was ``reinstated with all attendant rights and privileges,'' a board order shows.

There are no restrictions on his ability to see children.

Physicians allowed to use discredited alternative therapies
The Speckhart case
Dr. Vincent J. Speckhart of Norfolk
Practice area: Internal medicine and oncology
Medical school: New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.
Year completed: 1958
Dr. Vincent J. Speckhart's unusual brand of medicine has attracted the attention of state investigators.

At one time, the Norfolk oncologist treated cancer patients with vaccines made with minute quantities of their own urine and feces, a board order shows. He also has used a non-standard, experimental procedure called ``electro-acupuncture of vol,'' in which machines are supposed to measure patients' electrical activity as a way to diagnose disease.

In 1993, the board concluded that some of Speckhart's treatments had no ``accepted therapeutic purpose'' and were ``contrary to sound medical judgment,'' according to an official order.

The board found that Speckhart, who declined to comment, violated Virginia law, conducted his practice unethically and endangered patients, according to the order. He was instructed to stop using the unusual vaccines and to use the acupuncture procedure only as part of formal clinical trials.

The board voted to arrange an audit of Speckhart's practice and placed him on probation, which lasted until 1998.

Speckhart was quoted in The Virginian-Pilot after his 1993 hearing as saying, "I am grateful to the board for its concern, patience and diligence in looking after their patients. I feel vindicated . . . I am a good physician."

The family of Navy Cmdr. Robert A. Rizzi, a 48-year-old cancer patient who died after being treated by Speckhart, filed suit against the physician in Norfolk Circuit Court. In 1996, a jury in 1996 found in the family's favor.

The lawsuit asserted that Rizzi, a Hampton Roads father of three, died as a direct result of Speckhart's ``failure to comply with the applicable standards of care.''

Rizzi's widow said she's shocked that Speckhart is still practicing.

``When you have a family member with cancer, you're pretty desperate,'' said Victoria Rizzi. ``He sure had us fooled.''


>> Story continued:
- Doctors lose licenses not for medical care, but for criminal convictions
- Even convicted felons can practice medicine
- A doctor convicted of felonies directly related to patient care is allowed to keep working
- Even when doctors lose their licenses, it may not be for long
>> Read about those cases
http://www.hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/special/doctors/part2.html

Previous related report: Operating Behind Closed Doors - the Dr. Robert G. Brewer case
http://www.hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/special/doctor/