Lenora Lewis hoped spinal surgery would relieve her chronic back pain. But when the mother of three from Lancaster awoke from the operation in 2013, she was paralyzed from the waist down, her feet numb but for the horrifying sensation of “a billion ants running through them.”
The board found that nine of them committed offenses that warranted license revocation, but it instead gave them lighter punishment — their revocations were stayed and they were put on probation. Four went on to be accused of doing serious harm to other patients after their first board discipline, The Times found in a review of medical board records.
Lokesh Tantuwaya, a San Diego spinal surgeon whose license has been revoked three times by the board, which placed him on probation each time. His license remains valid as he sits in jail awaiting trial on charges that he took more than $3 million in illegal kickbacks for surgeries in one of the biggest insurance scams in state history.
Misra, 59, a Lancaster neurosurgeon, has been one of the most frequently disciplined doctors in the state, according to The Times’ analysis. Misra declined to discuss Lewis’ case or others underlying the medical board’s disciplinary actions. He denied wrongdoing in malpractice lawsuits related to his pending board action and defended his medical skills in a brief interview.“I feel very confident and comfortable taking care of patients,” he said. “I am safe, absolutely.”“The fact that he’s out and about and still practicing is just amazing to me,” she said. “There is definitely a flaw in the medical board’s system of justice.
At the board’s most recent quarterly meeting in May, after a long public comment period dominated by complaints from aggrieved patients, Eserick “TJ” Watkins, one of seven non-physicians on the board, summed up the long-simmering, widespread frustration, describing the panel as “tone-deaf.”“The process is not working for the people, the process is not working for the public, but, unfortunately, it’s working perfectly, perfectly for the doctors,” Watkins told his fellow members.
Misra’s attorney, Peter Bertling, said the medical board’s deviation from its disciplinary guidelines only affirms his client’s competence. Claiming the board wants to offer the doctor yet another chance at rehabilitation is “pretty pitiful” and a “dangerous excuse,” Wolfe added. “It amounts to an admission that they are not doing a good job.”
And many victims of serious medical errors never file a complaint with the board; they turn to a malpractice lawyer instead. The board often learns about those cases only years later, if the doctor, or his insurance company, pays more than $30,000 to settle a civil lawsuit, triggering a mandatory report.
After conflicting medical testimony — a board expert said the ability to do an emergency tracheostomy is required of neurosurgeons; Chiu’s witnesses said it wasn’t — the board decided Chiu was not grossly negligent in that case. In the fall of 2019, five new and troubling cases were brought to the board. In one, Chiu ordered a scan that showed a patient’s pain, sudden weight loss and difficulty swallowing were probably caused by liver cancer that had spread to his throat. Chiu “failed to discuss the results of the CT study with the patient, and instead proceeded with neck surgery,” according to board records.
Now he lives with a nearly constant burning sensation that radiates up his right leg, Gerbrandt said. Severe pain in his back, which he didn’t have before the operation, forces him to use a walker. Gerbrandt, 69, said he had been winding down his practice, but the new disabilities hastened his retirement.
Stan Gerbrandt has chronic pain in his right leg after Dr. John Chiu performed surgery the day before Chiu surrendered his license. During the procedure, Apaydin inadvertently cut the wire with the laser but apparently didn’t realize it. When Puga returned a week later complaining of pain and complications, a radiologist performed a CT scan that showed a “coiled metallic wire” in his bladder, the records state. The radiologist noted it in Puga’s chart and recommended corrective action.
The medical board also accused Apaydin of repeated acts of negligence involving Puga and issued a letter of reprimand in 2012, five years after his original surgery.
California is not Alone... There are millions more like cases and worse that are hidden away by State Medical Boards Nation wide that will NEVER see the Light of Day. 👀🙄
They need to lose there medical license