Specialties CRNA
Published Oct 27, 2011
NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN
10 Articles; 18,358 Posts
Anesthesiologist Pays $8.2M for Praising Error-Prone Colleague
Doctor's letter of recommendation implicated him in colleague's malpractice suit.
Published: October 25, 2011
Outpatient Surgery Magazine
Careful what you say - and don't say - in the next letter of recommendation you're asked to write. A Louisiana anesthesiologist was ordered to pay $8.2 million for a clinical error he didn't commit, all because he wrote glowing letters of recommendation for a colleague without disclosing the colleague's habit of diverting Demerol from his patients. In his next job, the colleague committed a serious medical error that left a woman in a permanent vegetative state and was sued for malpractice, and the letter-writer found himself implicated in the case..
Spikey9001, BSN, RN
337 Posts
He better have a good lawyer.
Orange Tree
728 Posts
Wow. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN
1 Article; 20,908 Posts
Makes you wonder about giving recommendations..... Although I don't give recommendations unless I really KNOW the person and I certainly wouldn't have done so in this case....What was the anesthesiologist thinking? Did he know this person had issues? was he trying to dump the problem on someone else?
JeneraterRN
256 Posts
Wow, I wonder if he wrote the letters to help get rid of a problem coworker.
Annaiya, NP
555 Posts
This isn't a new concept, you have to be truthful in your recommendations. If the anesthesiologist knew about the drug problem and didn't disclose it, that's not ok. There was a similar case I read about years ago from Florida where a company had an employee that scared the entire office so they laid him off and told him they'd give him a glowing review, because they were scared of him. He shot and killed several people at his new job and the former employer was found responsible in part because they lied in the recommendation. If the anesthesiologist knew about the drug problem then I think he should be held jointly liable.
lrobinson5
691 Posts
I am assuming that the anesthesiologist knew about the drug diversion, in which case he does deserve some of the blame. I'm not saying he should come out and tell an employer what he was doing (because I think that might have legal repercussions as well), but he definitely shouldn't have wrote the letter.
I am very curious how much the actual Doc that made the error had to pay. If a letter of recommendation gets you nearly $10 million, I wonder how much the vegetative state costs.
caliotter3
38,333 Posts
When I could not give a truthful good recommendation, I told the person that I would be unable to give a recommendation. If he knew there was a problem, then that is probably the course of action he should have taken.
Mulan
2,228 Posts
The good old boy network among doctors. They've always stuck together and covered up for each other.