Anesthesiologist Pays $8.2M for Praising Error-Prone Colleague

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

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]

He better have a good lawyer.

[Orange Tree]

Wow. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

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]

Wow, I wonder if he wrote the letters to help get rid of a problem coworker.

[Annaiya, NP]

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]

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]

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]

The good old boy network among doctors. They've always stuck together and covered up for each other.