Scary story of 3 anesthesia related deaths at Scripps

[stevierae]

this was in the latest issue of outpatient surgery. damn! i'll bet the or nurses and the pacu nurses complained about this guy--repeatedly--before any action was taken.

unfortunately, it always takes a patient death before the "powers that be" take action. they'd usually rather put their heads in the sand and pretend they are not hearing what they are hearing--or, worse, they disregard it because we are "only nurses."

who uses brevital anymore, anyway? sounds like this guy should have retired years ago.

the comment about failure to apply cricoid pressure confuses me, though. he can't very well apply his

own cricoid pressure while he is intubating--that's the job of the circulating nurse. if they were crashing a patient because said patient had a full stomach, (or hiatal hernia, or other reasons that would warrant cricoid) why didn't said rn take it upon himself or herself to apply cricoid pressure?

story follows:

a san diego anesthesiologist has surrendered his medical license after the medical board of california found him "grossly negligent, repeatedly negligent and incompetent" in three patient deaths in a four-month stretch at scripps mercy hospital in 2002.

according to court records, david bittar, md:

failed to apply cricoid pressure during induction and failure to compress the stomach with an ng tube before the induction of a 71-year-old male;

intubated the esophagus instead of the trachea when an 86-year-old male became distressed before a stent procedure and arthrectomy; and

administered brevital to an 85-year-old male with critical aortic stenosis suffering from low blood pressure and atrial fibrillation.

in the third case, the accusation says, dr. bittar, 63, felt the patient was stable and left the or to tend to another case. he was called back 35 minutes later to find the patient on dopamine for blood pressure support. dr. bittar was also accused of negligence when a painkiller leaked into the spinal cord fluid of a 60-year-old woman during knee-replacement surgery. the woman temporarily stopped breathing, but she survived.

by surrendering his license, according to a medical board of california decision signed by dr. bittar on july 2, he admits "the board can prove its prima facie case for each and every charge and allegation" and "to the truth of each and every allegation should he ever re-apply for his medical license."

"let the decision speak for itself," said a spokesman for scripps health. "we don't have anything further to say about the matter."

officials at scripps mercy hospital reported dr. bittar, who retired in april, to the state medical board. he could not be reached for comment."

-- daniel cook