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Satanica

Veteran Member
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Little Rock, Arkansas -- A pathologist fired from an Arkansas veterans hospital after officials said he had been impaired while on duty was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three patients. Authorities say he misdiagnosed them and altered their records to try to conceal his mistakes.
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A grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday charged Dr. Robert Morris Levy in the patients' deaths and on multiple charges of fraud and making false statements for his alleged attempts to conceal his substance abuse and incorrect diagnoses.

"In doing so, he was allowed to stay employed with the Veterans Administration, thus earning a salary, benefits and possibly a bonus," Duane Kees, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, said at a news conference in Fayetteville
[....]
VA officials said in January that outside pathologists reviewed nearly 34,000 cases handled by Levy and found more than 3,000 errors or missed diagnoses dating back to 2005. Levy has acknowledged that he once showed up to work at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks drunk in 2016, but he denied that he had worked while impaired. He entered an in-patient treatment program following that incident and returned to work in October 2016 after agreeing to remain sober and submitting to random drug testing.

Levy, who was being held at the Washington County jail, pleaded not guilty at a hearing Tuesday. Kees said that as of Tuesday morning, Levy had not obtained counsel to represent him in the case.

In the deaths, Levy is accused of falsifying entries in his patients' records after making incorrect and misleading diagnoses. In one case, a patient died of prostate cancer after Levy determined that his biopsy showed he didn't have cancer, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors say a second patient died of squamous cell carcinoma after Levy misdiagnosed the patient with another form of carcinoma. In a third case, the indictment says, a patient with small cell carcinoma was treated for a type of cancer he didn't have following an incorrect diagnosis by Levy, and died.

In two cases, he's accused of falsifying patients' medical records to state that a second pathologist agreed with his diagnosis.

Prosecutors say Levy received bonuses in 2016 and 2017 that were based in part on him reporting that his clinical errors were less than five percent. But, according the indictment, almost 10 percent of the diagnoses he made had clinical errors.

Levy ingested 2-methyl-2-butanol, a chemical that would intoxicate him but that standard drug and alcohol screenings don't test for, according to the indictment. Levy is accused of lying to hospital officials when he told them he wasn't under the influence of any intoxicants. Levy is charged with multiple counts of mail and wire fraud for his purchase of the chemical.

CBS Fort Smith, Arkansas affiliate KFSM reports U.S. Attorney Kees told a news conference Levy "had the medical expertise, the knowledge, the skill set and the equipment to know exactly how much of this substance to take. He had the equipment to measure it out precisely, and he had the knowledge to know how to ingest it so it wouldn't be fatal."

The station notes that, "Ingesting between 18 and 27 grams of the substance can induce signs of intoxication and cause unconsciousness only 30 minutes after taking the drug, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

"The effects can last into the following day and can be followed by deep, daylong sleeping and a two-week recovery," the NCBI says.

If convicted of all counts, Levy faces a sentence of up to 524 years in prison and $7.75 million in fines, Kees said.

 
Sadly he is a poster child for the VA. My brother dated a nurse who worked for the VA. She was a drug addict and alcoholic and despite showing up intoxicated, missing weeks at a stretch, and even getting into a full on brawl, it was nigh impossible to fire her. And no, my brother isn't still dating her. He's moved on to other mistakes.
 

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