Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More on Kiaser OB who killed a baby.

Ok LA Times took down the artical I added to my post about this so I am going to copy a story from another web site but the LA Times artical was longer and had more info. But you will still get the details. The one big thing that I wished had been included in this story was the baby whose spinal cord was severed decribed the force he was using over a period of time and how once he saw the baby was dead he tried blaming the nure and even went to the extent of telling them what to put in the report for medicaid that said the baby was born alive.

A Kaiser Permanente perinatologist has been the subject of numerous staff and patient complaints and his actions may have contributed to terrible medical outcomes, a newspaper has reported.
According to a Los Angeles Times investigation published Tuesday, Dr. Hamid Safari has been under scrutiny for several years and at least one review board has deemed that his conduct needs improvement.
Several instances of possibly inadequate care were cited by the newspaper, including a 2005 delivery at Kaiser's Fresno hospital in which Safari pulled so hard on the head of a baby with a vacuum extractor that the baby's spinal cord was severed and it died.
Kaiser now requires Safari to be monitored by another physician or nurse during deliveries and he is no longer allowed to perform vaginal deliveries.
In September, the state medical board accused Safari of gross negligence, seeking to revoke or suspend his license.
Safari's attorney Stephen D. Schear called the accusations "completely unwarranted."
"If you're doing thousands of high-risk deliveries over the years, it's almost inevitable that there's going to be some unfortunate cases where children die, where things don't go right," Schear said.
Another complaint centers around allegations that Safari resisted a mother's request for a Caesarean section even though the baby was likely suffering from a reduced oxygen supply. The baby girl died before she was 10 months old.
The coroner attributed her death to chronic respiratory diseases, but did not address if these were related to birth trauma.
The mother in that case filed an arbitration claim against Safari that was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Doctors and nurses have made repeated complaints to higher-ups at Kaiser about possible problems with Safari's skills and behavior, according to a Times review of interviews and documents.
The health care provider was in July fined $3 million for its handling of complaints and physician errors. Officials told the Times that Safari's actions played an important role in regulators' decision to investigate Kaiser.
One petition signed by eight of Safari's perinatal peers said they had lost confidence in Safari. But several other doctors signed a letter supporting him.
Kaiser did not let senior officials talk to the Times for its story and warned staffers at Kaiser Fresno not to speak with the newspaper.
In a statement, hospital administrator Susan Ryan said Kaiser was "committed to ensuring the safety of our patients."

4 comments:

Vickie Travis said...

Here are a few links to mirrors of the L.A. Times Articles related to Hamid Safari - This includes a page written by one of his former colleagues, Dr. Charles Phillips that was not published in the L.A. Times.

01/29/2008
Administrator at Kaiser's Fresno hospital steps down
Susan Ryan's resignation comes after a federal report faults the hospital for its slow response to complaints about a physician. Regarding Hamid Safari
http://californianews.kaiserpapers.info/children/fresnoadministrator.html
Cross Referenced with:

http://californianews.kaiserpapers.info/noonewouldlisten.html

http://drphillips.kaiserpapers.info/hamid-safari

http://letters.kaiserpapers.info/october2007.html

http://californianews.kaiserpapers.info/anotherkaiser805.html

http://californianews.kaiserpapers.info/kaiserresponds.html

Loving mom said...

Thank you so much!

Anonymous said...

I am the mother whose baby died in 2004. I am sitting here in TEARS as I just found out this man not only was able to retain his license to kill someone else's child. The hospital paid him money to go away. NO ONE cares about my children who suffered as a result. NO one cares that this man also almost killed me. It destroyed my family, my children will forever be in need of counseling. And I can never have children again. I am terrified. All I wanted to do is save another life. This man lied under oath and with a straight face. I think Kaiser needs to be exposed for protecting these doctors and not making information public. This man is a murderer.

Loving mom said...

@Anonymous was this story about you and your baby or was it the same doctor involved? Either way I am so sorry for your loss. Words can not express the sorrow I feel for you. I will not attempt to say I "know" how you feel, because I don't. ((HUGS)) I truly hope that this man gets back what he has dished out.