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Little Rock, Arkansas – A pathologist was fired from an Arkansas Veterans Hospital after officials said he was weakened while on duty was charged with manslaughter on Tuesday for the deaths of three patients . Authorities say he misdiagnosed them and altered their records in an attempt to conceal his mistakes.
An unsealed grand jury charge Tuesday charged Dr. Robert Morris Levy with the deaths of his patients and multiple charges of fraud and misrepresentation for his alleged attempts to conceal his drug addiction and misdiagnoses.
"In doing so, he was allowed to remain in the service of the veterans, earning a salary, benefits and possibly a bonus," said Duane Kees, the US Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, during a meeting. a press conference in Fayetteville. Veterans Affairs by its former name.
Levy, 53, who worked for the health care system of Ozarks veterans in Fayetteville, earned an annual salary of $ 225,000, according to the indictment. He was discharged from the hospital in April 2018.
KFSM-TV
VA officials said in January that outside pathologists had examined nearly 34,000 cases treated by Levy and discovered more than 3,000 errors or missed diagnoses since 2005. He acknowledged that he had already presented at work in the health system of veterans of the Ozarks intoxicated. 2016, but he denied working with the impaired. He entered an inpatient treatment program as a result of this incident and returned to work in October 2016 after agreeing to stay sober and undergo random drug testing.
Levy, who was detained at Washington County Jail, pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Tuesday. Kees said that since Tuesday morning, Levy had not got a lawyer to represent him in this case.
In the deaths, Levy is accused of falsifying entries in the records of his patients after making incorrect and misleading diagnoses. In one case, one patient died of prostate cancer after Levy determined that his biopsy had shown that he did not have cancer, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say that a second patient died of squamous cell carcinoma after Levy had diagnosed with a patient another form of carcinoma. In a third case, according to the indictment, a patient with small cell carcinoma had been treated for a type of cancer that he had not had to following a faulty diagnosis made by Levy and had passed away.
In two cases, he is accused of falsifying a patient's medical records to indicate that a second pathologist was in agreement with his diagnosis.
Prosecutors said Levy had received bonuses in 2016 and 2017, based in part on the fact that he had stated that his clinical errors were less than 5%. But, according to the indictment, nearly 10% of the diagnoses he made had clinical errors.
"These charges clearly indicate that any person in charge of veterans care will be held responsible for exposing them to a risk by working with impaired driving or any other reprehensible behavior," said the Inspector General of the VA, Michael Missal.
According to the indictment, Levy ingested 2-methyl-2-butanol, a chemical that would intoxicate him, but standard drug and alcohol tests are not not controlled. Levy is accused of lying to hospital officials when he told them that he was not under the influence of any intoxicating substance. Levy is accused of several counts of mail and electronic fraud for his purchase of the chemical.
According to KFSM, a CBS affiliate in Fort Smith, Arkansas, US attorney Kees said at a press conference that Levy "possessed medical expertise, the knowledge, skills and equipment to know exactly how much of this stuff to take in. He had the equipment to measure it "precisely, and he had the knowledge to know how to ingest it so that it would not be fatal. "
The station notes that "ingestion of 18 to 27 grams of the substance may induce signs of intoxication and cause unconsciousness only 30 minutes after taking the drug, according to the National Center for Biotechnology ( NCBI).
"The effects can last until the next day and can be followed by a deep and prolonged sleep and a two-week recovery," says the NCBI.
When he is convicted of all counts, Levy incurs a sentence of up to 524 years in prison and a fine of $ 7.75 million, Kees said.
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