BECKLEY – Another lawsuit has been filed against Raleigh General Hospital for unnecessary cardiac procedures performed by a former surgeon.
Dr. Donald Kenneth Glaser; LifePoint Health Inc.; LifePoint Hospitals Inc.; and LifePoint WV Holdings Inc. were also named as defendants in the suit.
On March 22, 2013, Joyce A. Mullins consented to a cardiac catheterization procedure that Glaser performed, according to a complaint filed May 12 in Raleigh Circuit Court.
Mullins and her husband, Jerry Mullins, claim during the procedure, Glaser inserted medically unnecessary stents into her mid-left anterior descending artery and her proximal left anterior descending artery.
The unnecessary placement of the stents were not medically indicated and proximately caused harm to Joyce Mullins and subjected her to unnecessary risks, according to the suit.
The Mullinses claim for the sole purpose of financial gain, the defendants misrepresented to Joyce Mullins the need for her stents.
As a result of the defendants’ acts, Joyce Mullins incurred unnecessary medical expenses, injuries and damages, according to the suit.
The Mullinses claim Raleigh General and LifePoint are liable for the tortious acts of their employees and agents.
The Mullinses are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are being represented by Robert V. Berthold Jr. and Matthew C. Berthold of Berthold Law Firm PLLC.
In 2008, Raleigh General performed 107 cardiac procedures. In 2009, the hospital performed 350 cardiac procedures, an increase of more than 300 percent.
In 2010, during Glaser's first full year as the director of Raleigh General's interventional cardiology unit, the number of cardiac procedures rose to 1,745. In 2011, the hospital performed approximately 1,700 cardiac procedures and in 2012, performed 2,109 cardiac procedures.
In 2013, Glaser's tenure at Raleigh General ended and he worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, from June 2013 until November 2013 and then moved to Waldorf, Md., where he stayed for approximately one year.
In October 2014, Glaser applied for employment with the Beckley VA Medical Center to work as a cardiologist and when the medical center contacted Beckley General to investigate Glaser's credentials and background, Beckley General did not inform the medical center that Glaser was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Beckley VA Medical Center offered Glaser an offer of employment in January 2015 and on Feb. 13, 2015, just days after news agencies reported that Glaser was under investigation, Glaser rescinded his acceptance of the offer of employment by the medical center.
At least 18 lawsuits have been filed against the defendants since January 2015 due to the alleged unnecessary cardiac procedures.
Raleigh Circuit Court case number: 16-C-296
