Personal Injury Law

Should Malpractice Prevent You from Practicing Elsewhere

By Ben Glass

Here's an interesting story from Maine--it seems that a neurosurgeon with a serious malpractice claim pending in New York applied for and was given privileges to practice in Maine.

The neurosurgeon was then found liable in a medical malpractice suit for a surgical procedure which left a man in a wheelchair prior to the doctor coming to Maine.

Dr. Victor Ho has agreed to a payment of $1.9 million under a settlement and has no plans of appealing the New York jury's verdict. Ho was a doctor at the New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in 2000 when the botched spinal surgery took place. In 2005 he came to Maine while on probation in New York.

Ho is a member of New England Neurosurgery in Lewiston and also has full privileges at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center and limited privileges at Central Maine Medical Center.

According to Randal Manning of the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine, the board examined the application of Ho carefully and interviewed him. Manning said there was no reason he should be denied a Maine license because of being found guilty of simple negligence, not gross negligence, in New York.

I agree with the Board. It is a pattern of malpractice, not one incident, that medical boards need to look at and clamp down on. Anyone can make a mistake once and that is no reason to be deprived of your livelihood.

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on April 19, 2008 (boomark / email).