Case disposed

Negligent-credentialing 

lawsuit apparently over

By David Baker

Posted July 31, 2012 at 5 25 a.m. EDT

UPDATE: As of Wednesday morning the court system lists the status of this case as "Disposed - settled before trial.

It appears from 3,000 miles away here in England that the lawsuit against former gynaecologist Akiva Abraham and Samaritan Hospital has ended on the first day of trial.

A notation on the court system’s web page says the status of the case is ‘disposed, motion pending’.

The lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged that Abraham left Susan Stalker of Waterford disfigured when he performed an unauthorized and unnecessary lumpectomy on her in March 2004, and that Samaritan Hospital was negligent in granting privileges to Abraham when it knew or should have known that he was medically and morally unfit to practice.

Abraham later lost his medical license on 34 counts of misconduct, none of which related to the Stalker case.  He is now bankrupt and in prison on his conviction of insurance fraud stemming from an arson.

Northeast Health Inc. operates Samaritan Hospital and Albany Memorial Hospital, and, after a merger this year, also St. Mary Hospital in Troy and St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.  Between them, these hospitals have provided a steady stream of advertising revenue to the newspapers.  Even today, the new combined healthcare organization is paying the Times Union as a “sponsor” of photographs from the Olympic Games here in the U.K.

The Stalker case was first reported on this blog’s sister web page, capitaldistricthealthclaims.com, back in February and the stories on that page and this blog are still the only accounts of this case.  The unusual claim of negligent credentialing, along with virtually every other malpractice lawsuit filed against area hospitals since 1999, has never been mentioned by any of the area’s newspapers, even as they repeatedly reported Abraham’s many other problems.  And the apparent end of this case means that the newspapers will almost certainly continue to suppress an issue of obvious public interest.

Further details on what appears to be yesterday’s settlement will appear here as soon as they become available.

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The detailed first story of the case is HERE