Nov 8, 2006 11:43 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Medical Mistakes; State Failures
by Kurtis Ming
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
You trust your doctor with your life, but should you? A Roseville doctor left patients injured. The medical board knew he battled a dangerous addiction, but in Kurtis' investigation, he found out the agency failed to protect patients.
Speeding away, is a California doctor arrested twice for driving drunk. Once, was after crashing his car on I-80 in the summer of 2000. That day, plastic surgeon Dr. Brian West was headed to the hospital, to treat a patient.
"He told me had a flat tire, and that's not true, he had a dui," says Dr. West's patient Becky Anderson.
Becky Anderson, who can't help but think the doctor's drinking problems contributed to her condition, which to anyone's eye, is tough to see.
In for breast reconstructive surgery after a double mastectomy, she says Dr. West left her with multiple painful infections, keeping her from getting the cancer treatment she desperately needed. The flesh eating infections have now led to a dozen operations.
"I was filleted open like a fish," says Anderson.
Her cancer spread. She was left permanently disfigured. In the last surgery, Dr. West removed muscle from her leg, something Becky claims she told him not to do.
"What he did was a crime, a doctor can't go in and do what he wants," says Anderson.
Other patients too, wonder if the doctor's personal problems, lead to their medical mishaps.
One tummy tuck patient who also became infected, says she smelt what she believes was alcohol on the doctor's breath the day she went in for surgery. She woke up learning Dr. West had done liposuction she has told him she didn't want.
"He went ahead and did it anyway," says a woman we'll call 'Marion', a patient of Dr. West.
Also infected, Linda Starr after her breast reconstruction.
KURTIS: How long did it take to heal?
STARR: 7 or 8 months.
KURTIS: 7 or 8 months you went without the chemotherapy or radiation you needed to stop your cancer from spreading?
STARR: Right, that they said was so important
Her cancer did spread.
"She was extremely special to me," says Ken Mickulecky, Widower of a patient of Dr. West.
As Ken Mickulecky's late wife recovered from a reconstructive operation, he couldn't believe his eyes.
"He stuck his finger without a glove on in my wife's wound," says Mickulecky. "When he came in to examine her she said 'smells like he's got alcohol on his breath.' I said doctors wouldn't do that."
(Continued)
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Kurtis Ming's Original Report On Dr. West
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