Trial begins in botched surgeries case

Sept. 03--Just how did Dr. Christian Schlicht get hired at an Alamogordo hospital in 2006, where he performed alleged experimental back surgery on dozens of patients who have since suffered life-altering complications?

And who allowed him to continue working there for two years despite red-flag warnings of his actions?

Years after Schlicht left New Mexico, and the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center filed bankruptcy under the weight of the ensuing medical malpractice claims involving him, a trial began Monday in Albuquerque that could determine whether corporate negligence was to blame.

Attorneys for 71 plaintiffs contend the national hospital administration company, Quorum Health Resources, which provided top executives to run Gerald Champion, was negligent in hiring and supervising Schlicht and by allowing him to perform a non-FDA-approved spine procedure using bone cement.

"These surgeries can never be done anywhere safely in the world," Albuquerque attorney Lisa Curtis said in opening arguments Monday. "This is absolute human experimentation."

Curtis alleged Quorum allowed the practice "for financial gain. There can be no other explanation."

The plaintiffs contend Quorum also permitted Schlicht to perform other complicated surgeries that he was neither qualified nor trained to perform.

His last botched surgery in New Mexico occurred the last week before he quit his job at the hospital, the plaintiffs contend. He performed an elaborate spine surgery involving rods, screws and plates at the nonprofit Gerald Champion hospital with no surgical assistant.

Quorum attorneys deny the claims, contending the hospital's board of directors, who were selected from the southern New Mexico community served by the hospital, were ultimately responsible for all hospital liability.

Attorney John Klecan, who represents Quorum, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert H. Jacobvitz that it was the hospital's medical staff that by law is to supervise the actions of its physicians -- not hospital administrators.

He also said top Quorum-hired managers weren't aware of the experimental procedure being used at the hospital, where Schlicht worked at a base annual salary of $450,000.

"The hole in their case is they can't show anybody knew that procedure was being done," Klecan said.

Plaintiffs' attorney Greig Coates argued that hospital officials were alerted to the problems by another physician assigned to monitor him and by Molina Healthcare, which for a time wouldn't pay for surgeries Schlicht performed.

Coates said the board was never told of the red flags.

"They were not and should not be held responsible," Coates said of board members.

Curtis said Schlicht was never fired or removed by hospital officials because of the experimental surgeries. She said he resigned only after learning his spine procedures weren't making enough money for the hospital and that he wasn't going to be awarded bonuses.

Other settlements

In 2012, the plaintiffs entered a partial settlement of about $33million with several parties.

That amount included $13.5million from Quorum and another insurance company, $7.5million from Gerald Champion hospital and $11.5million from another physician who teamed up with Schlicht to perform some of the bone cement procedures.

Even though Gerald Champion emerged from bankruptcy protection after the settlement, the case remained pending in Bankruptcy Court in New Mexico because of other legal action involving Quorum in Tennessee.

Quorum, a subsidiary of Community Health Systems, filed suit against two insurance companies for refusing to cover the claims by the New Mexico plaintiffs. That case is still pending.

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