Dr. Alexios Apazidis, Deer Park surgeon, blames NUMC procedures for alleged copied-and-pasted surgical reports, court records show

A Deer Park orthopedic spinal surgeon accused of copying and pasting 43 virtually identical surgical reports over a four-year period blamed a medical records template he was required to use while performing "standardized and highly repetitive" procedures at Nassau University Medical Center, according to new court records.

The Dec. 16 filing, submitted as part of a lawsuit involving a couple who said they were injured in a roof collapse inside their Brooklyn apartment, provides the most detailed explanation to date of the nearly indistinguishable surgical reports submitted by Dr. Alexios Apazidis, a Harvard-educated surgeon now with Total Spine and Sports Care.

The medical insurance provider in the case is suing Apazidis, who operated on both people, arguing the injuries and roof collapse were fraudulent, and part of an alleged staged accident scheme.

Apazidis told the court that while performing spinal surgeries at NUMC, he was required to use the East Meadow public hospital’s record system, which contained "recommended templates" providers were encouraged to use.

The surgeon contends he used a similar electronic health records template while performing orthopedic procedures at two New Jersey hospitals.

"I used these templates and modified them to fit my practice," Apazidis said, explaining why dozens of his surgical reports on patients included nearly identical language. "Many of the orthopedic procedures I perform have routine and uniform steps that must be taken in the preparation and execution of the procedure."

A spokesman for NUMC, whose board was taken over by the state earlier this year, declined to comment.

Apazidis, who also has an office in Westbury and lives in St. James, argued that while many surgeries are highly standardized, he would modify the template based on the patient’s name and history, the kind of injury and its specific details, the implant size used and any additional procedures he performed.

The Brooklyn lawsuit contends Apazidis "falsely manufactured the contents of the operative reports," knowing they would be used in lawsuits for patients, many of whom are non-English speaking immigrants involved in accident litigation.

An attorney for Apazidis, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon who is also affiliated with New Jersey-based Precision Pain & Spine Institute, declined to comment.

Apazidis received privileges to perform surgeries at NUMC in 2016 and continues to maintain those privileges, records show.

Dispute over alleged 'canned justification' for surgeries

The surgical reports in question — which now number at least 43 patients, ranging in age from 18 to 63, on whom Apazidis allegedly performed spinal fusion surgeries between 2020 and 2024 — detail surgical procedures and are part of the patient's medical record. They are used for future patient care, billing and potential legal challenges.

While the nature of the injuries vary — from workplace falls to car crashes — more than 800 words of highly technical language in each of the multipage surgical reports authored by Apazidis are identical in structure, findings, descriptions and language, differing only in the patient’s name, the procedure date, their cervical spine level and the size of the hardware implanted during the surgery.

Dan Johnston, a Melville-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of an insurance provider involved in the Brooklyn couple's case, said Apazidis has repeatedly submitted statements under oath that his surgical findings were accurate and individualized.

The new court filings, Johnston said, prove  Apazidis provided a "canned justification" for his surgeries that was "wholly untethered to any clinical or diagnostic support."

The filings ask the court to refer Apazidis’ conduct to the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct to investigate whether to suspend the doctor’s medical license. The state Department of Health declined to comment.

The bulk of the surgeries occurred when Apazidis was affiliated with Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine between 2020 and 2023. Total Ortho, which has four locations in Nassau County, has been named in multiple lawsuits alleging that their clinicians provided unnecessary surgeries to people involved in staged accidents. 

The private company, which has denied the claims, continues to operate the Orthopedics Department at NUMC. The hospital's newly configured board of directors has launched an investigatory review of surgeries performed by Total Ortho doctors and plans to reduce the company's outsized role in its orthopedics department.

Previous misconduct allegations

Apazidis has faced other allegations of misconduct.

In 2015, he had his medical license suspended for 36 months and was fined $50,000 after admitting to allegations of "negligence" and "incompetence," according to Health Department records. The suspension was stayed, allowing Apazidis to continue practicing while on probation after paying the fine.

Apazidis admitted improperly prescribing a compounded topical gel containing ketamine, a powerful anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects, to dozens of patients, records show. He also failed to use an official New York State prescription form when distributing the medication and inappropriately prescribed oxycodone without meeting with or evaluating a patient, according to the records.

In August, Newsday reported on a lawsuit filed by Kerry Dinallo, of Amityville, who contends she twice nearly died following spinal fusion surgery performed by Apazidis.

Court records allege Apazidis severed Dinallo's jugular vein during a 2022 surgery, leaving her near death on the operating table.

Nearly two weeks after surgery, after being sent home from St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, Dinallo's carotid artery ruptured from her surgical wound, leaving her again clinging to life, according to court records.

Three years later, Dinallo said she can eat only baby food or yogurt, and coughs and vomits daily. She said she has twitches in her left eye and limited use of her right hand, major gaps in her short- and long-term memory, and suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Other patients have also accused Apazidis of shoddy operating room technique.

Court records show Crystal Hodgson, of East Islip, suffered an aneurysm of her carotid artery, a jugular blood clot and a defect in her vertebral artery — all following spinal surgery performed by Apazidis in 2022. Hodgson suffered four post-surgical strokes and needed to relearn how to walk and speak.

Apazidis' surgical notes detailed none of those injuries.

In his statement as part of the Brooklyn lawsuit, Apazidis insists his notes were accurate and denied there was a laceration to a major artery during Hodgson’s surgery.

"To my knowledge neither the Hodgsons, nor third-party plaintiffs’ attorney [Johnston] are medical experts qualified to opine about my medical treatment or documentation standards in the medical field," Apazidis wrote.

But Johnston said a half dozen medical professionals that reviewed the surgeon's reports contradicted his findings or the need for surgery.

"Dr. Apazidis has been recycling substantively identical operative reports, and swearing them to be true, for a period in excess of four years into the present — and in many cases, where the justification for such surgeries are utterly indefensible," Johnston wrote.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.