Dr. Alexios Apazidis, Deer Park surgeon at center of staged accident cases, recants and blames former colleagues in court filings

The Long Island orthopedic spinal surgeon accused of duplicating dozens of virtually identical surgical reports is now cooperating with the law firm that sued him in several racketeering cases, with records showing the doctor has turned against his former colleagues in a widespread alleged staged accident scheme.

In an Oct. 7 affidavit filed in a Brooklyn case, Dr. Alexios Apazidis accused one of his former colleagues at Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, which has operated the Orthopedics Department at Nassau University Medical Center since 2019, of having a financial stake in a vendor that supplied products to his team.

Apazidis also accused Total Ortho leadership of routing patients through the emergency room — a move that critics contend is used to bypass guardrails that might prevent unnecessary surgeries. Apazidis himself has been accused of some of the same conduct, records show.

In a second court declaration, Apazidis, a Harvard-educated surgeon now with Total Spine and Sports Care in Deer Park, recanted his previous testimony that two Brooklyn residents that he performed spinal surgeries on in 2022 were injured in a purported partial roof collapse as they alleged.

'A massive deal'

Apazidis' willingness to turn against his former Total Ortho colleagues and two of his patients resembles the type of agreement often seen in criminal cases when a defendant agrees to testify against co-conspirators for a reduced sentence, according to some who have followed the cases as they move through the courts. 

The Willis Law Group, which sued Apazidis in several RICO cases, alleging he performed surgeries unnecessarily on individuals claiming injuries from staged accidents in an effort to collect large paydays from insurance providers, dropped the surgeon as a defendant in at least two cases this month, records show. 

Apazidis, who also has an office in Westbury and lives in St. James, declined to comment through his attorney. 

Dan Johnston, an attorney with the Willis Law Group who filed Apazidis' affidavits with the courts, also declined to comment.

Apazidis' recent admissions are "a massive deal" that should lead to criminal investigations and prosecutions, according to Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, a nonprofit focused on civil justice reforms.

"If the evidence is true, this seems be a massive criminal conspiracy in that they're using bodies as chattel for fraud, and that is a crime," Stebbins said. "And so, if these allegations are true, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice and the district attorneys should be investigating these claims."

Newsday has reported — for nearly two years — on the vast, interconnected network of lawyers, doctors and victims who authorities contend stage accidents, whether on the road, construction sites or on city sidewalks, fabricating injuries and subjecting themselves to unnecessary surgeries to collect large payouts.

Lawmakers and some reform advocates contend the scheme has caused insurance rates on automobiles and on certain government-funded projects to skyrocket. 

Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed sweeping changes proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul that cap damages for injuries and enable prosecutors to seek criminal penalties against individuals involved in auto fraud.

On Tuesday, Hochul announced that 16 people, including two from Long Island, had been charged as part of a crackdown by the state on cases of suspected auto insurance fraud.

Routed through the ER

One of Apazidis' admissions came in a personal injury case filed in 2019 by a Brooklyn man who said he had been seriously injured when he was struck by a school bus. Dr. Vadim Lerman, associate director of spine surgery at Total Ortho, performed neck and back surgery on the man, records show.

Apazidis, who was affiliated with Total Ortho between 2020 and 2023, said that during his time with the company he would frequently serve as the "on-call" surgeon at NUMC, a public hospital in East Meadow attempting to pull its way out of more than $1.4 billion in debt.

Patients scheduled for surgery with Drs. Lerman, Karen Avanesov and Dante Levin — all principals at Total Ortho — "would consistently arrive through the Emergency Department" and be routed to his colleagues, Apazidis wrote. In a typical hospital setting, Apazidis said, patients arriving through the ER with emergency surgical needs would be sent to the on-call surgeon. 

Federal lawsuits have alleged that Total Ortho surgeons frequently routed patients through NUMC's emergency room to circumvent oversight from the state Workers’ Compensation Board and from other medical and financial bodies that may question the need for the surgeries.

In 2025, the board informed Lerman that it was rejecting his renewal application allowing him to seek reimbursement for the treatment of injured workers.

Mickey Keane, a Garden City attorney representing Total Ortho, said Apazidis' "characterization of Emergency Department practices is inaccurate and misleading. Patients being seen by their treating providers is consistent with standard admitting protocols and continuity-of-care principles followed by hospitals nationwide."

Keane added that "until recently, Dr. Apazidis was a defendant in a lawsuit brought by an insurer, which subsequently dropped all claims against him with prejudice. It is not surprising that he is now making statements favorable to these very same parties who were recently pursuing claims against him."

Self-dealing allegations

In the same declaration, Apazidis said he was told by Avanesov, then chair of orthopedic spine surgery at NUMC, that the hospital's preference was to use implants and other technology from Spinal Elements, a California company formerly known as Amendia, and to purchase the products through a vendor known as Vortex Logistics and Support.

"I was advised that NUMC would receive some kind of bulk discount if Amendia and Spinal Elements products were used," Apazidis said, adding that the products were "satisfactory."

A 2025 RICO lawsuit alleged that "virtually every surgery" performed by Avanesov, Lerman and Leven used Spinal Elements products, along with tissue and graft material from a company brand.

In 2023, Apazidis said he was informed by the hospital's then-chief of neurology that Avanesov had a financial interest in Vortex.

Keane denied the allegation, adding that Avanesov has "never held an ownership or financial interest" in Vortex.

Vortex, a Brooklyn-based LLC, has almost no presence online and unlike medical device companies, there is no obligation for doctors to disclose a financial interest in vendors such as Vortex. 

However, archived federal records from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show Lerman and Avanesov were each granted $288,000 worth of stock in Amendia in 2016 — with no investments made — and that they each invested more than $250,000 in the company in 2017 — the year the firm merged with Spinal Elements.

Keane said that neither Lerman or Avanesov has maintained any ownership in the company since 2018. Spinal Elements did not respond to a request for comment.

Nearly a year ago, NUMC's newly configured board of directors launched an investigatory review of surgical cases performed by Total Ortho doctors and announced plans to reduce the company's outsized role in its Orthopedics Department.

A hospital spokesman declined to comment on Apazidis' new allegations but said Avanesov, Lerman and Leven no longer work at NUMC.

In August, NUMC renewed its contract with Total Ortho, agreeing to pay the company $1.2 million to continue running the department through the end of the year, records obtained by Newsday show.

Surgeon recants statement

In the other affirmation, Apazidis shed doubt on a lawsuit filed in 2021 by two Brooklyn residents who alleged they were seriously hurt during a partial ceiling collapse in their apartment.

While Apazidis contends the surgeries he performed on the pair "were proper, justifiable and appropriate," he said a full review of the medical records and claims files has led him to question the nature of the injuries. 

"I am unable to state, to any reasonable degree of medical certainty, that either plaintiff ... suffered injuries or conditions which were causally related to the alleged underlying incident," Apazidis wrote.

John Carman, a Garden City attorney representing William Schwitzer & Associates, the firm that brought the ceiling collapse case, raised doubts about Apazidis' recent declaration.

"Dr. Apazidis was the treating physician and as such was in possession of all of the treatment records at the time he issued the initial affidavit for the patients in question," Carman said. "Given that, his recent affidavit recanting his prior sworn statement is impossible to understand."

Apazidis' conduct has made headlines across Long Island for more than a year. 

The surgeon has been accused in federal lawsuits, one of which asks the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct to investigate whether to suspend his medical license, of copying and pasting at least 43 operative reports verbatim over a four-year period for a range of patients involved in home, workplace and car accidents,

Apazidis has attributed the duplicative operative reports to a medical records template he was required to use while performing "standardized and highly repetitive" procedures at NUMC.

Earlier this year, FedEx also sued Apazidis for allegedly conducting unnecessary surgeries on drivers and passengers involved in alleged staged crashes with the parcel carrier's vehicles.

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

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 clinging to life and now unable to eat solid food, according to court records. 

In 2015, Apazidis had his medical license suspended for 36 months and was fined $50,000 after admitting to allegations of "negligence" and "incompetence," according to state Health Department records.

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 records.

The suspension was stayed, allowing Apazidis to continue practicing while on probation after paying the fine.

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.