Spinal surgery lasted 16 minutes at NUMC, lawsuit says; medical group disputes claim
A Rockland County resident involved in a Queens fender bender sought treatment at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he allegedly received a highly complex spinal fusion surgery that notes say took 16 minutes. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
A Rockland County man involved in a fender bender in Queens in 2022 sought treatment two years later at Nassau University Medical Center.
There he received a complex spinal fusion surgery.
A pair of records cited in a new lawsuit contain conflicting time stamps that have become central to an extraordinary allegation: that the surgery was completed in just 16 minutes.
The complaint, filed on July 21 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims to show procedures with similarly brief operating times: a lumbar procedure on another passenger in the vehicle to remove part of a herniated disc that took four minutes to complete, and a shoulder surgery that involved six separate procedures that lasted 16 minutes.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- A lawsuit, filed in court in Manhattan, includes medical and nursing reports that combine to indicate that doctors at Nassau University Medical Center performed a 16-minute spinal surgery on a Rockland County motorist.
- The complaint by a New Jersey trucking company that was sued after an accident in Queens, alleges that the crash was staged and the surgeries performed on the driver and passenger were unnecessary.
- The third-party action names Total Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, two of its Brooklyn-based surgeons, and physicians from Dix Hills and Staten Island. Total Ortho disputes the claims.
Fraud allegations
The suit, known as a third-party action, alleges the procedures were unnecessary and impossible to perform during that short period of time and that the crash was staged.
The complaint names Total Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, which has run NUMC’s orthopedics department since 2007; two of the company’s Brooklyn-based surgeons; and physicians from Dix Hills and Staten Island.
In a statement supplied by its attorneys, Total Ortho denied the allegations in the complaint.
The intraoperative record for Charles Philippe's shoulder surgery. Credit: Willis Law Group
The attorneys said that the anesthesia records for the spinal surgery at NUMC indicate that the procedure lasted 1 hour and 42 minutes, while another medical report shows the surgery lasted 1 hour and 41 minutes.
“In short, the 16 minutes figure is the product of misapplying the latest alleged start time and the earliest possible end time from a file containing multiple records,” wrote Mickey Keane, an attorney for Garfunkel Wild, in a letter to Newsday Wednesday.
The lawsuit contains an image of the nursing notes for the procedure, indicating that the “time out,” done immediately before the procedure/incision,” was at 12:49 p.m.
The other report contains a 1:05 p.m. time stamp the lawsuit identifies as the procedure’s end, a total of 16 minutes from the start time documented by the nursing notes.
Keane disputes that interpretation, saying that an anesthesia record documents an actual surgery end time of 2:23 p.m., 1 hour and 18 minutes after the other report concluded.
None of the other defendants, several of whom have been previously named in other suits alleging fraud schemes or performing unnecessary surgeries on motorists in alleged staged accidents, responded to requests for comment from Newsday.
The allegations come as NUMC’s board of directors continues an investigatory review of surgical cases performed by doctors from Total Ortho and plan to reduce their oversized role at the East Meadow public safety net hospital.
Queens car collision
The complaint stems from a May 2, 2022, crash on South Conduit Avenue in southeast Queens in which Richard Kelly, driving a truck owned by Werner Industries, of New Jersey, was attempting to make a wide right turn and allegedly struck the front driver’s side of a vehicle operated by Charles Philippe, of New City in Rockland County, records show.
Police reported that both vehicles were drivable and that neither the two drivers nor Philippe’s passenger, Jean Clark Richard, also of New City, suffered any injuries, the suit states.
Attorneys for Werner Industries, which filed the complaint, note that Philippe and Richard sought physical therapy treatment in Hempstead — more than an hour from their homes — the day after the accident.
“Both plaintiffs — Philippe and [Richard] — denied any injuries whatsoever at the accident scene and made no requests for medical assistance,” the complaint states. “Regardless, both Philippe and [Richard] began a course of pre-planned medical treatment designed to fabricate injuries facially supporting needless medical procedures and surgeries, all occurring counties away from their residences.”
Werner alleges the crash was staged but, to date, no one has been criminally charged for their role in the incident.
The Manhattan-based Liakas law firm represents Philippe and Richard and in 2023 sued Kelly and Werner Industries for injuries incurred in the initial crash. That suit is ongoing.
In a statement Monday, Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for the law firm, said Philippe and Richard declined to comment on the allegations in the new complaint.
“Liakas Law has no involvement in the allegations against these physicians,” Sheinkopf said. “The firm is not named in the matter, nor has it been accused of any wrongdoing. Any suggestion otherwise would be inaccurate and misleading.”
Physical therapy and surgeries
In the months following the accident, Philippe and Richard made the roughly 100-mile round-trip drive to Long Island for physical therapy about 10 to 12 times per month, the suit contends.
The pair also visited Island-based acupuncture, neurology, rehabilitation and diagnostic facilities, the complaint states.
Ultimately, Philippe underwent an arthroscopic left shoulder surgery in July 2022 at a Brooklyn surgical center. The lawsuit alleges the intraoperative record for Philippe’s shoulder surgery appears to show it lasted 16 minutes.
Two years later, Total Ortho doctors at NUMC performed spinal decompression surgery and fusion on Philippe, even as two earlier MRIs showed no evidence of disc bulges or herniations, the complaint states.
Richard had spinal, knee and lumbar surgeries. The complaint alleges records for the lumbar procedure reflect an operating time of four minutes.
The complaint alleges the surgeries were performed not with the goal of repairing any purported injury “but instead maximizing billing, inflating the damages of the underlying lawsuit, and defrauding [Werner Industries].”
Total Ortho doctors have been named in at least four federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations lawsuits, including one alleging they conspired with Freeport residents, a Manhattan law firm and a vast network of other medical providers to collect millions in insurance payouts for fraudulent accident claims.
Attorneys for Total Ortho contend that some of the previous RICO actions against the company have been dismissed or criticized by judges hearing the case.
Attorneys representing insurance companies in the RICO cases allege that Total Ortho surgeons often see patients — typically litigants in lawsuits stemming from alleged accidents in Brooklyn and across the five boroughs — and then direct them to spinal surgery at NUMC, which they or their colleagues later perform.
No one has been criminally charged in connection with the cases, but the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has opened a criminal investigation connected to the RICO complaints, court records show. It is unclear if Total Ortho or its surgeons are targets of that investigation.
This story has been updated to reflect new information.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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