Two of New York’s top brain surgeons are scheduled to be reinstated this week after being suspended for abandoning a patient in the operating room.
Dr. Thomas Milhorat — chief of neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital in Great Neck, Long Island — and his colleague, Dr. Paolo Bolognese, were suspended for two weeks following an incident on April 10, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.
On that day, Bolognese was scheduled to operate on a female patient who was already anesthetized and on the operating table, but the doctor was no where to be found, according to the newspaper.
Hospital staff called Milhorat to step in, but he reportedly refused because the patient was not his.
The two surgeons are among the highest paid in the New York City-area. Milhorat earned an estimated $7.2 million in 2007 according to a Crain’s New York survey and Bolognese reportedly raked in $2.4 million.
A state Health Department spokeswoman said the incident is under investigation.
(Source: NY Daily News)
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The anesthesiologist is also partially at fault. In order to anesthetize the patient, a timeout in the OR must be conducted beforehand. A timeout consists of the patient identifying themselves, their date of birth, and stating the correct side of the surgical site. This is done to minimize the risk of surgical error.
The ENTIRE surgical team must be present in the OR before this timeout can even take place. So if the surgeons were not in the OR, the anesthesiologist had no business putting the patient under.