Physician witness indicted for perjury in malpractice case

Alex Zakharia, a Miami-Dade heart surgeon, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit for allegedly exaggerating his qualifications about his experience doing open-heart surgery while giving a deposition for the plaintiff in a Michigan malpractice case.

Zakharia told The Miami Herald  that the defense lawyers didn't understand him, and that he didn't exaggerate his experience. 'They should be going after the doctors who did this to this veteran, instead of a doctor who gave his honest opinion,' Zakharia said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Michigan, which was also the office that provided the defense attorneys in the malpractice lawsuit, brought the charges against Zakharia. The malpractice case involves a man suing the Veterans Administration and the U.S. government.

Zakharia testified that notes in the medical case file clearly indicated that, before the coronary bypass surgery, an ultrasound to detect blocked carotid arteries was inconclusive and needed to be redone. But new tests were not done before surgery.

During his deposition in that case, Zakharia was asked by defense attorneys about his qualifications on coronary bypass surgery. The indictment alleges Zakharia testified he performed 10 to 12 such operations a year and was the lead surgeon during the operations. Defense attorneys said records of the hospitals he mentioned did not support his claims.

Source: "Heart surgeon faces criminal charges," Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 2007.