Hospital declines award after suits allege botched surgeries

Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano will not accept a prestigious national award for quality after multiple lawsuits filed by former patients allege that the hospital allowed a neurosurgeon to repeatedly botch surgeries, sometimes while under the influence of alcohol and/or cocaine. Baylor Plano had a nine-month affiliation with Christopher Duntsch, starting in July 2011. He had a history of cocaine use when Baylor recruited him, according to allegations in a February 13 lawsuit and another filed January 27. The January 27 suit claims Duntsch performed an “unnecessary surgery” on a patient and operated on the wrong body part. One patient died and another was rendered a quadriplegic, that suit says.

Source: Dallas Business Journal