Robert and Lilly Balaka-Long. Lehna Brewer. Mychelle Williams. Paris Bessard. Now, Devin Valenzuela.
The front page of this morning’s Los Angeles Times has the chilling story of baby Devin Valenzuela. Baby Devin was the second baby, a boy, born in April to Sarah Valenzuela. Unlike his twin, though, Baby Devin passed away. And the cause of the death of Sarah Valenzuela’s baby is horrifying:
Though the baby was not in distress, Kaiser Permanente perinatologist Hamid Safari attached a vacuum extractor to the boy’s head to draw him out. Again and again he tugged, but still the baby would not come. He vigorously shook the vacuum, up and down, side to side… It took 90 minutes and six tries — the last with Safari on his knees, pulling. Horrified staffers — and the boy’s father — looked on as baby Devin finally emerged. His skin was a bloodless white, his neck elongated and floppy. His spinal cord had been severed.
This was not a single incident, though. And Baby Devin Valenzuela was apparently not the first baby to needlessly die under Dr. Safari’s care. “As far back as 2002, a physician review committee at the hospital concluded that Safari provided ‘inappropriate’ care.”
[After Baby Devin's death,] staffers at the Fresno birthing center were devastated and angry — and not just because of the twin lost that night in 2005. Over the years, doctors and nurses repeatedly had complained to higher-ups — including Kaiser’s top medical officer in Northern and Central California, [Dr. Robbie Pearl], — about problems they saw in Safari’s skills and behavior, according to interviews and documents.
The Los Angeles Times is clear: “This is a story not just of tragic medical outcomes, but of a health plan that did not prevent them.”
Perhaps most shocking? “Still, the doctor continues to work at Kaiser Fresno, practicing under restrictions that staffers say have not been explained to patients.”
The story doesn’t end there, though. After Baby Devin’s death, two Kaiser Permanente doctors recognized something had to be done. “‘We do not feel that our perinatologist is competent,’ reads an August 2005 petition signed by eight of Safari’s peers, about half of the ob-gyn department. ‘Over and over again he put our patients at risks and most recently with the undeniably terrible outcome.’”
What happened to the physicians who pushed for Hamid Safari’s practice to be restricted? Dr. Gilbert Moran and Dr. Robert Rusche and the other physicians were punished for their vigilance and commitment to ensuring the integrity of Permanente medicine. “In the months that followed, the hospital administration chastised the eight obstetricians who submitted the petition warning administrators…” Dr. Moran and Dr. Rusche were treated especially harshly for bringing the issues to light. “[Dr.] Moran was suspended for two weeks without pay, had his salary cut by $20,000 a year and was denied a year-end bonus, while [Dr.] Rusche was suspended for one week without pay and denied a bonus, according to their disciplinary letters.”
After that, Dr. Rusche and Dr. “Moran gave up on resolving matters internally. They took their complaints to the medical board.” Finally, “late last month, the state medical board accused [Hamid] Safari of gross negligence, seeking to revoke or suspend his license.”
This is a bastardization of what Kaiser Permanente once stood for. It’s to cut spending on care, to protect reputations, at whatever cost. Preventive medicine? Responsible medicine?
Dr. Robert Pearl knew that this man was accused of killing babies. He did nothing.
Dr. Pearl needs to resign. Today. And George Halvorson needs to follow him out the door.
