No one would listen.
By Justen Deal • Oct 16th, 2007 • Category: Kaiser Permanente
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.
Justen Deal is a twenty-something business consultant based in Montréal, Québec; Charleston, West Virginia; and Los Angeles, California. He has been featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
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[...] its PRBS release defending its despicable actions. Kaiser Thrive Exposed joins Justen Deal in his demand for the resignation of The Permanente Medical Group CEO, and lead obfuscator, Dr. Robert Pearl. In the meantime, Kaiser [...]
[...] Speaking of trust. Kaiser Permanente “responded” to the Los Angeles Times article on Devin Valenzuela. Unfortunately, the “response” goes on to almost lie through its teeth. “In [...]
I was forced to see Dr. Safari in the fall of 2004 and didn’t care for him one bit. He was rude and didn’t show any care or concern for me or my unborn child. He was the only “high risk” OB at Kaiser in Fresno. When I complained to people higher up I was advised to travel to other Kaiser facilities 3-4 hours away for doctor visits and my delivery. Here I am high risk and they wanted me to travel or they asked if I had family elsewhere I could stay with. I went months without seeing a doctor and faught Kaiser with the California State Department of Managed Health Care until I was approved to see a high risk doctor here in Fresno outside of Kaiser. It was a nightmare and eventually I had to deliver with Kaiser, but I refused to allow Dr. Safari to deliver me, I opted for a regular OB and with what I know now, I only wished something had been done to him sooner I have been sickened since I heard the news this past weekend. My daughter was born in January 2005, just months before this horrible incident. My heart goes out to all of the families who have had to deal with him.
Laurie, I am soooo happy you decided to fight against this doctor. I am so appalled to hear that there are “mothers” speaking up on this doctor’s behalf. Oddly enough the ones that are defending him, I have found were not true high risk pregnancies. He just happened to be the doctor on call for the day. And you are right. He is very rude when he deals with anyone that questions his “expertise” and is unfriendly to anyone outside of the patient. I thought his attentiveness was a good attribute while seeing him. He seemed to catch contractions that I never felt and I “thought” he was doing well as a doctor. He hospitalized me overnight because I tested positive for pre-term labor and he wanted to inject me with steroids to build my grossly premature daughter’s lungs in “case” I went in to labor. GREAT move, Dr! I appreciated the attention to detail at the time. He was in tune with my needs. He SENT ME BACK TO WORK THE NEXT DAY!!! That’s a high risk specialist all right. In addition to that he almost took my life in the delivery room AND I felt every organ he removed from my body. I was not completely NUMB through my C-Section and I yelled at him. Long story short. . .I have to wonder how many parents that support this doctor were High Risk Deliveries. Probably not a 1! I am happy that the story finally made it out of the Kaiser realm. The arbitration process does a great job of concealing a doctor’s malpractice because there is never any public record. I kept screaming to get this out in the open and I am soooo happy that other doctors stepped up to get it out in the open. And this doctor calls it “office politics”? I didn’t give up. I took my reports straight to the medical board with the help of my attorney. I did that prior to the poor Valenzuela families tragedy. I tried to save that baby’s life because I knew what was on our hands. NO ONE would listen. I am happy they listened to other credentialed doctors and opened this case to the public. He does not need to be practicing as a high risk pregnancy specialist. Was he a nice man? Yes, I thought so. But when I saw this doctor look me in my face and blatantly lie, I knew there was an underlying callousness for life that shouldn’t be overlooked. This practice needs to be exposed. How many more lives have to be lost before they understand that life is a precious thing. I am hurting to this day. I can’t function everytime I am forced to deal with it. My remaining 2 children are in counseling and suffering and Kaiser does not and did not care! It was just another baby. And so everyone knows, even beyond the arbitration process. . . It’s cheaper for them to lose a life than it is to pay for the long term care this doctor causes to these babies. Why would he care to save a life?? Wrongful death is capped in California. And it is designed to pay for lost wages. . . of the deceased person.