PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The state medical board has reprimanded a Woonsocket surgeon because one of his patients died after an infusion device was improperly left in her chest for 5 1/2 years.
Dr. Ramon D. Llamas performed surgery on the patient for colon cancer, according to a consent order signed by Llamas in 1994. On an oncologist’s recommendation, Llamas inserted a Port-A-Cath in the patient’s chest.
The device created an opening through which chemotherapy drugs could be infused without requiring a needle puncture each time.
The device should have been removed when chemotherapy was over, said Bruce W. McIntyre, acting chief administrative officer of the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. Llamas continued to perform regular colonoscopies on the patient. Although he saw her once or twice year, he never removed the Port-A-Cath.
In March 2000, the 80-year-old patient died of a blood clot possibly caused by the device.
“I accept the reprimand but I don’t think I’m totally at fault,” Llamas told The Providence Journal.
Llamas said the oncologist typically calls to tell him when to remove the device, but that didn’t happen in this case.
The oncologist also washes out the Port-A-Cath with heparin, a drug that prevents clotting. In this case, Llamas said, the oncologist stopped the heparin after the chemotherapy ended but never checked to see whether the Port-A-Cath had been removed.
Llamas’s lawyer, Alan Tate, said Llamas does not accept responsibility for the patient’s death.
McIntyre said that the board decided that Llamas bore primary responsibility for the oversight, and thus found him guilty of unprofessional conduct. Llamas must also pay $500 in administrative fees.
The oncologist, who was unidentified, was not found guilty.
The patient’s son, Richard Lafleur, said he was not satisfied with the board’s action. “It took over three years, and it just resulted in a slap on the wrist,” he said.
A reprimand is the mildest punishment the board can give. McIntyre said stronger sanctions were not imposed because Llamas, 66, has had a long, unblemished career before this incident.
In an unrelated action, the board also reprimanded Dr. Yvonne Rizk, 48, a pathologist at Women & Infants Hospital who misdiagnosed biopsies and disobeyed the hospital’s requirement that she seek a second opinion on her work.
She was also required to take 20 hours of instruction on reading pathological specimens.
AP-ES-05-31-03 1024EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
