Konasiewicz series wins top national investigative awards
April 11, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
A News Tribune investigative series about a former St. Luke’s hospital neurosurgeon who set up practice in Texas after incurring numerous malpractice suits and a medical board disciplinary action has earned several national journalism honors, including two first-place awards.
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Who’s judging this crap? What a joke. As I have stated several times here before I had no vested interest in this story, but I found it to be some of the shoddiest, one sided reporting I have ever read. It’s unfortunate this is the only “real” newspaper in town. Maybe I should watch more TV news…
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Brilliant piece of investigative reporting. Brandon Stahl is establishing himself nationally and carving a notch in his resume before moving to a major media market.
Sifting through court records with the name of the doctors redacted, interviewing attorneys, colleagues and patients Stahl and Stodghill uncovered a neurosurgeon who had been sued for malpractice nine times, been involved in cases that had led to more than $3 million in settlements paid to injured patients and still had malpractice suits pending. Konasiewicz was ordered by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice to have a supervising physician observe his surgeries in that state and submit quarterly reports on his performance to the board.
Stahl & Stodghill’s painstaking research and tenacious investigative reporting was rewarded with the highest ranking award in DNT history. Congratulations!
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Jim, the questions that they never bothered to ask are the ones I am frustrated with. What are the national lawsuit rates for neurosurgeons? How does he compare? Did he agree to take on difficult surgeries that other neurosurgeons wouldn’t touch in order to help desperate people have a chance to get better? Getting sued in and of itself is not proof of sloppiness. It may only be proof you are in a risky business.
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Dan, neurosurgeons face the most malpractice claims but 78% of overall malpractice claims did not result in payments, with either the court dismissing the case or patients dropping it. Malpractice cases are extremely difficult to prevail in and the financial judgment amounts against Dr. Konasiewicz are staggering. He had difficulty obtaining insurance & colleagues were outspoken about the level of care which is highly unusual with the code of silence among physicians. The % of physicians disciplined by the state Board of Medical Practice is also quite low and disciplinary action such as supervised surgeries is prima facie evidence something’s terribly amiss.
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Jim I don’t disagree with you and I am prepared to believe that Dr. K is a hack that needed to go. BUT that information you just shared really wasn’t a part of the articles written. Unless my reading comprehension is way off (hey it might be) I was under the impression that he didn’t have many judgments against him – some were cases were settled out of court and others were dismissed. It is further my understanding that supervised surgeries are quite common and if the state board thought he was really dangerous they would have stripped him of his license. The fact that THEY (the state medical board) did not do so (and still haven’t done so) is prima facie evidence they they at least believed he was still capable of performing.
Look again, my argument here is not necessarily in support of Dr K as much as it is to say this series of news articles proved NOTHING and were not terribly well written. It is disappointing to see halfway done research win “major” awards like this. It just comes across as a witch hunt (even if in this case he really is a “witch”)
What I wanted to see was HARD numbers. How many neurosurgeons get sued and or disciplined per year? What percentage? Exactly how much money did Dr K lose in these judgments? Where was the interview with neurosurgeon Dr. X from some far hospital far away who has no vested interest in this case? That person could tell you whether the surgeries he is getting sued for are common malpractice surgeries. If they are not challenging surgeries then THAT is evidence something is wrong. But he is being sued over surgeries that no other neurosurgeon would touch because of their difficulty, then maybe he is a hero for trying to give people a chance at a better life. Personally I think it is likely the former but we will never know because these reporters didn’t bother to find out.
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