Clinic Of Horrors: Doctors Arrested For Performing Needless Fatal Surgeries

The medical fraternity seems to be losing its credibility with doctors attempting to mint money with their expertise rather than save lives. A recent incident in this veindefine,came to light when the police arrested 13 doctors from a clinic in Milan who were suspected of performing needless surgeries to earn more money, some of which turned out to be fatal.

The charges from the investigation of Santa Rita clinic range from fraud to homicide, with 3 doctors being arrested on the suspicion of murder for allegedly performing these surgeries. The police report stated that the surgery was abnormal and invasive without taking into consideration the fragility of the patients, because of their medical condition. The surgeries caused the death of 5 patients.

A Giovanni Rizzitano, stated that he was a patient who was given a lung operation instead of a thyroid surgery. When interviewed on state TV he quoted "When I awoke, I found these tubes under my armpit, they had operated on my lung."

The head of the thoracic department was among those arrested. The motive behind these unnecessary surgeries was believed to be higher reimbursements from the Italian national and regional health service in 2005 and 2006.

Police contend that the clinic doctored most patient’s charts to fraud the health services in paying extra money. According to police reports the amount ranged to approximately US$3.8 million.

Maria Luisa Scocchetti, died shortly after lung surgery in 2006 at Santa Rita. The woman, 65, was dying of breast cancerdefine in the hospital, her brother Riziero Scocchetti said, "I asked the doctors to let her die in peace. They reassured me that they were doing everything to save her. Instead they operated on her lung. But everybody knew she wasn't going to make it."

Alfredo Scordo another victim stated, “They cut open my back, four hours under the knife for a long and painful surgery.” He accuses the hospital of allegedly removing a part of his lung and some lymph nodesdefine in 2005 while he was recovering from pneumonia in the hospital.

Italian reports carried what were said to be transcripts of wiretaps in which doctors sound eager to do expensive surgeries. In one wiretapped conversation, a doctor reportedly cursed when told that a 90-year-old patient had been rejected for lung surgery because of breathing difficulties.

Repeated calls to the clinic Tuesday afternoon went unanswered.