By:Rebecca Shalomoff
State faults NUMC procedures, personnel for mishandling care of Hewlett woman
When Hewlett resident Anita Arias had a double mastectomy at the Nassau University Medical Center, many things went wrong. For starters, doctors failed to give her the option not to have her right, healthy breast removed.
A seven-page report issued by the state Department of Health last week cites faulty procedures before and after her operation at the East Meadow Hospital, including the loss of her lymph nodes.
After Arias, 39, underwent surgery in November, the hospital lost a lymph-node specimen critical to determining if the cancer had spread or if she needed chemotherapy.
The report faults the hospital for not documenting that a specimen was missing when samples of tissue were sent to the laboratory for testing. And the lab results were never sent directly to a doctor who could have noticed the problem.
So, who's to blame?
"There's not one person to blame," said health department spokeswoman Kristine Smith. "It's just deficiencies within the system."
The result of a biopsy on Arias' right breast taken in October revealed only a "residual island" of benign tissue, not sufficient to justify a preventative mastectomy, the report said. There was also no evidence that Arias and her family had been counseled about the medical and psychological consequences of the procedure.
To make matters worse, the doctor performing the operation, whose name was deleted from the public version of the report, was said to have lied on two job applications. The Arias family has previously identified the doctor as Brian Gelfand, who was recently let go from the hospital along with several other physicians, because of financial restructuring.
Gelfand answered "no" on questions about having any criminal charges against him, but at the time, the state learned, there was a case pending against him. It was later dismissed. And the hospital took no action when it had reason to believe he had given inaccurate information, the report said.
Hospital spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg said NUMC has "been working with the state Department of Health and will continue to cooperate."
The hospital had ten days to provide the state with a plan of correction, detailing their response, Smith said.
"It is quite an embarrassment for the hospital," Arias' attorney, Duane Fiedler, said. "It should give them further awareness of a lack of any human decency to assume responsibility for this and apologize appropriately to the Ariases."
In April, Arias and her husband filed a $20-million lawsuit against the hospital for failing to properly inform her and for losing the lymph nodes, the lawyer said.
"I thought I heard of everything," said Fiedler, who specializes in malpractice suits. "But I had never heard of this."
