I didn't know this. PLEASE research your doctors.

This was in out local Middletown paper.  I know a lot of people have used this doctor. I almost used him but he wasn't in my network.  I really liked him and his presenation.  I have friends who have used him and LOVE him.  I guess we now also have to asl the doctors about their insurance. PLEASE REALLY RESEARCH YOUR DOCTORS.  I HAVE LEFT OUT THE DOCTORS NAME  Stay informed,  Robin Lawsuit: Doctor did not say he was uninsured State does not require insurance, but requires disclosure; family suing after woman died following bariatric surgery. By Anthony Gottschlich Staff Writer Sunday, July 22, 2007 Linda Wilson's first weight-loss surgery didn't seem to be working. Suffering from discomfort, diarrhea and weight gain, the 44-year-old Middletown mother of two wanted a second operation. The second gastric bypass surgery brought complications, however. Fatal ones. A bacterial infection set in and Wilson never regained consciousness. She died a week after surgery on Aug. 6, 2003. Patrick Wilson blames the surgeon, Dr.  for his wife's death. But the lawsuit Wilson filed in 2005 didn't go far after his attorney learned that, who now practices at the Surgical Weight Loss Center in Dayton, didn't have malpractice insurance and had placed his assets into a family trust. "We never knew he didn't have malpractice insurance," said Wilson, who has refiled his case without an attorney. "If we had known that, we wouldn't have had the surgery." Ohio law doesn't require practicing physicians to carry medical malpractice insurance. But in nonemergency situations, the law mandates that doctors inform the patient when they don't have it. Court records show who has been sued for malpractice at least 22 times since 1991, didn't do that. DOCTOR, 57, said he didn't know the law required such a disclosure. He also said he urged the Wilsons to reconsider the risky second surgery, but the Wilsons insisted. He said the complications that led to Linda Wilson's death - a massive blood clot that obstructed her bowel - were beyond his control. "I didn't kill his wife," said from his office at the weight-loss center, which is housed at the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital. A veteran surgeon with more than 2,500 bariatric surgeries to his credit,  said Wilson's lawsuit was unfounded, as were the others that have been filed against him over the years. In a two-hour interview, the Hamilton native and Ohio State University graduate defended his medical skills, railed against the judicial system and said he was a victim of the "medical malpractice lawsuit industry." "I can't stand this stuff anymore," he said. "This isn't worth it, trying to be a doctor when this is what you get." http://www.journal-news.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/20 07/07/22/mj072207malpractice.html

Surgeon has made himself 'judgment proof,' lawyer says

Oft-sued bariatric surgeon says most lawsuits 'are about money, they're not about malpractice.'

By Anthony Gottschlich

Staff Writer

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Driving a car is enough of a risk that Ohio requires its motorists to carry liability insurance on their vehicles.

But that same reasoning doesn't apply to another life-and-death endeavor — the practice of medicine. There's no law requiring physicians to carry professional liability insurance.

Patrick Wilson found that out after his 44-year-old wife died following her second weight loss surgery in 2003 at Sycamore Hospital in Miamisburg.

Wilson tried to sue the surgeon who performed the operation, of the Surgical Weight Loss Center in Dayton, but his lawyer gave up when he discovered Fallang didn't have malpractice insurance and had shielded his assets from civil judgments.

DOCTOR  has succeeded in making himself judgment proof," attorney J. Pierre Tismo of Dyer, Garofalo, Mann & Schultz wrote to Wilson.

While malpractice insurance isn't required, Ohio law mandates that physicians who lack the insurance inform patients in writing and obtain a signed consent form prior to treatment in non-emergency cases.

DOCTOR, who's been sued 22 times in Butler and Montgomery counties for malpractice since 1991, didn't do that.

"I never knew such a statute existed,"  57, said from his office at Elizabeth Place, the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

The bulk of the lawsuits against were filed in the last decade, when he started specializing in gastric bypass surgery, the risky, but often successful, weight-loss operation for the morbidly obese.

A veteran of more than 2,500 such surgeries, he's lost one lawsuit, where the jury awarded the plaintiff around $1 million, and settled at least four. The rest were dismissed.

The Middletown resident admits "I'm not perfect," but he doesn't believe any of the cases against him involved actual malpractice. He said the suits were largely manufactured by the "medical malpractice lawsuit industry."

"I've just been squashed by this stuff," said  former medical staff president at Middletown Regional Hospital. "And let me tell you, I'm a pretty damn good surgeon."

Malpractice and the law

Failure to disclose a lack of malpractice insurance isn't a crime in Ohio, but it's subject to disciplinary action by the State Medical Board of Ohio. Penalties include a reprimand up to a permanent revocation of the medical license.

Wilson's former lawyer filed a complaint with the board last September, and DOCTOR said he recently answered questions for the board.

The board would neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

Board spokeswoman Joan Wehrle said the board hasn't disciplined any doctors on this issue to date. She also said the board doesn't track doctors who lose their insurance.

Some states require physicians to carry the insurance, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.

But state Rep. John White, R-Kettering, chairman of the House Health Committee, said a requirement might be going too far.

White said Ohio lawmakers could explore additional disclosure requirements, though, such as placing a doctor's insurance status on his or her profile at the state medical board.

Almeta Cooper, counsel to the Ohio State Medical Association, believes enough safeguards are in place. Besides, she said, Medicare, Medicaid and other health insurers, as well as most hospitals, require physicians to carry the insurance before they'll do business with them.

DOCTOR"S privileges at Middletown Regional Hospital ended in January 2002, and they ended at Kettering Medical Center and affiliate Sycamore in May 2004, the hospitals' respective spokespeople said.

Hospital officials declined to say why, but Kettering spokesman Kevin LaVoie said, "It is not our policy to allow surgeons to perform surgery without proper malpractice insurance."

 though, was operating on patients at Sycamore even after he lost his insurance; the hospital didn't know, court records show.

He said he was covered for general surgery, but later learned the policy excluded bariatric surgery.

Costly coverage

 said he's held a variety of malpractice insurance policies over the years, so many that he'd lose track of his coverage status at times.

He said his trouble obtaining the insurance began in the early 1990s after his insurance company urged him to settle a suit and then tripled his premiums. Several insurance companies went "broke on me," he said, and at one point he was paying a $183,000 annual premium. It became too expensive to carry.

On average, malpractice insurance for general surgeons costs about $54,000 a year in Montgomery County, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance.

Today DOCTOR operates in the private hospital he founded with his wife, Lynn, in 2004, the Riverview Health Institute at Elizabeth Place.

DOCTOR said Riverview is covered by commercial insurance, but he declined to say if he's covered by malpractice insurance.

"To be perfectly blunt, I don't believe that it's my responsibility to make my patients rich if there should be an adverse occurrence," said. "My responsibility is to take the best medical care of them that I know how.

"No one can do surgery with zero complications, it's just not physically possible," he said. "Medical malpractice lawsuits, 95 percent of the time, are about money, they're not about malpractice."

Risky surgery

Bariatric surgery can involve a variety of procedures, but the general idea is to make the stomach smaller. The surgery is not without risks. Potential post-operative problems include leaks and infections, fatal blood clots and follow-up surgeries to correct complications. Various sources put the mortality rate at 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent, or roughly one death for every 200 patients.

Dr. John Maguire, medical director for the Weight Loss Surgery Center at Miami Valley Hospital, called the specialty a "high-risk liability practice."

"Probably because someone can be morbidly obese and look reasonably healthy (but) they're teetering on the brink," he said. "They appear healthy and if they have a complication it's like, 'Well, I was fine before I had the surgery.' I've had several patients die of heart attacks while they're waiting for approval for surgery.

"To put it in context," Maguire said, referring to DOCOTR, "I've had a lot of malpractice suits filed (10 in Montgomery County, court records show) that were dropped because there was no merit."

'I didn't kill his wife.'

DOCTOR's supporters include Diana Spencer, 52, of West Alexandria in Preble County.

Spencer, 5-feet-1, said she weighed nearly 300 pounds and was wheelchair bound prior to her gastric bypass surgery in October 2004. At 175 pounds today, she's still heavy, but walking and active again.

Patrick Wilson can't remember how much his wife weighed, but said she sought the surgery in 1999 to lose weight and get a handle on her diabetes.

She lost around 120 pounds initially, Wilson recalled, but problems soon arose.  said he tried to talk the Wilsons out of a second operation, that it was risky, but he relented.

He said the complication that led to Linda Wilson's death — a rare, massive blood clot called a hemobezoar that obstructed her bowel — was beyond his control.

Wilson believes otherwise, and his claim is supported in a court affidavit signed by a top weight-loss surgeon, Philip R. Schauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Bariatric Surgery Program, who could not be reached for comment.

Wilson can't find a lawyer to take his case, so he refiled his lawsuit July 3 without one — forcing Fallang to defend himself again.

"I'm looking for him not to practice no more," Wilson said.

He may not have to wait for long.

"Surgery is what I'm good at,"  said. "But the lawyers and the crooked malpractice system — the industry, the courts — have about finished me off." http://www.journal-news.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/20 07/07/22/mj072207malpracticeinside.html

Pretty amazing, the guy sounds pretty narcissitic.

Don't be so quick to judge. Dr. Fallang is a wonderful doctor and a wonderful person. As a nurse I don't carry malpractice insurance for the simple fact that it will make me a target of lawsuits in todays lawsuit happy society. Dr. Fallang not only did my gastric bypass surgery, he also saved my life when I had a bowel obstruction (not related to the gastric bypass) and a large chunk of my bowel died. He came in to the hospital at 8:00 one Saturday morning to go with me to have a drain put in my abdomen (done by the radiologist in the CAT scan machine) because I was totally freaked out. How many doctors do you know who would do that? He wasn't even on call that weekend. Gastric bypass is risky, repeat gastric bypass has a very high mortality rate that is why so few surgeons are willing to do revisions. Dr. Fallang takes on high risk patients that no other doctors will touch.  Ask your surgeon how many times they have been sued, the biggest name in bypass surgery in Dayton has been sued 10 times this year for goodness sake.

I might be in the minority here for the way I feel, but I think a surgeon should be selected  MORE for their skill and expertise and LESS for the amount of money survivors might recieve should one meet their maker during surgery...What amount of money will bring this person back?   NONE.   Would this outcome be the same had Dr. Fallang had malpractice ins.? YES.  Insurance would have not kept this person alive.

Yes, I believe you should research every aspect of surgery, however, what happened to this woman was to no fault of Dr. Fallang.  It could have happened with anyone.  If it were throught some fault of his, yes I could understand the animosity, but this happened through no fault of his.  I had him, and I loved him.  He is a great surgeon, and goes over the risks very thoroughly with his patients.  I just think people are to ready to sue other people all the time.  I am very sorry for thier loss, but where does that give them the right to sue someone for millions of dollars?  That will not bring her back, just as Dr. Fallang is not the cause of her death.

Dr. Fallang did my surgery.  I have nothing but praise for his surgical abilities.  I think his technique is part of the reason for my success, where others who had their surgeries at the same time as me are still struggling.   Darlene