Doctor Loses License; Former Patients, Attorneys React
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ)—He's accused of performing unnecessary surgical procedures on hundreds of his patients. Now many of those patients are celebrating news that the state yanked Dr. Marc Midei's medical license.
Derek Valcourt has reaction to the decision by the Maryland Board of Physicians.
Many of Midei's patients are calling this vindication. And for their attorneys filing civil lawsuits, it's more ammunition.
The 88-page report from the Maryland Board of Physicians blasts Dr. Marc Midei for violations they call repeated, serious and indefensible. So severe they revoked Midei's medical license.
"That's what I was hoping for," said Vicki Marrs. "Happy. He doesn't deserve to have his license."
Marrs is one of 585 people who received a letter from St. Joseph Medical Center saying Midei may have unnecessarily given her a stent, a tiny device designed to open up blocked arteries. It's a charge Midei has vehemently denied.
"What I did is what I would have wanted for myself, for anybody in my family, my mother, my father," Midei said in October 2010.
But the State Board of Physicians found in four of the five patients cases they reviewed, Midei willfully fabricated information about the severity of blockages.
Marrs says Midei lied about how blocked her arteries were, too.
"Dr. Midei said it was 90 percent and after they reviewed everything it was 10 percent," Marrs said.
Midei and his lawyer declined to comment on the license revocation, but attorneys for St. Joseph patients say this is good news for their lawsuits.
Attorney Jay Miller says the Board of Physicians' findings will bolster the 181 lawsuits his firm alone has already filed against Midei and St. Joseph Medical Center.
"It's proof that everything I've said is true, that Midei was committing fraud and putting stents in patients that didn't need them," Miller said.
Marrs wants to win her lawsuit, but feels Midei's punishment should be more than financial.
"I'd like to see him do some jail time," Marrs said.
Some of the hundreds of lawsuits against Midei could be heard as early as next spring. Attorneys and judges are trying to figure out how they can try dozens of cases at one time so they don't bog down the court system.
Midei has 30 days to file an appeal of the decision to revoke his medical license. The Board of Physicians says he can try to reapply for his license in another two years.
