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This week on the New Yorker Radio Hour, Spike Lee.

0:11

We'll talk about making independent films and

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0:16

composer Bill Lee. Spike Lee

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wherever you get your podcasts.

0:27

Hey, it's Kai.

0:31

This week I

0:33

want to share with you a powerful story

0:36

from our friends at the podcast NYC

0:39

Now. Visiting a doctor's office

0:41

can be an extremely vulnerable experience.

0:44

It's hard to know what to do or who to talk

0:46

to. When you sense or you know

0:49

something is off. And that's

0:51

the subject of this new investigative series.

0:54

It's called Imminent Danger, One Doctor

0:56

and a Trail of Injured Women. It's

0:59

produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center

1:01

and hosted by Christopher Wirth, who

1:03

is the investigations editor in the newsroom at

1:06

WNYC. The series

1:08

follows the story of an OB-GYN

1:10

who has allegedly injured women

1:12

and babies for decades. An

1:15

OB-GYN who is still seeing

1:17

patients today. The series begins

1:19

in New York, but in this episode that I'm going

1:21

to share, listeners are transported to Oklahoma.

1:25

It's the third episode of Imminent Danger,

1:27

but you can check out all the other parts by

1:30

going to NYC Now, wherever

1:32

you get your podcasts.

1:34

Okay, I'll turn it over to Christopher Wirth.

1:36

Previously

1:40

on Imminent Danger, we heard

1:42

how an OB-GYN named Thomas

1:44

Byrne lost his medical license in

1:46

New York in the early 90s after

1:48

being found negligent by state authorities.

1:50

I

1:52

remember saying to

1:54

the nurses who were there, my peers, saying,

1:57

do you all understand that this did not have

1:59

to happen?

1:59

This was preventable. If you're

2:02

a physician and lose your license, nobody

2:04

wants you. The lawyers will

2:06

say we don't want the liability

2:08

of dealing with someone who was a physician

2:11

and lost their license. In

2:13

this episode, our reporter Karen Schakirgy

2:16

takes a close look at what happened after

2:18

Byrne left New York to continue

2:20

practicing in other states, New Mexico

2:23

and then Oklahoma, where more

2:25

malpractice suits were filed against him.

2:28

Just a heads up, this episode includes

2:30

a detailed description of medical

2:32

injuries. Here's Karen.

2:37

As part of my attempt to learn more about

2:39

Dr. Thomas Byrne, I've reached

2:41

out to all kinds of people. Ex-wives,

2:44

former colleagues, office assistants,

2:46

doctors who spoke out about him decades

2:49

ago. I've also tried to track

2:51

down every single patient who

2:53

filed a lawsuit against him. There

2:55

were 23 cases, claims that

2:57

span from 1989 to 2021. Because

3:02

every time I talked to someone who knew

3:04

him or interacted with him, I learned

3:06

something more, something new that gives

3:08

me some insight into how Byrne

3:11

has continued practicing. And

3:13

there was one patient in particular, Marquita

3:15

Baird,

3:16

who helped me start to see a pattern fairing.

3:19

She got back to me right away when I reached out,

3:22

the day my letter arrived at her house.

3:24

I stood up and went, yes. Even

3:28

though it has

3:28

been more than 20 years since Dr.

3:31

Byrne did surgery on

3:32

Marquita, it was almost like she'd

3:34

been waiting for someone to call her up and

3:36

ask, what happened that day in 1999?

3:39

I don't

3:41

want to see this happen

3:43

to a young woman who's got

3:46

the rest of her life to been able

3:48

to enjoy. I'm doing

3:50

this for the benefit of female

3:53

humanity, I guess.

3:56

Marquita lives in a small city in

3:58

Oklahoma called Shawnee.

3:59

It's about an hour's drive from Oklahoma

4:02

City, surrounded by open fields,

4:04

casinos, churches, and reservations.

4:06

About six years

4:08

after New York took away Burns' medical

4:10

license, he started practicing there

4:13

at a rural hospital nearby called

4:15

Seminole Medical Center. Marquita

4:18

has kept records in a boot box up

4:20

on the top shelf of a closet in her guest

4:22

room. Five hundred and ninety pages,

4:25

doctor's notes, court records, detailed

4:27

nurse hogs.

4:28

So what I'm about to tell you is based

4:31

on those documents. I

4:33

held onto these records all this

4:36

time. I always

4:39

knew somebody

4:41

somewhere was going to get in touch

4:43

with me someday because

4:45

of what he did to me.

4:50

The whole thing started back when Marquita

4:53

was thirty-seven years old. She

4:55

went to see Dr. Burns because she had something

4:57

called polycystic

4:58

ovarian syndrome. My

5:00

ovaries and fallopian tubes were

5:03

just covered in cysts

5:07

and I did not tend to have any more children

5:10

ever. And

5:13

the only answer they had was to

5:15

do a hysterectomy. Dr.

5:17

Burns removed her uterus,

5:19

fallopian tubes, and ovaries, and

5:21

he kept pretty detailed notes, noting

5:24

that he was, quote, concerned about

5:26

injury to the bladder

5:27

or ureters.

5:29

But he also noted that her

5:31

urine eventually cleared up and was totally

5:33

normal. Ureters, by the

5:35

way, are the tubes that carry

5:37

urine from the kidneys to the bladder.

5:41

Three days after the surgery, he

5:43

discharged Marquita. In her

5:45

records, he wrote, quote, there were

5:47

no operative complications. But

5:50

she went back to the hospital the very

5:52

next day. Her medical records

5:54

say her abdominal wall was swelling,

5:57

and by her account, a lot.

5:59

Everything was swollen.

6:02

I was in so much pain and bleeding,

6:05

and I couldn't pee.

6:07

About two weeks after the surgery,

6:09

she went back to the

6:10

hospital again and

6:12

still couldn't urinate. Byrne

6:15

noted she had gained 18 pounds in just 11 days.

6:20

So what was going through your head?

6:23

I had absolutely

6:23

no idea what he had done to

6:26

me. I expected a hysterectomy,

6:29

but I did not expect my stomach to

6:31

be pooped out like I was nine months

6:33

pregnant. And yes, I did. I looked

6:36

like I was nine months pregnant.

6:38

Eventually, Markita saw another

6:40

doctor, a urologist at another

6:43

hospital who determined what was wrong.

6:46

According to her medical records, one of

6:48

her ureters and bladder were injured.

6:51

I was,

6:52

quite frankly, peeing into my stomach.

6:58

Over the next six months, Markita would

7:00

need to have a series of medical procedures.

7:03

She had stents put in

7:04

to help urine make it into her bladder. She

7:07

says the whole experience took a

7:09

serious toll on her. The constant

7:12

back and forth, having to have the

7:15

minor surgeries, I mean, it was a

7:17

ordeal.

7:21

Markita sued Dr. Byrne and the hospital

7:23

seminal medical center. She claimed

7:26

that Dr. Byrne negligently

7:28

performed the hysterectomy on her. Five

7:32

more women would sue him for procedures

7:34

he did while he practiced at seminal and

7:37

at another

7:37

hospital close by. This

7:39

was work he did in a span of just four

7:42

years,

7:42

including one patient who

7:45

alleged that after doing a hysterectomy,

7:47

he left a foreign object inside

7:50

of her body,

7:50

which caused her severe

7:52

injuries. That case settled,

7:54

but the others were dismissed.

8:02

Burn eventually left the area

8:04

and started working at another hospital

8:06

a few hours away. Marquita's

8:09

attorneys dropped the case because

8:11

she and her husband at the time hadn't filed their

8:13

taxes for several years and they

8:15

didn't think that would look good in front of a jury. As

8:18

she sees it, justice was

8:20

never served.

8:21

With every inch of my being,

8:23

I would like to see this man's, if

8:26

he is trying to practice, be

8:29

dismissed forever, just

8:32

take his license away from him and

8:35

don't let him practice anywhere.

8:39

That last thing Marquita said about

8:41

not letting him practice, that's

8:43

actually something that all the former patients

8:45

and family members I've spoken with, more

8:48

than a dozen people, have communicated

8:50

to me in one way or another, that

8:53

somebody needs to stop him.

8:56

The only entity

8:59

that has the power to give or take

9:01

away a doctor's license is a

9:03

state medical board. There are actually 70

9:06

of them in the country, by the way. Some states

9:08

have two, one for physicians with

9:10

MDs and one for osteopaths. The

9:12

boards are the traffic cops standing

9:15

at the intersection of which doctors can

9:17

come and which have to go. They

9:19

are also responsible for investigating

9:21

doctors who, for whatever reason,

9:24

may need to be reprimanded. Medical

9:28

boards have continued to give Dr. Byrne

9:30

licenses despite his track

9:32

record, which raises what seems

9:34

like an obvious question.

9:37

How exactly do medical

9:39

boards vet doctors? Coming

9:44

up. I was thinking, how did

9:47

he end up in Oklahoma? How did

9:49

he end up here? How did we end up with him?

9:52

How does the board make sure that

9:54

what the physician is submitting is

9:57

accurate? You don't

9:59

know.

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11:54

All right. So, Karen, you

11:56

just told us about this string

11:58

of malpractice lawsuits. in this

12:00

small town outside Oklahoma City, including

12:03

Marquita Bears. You mentioned

12:05

that Dr. Byrne had left

12:08

the hospital where she was treated. Where

12:10

did he end up after that?

12:13

Well, what I know from the records

12:15

is that he started practicing at

12:17

a new hospital by 2005. The

12:20

hospital was called Craig General at the time.

12:23

And it was located in the

12:25

northeast

12:25

corner of Oklahoma.

12:28

So about an hour out from Tulsa,

12:29

in this small city

12:31

called Veneta, which is

12:34

located in the Cherokee Nation.

12:36

My first impression was grateful

12:39

that we had an OBGN. And because

12:41

we're all areas,

12:43

it's sometimes difficult to recruit

12:46

providers.

12:47

I spoke with a woman named Robin Kemp. She was

12:50

the director of nursing at Craig General

12:52

Hospital when Byrne worked there. And

12:56

initially she was happy

12:58

they had an OBGN, but

13:00

that feeling of being grateful

13:03

changed somewhat quickly. It

13:06

was probably within the first six

13:09

months. There's just things

13:11

that he did or said that just

13:14

seemed odd. Robin

13:16

would eventually be one of several Craig General

13:19

staff to pose in lawsuits against Dr.

13:21

Byrne, most of which also named

13:23

the hospital. One patient

13:26

claimed that while she was having

13:28

a routine procedure done, Dr.

13:30

Byrne tied her fallopian tubes without

13:34

her consent. This

13:36

is all part of what I've come

13:38

to think of as a second

13:40

cluster of cases in Oklahoma

13:43

that I'll tell you about more in

13:46

the next episode. Robin

13:48

told me this kind of

13:50

pattern of multiple cases was

13:53

very unusual.

13:56

Do you remember what you

13:58

were thinking as of the

14:00

information was coming out about

14:03

these various cases. I

14:05

was thinking how did he end up in Oklahoma?

14:08

How did he end up here? How did we end up

14:10

with him? I was angry. How did Oklahoma

14:12

let him have a license?

14:14

Why?

14:22

What have you managed to learn about what

14:25

the medical boards in Oklahoma

14:28

or New Mexico for that matter knew

14:31

about the track record that you've

14:33

been reporting on before they decided

14:35

to give him a medical license?

14:36

Yeah, so to me that

14:38

was the key question here. What did they know?

14:42

Because one of the things I've learned

14:44

is that Dr. Byrne hadn't

14:47

disclosed information about his history

14:49

when he first applied for a medical

14:52

license in New York. The

14:54

state's investigation in the early 90s

14:56

found he hadn't disclosed that

14:59

he'd been reprimanded by the North

15:01

Carolina Medical Board years earlier

15:04

for administering ketamine to

15:06

a patient when he wasn't supposed

15:08

to and then omitting that

15:11

from the patient's

15:12

medical record.

15:15

So I tried to find out

15:17

what these other medical

15:19

boards did know.

15:22

So first things first, can you just introduce

15:25

yourself? My name is Amanda

15:27

Quintana and I

15:29

am the interim executive director for

15:31

the New Mexico Medical Board. New Mexico

15:34

was the first state

15:35

to grant Byrne a license about

15:37

a year after New York revoked his

15:39

license there. I

15:41

just want to be clear though that Amanda

15:44

wasn't working at the Medical Board at the time.

15:47

So she was learning about Byrne

15:49

as we talked through some of the records

15:51

that the board had shared with me. So

15:54

I mean I do know that the board licensed him

15:56

as an MD in 1992. We

15:59

first talked about what I mentioned in the last episode,

16:01

the fact that Byrne got a medical license,

16:04

then a resident license, which

16:06

is what doctors typically have when they're

16:08

in training. I don't know the reason

16:12

for him having a resident license

16:14

in the middle of his MD

16:16

licensure.

16:18

Is that unusual? It's

16:21

a little unusual. Yeah, that is. It's

16:23

a little unusual.

16:25

But there was one

16:28

document in particular I wanted

16:30

to ask Amanda about that

16:32

I think gets at your question about,

16:35

you know, what did New Mexico

16:38

know about Byrne's history?

16:40

Mm-hmm. So, yeah, just tell me the page

16:42

number. It's a letter written by the New

16:44

Mexico Medical Board about Byrne's application.

16:48

Page 209.

16:52

Okay. And

16:55

it explicitly states the board

16:58

thoroughly reviewed all of his records,

17:01

including the complete history of

17:03

proceedings in New York and North

17:05

Carolina. North Minnesotans during the application

17:07

process department thoroughly reviewed it. But then it

17:10

goes on to say, he completed

17:12

an extensive continuing education

17:14

program in New York State during the

17:16

time when the board was reviewing his credentials.

17:19

The board was satisfied that Dr.

17:22

Byrne possessed the integrity

17:24

and competency to practice medicine

17:26

in New Mexico.

17:30

There you have it.

17:32

Do you have a question

17:34

about that letter? I mean,

17:37

my question is,

17:39

you know, the letter clearly acknowledges

17:42

that the board was aware of

17:45

what happened in New York.

17:48

And I think a lot of people

17:50

might be surprised

17:53

to learn that the board was aware

17:55

and have continued with the

17:58

granting of the license.

18:01

Yeah, I'm also surprised. Again,

18:06

way before my time, our board does not...

18:10

This wouldn't happen currently. Why

18:14

wouldn't this happen today, but it would happen back then?

18:18

I

18:18

couldn't tell you.

18:21

I wasn't around back then.

18:23

Yeah, I mean, what do you make

18:26

of

18:27

this letter? Well,

18:30

it's just exactly what

18:32

it says. I actually... You know what?

18:34

I'm a little bit... Can

18:37

we stop this interview, please? I

18:40

need to... Yes, please.

18:43

I want to get the full file and

18:45

I can answer questions

18:47

via email.

18:50

Okay.

18:53

I did send Amanda a few more

18:55

questions after

18:56

we spoke, but she wrote back saying that

18:58

she didn't have any further comment.

19:06

This was one of my first

19:08

cases that I was aware of.

19:10

I also spoke with the executive

19:11

director of the Oklahoma

19:13

State Medical Board, Lyle Kelsey. He

19:16

started just before Dr. Byrne

19:18

got a license there. So you've been there

19:20

for a while now.

19:21

Yes, yes, I have. 26, going

19:25

on 27 years. I

19:26

managed to get some records from Oklahoma

19:29

as well. What those records

19:32

show is that the board initially

19:34

denied

19:35

Dr. Byrne's application. Can

19:37

you tell me a little bit about the

19:40

concerns? I think there

19:42

were some questionable things

19:45

on his application that

19:47

kind of started our concern about

19:50

his practice patterns and so on. But

19:54

then just four months later,

19:56

the board

19:58

reversed that decision and... granted

20:00

him a license.

20:03

Is it fairly common to have a license

20:05

denied and then granted a handful

20:07

of months later? No, it's

20:10

not common.

20:12

Denials are pretty

20:14

rare. Who

20:17

exactly sits on state

20:19

medical boards like the one that you're talking about here?

20:22

Yeah, so Lyle as executive

20:24

director, he runs the medical board's operations.

20:27

It's the board members

20:29

who make the licensing

20:32

decisions.

20:34

And yeah, typically medical boards

20:36

are made up of mostly practicing doctors.

20:39

They're often appointed by the governor, but

20:41

it can vary state by state. Most

20:44

also have some people who

20:46

aren't doctors also,

20:48

who are referred to as public

20:50

members or lay people.

20:52

And were you able to find out anything

20:54

about what that board based its decision

20:57

on?

20:58

Yeah, according to the records the board shared

21:00

with me, Byrne submits new evidence,

21:03

mostly letters from other doctors

21:05

in New Mexico vouching for

21:07

him, but also one from William Grant.

21:10

He was the person who oversaw that educational

21:13

program Byrne did in upstate New York

21:15

that I told you about in the last episode.

21:18

The medical board did set

21:20

some conditions for Dr.

21:23

Byrne's license. They required

21:25

monthly reports about all surgical

21:27

procedures that he did and that other

21:30

doctors would review his charts. But

21:34

after a while Byrne asked for those conditions

21:36

to be lifted and they were.

21:39

So about a year later, the members

21:41

of the board allowed him to practice

21:43

without any of those conditions.

21:47

It sounds like it's really the

21:49

doctors

21:51

that have the

21:53

power to make a decision about

21:56

who is getting the license and

21:57

who is not. Absolutely.

21:59

Absolutely.

22:03

You know,

22:04

something I've come

22:05

across over and over again

22:07

is that there are some

22:09

questions about that power that

22:11

medical boards have and whether they

22:14

do enough. For

22:16

example, one report from the organization

22:18

Public Citizen found that more

22:21

than half of doctors nationwide

22:24

who've had privileges suspended or

22:26

revoked by hospitals didn't

22:29

face any actions from

22:31

medical boards.

22:33

A number of people have told me that medical

22:35

boards don't always work

22:38

in the public's best interest, that in

22:40

part because it's physicians

22:43

who are regulating their

22:46

peers in some ways, that

22:48

there's like an inherent conflict

22:50

of interest there.

22:52

I don't think there is. I think the

22:55

board members take it very serious.

22:58

They treat other doctors

23:00

with problems tougher than I've

23:03

thought they would many,

23:05

many times. But, you know, there

23:07

always could be examples of that going on.

23:12

You know, given the number of malpractice cases

23:14

that have been filed against burn, I wondered

23:17

how boards keep tabs on doctors

23:19

after they grant licenses.

23:22

And what I learned is that doctors do

23:24

have to renew medical licenses

23:27

every few years and answer

23:29

a series of questions, including ones

23:31

about malpractice claims. And

23:34

I've seen some of burn's applications,

23:37

which I got from Oklahoma. And

23:39

what those show is that there

23:42

are some discrepancies

23:45

between what's

23:46

on his renewal applications

23:49

and what's in the court records that

23:52

I have.

23:59

you don't know. Do

24:02

we hope that doctors

24:04

do the right thing? Absolutely.

24:07

But we also know that

24:10

they're just like the general population too.

24:13

I mean, they can tell

24:15

lies and be dishonest as well.

24:18

We license almost 30,000

24:20

licensees in 14 different professions.

24:22

And you, you know,

24:27

somewhere you have to hope

24:29

that they're all being honest

24:31

when they renew their license and answer

24:33

questions. Do

24:35

you, do you think that hope

24:38

is enough when it comes to

24:40

a

24:42

profession of people

24:44

who are taking care of patients? Does

24:46

that, does that work out okay?

24:49

Well, I'm

24:51

not so sure what your question is. Of

24:55

course, you recognize that

24:57

it's a learned profession, highly

25:00

educated people. And you would

25:02

presume by that that these

25:04

people would be honest and forthright

25:07

and answering questions. And occasionally

25:09

we may find out that somebody has

25:11

lied on their application and that

25:14

becomes a fraudulent application.

25:17

But I

25:19

don't think there's anything wrong with hope. It's

25:26

something I'm curious

25:28

about. You mentioned that medical

25:30

boards, they don't just license doctors, they

25:33

discipline them too, right? Yeah,

25:35

that's right. They're responsible for both things

25:37

licensing, but also investigating doctors

25:40

and then disciplining them. Well, was

25:42

burn

25:43

ever disciplined in Oklahoma or

25:45

in New Mexico, as far as you can tell?

25:47

No, neither New Mexico nor Oklahoma

25:50

disciplined him. And during

25:53

the time he practiced in both states in

25:55

all 14 patients filed

25:58

lawsuits against him for alleged

26:00

malpractice. Seven of those settled.

26:03

The other half were dismissed. One

26:05

hospital temporarily suspended

26:07

his privileges, but nothing,

26:10

as far as I can tell, happened to his medical licenses.

26:13

All of this is part of why I've come

26:15

to think of medical boards as just one

26:18

part of this whole world of patient

26:20

safety and doctor discipline, because

26:22

there's so much that goes on

26:24

at the hospital level or in a doctor's office

26:27

that might never rise to the attention

26:30

of a medical board unless someone

26:32

wants it to. The

26:35

license is just do

26:38

you meet the requirements to get a

26:40

license in a state? And

26:43

once you get that, it's

26:45

pretty hard to monitor. You hope

26:47

that, and there's that hope again,

26:49

you hope that hospitals are doing

26:51

their part to monitor

26:54

and make sure that their doctors

26:56

are doing well and performing

26:59

up to certain standards and requirements.

27:03

I saw this all very clearly

27:05

when I started to really dig into

27:08

what went on with the staff and patients

27:10

at the new hospital MIRN had moved

27:13

on to near Tulsa. And

27:15

generally speaking, the power that

27:17

hospitals have to

27:19

keep things quiet.

27:26

In our next episode, how the staff

27:28

at one hospital began to keep tabs

27:31

on Dr. Byrne. If Oklahoma

27:33

would give him a license, then

27:37

the only people to stop him were us.

27:39

I mean, the damage was done and thank

27:43

God I survived. I just

27:45

wanted him stopped. I wanted him to lose his

27:47

license and not

27:49

be able to practice, which

27:51

apparently didn't happen.

27:59

and edited by me, Christopher

28:02

Worth. It was produced in partnership

28:04

with the Pulitzer Center. Our executive

28:07

producer is Ave Carrillo. We had

28:09

additional editing by Sican Akpan,

28:11

Stephanie Clary, and Sean Bowditch. Ethan

28:13

Corey is our researcher and fact checker.

28:16

Jared Paul is our sound engineer. He

28:18

also wrote our theme music. We had

28:20

additional reporting and producing from Jacqueline

28:23

Jeffrey Wilensky, Owen Agnew, and

28:25

Catherine Roberts. Special thanks

28:27

in this episode. Go to Dr. Humayun Choudhry,

28:30

Rob Christensen, Dan Epstein, Karen

28:32

Freeman, Ruth Horowitz, Joe

28:34

Nickram, Dr. Catherine Kula, Dr.

28:37

Benedict Landrin, Adam Ramonda,

28:39

Dr. Christopher Roy, Maggie Stapleton,

28:42

Gina Vosde, and Nadia Sawicki.

28:46

Thanks for listening. Be sure

28:48

to check out NYC Now every Saturday morning

28:50

for the next two weeks to hear the conclusion

28:52

of imminent danger. Trust me, it's

28:55

worth it.

28:56

I'm Jeanette Pierre, and we'll be back with

28:58

the local news and headlines first thing Monday

29:00

morning. Until then, have a great weekend.