Last year, St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., celebrated the placement of its 100,000th coronary stent since 1980. But maybe the hospital has been a little too busy: According to an internal investigation reported by The Baltimore Sun, 369 of those stents were apparently implanted in the arteries of patients who didn't need them.
As in it's usual fashion, the Sun paper doesn't get it right. While there is an ongoing investigation at St. Joseph's Hospital, the facts are not as cut and dried and made out in the article. As a patient, if I had a blockage that was at 70% or more and a second one that was 50% or more, do I want one surgery or two? If the Dr. is operating and knows he will be back operating again in the near future, why not kill two birds with one stone. What is wrong is the insurance companies running individual medical decisions. Dr. Midei can operate on me anytime. What someone needs to investigate are where the allegations came from to begin with and one may find sour grapes
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