A Broward doctor started to replace the wrong knee. He once did surgery on the wrong hip
A Tamarac doctor has been fined $10,000 for a wrong site surgery, almost exactly 21 years after getting the same fine for the same medical mistake.
The final order from the state Board of Medicine approved a settlement that got into Dr. Richard Berkowitz’s wallet for a total of $15,443 — the aforementioned fine and $5,443 reimbursement of the Florida Department of Health’s case costs. Berkowitz also must take a five-hour continuing medical education course in wrong site surgeries and a five-hour course in risk management. An official reprimand has been issued against his license.
That posted July 17, 12 days short of 21 years after the July 29, 2002, final order after another wrong site surgery. That final order hit Berkowitz with a $10,000 fine; the five-hour risk management course; providing 50 hours of free medical services; and giving a one-hour lecture to a hospital staff on wrong site surgeries.
In that case, the final order says, Berkowitz didn’t dispute the facts in the Florida Department of Health’s administrative complaint. According to the settlement agreement on the current case, Berkowitz officially neither admits nor denies the allegations in this administrative complaint.
But, if money talks, consider what it says that at the same Board of Medicine meeting, a doctor got fined only $5,000 for taking out fat instead of an appendix at Coral Gables Hospital.
Berkowitz has been licensed in Florida since Sept. 4, 1996. The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery says he’s been board certified since July 7, 2001.
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Stopping just in time
The complaint that started the current discipline case says on Feb. 24, 2020 a patient came to Berkowitz for a total left knee replacement. During surgery prep, the attending nurse put a compression device on the patient’s left leg.
“Surgical staff proceeded to prepare (the patient’s) right leg for knee replacement surgery,” the complaint said. “[Berkowitz] incorrectly confirmed with surgical staff that the unmarked right leg was the correct surgery site.”
Berkowitz put a tourniquet on the right leg to stop blood flow and “made an incision in (the patient’s) right leg before surgical staff informed him that hte procesure was actually intended for (the patient’s) left leg.”
The complaint said Berkowitz stopped and got permission from the patient’s family to proceed with surgery on the right leg.
Replacing what didn’t need to be replaced
On Dec. 12, 2000, Berkowitz prepared for surgery on a 50-year-old woman who complained of nausea but also immobility after a fall in her home. A bone scan had revealed a possible femur fracture and Berkowitz scheduled surgery for an occult left hip fracture.
But, “the nursing staff prepped (the patient’s) right, or incorrect, hip for surgery,” the complaint said. “[Berkowitz performed a percutaneous pinning of (the patient’s) right, or incorrect, femur.”
The pinning holds bones together until they heal, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. But while his patient was in recovery, Berkowitz “realized he had performed the surgery on the wrong hip.”
Berkowitz took the patient back into surgery and pinned the left hip.
READ MORE: Coral Gables doctor performed surgery on a patient’s joint. It was the wrong joint
