VA pathologist indicated in 3 deaths

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Federal prosecutors charged a former Veterans Affairs pathologist Aug. 20 with the deaths of three veterans and a scheme to cover up years of drug and alcohol use on the job that caused him to misread thousands of fluid and tissue samples of ill and non-ill patients. Robert Morris Levy was indicted on three counts of involuntary manslaughter and 28 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and false statements to officials. The Department of Veterans Affairs has told members of Congress and investigators that Levy’s misdiagnoses, which amounted to more than 3,000 cases, were responsible for at least 15 deaths. During his dozen years as chief pathologist at the Fayetteville VA hospital, and leadership roles on multiple oversight boards and medical committees, Levy read nearly 34,000 pa­thol­ogy slides of some 24,000 veterans, but his alcohol addiction, and attempts to cover up alleged mistakes, amounted to dangerous practices even after the VA paid for a lengthy impaired physicians treatment program in Mississippi in 2016. The unsealed charges mark a rare criminal case against a any physician in a profession where alleged negligence are most often addressed in civil court through malpractice claims. VA officials called Levy’s alleged misdeeds isolated. But it’s already prompting questions of oversight from investigators, veterans groups and Congress for the nation’s largest medical system - a network of 1,200 hospitals and smaller clinics that serve nine million veterans annually. To avoid detection of alcohol abuse, Levy took 2-methyl-2-butanol (2M2B) to mask the alcohol level in his blood. The substance, not approved for individual use, cannot be detected in routine tests for drugs and alcohol. It can be lethal if too much is taken, said Duane Kees, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. The masking intentionally misled the Mississippi state medical license board into believing he was clean, the indictment said. Prosecutors described a sinister disregard for veterans’ lives as Levy knowingly entered false diagnoses for three veterans whose biopsies he read, one in 2009 and two in 2014, allegedly led to their deaths. One patient was wrongly diagnosed and prescribed wrong treatment and died in months. Another patient died of squamous cell carcinoma after Levy entered a wrong diagnosis. The third received a benign test result for prostate cancer and as a result was not treated, and died in 2016. In two of the cases, Levy falsified records. VA fired Levy last year after an arrest for DUI. The termination followed a tumultuous tenure during which his colleagues in the pa­thol­ogy lab complained they witnessed erratic behavior from him while on the job. Their complaints went unheeded, the indictment alleges. Trial date is set for Oct. 7. Levy was returned to the county jail in Fayetteville. (Source: Washington Post 08/20/19)