A surgical mistake by a Broward bariatric surgeon will cost him time and money — taking continuing medical education courses and $10,000.
The mistake cost the patient a kidney and a gallbladder.
That information comes from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s summary of the payout by Dr. Fernando Bayren-Velez’s liability insurance, the fourth such payout since 2017. Two of the other three cases involved patient deaths.
Those four payouts don’t include a 2012 incident in which Bayren-Velez left a 23-inch by 15-inch surgical towel inside a surgery patient for three weeks.
For that, the state Board of Medicine fined Bayren-Velez $2,000, charged him $3,144 in Florida Department of Health case costs, and assigned him a five-hour continuing medical education course on risk management. Bayron-Velez also was fined, charged Florida Department of Health case costs and assigned a continuing medical education course.
In the current case, he got a $5,000 fine, $5,000 in case cost reimbursement, a five-hour CME risk management course, a five-hour surgical aftercare course, and a three-hour postoperative complications course.
Bayron-Velez referred questions about the fine and surgery to his lawyer, who didn’t return an email from the Miami Herald.
Bayren-Velez has been licensed in Florida since June 2005 and is board certified in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery. His license profile includes staff privileges at HCA Florida Westside Hospital, formerly Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation; HCA Florida Woodmont Hospital, formerly University Hospital and Medical Center in Tamarac; Plantation’s Outpatient Surgical Services; and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes.
Florida Medical Center was where a patient came for surgery under Bayren-Velez’s knife on Dec. 15, 2020.
‘Loss of kidney … inadvertent loss of gallbladder …”
What follows comes from the Department of Health administrative complaint and state insurance records.
What was planned: A diagnostic laparoscopy, in which a hollow tube with a tiny camera looks into the abdomen, followed by the removal of a cyst below the liver and gallbladder.
What happened: The patient began hemorrhaging from a vein. Bayron-Velez “placed a clip on the bleeding vein, but also clipped the renal vein,” which takes blood from the kidneys to the heart. The patient’s kidney on that side had to be removed after developing “necrosis,” which, the Cleveland Clinic says, is “the medical term for the death of your body tissue.”
Payout: Bayron-Velez’s insurance paid $750,000 after “loss of kidney due to necrosis and inadvertent loss of gallbladder due to trauma.”
Complaint: The state complaint that led to the fine faulted Bayron-Velez for not getting “a consultation with urology or vascular surgery during or immediately following the procedure.”
Other problems requiring insurance
April 26, 2022: At what was then University Hospital and Medical Center, a patient with a colon cancer history came in for a robotic colon mass resection, which removes all or part of the colon. After low blood pressure and “intraoperative bleeding” from a surgical instrument injury, the patient “developed sepsis, multi-organ failure” and died. The doctor’s insurance paid $99,000.
July 26, 2018: A patient came to Bayron-Velez for robotic hernia repair at Florida Medical Center. The patient’s lawyers, the state insurance entry says, “allege that the patient suffered a bowel perforation and that Dr. Bayron-Velez should have taken him back to surgery urgently.”
Bayron-Velez, the insurance entry said, “took the conservative approach to drain the abscess, thereby allowing the inflammation of the abdomen to decrease and provide the patient with the best outcome.”
Still, “after discharge, the patient developed abdominal pain, infection, intra-abdominal abscess and complications with drains. Bayron-Velez’s opted to wait three months for repair while a drain remained in place.”
Though the injuries were said listed as “temporary” and “minor — infections, mis-set fracture, a fall in the hospital, recovery delayed,” Bayron-Velez’s insurance paid $540,000 in the lawsuit settlement.
May 15, 2017: A patient with cholecystitis, a gallbladder inflammation, was having the gallbladder removed at Florida Medical Center. After “excessive bleeding post gallbladder surgery,” the patient died. Bayron-Velez’s insurance paid $200,000.
