COUNT V

PUNITIVE DAMAGES AGAINT ST ALEXIUS HOSPITAL

     COMES NOW Plaintiffs, Velma Hardester and Mary Jo Melton, by and through their attorneys, and for Count V of their cause of action against Defendants, Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. and Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as “St. Alexius Hospital”) for punitive damages states as follows:

            1.         Plaintiffs incorporate Count I through IV as though fully set forth herein.

            2.         That during the course of care to the Decedent, St Alexius, through it agents and employees, was negligent and its negligence rose to the level of a wanton failure to provide such care as a reasonable and prudent healthcare provider would have used under the same or similar circumstances and through its wanton failure to provide said care St Alexius directly and proximately caused the death of the Decedent, Ronald Hardester, in the following respects:

            A.        St. Alexius through its New Start Program allowed Dr. Ronald Gaskin, M.D. to maintain privileges as part of the New Start team;

            B.         St Alexius allowed Dr. Ronald Gaskin, M.D. to perform surgery and held him out as a qualified bariatric surgeon and member of the New Start team without knowing his complication rate or in the alternative knowing his high complication rate;

            C.        St Alexius failed to kept track of or have a policy pertaining to complication and death rates of the bariatric surgeons it held out as qualified and falsely advertised the complication rates;

            D.        That Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. knew Ronald Gaskin, M.D. was not a competent gastric bypass surgeon to perform Roux-n-Y gastric bypass procedures but permitted him to perform the procedures with the knowledge that:

                        (1)        Ronald Gaskin, M.D. did not receive adequate training to perform the  Roux-n-Y gastric bypass procedures;

                        (2)        Ronald Gaskin, M.D.’s complication rate, death rate, and leak rates were higher than acceptable for such surgical procedure;

                        (3)        Ronald Gaskin, M.D. caused the death of other patients including his gross negligence and recklessness in causing the death of Linda Slater; but in spite of said knowledge Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. allowed Gaskin to perform said operative procedures and through the New Start program assisted Gaskin in identifying additional patients;

            E.         That Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. through the New Start program gave seminars to prospective patients including the decedent where it advertised false and misleading complication rates which were not accurate for competent physicians or Ronald Gaskin, M.D.;

            F.         Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. through the New Start program held Ronald Gaskin, M.D. out as a competent bariatric surgeon and physician and as part of St Alexius Hospital’s New Start Team, when it know he was not competent;

            G.        Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. failed to keep track of Ronald Gaskin, M.D.’s complication rates, infection rates, death rate, and leak rate when it know Gaskin was having problems with the surgeries;

            H.        Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. failed to perform adequate investigations into Gaskin’s conduct in negligently causing the death of patients, including Linda Slater, or that it covered up Gaskin’s wanton conduct in causing the deaths and serious injuries;

            I.          That in 2002, in spite of Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. knowledge of Gaskin’s incompetence to perform the Roux-n-Y gastric bypass procedure and being aware that Gaskin would likely not be a surgeon permitted to perform surgeries at its hospital after December 2002, due to his known inability to remain a licensed surgeon as of 1/1/2003, it permitted Gaskin to continue to perform the Roux-n-Y gastric bypass procedure and continued to assist him in the location of additional patients through the New Start Program in order to generate fees for the hospital, because it could not locate another physician willing to become a New Start gastric bypass surgeon;

            J.          (1)        The Ronald Gaskin M.D. was being compensated as an employee of Southwest Medical Center, Inc. and was receiving benefits, including staff, office, and malpractice insurance, under a contract of employment dated 1/1/2001, without providing his bariatric surgical fees to Southwest Medical Center, Inc., as required in the contract, and without rendering surgical services to Southwest Medical Center, Inc., patients as required by his employment contract so that he was being compensated excessively and beyond reasonable compensation for the services rendered to Southwest Medical Center, Inc.;

                        (2)        That such conduct of Gaskin, M.D. was permitted by Southwest Medical Center, Inc. in consideration of various agreements between Southwest Medial Center, Inc. and Tenet Health Systems, DI-TPS, Inc. and its subsidiaries or related companies wherein the physicians who were previously employed by Tenet Health Systems DI-TPS, Inc. formed Southwest Medical Center, Inc., and undertook the obligations, duties and benefits of Tenet Health Systems DI-TPS, Inc.;

                        (3)        That under the terms of the agreement, Southwest Medical Center, Inc.’s employee physicians received a large buy out, some in excess of $600,000.00, of their employment agreements that each physician, including Gaskin, had with Tenet Health Systems, DI-TPS, Inc., as such physicians were previously employed by Tenet Health Systems DI-TPS, Inc., as salaried employed physicians, but that contract was illegal as the physicians’ compensation was excessive and amounted to payments for referral of patients to Tenet facilities, therefore necessitating cancellation by Tenet Health Systems, DI-TPS, Inc.;

                        (4)        That prior to the cancellation of said contract, Tenet Health Systems, DI-TPS, Inc. induced Gaskin M.D. to become a New Start Surgeon by allowing him to collect his full salary from Southwest Medical Center Inc. and to collect surgical fees that he generated through New Start as St Alexius Hospital was having difficulty placing a gastric bypass surgeon in the New Start Program to fulfill its need due to its advertising and substantial influx of bariatric patients, and Tenet Heath System Hospitals, Inc. was attempting to make St. Alexius Hospital a profitable hospital with the growth of programs including New Start;

                        (5)        That at the time of the buy out in January 2001, an agreement was reached among Gaskin, Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc./Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. and Southwest Medical Center, Inc., wherein each would benefit from the consideration mentioned above, and Gaskin would continue to be the New Start bariatric surgeon

                        (6)        That Gaskin acted without oversight of his competence, or surgical quality because no other surgeon could be hired at New Start, thereby allowing Gaskin to act with impunity as he was aware from the failure of Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. to take action after high complication rates and deaths including the death of Linda Slater, which was caused by the wanton negligence of Gaskin, M.D..      

                        (7)        That Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. by virtue of the aforesaid agreements with Gaskin and the physicians of Southwest Medical Center, Inc. caused Gaskin to be paid and compensated by Southwest Medical Center, Inc. for services that were not performed and were generally not fair compensation for services provided to Southwest Medical Center, Inc. as consideration for Tenant’s large buyout of its illegal contract with their physicians employees, who subsequently became members of Southwest Medical Center, Inc.; and Southwest Medical Center, Inc.’s payments to Gaskin, and Gaskin becoming a New Start bariatric surgeon;

                        (8)        That Tenet St. Alexius Hospital, Inc. and Tenet Health Systems Hospitals, Inc. permitted Gaskin to operate when it knew he was incompetent due to its inability to recruit other physicians;

            K.        That Ronald Gaskin, M.D. was brought into the New Start program when Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. could not recruit or locate a competent physician to join the New Start program and in an effort to profit by the growth of the New Start surgical program it permitted Gaskin to operate on hundreds of patients without oversight or tracking of his complications so that those persons in infection control were unaware of complications and deaths caused in Gaskin’s patients of which they should have been aware.                          

            3.         Ronald Hardester died as a direct and proximate result of Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc. wanton failure to provide such care as a reasonable and prudent healthcare provider would have used under the same or similar circumstances and said wanton failure is an aggravating circumstance justifying the imposition of punitive damages under RSMo. § 537.080 (2004) against St Alexius Hospital.  

            WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs, Velma Hardester and Mary Joe Melton, pray for judgment against Defendant, Tenet Health System Hospitals, Inc. and Tenet St Alexius Hospital, Inc., for punitive damages in an amount necessary to deter and punish Defendant of Two Hundred Million Dollars ($200,000,000.00), and whatever other relief the Court deems just and proper.