A New York arbitrator hasreleased a long-awaited arbitration award totaling $140 million toresolve 255 medical malpractice lawsuits against ex-doctor SpyrosPanos, who has already served one prison term andcurrently faces new criminal charges.

The attorneys whose firm ishandling 150 of the cases against the former Poughkeepsieorthopedist said the mass of lawsuits comprise the largest medicalmalpractice litigation in New York.

'People died, lives were ruined.'

“The long and short of it isthat he engaged in a 10-year pattern of fraud and abuse, fakingsurgeries for people who didn't need them or faking them for peoplewho really needed surgery,” said John “J.T.” Wisell ofWisell & McGee.

Wisell's partner Nancy McGeeheads up a plaintiffs committee authorized by New York state courtjudges to handle the litigation, which involved each case beingarbitrated individually before retired New York state andappellate court Judge Peter Skelos with National Arbitration andMediation.

When approved by the court, theawards to individual plaintiffs will range from $15,500 to $3.8million, the lawyers said.  

McGee said kudos were due toSkelos and to Judge PaulMarks of New York State Supreme Court, who removed the cases fromthe court system and appointed a plaintiffs committee to spearheadthe massive litigation.

The size of the collective award“reflects the seriousness of just how badly Dr. Panos hurt people,”McGee said.

“This is vindication for every patient of Dr. Panoswho was lied to and treated like they did something wrong,” Wisellsaid.

3 layers of insurance coverage insufficient to cover allsettlements

The awards are expected to beapproved relatively quickly, Wisell said. But that presents anotherproblem. Although there are three layers of insurance coverage,“there's still not enough to cover $140 million,” Wisellsaid.

Brown, whose firm handled adozen of the cases, noted the lack of sufficient insurance to coverall the settlements, and lamented that they were akin to “roughjustice” for Panos' patients.   

“It's a shame that so manyothers who must have been involved in these schemes or looked theother way when he was doing it are avoiding any responsibility,civil or criminal, for their wrongdoing,” Brown said.

Among the settlements was $1.4million for a woman who suffered a pulmonary embolism anddied.

“I'm grateful to Judge Skelosfor seeing the tragedy of this case and awarding her family for the24 to 36 hours of pain and suffering this woman must have felt,”said Brown, who represents that family.

Meagher, who represents 32 plaintiffs, said he was glad theywere getting “some semblance of justice.”

But he predicted that, because of the lack of adequateinsurance, “most people will receive considerably less than thefull value of the award delivered by the arbitrator.”

'Victims of a serial malpracticer'

“At the end of the day there were a lot of victims of thisphysician,” he said. “Victims of a serial malpracticer, if there issuch a word.”

Lead defense counsel EvanKrinick of RivkinRadler's Uniondale office represents the maininsurer in the case, Medical Liability Mutual InsuranceCo. A law firm representative declined tocomment.

The awards come nearly six yearsafter Panos surrendered his medical license and pleaded guilty to health carefraud  in U.S. District Court in New York. Heserved two and half years of a four-and-a-half-year sentence, onlyto be charged last year withwire fraud, health care fraud, andaggravated identity theft.

According to the federalcomplaint, even before he began serving his first sentence, Panosand a family member set up a company and bank accounts in Hong Kongto perform peer reviews for workers' compensation claims. Those reviews canonly be performed by a licensed physician.

The DOJ said Panos banked nearly$240,000 before he entered prison. Within months of his release, hesubmitted credentialing information to peer review companies usingthe name of a licensed orthopedist, and deposited more than$636,500 in the company's accounts.

Doctor free on $1 million bond

Filings in New York's SouthernDistrict indicate he is free on a $1 million bond.

As a doctor, Panos lefta trail of untreated and mistreated patients, Wisellsaid.

Hundreds of complaints werefiled against Panos and his former employer, Mid Hudson MedicalGroup, in multiple New York state courts, where the judges decidedto combine them for arbitration.

“These cases have gone on solong and taken such a weird path, they've been extracted from thecourt system and we've been handling them on the side,” Wisellsaid.

Wisell said there were threecategories of plaintiffs in the group:

1. Those who did not need surgerybut whom Panos operated on anyway.
2. Those who had a genuine medicalissue but were not adequately treated “so he could do a second orthird surgery on them.”
3. Those who were treated but onwhom Panos “justmalpracticed because he was in a rush or just lacked theskill.”

The doctor routinely performed15 to 20 surgeries a day, Wisell said.

Over the course of thelitigation, Wisell's firm alone fought 76 motions for summaryjudgment, drew up 1,000 bills of particulars and made 34 trips tothe Appellate Division, Wisell said.

Orthopedist continues to deny malpractice

Panos continues to deny anymalpractice and refused to approve the settlement, Wisellsaid.

“He said he still wants tofight, but the insurers overrode him and said, 'We'll go ahead andsettle,'” he said.

Brown saidthe Panos case “ismore problematic than one deranged surgeon gone bad. It's sort ofthe tip of the 'pay for medical service' iceberg. People died,lives were ruined.”

“But at the end of the day, myjob was to get my clients justice. We accomplished what we could,and I'm grateful for their patience and their understanding,” Brownadded.

Panos' criminal attorney,Jeffrey Feldman of Feldman,Kleidman, Coffey, Sappe & Regenbaum in Fishkill, did notrespond to requests for comment.

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