Doctor Flees The Country To Avoid 350 Medical Malpractice Lawsuits And Criminal Charges

Most doctors are practicing medicine because they want to help people.  However, as I pointed out in a recent blog post there are some unscrupulous doctors performing unnecessary procedures on patients and billing their insurance companies for the procedure.  In the January issue of Vanity Fair, Buzz Bissinger wrote an article about one of the most despicable cases of performing unnecessary procedures discovered so far. 

Dr. Mark Weinberger vanished in 2004, leaving behind 350medical malpractice lawsuits and a loan from his father that helped build his brand new state of the art medical clinic.  The unpaid debt to his father has apparently forced his father into bankruptcy. 

Weinberger had advertised himself as "TheNoseDoctor" in Merrillville, Indiana.  He would convince his patients that they needed surgery, sometimes by showing them X-rays that did not actually belong to them.  Then he would perform outdated sinus-related surgeries that other doctors all agree were completely unnecessary and often made the situation worse.  One Medical expert even claimed that Weinberger must have 12 hands to perform those surgeries in just 25 minutes.  He had so many patients that there was only enough time in a day for him to see each patient for 3 minutes.  He would often miss important details about each patient that would make surgery the wrong choice.  Unfortunately that did not stop him from recommending surgery.   It appears from all of the evidence gathered that he did all of this for the sole purpose of making money.  He reportedly made more than $3 million a year and lived a very extravagant lifestyle.

Weinberger disappeared while on vacation with his wife for 5 years after the first wave of Malpractice lawsuits surfaced.  He did not contact his wife or family the entire time he was missing.  He lived in the Alps of Italy with his Italian girlfriend.  In December of 2009 he appeared in America's Most Wanted and his new girlfriend recognized him and she turned him in. 

Hospital peer review boards and state licensing boards are supposed to identify problem doctors like Weinberger and catch them before they wreak this kind of havoc.  Clearly this case demonstrates such peer review and licensing boards often do not get the job done.  Competent doctors should welcome the help of Medical Malpractice Lawyers in their efforts to make greedy doctors like Mark Weinberger pay for the harm caused to their patients.