The Nation - News from July 25, 1985
The Navy surgeon now facing a court-martial on manslaughter charges in the deaths of four patients flunked an Air Force eye examination before joining the Navy, an Air Force spokesman said Wednesday. Moreover, Navy recruiters were told that Dr. Donal M. Billig had flunked the Air Force exam, the spokesman said. Billig, 54, was formally relieved of his duties last April. On June 27, he was charged with 28 counts of dereliction of duty and four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The latter charges accuse him of “culpable negligence” by bungling open-heart operations that killed three men and one woman.
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