The Nation - News from April 15, 1988

A military appeals court has overturned the conviction of Dr. Donal M. Billig, the Navy heart surgeon court-martialed two years ago on charges he killed three patients through surgical negligence. The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review said in a 20-page opinion the evidence was not sufficient to establish Billig’s guilt. The appeals court asserted that the prosecutors at Billig’s 1986 court martial “lost sight of the fact that coronary artery bypass surgery is an inherently risky business.” The prosecutors argued that Billig, the former chief heart surgeon at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, used questionable surgical techniques, the court said, but never produced the evidence or testimony to demonstrate that Billig’s work in the operating room was so out of line as to constitute criminal conduct. Billig, 57, was ordered released from the Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., military prison, where he has been since early 1986.