Doctor Loses License; 2 Others May Be Penalized : Medicine: A state board now focuses on alleged “gross negligence” by an Anaheim orthopedist and “excess” care by a Newport Beach internist.

Medical officials have revoked the license of Anaheim physician Albert E. Thill, who earlier was found guilty of illegally prescribing drugs and practicing medicine with a suspended license.

In separate cases announced this week, the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance also is recommending the suspension or revocation of the licenses of a Newport Beach internist and an Anaheim orthopedic surgeon.

Kesho Hurria, a 49-year-old Anaheim orthopedist who maintains a busy practice at four North County hospitals, was accused by the BMQA of “gross negligence” in five surgeries.

In a brief interview, Hurria denied the charges. “Nothing is done yet,” he said. The case is not over and he believes an upcoming BMQA hearing will vindicate him, he said.

Asked if he was being investigated unfairly, Hurria said, “Of course.”

The BMQA action against the Newport Beach internist, Hansel Benvenuti, is the state agency’s follow-up to an accusation by federal Medicare officials in 1986 that Benvenuti provided services “in excess” of patient needs.

Benvenuti, 69, who has practiced medicine 35 years, called the accusations without merit. “In a way I’m being censured twice--once by the government taking away Medicare (reimbursements) and second from the Board of Medical Quality Assurance,” he said.

Benvenuti and his attorney, Barry Ross, said that four years ago, when Medicare alleged overbilling in nine patients’ cases, Benvenuti decided not to contest the charges and was suspended from the Medicare program. Now, because of that suspension, he is being unfairly penalized by California’s medical board, Benvenuti said.

“I’m in complete shock,” said the internist, who was planning to retire in several months. He said his career has been unblemished by even a single malpractice suit. “I think my good name is at stake here.”

Thill could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But in March, 1985, the physician, then 60 and living in Laguna Beach, was sentenced to Lompoc federal prison for 18 months and fined $5,000 for selling drug prescriptions to people he never medically examined.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration investigators gathered evidence that Thill had been selling more than 2,500 prescriptions for “uppers and downers”--depressants and amphetamines such as Preludin, Ritalin, Talwin and Citra Forte--without examining those seeking the prescriptions.

Under a settlement reached with BMQA officials after Thill’s release, he was suspended from practicing medicine for at least six months and barred from re-entering the profession until he passed oral and clinical exams in family practice. He also was barred from solo practice and was required to work under a supervising physician.

But in a decision last month--announced by BMQA this week--an administrative law judge for the medical quality board noted that he was revoking Thill’s license for several reasons.

Thill had never passed the required family practice exam, law judge W. F. Byrnes noted. Further, Byrnes said, on Nov. 2, 1987, Thill was convicted in municipal court of practicing medicine at an Anaheim clinic “without having a valid” license. His work at the Anaheim clinic also violated the previous settlement with the BMQA that suspended him from practice.

The BMQA complaint against orthopedic surgeon Hurria accuses him of “gross negligence” in the case of five patients whom he allegedly operated on incorrectly and sometimes treated inappropriately with antibiotics or kept in the hospital too long.

According to the BMQA complaint, Hurria operated on a patient, identified only as Scott H., for a broken arm but failed to immobilize the arm properly. Also, “the pins used by respondent (Hurria) to fix the fractures were not of sufficient quantity or in the proper position,” and X-rays showed the forearm was bent when it healed, the complaint states.

In an interview, Hurria responded that he was working at the time at Lincoln Hospital in Buena Park, which has since been turned into a psychiatric hospital. “The hospital didn’t have the instruments. Heavier pins and plates and screws in the hospital were not available in the hospital emergency room at that time,” Hurria said. But because his patient’s arm was “turning blue,” Hurria worked with the meager tools he had.

“I do feel bad...”

The complaint also mentioned a 24-year-old woman, Terri W., whose hip was replaced by Hurria. According to the BMQA complaint, Hurria incorrectly used cement during the procedure and failed to place any drain in the young woman’s wound.

Hurria commented: “I do feel bad about the lady. . . . I didn’t do as good a job as I should have.” He said he wished he had put a drain in the wound and also that better technology had been available so he would not have had to use the cement.

The BMQA complaint also alleges that when Hurria operated on a man with a fractured ankle, he placed a screw in the foot and ankle in such a position that “had the screw not been removed by a subsequent treating physician, the patient may have had a permanent . . . deformity of the foot and ankle.”

Hurria called that charge “100% wrong.” He said he did not treat the man’s foot, but that another doctor had operated on the man unnecessarily after Hurria treated him.

Felix Rodriguez, supervisor for BMQA’s Santa Ana office, said his five investigators have 200 ongoing investigations involving doctors and other health professionals in Orange and Los Angeles counties and another 350 waiting to be assigned. They seek to remove a doctor’s license when that practice appears to be “a threat to public safety,” Rodriguez said.