Surgical Death Blamed on Salesman

Doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center allowed a surgical equipment salesman to demonstrate the use of a device on a unwitting patient who died, and the hospital covered up the facts of the incident, the New York State Department of Health said Thursday.

The patient, whose name was not released, died in November 1997 after 8 liters of saline solution were pumped into her uterus during microscopic surgery to remove a fibroid tumor in her uterus.

“The patient basically drowned,” said Frances Tarlton, a state Health Department spokesman. “There was fluid in her lungs.”

Two doctors involved could face loss of their licenses or criminal charges, Tarlton said. The hospital was fined $30,000, the maximum allowed by law.

The doctors, who were performing the outpatient procedure with the device for the first time, ignored repeated warnings from nurses. The salesman using the device could be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license, Tarlton said.