State Seeks to Revoke Surgeon’s Credentials

Seeking revocation of a South County surgeon’s license, the California Medical Board has accused him of incompetence, gross negligence and lying to state officials in connection with liposuction and other plastic surgery performed at his office in 1997.

Dr. Gerald Greenberg, who formerly practiced in Laguna Beach and now practices in Laguna Niguel, was previously named in nearly three dozen lawsuits by liposuction patients, who claimed they were disfigured by persistent lesions after contracting an unusual infection during surgery.

An investigation by the county Health Care Agency found the probable source of the infection was dirty surgical tools, including disposable surgical tubing retrieved from the trash, according to a county report released this summer.

The medical board’s petition against Greenberg also accuses him of deceiving one or more patients who contracted lesions, telling them during follow-up visits that he had never seen similar infections.

Greenberg referred questions to his lawyer, Steven Hillyard. He declined comment.

Craig Walkon, a Laguna Hills lawyer who represents more than a dozen of the patients, criticized the state’s slow disciplinary response in the case, which was first brought to the board’s attention in July 1997 by county health officials.

“They need to swiftly and quickly police their own,” he said. “I don’t think it should have taken this long given the outrageous allegations, the number and nature of these complaints, and given that the county already had investigated.”

Deputy Atty. Gen. Samuel Hammond, who represents the medical board in prosecuting the case, said he is asking for revocation of Greenberg’s license and an expedited hearing. He said it would be inappropriate to comment on the speed of the investigation.

In extraordinary cases, in which there is an immediate and continuing danger to public health, the board can seek immediate suspension of a physician’s license.

“Greenberg severely endangered the public health and did not perform the required preoperative history, exams and laboratory tests,” Hammond said. “He also made it impossible for his patients to learn that the contagion came from his office.”

The medical board petition also accuses Greenberg of false advertising, misrepresenting himself as a board-certified plastic surgeon and permitting his office worker to illegally assist in several surgeries.

The board’s petition discusses the surgeries of six patients, including one who was overweight and was “not a candidate for massive, large-volume liposuction.” The 44-year-old woman suffered “permanent cosmetic deformities” from the surgery.

It also accuses Greenberg of injecting collagen in the lips of a 40-year-old woman without testing her for allergies. The woman developed infections from “an allergic reaction to the collagen,” the petition says.

In that instance, Greenberg is accused of dishonesty by having misrepresented to the medical board that there were no indications of an unusual allergic reaction to collagen, despite having offered to treat the patient with antibiotics and steroids for “painful blistering and bleeding of her lips.”

In detailing the alleged non-sterile technique in the office, the petition says Greenberg washed surgical towels in his home laundry and disposed of surgical wastes in the regular trash.

In charging him with gross negligence and repeated negligent acts, the petition alleges that Greenberg not only retrieved plastic surgical tubes from the trash, but also “upbraided all employees in the office, and directed them not to throw them away again.” Greenberg reused the tubes on subsequent patients, the petition says.

The county investigation found that the lesions were caused by Mycobacterium chelonae, which is found in dirt, water and dust. The bacteria was found in the office water supply, which Greenberg used to rinse used tubing, the report said.

Greenberg, who was licensed in 1982 in California, graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine and had previously practiced as an ear, nose and throat specialist.