The anesthesiologist under in vestigation for possibly infect ing three patients with he patitis C and others with hepatitis B has a history of negligence and fraud, The Post has learned.
New York suspended the medical license of Dr. Brian Goldweber, 62, for three years in 1999 after he botched anesthesia in several patients – and altered records in one case.
* The state found he falsified records at Rochester General Hospital in 1996 to show half the dosage of an anesthesia he actually gave a patient. He also failed to monitor or assess the patient, records say.
* In 1998, he gave an anesthetic to a Rochester patient with a his tory of nearly lethal reaction to the drug, records show.
* That same year, he gave a long-acting muscle relaxant to a patient who did not have a secure airway – and also failed to remain with another patient until she was med ically stable, the state found.
The state stayed the sus pension, allowing him to con tinue his career under moni toring.
* In July 2001, while still under supervision, he applied to upstate Ellenville Regional Hospital and lied about the fact that his license had been suspended, his Rochester Gen eral Hospital privileges had been revoked, and he’d been barred from giving anesthesia in vascular and cerebral cases or to kids under 5. In 2002, he admitted his guilt and agreed to pay $20,000.
* In May 2002, the New Mexico Board of Medical Examiners denied his application for a license based on “fraud in his application.”
“It’s very disconcerting that a doctor with this kind of record can continue to practice medicine. It’s scary,” said Jude Avelino, a lawyer filing a lawsuit in Manhattan tomorrow on behalf of a patient who allegedly got hepatitis B from Goldweber.
Without naming Goldweber, the city Health Department last week sent letters to 4,500 New Yorkers he anesthetized since Dec. 1, 2003, urging them to get tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, all blood-borne diseases.
The Manhattan-based doctor, who lives in Dobbs Ferry, worked at about 10 different outpatient clinics or offices across the city. The state has stopped him from practicing pending the probe.
The city says it has confirmed three hepatitis C liver infections in people who received intravenous anesthesia from Goldweber. The potentially fatal disease can cause liver damage, cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver.
In addition, officials are probing a possible link to “a handful” of patients diagnosed with hepatitis B, also a liver infection. About 10 percent of patients develop a chronic form of the disease.
Department spokesman Andrew Tucker wouldn’t say Friday whether the doctor being probed is a hepatitis carrier or may have used tainted equipment or medication.
Retired businessman Sam Bernard is suing Goldweber and a gastroenterologist who hired him, Dr. Edward Goldberg, blaming them for the hepatitis B that felled him this year.
“I couldn’t figure it out,” said Bernard, 74, of Manhattan. “I was in very good health. I worked out six days a week.”
Bernard received anesthesia from Goldweber for an endoscopy, in which a camera device was inserted in his stomach to diagnose a possible ailment.
Within months, Bernard started feeling weak, he said. “I started turning yellow – my skin, my eyes. I looked terrible.”
By January, Bernard said, he felt so ill that he called an ambulance to take him to the NYU Medical Center. A doctor told him, “You’re a very sick man. You almost died.”
Bernard, who was treated with powerful drugs that caused rashes and other debilitating side effects, recently got a call from the city asking him to come to Goldberg’s office. There, Bernard said, he was among a number of patients interviewed by health department doctors, who also took blood samples.
Reached Friday by phone, Goldweber told The Post, “I have nothing to do with it. I mean, you’ll have to speak to somebody else.”
He referred questions to his lawyer, Marvin Lifshutz, who said, “These charges are totally without basis. The truth will come out at trial.” He would not elaborate.
Goldweber, who was trained at the University of Bologna in Italy, obtained a New York medical license in 1979.