Tuesday
Sep132011
Amendment to Not-So-"Wonderful" Investigation
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 07:33PM There are added accusations to the Medical Board of California's investigation of Dr. Robert Biter.
This Amended Accusation also adds an obstetric case.
Update on Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 10:30AM by
Navelgazing Midwife
Navelgazing Midwife
Please be sure to read the final Judgement by the Medical Board of California. I summarized it here in the Dr. Biter Judgement Posted.
tagged Dr. Robert Biter in Dr. Wonderful
Dr. Robert Biter in Dr. Wonderful
Reader Comments (13)
So sad. He does not sound like someone who truly cares about women.
Makes you wonder if there is an attorney out there, looking for cases to add to the original cases. 33 weeks with twins, elevated BPs, and 2-3 cms dilated? Lacking medical information regarding that case -- betamethasone given? Was she laboring already? Were tocolytics attempted? Medications started to reduce the risk of eclampsia? Specifically - was she started on Mag sulfate? What were her labs? What did the woman want to do? Sure, he didn't do an amnio for fetal lung maturity - how about a consult with a maternal fetal medicine specialist for recommendations for plan of care? What did the EFM strip look like on the babies? Non-reassuring --- yes, proceed to a c/s immediately. Doesn't matter what the FLM indicates on amnio. Lots and lots of holes in the OB case.
This has zero to do with attorneys. This is how parents speak to the Powers That Be that isn't in the court system. Parents get no restitution this way at all. They are doing it so others don't experience what they did.
And these cases have been with the Medical Board for many months now, but have now come to the front of the line. There are more coming.
I want to know how anyone can defend this guy now? He should NOT have attempted an induction for mild pre-eclampsia without ascertaining the lung maturity of the twins! And as far as being 2-3 cm dilated - how many women walk around with that level of dilation for weeks before going into labor?
Add this to the other horrible gyecological cases (including the patient who had a hysterectomy with no prior discussion that this was a possibility) and you have a real menace. Can't we all agree that women deserve better than this?
Absolutely, yes.
NGM thank you so much for being on the side of the victims here. It is emotionally so hard to suffer at the hands of a professional only be accused of greed or bloodlust or whatever by people who want to believe certain kinds of professionals can do no wrong. And so hard to go through the hassle and expense of pursuing justice when being second-guessed and dismissed by so many people. And even if your complaint is heard by the officials and the professional is disciplined, there's rarely much reward in that besides knowing that you did the right thing. It's a hard place to be.
The really horrifying one is the cancer case. He failed to adequately evaluate the patient, and when she clearly had cancer at surgery he failed to get the gyn oncologists in to help him. And then he took her BACK for more surgery without specialty help? Just insane! And she died! Holy cow
I am just amazed ANYONE would defend him at this point. Wake up, atyourcervix!
I'm in absolutely no position to pass judgement / understand: but I trust NGM.
However, if he is being held accountable for being too trigger happy on the c-section, does this mean it is a precedent for all those other OBs who are too quick off the mark?
I wasn't defending him, I was just posing more clinical questions regarding the entire pregnant woman situation. The entire medical record will need to be evaluated.
Rosemary, it's not that he was too trigger happy on the C/S. It's that he was trying to deliver those babies AT ALL so remote from term with only mild elevation of blood pressure. Honestly, I read these cases, and, while we don't have all the details, what he DID is so far from the standards of care in OB that I have a hard time understanding what the heck the man was thinking. He is a loose cannon. A very pleasant and charming loose cannon, but dangerous all the same.
I am a former patient of Dr B. I have had two laparascopies and a hysteroscopy with him. For one of my laps as I was waiting for surgery, my husband noticed that the paperwork said hysterectomy instead of hysteroscopy. He explained that he knew what he was doing and wouldn't perform a hysterectomy no matter what the paperwork said. I trusted him and he thankfully didn't cause me too much harm. I slowly started to lose trust as his follow-ups were terrible and his documentation was terrible. He would tell me one thing, yet my records showed no indication or discussion. His documentation alone was enough to make me switch doctors. It made me and my husband uneasy, like he wasn't being thorough and was setting us and him up for trouble. I read through each of these cases and the common theme was his poor documentation and communication. Three procedures later I have my life, but my last and left fallopian tube was removed by him. I've since had 3 IVF failures and am wishing about now that I still had my left tube, blocked or not. I feel for all these women suffering due to this Dr's actions. They deserve better care and consideration. God bless!
I just recently heard the Dr. that Biter brought from another state, to go into collaborative practice with, has just moved out and started his own practice. Isn't this the 3rd Doctor to do this? Why do you think this happens so much with him? Is Dr.Biter so difficult to work with? I am under the impression that he is solely doing homebirths now with two midwives that I have heard good things about and is opening a birthing center this fall. I am baffled on why two good standing midwives would want to ruin their reputation by working with him. DO these patients and midwives he is working with know what they are getting themselves into with this doctor? Isnt he dangerous? I would love a response about this new revelation, or a new blog post since you have covered this topic a lot. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, Dr. Cobb is leaving... I'd heard that awhile ago and apparently it was just announced. Only one other doctor was with Biter who left... Dr. Capatanakis (whom I adore). Never met Cobb, but heard great things about him.
I don't know what to make of La Shel and Jamin working with Dr. Biter. Confuses the hell out of me that they ignore what they surely know by now and still work with him. Maybe they see rehab possibilities? Both of them are wonderful midwives (that I knew and experienced) and while I would refer to them individually, I would be sure to caution someone about allowing Biter to be the apprentice, especially if he's acting as an apprentice in the North County Midwives tradition of going to the home and monitoring first and calling the midwife when the mom is 6-7 cm along.
Not totally sure what to make of the whole thing. And from what I hear, it doesn't look like he's going to lose his medical license, either. Am completely baffled by that, but have to believe the Medical Board will act in women's best interest and not the doctor's. I pray so, anyway.
Does this in any way make me think I'm wrong about him? Absolutely not. I know what I know first hand. Second and third hand only validated things.