Baribeau’s supporters said the surgeon may have used life-support measures longer because he didn’t like to give up on patients.īut these accusations are not isolated to this surgeon, or this New Hampshire hospital. Colleagues also accused Baribeau of pushing to keep patients alive for 30 days on life-support, including one man who was unconscious and whose chest tissue had allegedly begun to blacken and die due to lack of blood flow.Ĭlinicians there suspected Baribeau encouraged this course to protect his and the cardiac surgery program’s mortality metrics - allegations that both CMC and Baribeau have repeatedly denied. Yvon Baribeau, amassed a record 21 malpractice settlements. This issue emerged in a recent two-part Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigation of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., where a once-celebrated cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. In these cases, “suffering is typically tremendous for frail, near-death patients being subjected to these extreme measures to keep them alive.” Mary Braun, who has worked as a palliative care doctor in New Hampshire. Some surgeons are believed to “game the system to improve their statistical outcomes,” said Dr. The emotional toll for families, who are often at the bedside as machines whir and the patient’s body deteriorates, can be immense, nurses said. Nurses and palliative care doctors said this has created a perverse incentive for cardiac surgeons to push for heroic measures that give families false hope and will not ultimately save the patient. The Iowa case is among a number of similar claims across the country that cardiac surgeons, in at least isolated cases, may try to lower their surgical death rate by using artificial supports to keep patients without real hope alive, a practice which can have a deep impact on families facing end-of-life decisions for their loved ones. Ciuffo strenuously denied her allegation. Tener accused the hospital of firing her in retaliation after she aired these and other concerns to administrators. When the 30-day mark passed, Ciuffo had the life-sustaining measures withdrawn and the patient would die naturally, Tener asserted.
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