A cautionary tale for those seeking cardiac intervention...

[MethodAir]

The popular York Cardiologist Dr. Sanjay Gupta verified that physicians in BC Canada drugged a 43 y/o patient with IV fentanyl and sedatives, and performed a hazardous, invasive, non-consensual procedure against his will while he was unconscious, using an ill-equipped, pointy catheter and metal guide wire, during coronary angiography.

Dr. Gupta said that only a local anesthetic like lidocaine was required.

He confirmed that the patient was in critical condition when he regained consciousness, with a perforated aortic valve causing severe breathlessness, hypotension and systemic congestion.

Dr. Gupta said that this mandated emergency aortic valve replacement surgery as quickly as possible.

Instead however, the dying patient was offered a cough drop by medical staff, who covered up this additional non-consensual procedure, and like seedy car mechanics, financially profited from delaying the patient's emergency surgery for 4 additional days.

In BC Canada, doctors are private medical corporations who invoice the government on a 'fee for service' basis', so there is an economic incentive.

While verbally acknowledging that the patient's internal organs were swelling up like balloons from cardiac congestion, the cardiologist Dr. Paul Novak said that care wouldn't be provided unless he saw a psychiatrist.


Dr. Paul Novak: Western Cardiology Associates

The patient repeatedly refused, and so aortic valve replacement surgery wasn’t arranged until 3 days later, an hour after forcing the dying patient to undergo a non-consensual 15 minute 'psychiatric consult', to 'discuss his 'mood state and relationships with women'.

The patient entered the operative theater on the afternoon of the following day with critical injuries, and was thus expected to die during surgery (despite having a low operative risk quote of less than 1% prior to the non-consensual procedure 4 days before).

So beware. This wasn't a case of just 'one bad apple'. The entire BC medical regulatory system and scores of BC physicians and nursing union staff are involved.

Please share the video. Dr. Gupta provides a lot of useful cardiac information for bodybuilders. And it could help prevent it from happening to someone else.

Would be good to hear from @maldorf @nothuman @thethinker48 and others.

 

[maldorf]

Don't know exactly how to judge this case because I feel like I don't have enough information, but on the surface it sounds like the surgeon made some wrong decisions that put his patient at more risk. The angiograms I have gotten all went great, and they never put me fully under either. That sounds crazy to me. My first angiogram I had done while I was having my heart attack in 08 I was completely awake. I think they must have just used a local on my leg so I wouldn't feel the pain, but I wasn't sedated at all. I was looking up at the screen at my heart the whole time. Other caths I was awake during some of the procedure but think I eventually went out.

Ive had I think about 5 caths done and never a single issue to my valve or any complications that Im aware of. Sounds like he got ahold of a bad surgeon. As far as billing, Im not sure how billing in BC Canada differs from the US. Here in the US they have codes and bill for each and every procedure.

 

[MethodAir]

It was actually an interventional cardiologist who performed coronary angiography the day after the patient's hospital admission for aortic valve replacement surgery.

The patient was assured that this would not compromise his aortic valve, given that it only involved examining his coronary arteries.

The interventional cardiologist performed an additional Retrograde Left Heart Catheterization against his will after drugging him however, which did in fact involve invasive instrumentation of his aortic valve, with an ill-equipped catheter, not designed to go through aortic valves.

Another interventional cardiologist said this was akin to 'playing with fire', given the condition of the patient's valve, and risk of further injury to it:

The cardiologist in question in the hospital lied and denied performing it, because it was hazardous and non-consensual, and an admission could result in losing his medical license.

But this non-disclosure caused expectedly critical injuries, because the patient was prevented from receiving emergency aortic valve replacement surgery for 4 additional days...

 

[thethinker48]

There's pretty extensive discussion in the medical community on unncessary cardiac procedures like stenting, and the long term positive net gains from doing so early on in patients

While I don't think most docs are going out of their way to do unnecessary procedures; the average person unfortunately would have no clue what to do in cases like these and would sign off whatever was presented to them. Had to deal with this a lot when my grandfather was hospitalized; the nurse came in with a consent doc for performing a colonoscopy on my 99 year old grandfather. He had internal bleeding (hgb drop overnight), and they right away wanted to do the CS. Doc didn't even come in to explain, just sent the nurse. Had to tell her to transfuse him instead, and wait a few days; she was less than pleased but I didn't give a shit.

It can be a gamble depending on the hospital and physicians you run into; that's why people should stay well informed and ask as many questions they as they deem necessary.

 

[IronLion2]

I'm not sure the point of this? There's not much objectivity to it. Is this a legal or medical discussion?

 

[MethodAir]

There's pretty extensive discussion in the medical community on unncessary cardiac procedures like stenting, and the long term positive net gains from doing so early on in patients

While I don't think most docs are going out of their way to do unnecessary procedures; the average person unfortunately would have no clue what to do in cases like these and would sign off whatever was presented to them. Had to deal with this a lot when my grandfather was hospitalized; the nurse came in with a consent doc for performing a colonoscopy on my 99 year old grandfather. He had internal bleeding (hgb drop overnight), and they right away wanted to do the CS. Doc didn't even come in to explain, just sent the nurse. Had to tell her to transfuse him instead, and wait a few days; she was less than pleased but I didn't give a shit.

It can be a gamble depending on the hospital and physicians you run into; that's why people should stay well informed and ask as many questions they as they deem necessary.

Right, but in this case, the procedure in question wasn't on any consent form, nor disclosed in any medical records. That constitutes assault and battery. The patient discovered it after accessing the physician's medical billing records.

The catastrophic harm resulted from hiding it. Dr. John Vyselaar (lead cardiologist of Vancouver's Lions Gate Hospital), said that attending cardiologist Dr. Paul Novak hid the procedure and the patient's clinical findings, and deliberately misrepresented his objectively verifiable breathlessness and incapacitation as 'stress related' for 4 additional days, rather than admitting to the catastrophic cardiac procedure he had underhandedly arranged.

 

[MethodAir]

I'm not sure the point of this? There's not much objectivity to it. Is this a legal or medical discussion?

An esteemed Harvard Medical School trained cardiologist's findings are not objective? Given the spate of cardiac issues in the bodybuilding community, it's a pretty relevant caveat.

 

[thethinker48]

Right, but in this case, the procedure in question wasn't on any consent form, nor disclosed in any medical records. That constitutes assault and battery. The patient discovered it after accessing the physician's medical billing records.

The catastrophic harm resulted from hiding it. Dr. John Vyselaar (lead cardiologist of Vancouver's Lions Gate Hospital), said that attending cardiologist Dr. Paul Novak hid the procedure and the patient's clinical findings, and deliberately misrepresented his objectively verifiable breathlessness and incapacitation as 'stress related' for 4 additional days, rather than admitting to the catastrophic cardiac procedure he had underhandedly arranged.

Yeah that's just pure criminal

Guy should be locked up, and stripped of his license. Wonder if any of his past "poor outcome" patients had something else at play.

 

[MethodAir]

Yeah that's just pure criminal

Guy should be locked up, and stripped of his license. Wonder if any of his past "poor outcome" patients had something else at play.

It was happening regularly, according to another Victoria BC physician who had received several of Novak's other patients, who had also had 'poor outcomes'. Non-disclosure agreements and everything else...the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC keeps the histories of their 'fellows' hidden under lock and key.

But not this time.

 

[MethodAir]

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's youtube page is a great resource for bodybuilders, for everything cardiac related. He has over 164 thousand subscribers.

York Cardiology

I am Dr Sanjay Gupta. I am a Consultant heart specialist in York, UK and I believe that high quality reliable jargon-free information about health should be ...

www.youtube.com

 

[MethodAir]

 

[NGL34]

There is a lot of testing prior to getting a TAVR. One of these test usually does involve a heart cath. Heart catheterization are not just used for stenting but for diagnostic testing such heart pressures, blood flow, valves function and anatomy. Fenetnyl and versed are commonly used pain killers and seditives used for heart cath procedures but only the amount necessary to reach conscious sediation. Also its the doctors responsibility to discuss these things with the pt and get their written consent for each procedure done. From the looks of it it sounds like the physician did not review all testing that needed to be done prior to TAVR ie. Heart cath, there was no consent for signed and witness for this cath and pt was overly sedated. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't loose his license or will lose it if this information checks out. Also his medical team directly involved should be reviewed as well as they might of been able to intervene before the tragedy occurred.

 

[MethodAir]

There is a lot of testing prior to getting a TAVR. One of these test usually does involve a heart cath. Heart catheterization are not just used for stenting but for diagnostic testing such heart pressures, blood flow, valves function and anatomy. Fenetnyl and versed are commonly used pain killers and seditives used for heart cath procedures but only the amount necessary to reach conscious sediation. Also its the doctors responsibility to discuss these things with the pt and get their written consent for each procedure done. From the looks of it it sounds like the physician did not review all testing that needed to be done prior to TAVR ie. Heart cath, there was no consent for signed and witness for this cath and pt was overly sedated. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't loose his license or will lose it if this information checks out. Also his medical team directly involved should be reviewed as well as they might of been able to intervene before the tragedy occurred.

The two cardiologists cited in this thread, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Natarajan, said that ONLY a local anesthetic like lidocaine is typically used for a coronary angiogram. @maldorf corroborated this based on his experience.

Dr. Gupta said that the coronary angiogram was unnecessary in this case because the patient had a non-invasive CT coronary angiogram beforehand the same day which confirmed he had normal arteries.

Furthermore, the patient had an echocardigram beforehand that confirmed that he had a leaky, regurgitant valve that needed replacement.

A coronary angiogram and retrograde left heart catheterization are two different procedures. The former checks the arteries, not the aortic valve or LV.

Dr. Gupta said that Retrograde Left Heart Catheterization primarily checks for a condition which they knew the patient did not have -- aortic stenosis.

This procedure was also hazardous, because Dr. Gupta said they repeatedly plunged his aortic valve using a catheter that was pointy, and designed to 'cannulate' arteries, not cross a severely lesioned aortic valve. He confirmed it would inevitably hook the valve when they pulled the catheter out of the left ventricle into the aorta.

But again, the issue is that there was no consent. Like a date rapist, it was done against the patient's will after they drugged him unconscious.

And then deliberately delayed emergency aortic surgery for 4 days after perforating his valve, for their own economic and accountability reasons.

 

[MethodAir]

Fenetnyl and versed are commonly used pain killers and seditives used for heart cath procedures but only the amount necessary to reach conscious sediation.

Dr. Gupta confirmed that the combination/amount of fentanyl and midazolam that was administered IV prior to the non-consensual procedure was enough to knock someone out (25 mcgs fentanyl, 1.5 mg midazolam).

 

[MethodAir]

Heart cath, there was no consent for signed and witness for this cath and pt was overly sedated. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't loose his license or will lose it if this information checks out. Also his medical team directly involved should be reviewed as well as they might of been able to intervene before the tragedy occurred.

Retrograde left heart catheterization was not listed on the signed coronary angiogram form, which included several potential additional procedures (stents, left ventriculogram, angioplasty etc).



Unlike all the other procedures, Retrograde Left Heart Cath involved invasive instrumentation of the aortic valve. Again, Dr. Gupta confirmed that the cardiologist in question lied denied performing it, so it wasn't a 'mistake'.

 

[maldorf]

Right, but in this case, the procedure in question wasn't on any consent form, nor disclosed in any medical records. That constitutes assault and battery. The patient discovered it after accessing the physician's medical billing records.

The catastrophic harm resulted from hiding it. Dr. John Vyselaar (lead cardiologist of Vancouver's Lions Gate Hospital), said that attending cardiologist Dr. Paul Novak hid the procedure and the patient's clinical findings, and deliberately misrepresented his objectively verifiable breathlessness and incapacitation as 'stress related' for 4 additional days, rather than admitting to the catastrophic cardiac procedure he had underhandedly arranged.

If that's all true, that doctor needs to go before the medical board and defend his actions, possibly then lose his license.

 

[maldorf]

The patient survived, right? I think that was him on the youtube video. I hope he has a malpractice suit going on this.

I'm so glad I never had cardiologists Iike this patient had. Mine have been very good. I had a ventricular ablation done that lasted about 6 to 7 hours and other heart surgeries. Each time we fully discussed everything before it was done. Never suffered any damage.

Anyone know if patients win law suits for malpractice in Canada? Wondering if its hard to do in a socialized medicine system.

 

[MethodAir]

The patient survived, right? I think that was him on the youtube video. I hope he has a malpractice suit going on this.

I'm so glad I never had cardiologists Iike this patient had. Mine have been very good. I had a ventricular ablation done that lasted about 6 to 7 hours and other heart surgeries. Each time we fully discussed everything before it was done. Never suffered any damage.

Anyone know if patients win law suits for malpractice in Canada? Wondering if its hard to do in a socialized medicine system.

I'm glad to hear that you had good cardiologists @maldorf .

Dr. Gupta was surprised to learn that BC Canada doesn't really have a truly socialized medical system, with salaried physicians. Typically, medical doctors have private medical corporations, and invoice per procedure. So they get all the tax advantages, while the government provides the hospitals etc.

This is the medical billing record that busted the cardiologist who lied and denied performing the additional, non-consensual Retrograde Left Heart Catheterization procedure (billing code 827):



The patient recovered and powerlifts, reducing civil damages.

Physicians are insured by the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), which states that non-consensual procedures constitute assault and battery:

Consent: A guide for Canadian physicians

In the medical context and as the law on consent to medical treatment has evolved, it has become a basic accepted principle that "every human being of adult years and of sound mind has the right to determine what shall be done with his or her own body."

www.cmpa-acpm.ca

One medical malpractice lawyer advised the pt that this was more of a criminal case, because medical mal deals with 'errors', not the intentional acts also described by Dr. John Vyselaar, lead cardiologist of Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver, during this consult:

To give an example about the level of corruption in Canada...the medical regulatory which facilitated the non-consensual procedure pressured the local police department to file criminal harassment charges against the patient, when he provided them independent evidence Dr. Vyselaar in the above video.

 

[Kaladryn]

How to tell if this is real or propaganda?

 

[MethodAir]

How to tell if this is real or propaganda?

Fair question. You could listen to the recorded consult with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the first post...same guy in his youtube channel right, which has millions of views:

York Cardiology

I am Dr Sanjay Gupta. I am a Consultant heart specialist in York, UK and I believe that high quality reliable jargon-free information about health should be ...

www.youtube.com

The above video with the other lead cardiologist Vyselaar has screenshots of the clinical findings they both reviewed and verified.