Nevada Medical Board Files another Medical Malpractice Complaint
Since a Hepatitis C outbreak was discovered, two Endoscopy centers have been at the center of the crisis. Health officials say as many as 105 hepatitis cases are “possibly associated” with the facilities where another 35 have been classified as “indeterminate.” The Nevada Board of Health has already suspended the licenses of two owner/doctors of the centers pending an investigation. The Board has announced a third physician who has been assigned a medical malpractice complaint by officials. Dr. Clifford Carrol, a Las Vegas gastroenterologist, faces four allegations relating to the care he provided to patients, one of whom has been identified as the source or "index" patient whose disease officials say was transmitted to seven others on Sept. 21, 2007. “The allegation is that he (Carrol) was the physician treating the sourc e pati ent that led to other patients acquiring hepatitis C later that day,” said Louis Ling, the medical board's executive director and special counsel. “This was Dr. Carrol's first patient of the day and he (the patient) was a known carrier of hepatitis C.” It is believed the reuse of syringes contaminated multiple vials of anesthesia. As of now, the Southern Nevada Health District has linked eight hepatitis C transmissions to one of the facilities and one case to a sister facility. Carrol, who has been licensed in Nevada since April 1997, is one of more than a dozen physicians who had practiced medicine under the Gastroenterology Center of Nevada. The center was the umbrella company for several Desai-owned endoscopy centers throughout Las Vegas, all of which have closed. Since the outbreak was discovered, health officials have urged more than 53,000 f ormer patients to get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV.
