Here’s something we just don’t quite understand about the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners plea bargain with Dr. Eladio Carrera, one of three physicians at the heart of the hepatitis C scandal.
Accoridng to Carrera’s own attorney, the doctor “didn’t have any managerial control over employees,” and that any behavior at the clinic that resulted in infections “occurred outside his presence and knowledge.”
(Of course, by “behavior,” they mean the reuse of syringes and single-dose vials of medicine which exposed potentially thousands of people to deadly diseases, three of whom via genetic testing have been linked to procedures performed by Carrera himself. In some jurisdictions, the sliding scale of what to call this “behavior,” would range from gross negligence to attempted murder. Alas, this is Nevada.)
Yet, we’re also told that Carerra’s lenient treatment — he gets his medical license back with only a fine, a public reprimand and some probation — was due to the fact that he’ll be a valuable witness for the medical board in prosecuting two other doctors, Dipak Desai and Clifford Carol.
Our question: If he didn’t know what the hell was going on, how the hell is he going to provide anybody with any valuable information? It’s either one or the other: If he did know about the dangerous practices, he’s as guilty as the other two, and should be prosecuted right along with them. If he didn’t know, he can’t be valuable as a witness. 
So why the hell did the Medical Board hold a special hearing that seems to have been timed just to make sure the poor doctor didn’t lose hospital privileges or medical malpractice insurance? Why bend over for somebody who — through intentional acts or gross negligence — exposed three people to death … that we know of? (Hell, Carrera didn’t even attend the hearing! He was on a “medical mission” to Uruguay, where, of course, the suspension of his Nevada medical license doesn’t mean a thing.)
Medical Board Executive Director Louis Ling tells the Review-Journal’s Jane Ann Morrison that “He [Carrera] gives us insider evidence there is no other way to get. How the clinic operated, who was in charge of what, what happened day to day.”
“He knows enough that this board had to endure what it had to endure the past couple of days and take the risk. The public may not see it today; but when they see what he’s got to tell, they’re going to be glad,” Ling added.
Morrison is skeptical, as are we, but she reminds that this is the way it goes in prosecutions. You have to make deals with bad people to get the badder people. And she’s probably right.
It just seems strange given that Carrera’s lawyers argued for leniency because of the doctor’s ignorance, in a deal that supposedly calls on him to dish from his extensive knowledge. Doesn’t it?
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