Re: Doc kills self after verdict
From: Garry E. Siegel, M.D. (garrys@mindspring.com)
Fri Sep 22 11:43:39 2006
This is just so sad. . .and highlights that "it's not personal"
doesn't really mean anything whatsoever.
The system is badly broken.
Garry
At Fri, 22 Sep 2006, ND84MD@aol.com wrote:
>
>anyone else hear about this?
>
>Doctor kills self after malpractice verdict
>
>Lawrence Grey, who specialized in vasectomy reversals, had been ordered to
>pay a former patient $1-million.
>By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
>Published May 4, 2006
>
>TAMPA - On Friday afternoon, Dr. Lawrence Grey listened in a Hillsborough
>County courtroom as a jury announced its verdict: He should pay a former patient
>$1-million.
>Late Friday night, Grey's wife found him dead in their $2-million Bayshore
>Boulevard home, hanging in a bedroom closet from a yellow nylon rope.
>Grey's apparent suicide left lawyers in the malpractice case reeling.
>Jeffrey Hunter, the Tampa lawyer who represented Grey, heard about the death
>Saturday night after a family outing.
>"I was shocked," Hunter said Wednesday. "I still am."
>Timothy Moran, the Jacksonville lawyer who represented the former patient,
>learned of Grey's death Wednesday from a Times reporter.
>"I never intended for something like that to happen," Moran said. "I blame
>his insurance company for not doing the right thing."
>Moran said he offered to settle the case for $250,000, the limit of Grey's
>insurance coverage, and later for $175,000, but was turned down.
>If the jury's verdict of $1,005,000 stands, Grey's business will be liable
>for $755,000.
>Hunter wouldn't comment on the settlement decisions. He said he intends to
>ask for a new trial. If denied, he plans to appeal.
>Grey, a 51-year-old urologist, specialized in microsurgery that reversed
>vasectomies, restoring his patients' abilities to father children.
>Grey marketed himself online as the Vas Doctor. That's a reference to the vas
>deferens, the narrow tube through which sperm travels from the testicles, and
>which a surgeon snips in a vasectomy.
>Grey used laser tools and techniques that he developed, he told the Tampa Bay
>Business Journal in a profile three years ago.
>"The microbeam is strictly my own creation," Grey said in the profile. "The
>laser beam gives you a cleaner, more precise cut with less damage to tissue."
>Hunter said Grey recently was performing 400 to 450 vasectomy reversals a
>year.
>In August 2002, he operated on Thomas Asimos, a Navy criminal investigator
>based in Jacksonville.
>Asimos later hired Moran to sue Grey's practice, contending that Grey left
>two 3-inch squares of gauze inside Asimos' scrotum. They caused pain and
>infection and eliminated Asimos' ability to enjoy sex, according to court documents.
>Hunter argued that another doctor, perhaps the one who did Asimos' vasectomy
>in 1998, must have left the gauze behind. Grey used larger gauze pads. He
>accounted for each pad he used, and employed a technique that made losing such a
>pad unlikely, Hunter said.
>During last week's trial, Grey seemed fine, Hunter said.
>"He was upbeat," said Moran. "He was very cordial. He was friendly."
>The suit wasn't personal, Moran said. He sued Grey's business, but not Grey.
>He sought insurance proceeds, not Grey's personal assets, Moran said.
>The jury of four women and two men found that Grey was negligent. It decided
>Asimos deserved $205,000 in past and future medical expenses and $800,000 in
>damages.
>After finding Grey's body, his wife Muriel told a Tampa police detective that
>her husband "was despondent over having to pay a $750,000 judgment,"
>according to a case summary from the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office.
>The detective reported that Grey's medications on hand included an anxiety
>drug and several antidepressants. A toxicology report is pending.
>By this week, the Vas Doctor Web page was stripped of most content and given
>a tribute to Grey.
>"His life's work was devoted to bring life and joy to others," it said in
>part. "He will be remembered for not only his dedication to his work, but his
>exceptional attitude on life and the simple pleasures it can bring to each of
>us."
>Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com
>[Last modified May 4, 2006, 00:58:04]
--
Garry E. Siegel, M.D.
Private Practice
Roswell, GA
