Northeast Ohio Cardiologist, Hospital Sued Over Stents

An Ohio man who is suing his cardiologist and hospital over allegations a stent was unnecessarily implanted in his heart says the procedure was traumatic and expensive.

Anthony Barber, 53, filed suit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Friday against Westlake cardiologist Harry Persaud and St. John Medical Center, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Saturday.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment on the suit at Persaud’s home Saturday. An answering service for his medical office declined to relay a message.

The lawsuit came days after the hospital sent Barber and 22 other patients letters saying their stents – devices used to open arteries to allow blood to flow – may have been inserted needlessly. Barber’s operation was Feb. 9.

After hospital staff questioned one doctor’s work earlier this year, St. John sought an independent review. An expert determined stents the doctor placed may have been medically unnecessary in 23 of 30 cases reviewed so far. Additional cases are still being reviewed, St. John officials told the newspaper.

The hospital did not identify the doctor involved, who has disputed the allegations. But both the letter and the lawsuit named Persaud.

Barber said the procedure caused him severe permanent mental and physical injury and needless expense. He has asked for a jury trial.

The lawsuit calls actions by Persaud and the hospital “so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree that they go beyond all possible bounds of decency and may be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

The suit alleges that St. John officials knew Persaud had engaged in a pattern of incompetent or inappropriate behavior would perform fraudulent medical treatment yet failed to limit his privileges.

St. John Medical Center is jointly owned by the Sisters of Charity Health System and University Hospitals.

St. John officials declined comment on the lawsuit.

Persaud was not an employee of St. John, but had privileges to practice there from 1989 until the stent controversy arose. The newspaper said he still practices at Southwest General Hospital in Middleburg Heights, where similar cases are being investigated. Southwest General’s vice president of medical affairs said there’s no evidence of improper care so far.

State medical filings show Persaud, 53, was born in London and graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School at the University of London in 1983. The Ohio State Medical Board lists no formal actions against him on its web site, the paper said.

Persaud is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease, according to the report.