State suspends license of plastic surgeon who allegedly fell asleep during surgery

wow-i hope this will appear in your newspaper for more to learn about. the real question is why his license wasn't suspended by Beth Israeal or the Board since he has other inpaired incidents. Patient safety, do no harm, must come first.

Give that guy a break. I am sure everyone get into this once a while. Did not you?

What should he do? Cancel the surgery? Sometimes appointments does not exactly match ones sleep cycle.

I totally agree with Jack. I mean, whatever, let the guy loosen up and take the edge off. That's what you get for getting lypo.

Jack, or is it Jerk.....
My husband cancels surgery if he's less than 100%; once from a bad cold, another time from sick babies keeping us up the night before. While inconvenient for the patients, they were both really appreciative. He also doesn't have any alcohol the night before surgery. That is what you're SUPPOSED to do when someone else puts their life in your hands. Would you want YOUR surgeon falling asleep during your case?

Jack,
I am sure that you don't really mean it. How would you like being under his sleepy knife?

If jack were under his sleepy knife, he would be Jack the Knife!

EVERYONE needs to get off their high horse.
I'll give everyone who hasn't fallen asleep at their desks at least once $5.
This guy's 'desk' just happens to be a person whose life hangs in the balance, that's all.

The issue is not being asleep. The guy was drunk and whacked out on drugs.

look .....that doctors actions are unacceptable. a patients life comes first. imagine if that was your mother or daughter under his knife ??? would u want a life threatening mistake to happen to someone you love. the doctors punishment isnt sufficent enough for his actions. he should be held with criminal charges. its just like someone thats been drinking and gets behind the wheel and kills someone. they know they shouldnt be driving and they get punished by the fullest extent of the law, and so should that Doctor.

The disabled Fire Inspector and the alcohol/drug impaired plastic surgeon are the latest examples of the failures of managment to do what they should do,namely fire people.

Thats all? My well being means more to me than allowing a drunkard to operate on me so that he can loosen up :) You got jokes !!

WOW - Whoever thinks falling asleep on the job is OK obviously has bad work ethics. Have people done it yes. Does that make it right? NO

Seriously, this guy needs to be rehabbed and not allowed to perform surgery until he can prove he is in control of his life and not the mind altering substances. Obviously if he can't achieve that, then he has no business being a surgeon.

Reading some of these other comments makes me think of that movie Idiocracy. With these kind of people out there, it is slowly become true...

Dr. Borud appears to have exhibited two separate problems. Substance abuse is the first. The second is knowingly subjecting the patient to his impaired performance. That's patient abuse and reflects a potentially devastating lapse of ethical judgment. The first is difficult to treat successfully; the second, maybe more so.

First of all, there is no mentioned of sustance abuse here in the artical. The title is the doctor is sleeping at work. I personally know how sleepy can happen to me. Don't be so offense! If you don't want to have sleepy doctor, do some exercise!

See what we have in this society - Always someone else's fault!

Hi Elizabeth

I am sure you husband is a great doc because you trust him so much! and he never make any mistake in his whole medical career.

Give me a break. If he is cold, he should be off because cold can pass to people and he knows that in advance.

Ask you doctor husband if he can predict when anyone can get into sleepy situation. Sleepy can happens any time even you think you are await!

Jerk!

Beth Israel has to be held accountable for their lax oversight of a surgeon who could kill and/or maim people while impaired. The department head should be terminated for endangering lives after knowingly allowing an addict to continue work.

Doctors are not gods, but many think so - the ones who give otehrs a bad name must be held accountable.

I think that we should put Jack under the sleepy surgeon's knife right away. Then we won't have to read his inane comments.

The biggest issue here is not the drug/alcohol abuse or the sleep deprivation (physicians are at higher risk for these problems than the general population). It is a MUCH larger deal that he tried to force a resident, someone he is supposed to be teaching and being a role model of professional behavior, into providing him with a urine sample to pass his drug test. This is the irrational behavior in the case that he deserved to be fired for...

What concerns me the most is that none of the people working with him during the procedure didn't stop him. The people around the table, no matter what level, must be comfortable calling in to question something going on with the procedure. They should not be intimidated. Is there a way for a nurse to question the doctor without fear of his or her job? Beth Israel, and others, do you tell the staff to not let a procedure go on if something is amiss???

or you could just not read them.

I had extensive work done with Dr. Borud in June 08 just days before this documented incident. I paid him over $30,000 up front before he would operate on me. I did everything that a patient should when looking for a surgeon but even with all my research, I never found anything that mentioned a prior disciplinary action or any negative comments regarding Dr. Borud.
Now I find out about his addiction and falling asleep during an operation. I feel sick to my stomach that Beth Israel did not report Dr. Boruds prior "impairments”, putting my life in danger. I met with Dr. Borud after my surgery and voiced my disappointment with the results and pointed out a few of the obvious mistakes. He then told me he never promised me perfection and offered to fix the problems but that I would need to wait 3 months before he could operate on the areas again. I never expected total perfection, but I Did expect the doctor that I paid $30,000+ to at least be of sound mind and body (as well as AWAKE) before cutting me open and risking my life.
I feel the hospital is equally to blame, they were aware of his problem and never reported it to the state’s Board of Registration in Medicine. If they had, I would have found this information when I did my research on Dr. Borud before choosing him as my Doctor.

It is totally inexusable that this man performed surgery while under the influence of alcohol. He knowingly and negligently endangered a patient's life. This is not falling asleep at one's desk.

i don't see what the huge deal is. I am a surgeon and regularly fall asleep while in surgery. It just means I have to rush through the rest of it when I wake up. As for the drinking, I feel that I do my best work when a little buzzed- It keeps my hands from shaking too much.

Jack,

The article says that the Dr was being treated for drug and alcohol abuse. Did you even read the article, or do you just read the headlines?

Wait, and how is me doing exercise going to help me avoid a sleepy Dr?

Jack, stop being an idiot and read the article. Then coherently formulate something useful to say.

If you can't do that, keep your fingers away from the keyboard and visit the Disney website.

I hope he doesn't do circumcisions- OYE!

Jack read the article
"Borud told the resident that he would fail the drug test because he had "consumed several alcoholic beverages on Tuesday," and asked if the resident would provide him with urine to use for the drug test, according to the board."

In addition, falling asleep twice during the operation is not acceptable. If you are exhausted, DON'T OPERATE. To do so is moronic.

If you think its okay for someone to operate while exhausted and NOT be held accountable, then I am very happy that you are not my doctor.

Ok, lets talk about insane comments in this board and if you keep reading, you are asking for it...

1.Whoever thinks falling asleep on the job is OK obviously has bad work ethics.

First of all, I did not say "asleep on the job is OK"; but I said it is un-avoidable. Not many people want to go to work and just to sleep; but it is an uncontrolable - even with a lot of coffee. Do you ever consider an over-work worker who has already work many hours and he just has to keep working for one reason or another. Did you ever work before?

2. Doctors are GODS - I always appreciate what Doctors have done; but considering that they are GODs is far from the true - only doctors know that themself. Many of them are doctors because their parents can afford to pay their tuitions. Please don't reply to this. I said many, not all...

3. There are a lot of sleepy doctors in the hospital. Go ask the one that has to work more than 10 or more hours continuously.

Now lets start the blame game becuase we are in the "blame others" country.

1. Lets fire the assistance doctor who is working with the sleepy doctor because he/she personally work with the sleepy doctor and did not stop him from doing so. He should have call management immediately.

2. Lets fire the nurse and any the staffs who saw the doctor in this shape and did not report and try to stop it.

3. Lets fire the administration. In fact, lets stop the hospital from operation.

4. Lets fire the reporter who should have reported that the doctor is fired because of under inference of alcohol instead of just fell asleep at work. Can you ever report the story correctly?

5. Finally, if you don't want to operate by a sleepy plastic surgeon, do it yourself!

Have you ever heard that you tell your boss that I am very sleepy now and instead of sleeping here, can I go home and sleep?

Ligten up! - The US Air Force just reported several officers are sleeping with a nude code at work on CNN.

This doctor operated on my CHILD. If I had known Dr. Borud had gone to rehab, I would never have considered him for the plastic surgery. .He was well-recommended by the primary physician. Did HE know about Dr.Borud's problems? If so, I am sorry I placed my trust in him for so many years.
Where are the oversight agencies and the public notice? If the excuse is that Dr. Borud falls under the Disabilities Act and has the right to keep on operating despite his "illness", which disability would actually disqualify a surgeon? Killing someone on the table?
It's time to fire the Chief of Surgery. Then maybe the "medical community" (what a misnomer! ) would wake up.

I too had surgery last year by Dr. Borud. I think he is a wonderful man. He was always very professional with me and my surgery was a great success! He never showed any of these signs of sleepiness, etc. when I was around him. I do hope that he gets the help he needs.

I am not at all surprised by this.

I am actually an employee and patient at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and they did fire the Chief of surgery for his own issues before this surgery was done. It is a shame what BIDMC is going through. I love working here but now if I get another surgery here or anywhere else I will need to know ask the doctor if He/She has an alcohol and /or drug problem and please pee in the cup

I was a patient of Dr. Borud s about 2 years ago. He did reconstructive surgery following the removal of a mass in my abdomen. On day 1 my abdomen was showing the signs of infection. It was a Saturday so the residents doing the rounds wanted to open my abdomen back up. This was around my 20th surgery so i demanded that Dr. Borud was the only Dr. that would touch me. About 5 hours later Dr. Borud appeared and brought me to the OR. I was waking up groggy and Dr. Borud was standing at the end of my bed. He told my husband and I that there was nothing else he could do to help me. He told me to find a different surgeon! So the coward turned his back and walked off leaving me with a packed abdomen and no Dr.
So Dr. Borud I hope you know the feeling of people turning there back to you. Get the help you need you coward.

I am a Dental assistant with a suspended license. I never was in trouble, ever at work but 5 years ago I successfully completed alcohol treatment. to graduate I had to call health professionals services program and because I also suffer from severe depression and I am poor i was unable to complete the program, so now I cant even support myself in a profession I have been doing for 15 years. How can I be considered a risk to dental patients if I never have had a complaint against me. They are doing this because of my disabilities, and food shelf food sucks. Any suggestions?