State Takes License

(backgound sound-"Dances With Wolves")

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Justice Prevails

This is for all those whom have lost children or have been injured because of malpractice so that it may give you hope when you thought there was none:

One of the members voting to revoke the license, Dr. Ralph Stewart, said Morgan considers himself an innovator who practices "sort of beyond" the general standard of care.

Stewart said that while there is nothing wrong with a doctor pushing medical boundaries, there is a proper way to advance new ideas.

"It's called experimental medical care, and it's carried out under research conditions," the Vincennes doctor said.

Stewart said testimony showed Morgan has a lack of respect for others, even contempt. "Always right" in his own mind, Morgan has yet to admit his own mistakes, Stewart said.

Joining Stewart in the majority were Indianapolis attorney Barbara Malone and Carmel physician Bill Beeson. Dissenting was Dr. Erwin Gomez, who practices in northwest Indiana. Gomez said that he judged Morgan to be knowledgeable and technically competent and that his career could still be salvaged.

But Malone questioned trying to rehabilitate someone who doesn't think he needs rehabilitation.

Stewart said Morgan has been offered many chances to reform, including through evaluations ordered by Community Hospitals. But he said Morgan failed to conform.

Stewart agreed with other board members that Morgan is bright.

"What a waste," he added.

Thursday's ruling brought relief to some alleged victims listed in the attorney general's complaint charging Morgan with nine instances of improper care.

Lori Rollins, whose baby was born comatose during a Morgan delivery in December 1997 and later died, said her son could be at peace now.

She said the verdict was for all the women who believe that Morgan harmed their children.

Joni Anderson, choking back tears, said she had waited a long time for the decision.

Morgan allegedly failed to adequately monitor her fetus' well-being during her troubled labor in 1989. She gave birth to a brain-damaged boy who also subsequently died.

RELIEVED: After the board returned its ruling, the expression on the face of Deputy Attorney General Beth Compton said it all. Compton prosecuted the case against Morgan.

"Finally," Anderson said Thursday, "his death wasn't in vain."

While some licensing board members offered opinions on individual counts of the state's complaint, the only vote was on taking Morgan's license. Morgan is barred for seven years from reapplying for a license.

As the board voted, Morgan sat grim-faced. He later told reporters he was disappointed. He declined further comment.

During his career, Morgan has been the subject of 23 malpractice complaints. In six cases, physician review panels found that he violated the general standard of care. A state malpractice compensation fund has paid $1.8 million to his former patients.

Morgan's problems first became public in 1990 when he was featured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The Indianapolis Star on medical malpractice. Other print and television reports on Morgan followed.

Morgan has proudly called himself a low interventionist, shunning some commonly used medical technology and keeping his Caesarean section rate low.

During testimony before the licensing board, state witnesses told a story of a doctor working outside conventional practice.

One nurse said Morgan repeatedly spurned the neonatal resuscitation team after others had summoned it to stand by for deliveries. A former Community Hospitals nurse said Morgan refused epidural pain relief to women on Medicaid because he believed the insurer would not pay for it. Morgan himself acknowledged a disdain for electronic fetal monitoring.

Though it is used routinely, Morgan called the monitoring unreliable in revealing a fetal problem -- no more reliable, he said, than flipping a coin.

But at the heart of the state's case was the death of Lori Rollins' baby.

At issue: whether Morgan -- after ordering that Rollins receive a labor-augmenting drug -- should have been at the hospital during her prolonged labor. Instead, he was at home.

Notified of the crisis, Morgan said he was at the hospital and ready to perform a Caesarean section 10 minutes later. He did the surgery, but there was a delay. Morgan and Community East nurses accused each other of causing it.

Thursday, some members of the licensing board expressed concerns that some Community nurses had an adversarial attitude toward Morgan.

Morgan's attorney, George Purdy, went further. He said some nurses rolled their eyes at his client's edicts and sometimes refused to obey his orders.

Why did they act this way? Purdy asked. Because "they don't like him. They don't like him because he's different."

Purdy suggested that nurses filed complaint reports on Morgan as part of Community Hospitals' efforts to create a paper trail against the physician.

Shame on Community, Purdy said, "for allowing nurses to treat" any physician that way.

A spokeswoman for Community Hospitals, Debbie Davis, said Community followed all bylaws established by its medical staff. She added, "We support the licensure board's decision."

Davis said Community Hospitals suspended Morgan's obstetrical privileges in March 1998. But out of concerns for his methods, it had monitored his cases for many years.

In 1996, the hospital imposed conditions on his privileges. Among them: Another doctor had to review his clinical decisions.

Included in the state's allegations was that Morgan failed to acknowledge any of the conditions when renewing his medical license in 1997.

That omission bothered, among others, board member Beeson, who still wondered aloud whether the board should impose a verdict short of license revocation.

Beeson also shared the concern that some Community nurses failed to follow Morgan's instructions -- for example, regarding the test dose of epidural pain medication he wanted women to receive before being administered a larger amount.

Board member Stewart acknowledged that the cooperation Morgan received from some staffers was "just miserable." But he also called Morgan's tendency to blame others "astounding."

"He said the patients didn't understand what he was doing," Stewart said. "He didn't deserve what the hospital did to him."

Added Stewart, "He doesn't seem to be hearing anything anybody else is saying."

During testimony before the board's vote, Morgan expressed his view that he had been targeted for scrutiny by Community Hospitals.

"I know physicians who yell. I know physicians who throw things," Morgan said. "Nothing happened to them."

Morgan expressed the hope that other innovative physicians won't now be afraid that even if they "do things right," they could lose their livelihood.

Deputy Attorney General Beth Compton -- who prosecuted the case against Morgan -- said in closing arguments that she does not doubt Morgan was once a dedicated physician committed to making a difference. But she said something went very wrong.

Despite many errors in judgment, Compton said, "he refuses to be accountable for any of it."

Staff Photo / Rich Miller
SATISFYING VERDICT: Lori Rollins, whose baby was born comatose and later died following a Morgan delivery at Community Hospital East in December 1997, said the licensing board's decision was a victory for all women who believe Morgan harmed their children.

Please, do not give up hope, for that is all we have left when our loved ones go before us!!!