Our names are Todd and Heather Steiger and we’re hoping to spread awareness about a dangerous, current practice, happening in hospitals across the nation. We live in Cincinnati, OH, are hard workers and the proud parents of three beautiful children. Today we’re doing the bravest thing we’ve ever done, and admittedly it’s scary. However, if my husband and I have learned anything after raising a profoundly, disabled and medically complex child the last 11 years, it’s that if we don’t share what we know, we can’t help others grow.
[I come alongside the Steigers to raise awareness and to hopefully prevent this from happening to others – possibly someone you love. Reposted with express permission].
We created this Facebook page to educate the public about an unethical practice happening in hospitals across the county, including The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, MN, where our 11 year-old, severely disabled son became one of its victims. The practice is called “ghost surgery.”
If you don’t know what a ghost surgery is, you need to learn. We’d never heard of it until it happened to us. It’s an unethical, dangerous, unfortunate, quiet & hidden practice and the best way to avoid one is to know what they are so you don’t become a victim.
This post is long but our story is eye-opening, powerful, shocking but most importantly, key for patient safety and advocacy. We’re talking your safety and the safety of your family. After you’ve gained an understanding about the ins and outs of a ghost surgery, we’re hoping you will share this post to your loved ones so they too can better advocate for themselves and their family members.
To really stop this practice, it’s going to take a networked village.
What is a ghost surgery?
A ghost surgery occurs when a scheduled and agreed upon surgeon substitutes someone else to perform the operation, without knowledge, verbal or written consent, from the patient or the patient’s guardian. Instead, the name and/or title of the employee assigned to do the surgery is never given to the patient or guardian. Don’t stop reading here. You’re going to continue to be awakened.
There are a multitude of articles on the internet about ghost surgeries, yet the media has rarely, if ever, covered the issue (at least to my knowledge). Over the upcoming weeks, we hope to teach as many people as we can about what to ask, what to read and what papers to sign. (Note: this was evidently already happening in 1991).
We also want people to know what to do if specific things are not talked about and/or shown. We hope this Facebook page gets conversation and learning started so this practice will be forced to slow down, if not completely halted.
Most ghost surgery victims never learn another staff member operated on them.
You could already be a victim of one and not even know it.
Patients are put under general anesthesia prior to the surgeon entering the OR and typically the only employees in post-op are nurses. The whole thing is pretty easy to pull off if you think about it.
Statistically, the odds are on your side and nothing will go wrong during a ghost surgery. After a bit of observation in the recovery room, the patient is discharged, giving the patient no reason to examine and/or pursue their medical records after.
It’s because these unethical surgeries are usually successful that this practice continues (and actually has been, for decades). While the American College of Surgeons has deemed it unethical (and in my son’s case illegal due to no signed informed consent), nothing has yet to stop it. Our son’s surgery was far from successful. We’ll post a few pictures today showing the direct and indirect outcomes that spiraled out of control after our scheduled surgeon substituted a resident in his place, without close direct (if any supervision at all) during the operation. This resident had his medical license for only four months.
Why do hospitals perform ghost surgeries? It comes back to money. Multiple patients can be scheduled at the same time, on the same day, each patient feeling secure that they’ll be getting their hand-picked surgeon. The problem lies in that the surgeon can’t be in too many places at once. While there are guidelines which allow doctors in training to perform non-critical components of a surgery, such as suturing, etc., that’s not what I’m talking about here. Even in those cases the American College of Surgeons has outlined that the names of all surgeons interacting with ‘said’ patient should be disclosed (and consented upon) prior to surgery (unless in emergencies).
In our son’s case, the operative report and timestamps from the 11/20/19 surgery show the surgeon we hired because of his specialty with deep brain stimulator devices, never stepped foot in the operating room. This doctor, Dr. Lee, met with us the day prior to Jack’s surgery and passed himself off as the one who would be doing the surgery.
Research states ghost surgeries happen most often in training hospitals, where the Training Attending assigns residents or fellows to perform “less” important procedures/operations. However, the level of surgical difficulty doesn’t make a ghost surgery any less illegal if the patient hasn’t given written and verbal consent and it certainly doesn’t make it any less ethical.
In our son’s case, we flew 800 miles for Dr. Lee, a renowned neurosurgeon at The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Jack, our severely disabled son, suffered a stroke at 6 months old. When he was 4 and in need of a deep brain stimulator, we combed the country, looking for the best. We found Dr. Lee and trusted him with every bit of our being. Since Jack was 4, we’ve traveled back to Mayo nearly a dozen times, our trust as thick as trust can be.
Jack, now 11, was specifically booked with Dr. Lee (at our request) for two batteries to be replaced in his chest (called an IPG replacement surgery). During the pre-op, one day before surgery, Dr. Lee’s name was listed as the surgeon on the documentation we were given that day. We were also given a pamphlet when we left with Dr. Lee’s name on it, naming Lee as Jack’s only surgeon. During this visit, Dr. Lee personally boasted his low rate of infection per surgical site, verbally telling us it was less than 1%. In his clinic notes, he wrote around 1%. This percentage rate was a lie, as it’s not the national rate, nor the rate of a resident licensed for only 4 months.
Prior to us leaving that pre-op appointment (the day prior to surgery), Dr. Lee’s nurse asked us the strangest question. She told us Dr. Lee had two surgeries the next morning and because he needed two rooms next to one another, they didn’t have a surgery time yet. She wanted to make sure we were okay with that. I didn’t know at the time what she was trying to get us to understand. I assumed Dr. Lee always had more than one surgery in one day. We now believe she was trying to get us to ask further questions because she wasn’t allowed to tell the secret we know/think she was forced to keep.
We were not told the real risks of the surgery, never introduced to any other surgeon or resident and at no time were we offered to sign an informed consent (which is against federal law). We believe this was purposeful because the name of the surgeon is the first thing written on an informed consent form.
It was Dr. R. Naylor (the resident) who wrote and originally signed the OR report, which is how we began discovering one atrocity and broken law after another. Medical records also show there was no CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) in the room or assigned with Jack during the surgery, only a GSA (a Graduate Student Anesthesiologist).
This too is illegal.
The OR report proves only two people were with our son during this surgery (outside of nurses) and both the GSA and a 1st year resident who’d had his medical license for only 4 months. *There was mention of the attending anesthesiologist present at induction and extubation, but not present during the surgery itself, only available. And remember, Dr. Lee’s presence is not documented at all.
Not only do the operative reports prove Dr. Lee was not a participant in this surgery, Jack’s clinical outcome prove it. If Dr. Lee, the distinguished surgeon had been there, critical parts of the surgery would have been carried out, especially the ones which wouldn’t have led him to nearly die.
When Jack awoke from surgery on 11/20/19, after being cut open twice by a first year resident not even supposed to be doing that type of surgery until his second year with guidance (based on Mayo’s own curriculum), it was clear something was very, very wrong with our son. Since then, seven months ago now, our life has been marked by utter hell, our son’s physical outcomes far worse than our mental ones. Seven months later and he still has surgeries ahead of him, direct results from the mistakes that were made.
We’ll share the details of Jack’s physical outcomes from the ghost surgery in our next post. It’s too much to read in one setting but you’ll hear some terms like… life flight…sepsis…staph infections (including one in his brain), this SMALL preview only a fraction.
We were given a 45 minute phone conversation with Dr. Amy Williams (Executive Dean of Practice at Mayo) this past Tuesday. She apologized for our experience and pledged to “look at how [they] can improve.” She also stated “a culture of safety is what we all strive for here at Mayo Clinic and it certainly doesn’t seem that we were able to reflect that appropriately in this case to you all, so that is a huge goal of ours and we will continue to move on that journey with these recommendations that you have put forward.”
While they “look at our recommendations,” which certainly better include adherence to the law, my husband and I don’t believe we can count on them to eliminate their current practice of ghost surgeries. It’s far too profitable. It’s a practice that’s been happening for decades and we’ve realized these last few days that the only way to ensure change is by educating the public, albeit scary to put ourselves and our children out there.
Finally, there’s one more reason that ghost surgeries aren’t publicized and commonly known.
Hush Money. Settlements are made, amounts & circumstances not disclosed, and the scandal never exposed. As they say, money talks!
We were willing to hop on that bandwagon ourselves at first too, simply to end the nightmare we’ve been living in. For seven months we’ve been our son’s lawyer, proved his defense, sifted through thousands of medical records and read hundreds upon hundreds of books, articles and protocol. We’re weak, tired and really just want this nightmare to end. I myself, deeply reflected on the choices we had moving forward following our conversation with the Mayo Clinic this past Tuesday.
Did my husband and I really want to accept “hush” money in the future, after a lawyer got involved, just to get a bigger settlement?
Would we feel okay being complicit, all the while knowing we would then be perpetuating the problem? That’s what most others have done in the past from what I’ve read and I don’t blame them. It seems so easy.
Don’t we deserve an easy way out too? We’re so, so tired. But could we sleep comfortably knowing someone at that very moment could be seriously injured or killed from a practice we knew about but turned a blind eye to?
After a lengthy and candid conversation, my husband and I decided we didn’t want to live with this hidden secret. We realized no amount of money would be worth withholding knowledge which could prevent life-threatening mistakes and save lives.
Victims of ghost surgeries have been waiting for someone, anyone, to be willing to publicly expose this practice.
Our son, a sweet and beautiful boy with the cognition of a 3 month old, can’t do much of anything. Everyday since his birth, we’ve looked to find his purpose in life. While we’ve found many over the years, I think we finally found the most important contribution he’ll ever make, one very few could ever make. He could be the catalyst which puts an end to ghost surgeries, or at least be the little boy who started the momentum to help slow them down.
And so, we created this facebook page to educate people about the current and unethical practice of ghost surgeries and we did this purposefully BEFORE signing a contract with a lawyer. We believe once under contract, we too would be put in a position of having to decide to stay quiet and get “xyz$$$” or only be given “x$” because we refused to sign a non-disclosure.
By coming forward now, this ethical dilemma is stripped from the equation, unable to tempt us. Inherently, we know it’s how it should be. We’re ethically doing the right thing by exposing what happened and is still happening. We’ll be able to sleep peacefully and move forward, knowing we didn’t turn a blind eye for an undisclosed amount of money.
We’ve started the process of obtaining legal counsel and while we haven’t signed a contract yet, Jack’s case is sitting on a very important desk right now. We gracefully ask that you don’t give us advice, although encouragement is appreciated. We created this page for your family and our son, not us. We’re well-read, knowledgeable and aware of our decisions and their implications.
Please know, we’ll never knowingly put something into writing against a person or hospital that can’t be proven in phone conversations and/or medical records. We’ll continue to follow laws surrounding our first amendment rights, copyright, libel and defamation, all the while, continue to share our story for the sake of prevention and helping others.
In our upcoming posts, we’ll explain how to make sure you’re getting the surgeon you think you are as well as how to check the surgeon’s medical license, which is how we discovered the surgeon who performed Jack’s surgery illegally had his medical license for only for 4 months.
The purpose of this post is to teach about Ghost Surgeries. Any future posts will be about how to avoid them.
We are NOT lumping all doctors and hospitals together as participants of this unethical practice.
We can only research other examples on the internet and share our own personal and honest experiences, based on both hospital documentation, conversations with the hospital staff, and what happened before our eyes. While ghost surgeries are happening everyday, all over the country, they aren’t formally tracked (a problem in itself).
Therefore, it’s hard to say whether hundreds of them are happening a day or thousands.
Finally, please like and follow this page but most importantly, SHARE IT. Without your help, we’ll educate only a small few. You too can help raise awareness and end this unethical practice. You too can help our son’s purpose in life grow bigger and bigger by allowing Jack to be the reason someone’s life is saved or not ruined on that operating table.
Oh, how we wish he could understand how special he is.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” ~1 Timothy 6:10
Addendum: the original post stated the Steiger’s did not sign an informed consent, but the hospital provided an electronic copy on 7/3.
Jacque’s Update: Facebook and social media platforms are cracking down on Conservative/holistic health content. There are 2 ways to fight back—by joining my FREE newsletter (Click here) and by sharing this with a trusted friend.
Marty
First, I just want to send love to the Steigers and let them know I’m praying for all of them. I do have a question though, how does one go about getting time stamps and finding out if your surgery was indeed a ghost surgery? I get Jacquelines newsletter, but I’m not on FB (for many reasons), so I can’t follow the story. It’s very important I find out how to get more than just the standard medical records, my son had severe nerve damage during surgery at a very famous “teaching” hospital in Ct. and the doctor is being sketchy at best about how this could have happened. We have no answers, and never met one of the doctors, (“specialists”). They may have ruined his life, for a semi-routine shoulder surgery, as he now has palsy in his hand and wrist. He just turned 18 and was given a four year scholarship to college (before this happened) and he may now lose his scholarship (I can explain privately to Jaqueline) due to this “accident” during surgery. I can’t write which college or how he could lose his scholarship, please understand. We have no answers why, and no answers for if it is permanent. The doctor couldn’t care less. We had a specialist at Columbia Hospital see him. He specializes in drop wrist syndrome (palsy of wrist). This kind of syndrome is usually only seen in soldiers injured in battle, or someone shot. My son is in constant PT and the surgeons are constantly invading questions, in a way as if they are running from the truth. Please help me get the records of surgery and find out if he had a ghost surgery. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jacqueline
Marty, I am so sorry about your son! how sad! will ask Heather or Todd to come and answer your question if possible. I hope that they can help you!
Heather Steiger
Hi! It’s Heather, Jack’s mom. I working on a website that will tell you what records to ask for from your hospital. It should be up and running in a few weeks. It will have everything you need to know and how to find out if you are a victim. The website isn’t published yet but check in a few weeks. http://www.ghostsurgeries.com
Thank you for reading our story.
Marty
Heather, thank you so much! I will check as soon as it is up and running. My prayers are with all of you. You are incredibly brave in bringing this light, a crusader for truth, and I am so thankful to you guy’s for this!!
Cathy
Marty, you can start by asking for all surgical and anesthesia reports, legally they have to give them to you. These reports will list everything that happened prior, during, and post surgery including procedures and who was present during what times of surgery. This is how I found out what happened that damaged my quads during a surgery ( it was not a ghost surgery) and in my case it was not known that the quads were a separate injury which was exacerbated by the surgery on my knee. The information was very helpful to have
Marty
Thank you so much. If it states “I, doctor…was present during the whole surgery”, does that necessarily mean they performed the surgery? Is it legal for a PA(C) to perform anything other than stitches etc? I appreciate all the advise and info I can get. Thank you
Jennifer
I had to be very specific with my request bc I wasn’t getting everything. I asked for all patient and hospital records including but not limited to: all consults, all imaging, all nurses notes, all labs and vitals, all hospital orders, all pharmacy requests, the operative report, the pacu record, the anesthesiologists record, the nurse circulator/peri operative records, pathology reports, medical device sticker sheet (if applicable,) and discharge notes.
Heather Anne Steiger
Be sure to ask for the full case notes, as well as the operative note. Ask for “FULL unabstracted records including staff present, verification history, time stamps , time tracking and a surgical count.”
visit: http://www.ghostsurgeries.com
go to the more section and then to the section about requesting records. We have a lot of great pointers in there.
Jack’s Mom, Heather
Cathy
Todd and Heather, I am so sorry this has all happened to you and your precious boy. Sincere prayers for his complete healing from all he is going through. From your pics I am guessing there is so much more you are going to let us know over the next few weeks. Thank you for letting us all know about something which, you are correct, I don’t think very many of us know about.
Adam Jones
It seems to me that a surgery performed by a resident under attending supervision resulted in a surgical site infection? This is a known complication of any surgery. Even the best surgeon in the world has wounds that occasionally become infected. Perhaps the documentation left something to be desired but I don’t think this is as big of a scandal as presented.
Jennifer
Hi Adam. I think we have chatted before on a different page. I hope you are well.
Her operative report shows the attending never stepped foot in her son’s operating room. It shows the resident did it all. Along with this, the anesthesiologists were also in training.
Heather Anne Steiger
Adam,
You’ll see us on the news very soon and you’re misled, just like we were. Our world renowned surgeon, who we flew 500 miles for and played the role of our son’s surgeon during our preop, boasted his own 1% infection rate during our verbal “informed consent.” We have since learned that the surgeon wasn’t being paid for any surgical roles that day but instead, as a “consult.” At least that’s what the Mayo Clinic is telling us now. We have also learned he did step foot in the room…when the resident who had a state surgical license for only four months was closing up the two surgical sites. The “consult”/world renowned surgeon we hired, missed all critical parts of the surgery…including the part where the resident was supposed to copiously irrigate both surgical pockets with saline and an antimicrobial agent. Starting the IV antibiotics an hour prior to surgery, as was ordered, would have helped too but then, there was no experienced person to remind the resident. The IV antibiotics were started 3 minutes prior to opening. You’ll learn more about it later when we’re on the news, local and national. Taping is finished.
Amy Jung
This is so sad! Thanks for sharing this info, Jacqueline!
Heather Steiger
Adam,
It’s Jack mom and I want to clear up any confusion. The world renowned surgeon that we flew 800 miles for told us (and wrote in his clinic notes), that HIS rate of infection per incision was 1%. He told us the chance of both sites being infected was .0001%. Now remember…those are HIS rates…not the national rate, nor the rate of a first year resident who was left unsupervised. We were never given an informed consent form to sign (against federal law) or told Dr. Lee was no longer performing the surgery. That still doesn’t prove infection but guess what does, the OR reports. This was his third IPG replacement at Mayo. The first two, Dr. Lee performed and wrote the standard of care surgical site prevention steps that he took, which included heavily irrigating both pockets with saline and an antibiotic solution/vancomyacin powder…wet dry approach, prior to closure. The OR report that the resident wrote showed the put the batteries in and closed up. He threw on some impregnated iodine tape over the incisions for good measure. Literally ZERO steps inside the pockets were taken to prevent infection. So in our case, the resident clearly did not know what he was doing. The OR notes also listed him as a First Assistant, a title Mayo’s curriculum doesn’t give their residents until their second year. Time attestations show Dr. Lee never stepped foot in the OR.
Heather Anne Steiger
Marty, start by visiting our website. http://www.ghostsurgeries.com
Go to the tab on the very right…”More.”
Then go to the page about requesting records. You can email me if you need help. I can find the form for you, fill out the pieces for the records you want, email it back to you… then print and fill out the rest. I can then help you learn where to send it. You can email me at [email protected]
I can’t promise I’ll have a quick response time. But I help do what I can.
Tammy Carroll
Hello,
Your story was very compelling and I to can relate to this story.
I was 27 when I lost the vision in my right eye and damage to my left after jaw surgery. I also went through 1 year of physical therapy to regain the use of my arms from nerve damage, and lost a softball size patch of hair on the back of my head. It was discovered that the CRNA who administered my anesthesia during the 7 hour surgery gave incorrect amounts of anesthesia, dropping my oxygen saturation levels to deadly levels and causing nerve damage throughout my body. Ultimately, I was resuscitated in the recovery room and nearly died. It was discovered that the CRNA altered my records to reflect “correct amounts” of anesthesia given to me during surgery. I let people know that you may not have an anesthesiologist handling your case during surgery. You must request an anesthesiologist to be present during your procedure or you may end up with a nurse like I did. Another way hospitals cut costs and make horrific, life altering mistakes.
Jacqueline
Oh, no!! Tammy, that is terrible and almost cost you your life, and the worst part if that there’s no accountability. I worked as a circulating head nurse in my heart room for many years and we never would have allowed a CRNA to do the work of a seasoned anesthesiologist. And head and neck cases require special considerations.
There has been a gradual drift towards recklessness and slack handling of the “little” things for years… problem is, they aren’t little to the patient that pays for it and may never/probably won’t ever know what really happened.
This all started in earnest with Roe v Wade lowering the value of life – not just for babies, but all across the board!
Would you be willing to write about your story and let me share it on DRaH? It could be anonymous but that is something people really need to be informed about!
Sending peace,
Jacque
Jean Potter
I am so very sorry for all the wrongs that have been done to the people who have written of their experiences. It’s terrible and unforgivable. I am anxiously waiting to read the following posts. Thank you so much for coming forward with this terrible information. I will be praying for each one of you /and your families.
Jacqueline
Yes, Jean, it has been very hard on them. I am sure they appreciate your/our prayers! The Lord is at work through it since they love the Lord and are called according to His purposes! (Romans 8:28)
Thank you!
Blessings,
Jacque
gena
I have had at least three ghost surgeries, one was a dental surgery at the VA hospital where I was told the Chief of the Oral Surgery Dept was going to do the surgery and found out later it was a resident who had operated. I had knee surgery at the country hospital, after tearing my cartridge in the left knee while an employee there, and had been told a staff doctor would operate. Instead it had been a first year resident who had done the surgery. I know because when he and another resident came into my hospital room after the surgery, with the staff doctor, the boy had told me that my knee had been the first he had been allowed to operate on, and the tear had been horrible. The staff doctor was practically jumping up and down, trying to shut the boy up.
The last ghost surgery I am aware of that I have had was on the cervical spine, where I had been told that a well-known and respected doctor would be operating. It was not for several years that I had found out he had not operated, when after he had retired I had been assigned to his replacement, and on my first visit with him, he had told me he had done the prior surgery on my neck, not the other doctor who had claimed to have done it. He had been listed on the statements as the assistant surgeon, although I had never met him at the time. The doctor who had told me he had done the surgery had told me he had had to fuse the spine, but the doctor who had actually don’t the surgery told me there was never a fusion at that time. I presume since he had told me he had done a fusion, he had probably billed the insurance for a fusion. I didn’t say or do anything, since he had retired a few years prior and was in his mid-70s.
All three ghost surgeries had been done less than perfectly and had required further surgeries to correct.
Oh, and I had a friend who had what was supposed to be minor hernia surgery at the VA hospital, by a staff doctor, and when he got home that day, he called me over to get a look at his abdomen, which was turning purple. I got one glance and told him he was bleeding internally. I took him to the nearest emergency room, where they admitted him. He had lost about 1/3rd of his blood. Turned out, once they had knocked him out for the surgery, a foreign 1st year resident had taken over and she had nicked a blood vessel and closed him up without fixing the cut blood vessel. Had he gone to bed when he went home instead of calling me, according the doctor at the ER, he would likely have bled to death by morning.
Jacqueline
Gena, each one of the surgeries you shared would have been grounds for a malpractice suite 40 years ago when I started working on tho OR, but I watched things change little by little and unethical practices get covered up..
It was like the frog in the gradually heated pot and by the time the frog realized it was too hot to jump out, the damage had been done and he couldn’t get the strength.
We are in a death spiral and I don’t feel that without a miraculous massive judgement, purge, and house-cleaning by the Lord that we will ever recover. Like Rome… eventually so corrupt that the dissipation was overwhelming and irreversible. But God!
I am sorry that you went through all of that. It is just not right.
Grace and peace to the days ahead, dear friend,
Jacque
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ~John 16:33