Inept doctor left deadly trail, lawsuit says

By Cheryl Truman - ctruman@herald-leader.com

MAYSVILLE—At first glance, surgeon John Christian Gunn seemed golden.

A graduate of Yale Medical School, he was eager to join Maysville's Meadowview Regional Medical Center, an acute-care facility that couldn't wait to get him on staff, according to court documents.

But within months of his 2005 arrival in Kentucky from Hillsboro, Texas, two of Gunn's surgeries had gone dangerously awry, leading a Maysville physician to bluntly write to a hospital administrator saying that Gunn was a danger to patients.

Shortly after that warning, 71-year-old Herberta "Bertie" Lang was dead following one of Gunn's surgeries. Ironically, the physician who had warned the hospital was Lang's personal doctor.

A trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Mason County Circuit Court, where Lang's family has sued Meadowview, its former chief executive and the company that operates the hospital for corporate negligence.

Gunn's insurance company settled last year with the family. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

Todd Thompson, the attorney for Meadowview Regional Medical Center; its owner, Lifepoint Hospitals; and former Meadowview chief executive officer David Loving did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Gunn was granted temporary privileges at Meadowview even though he had taken and failed the General Surgery Board exams in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. He also failed the exam in 2006.

Hospitals use their own discretion on whether to insist on board certification before allowing physicians to do surgery.

The case raises questions about how the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure monitors and credentials doctors. When Gunn received his Kentucky medical license in 2006, his temporary privileges at Meadowview had already been revoked. The licensure board file notes that it did not know that.

It's unclear what Gunn did after he left Kentucky. He told the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure that he was going to Miami for a fellowship, and Florida Department of Health records indicate an active resident's status.

But on Aug. 22, 2008, Gunn entered a bank in Austin, Texas, brandishing an air gun and wearing a paintball mask. He got away with $18,805, according to the FBI.

He was captured just a few minutes later in a black Ford pickup at a nearby car wash. Gunn later pled guilty to bank robbery and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.

He's now serving time at Louisiana's Oakdale prison.

Questioning qualifications

Mason County Circuit Court shelves groan beneath the weight of more than three years of filings in the Lang case. The family's attorneys allege that Meadowview rushed through Gunn's licensing in 2005 so that it could attract more patients and perform profitable surgical procedures.

Meadowview is a 101-bed, acute-care hospital operated by Lifepoint, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based chain that also owns Kentucky hospitals in Georgetown, Lebanon, Mayfield, Paris, Russellville, Somerset and Versailles.

Small hospitals nationwide struggle to find niches of profitable medical service. The Georgetown Community Medical Hospital, for example, is regionally well-known for its weight-loss surgery services.

Because of the rush to find a surgeon in Maysville, the hospital hired Gunn, who was not qualified for the kinds of surgery he was doing, the lawsuit contends. Lang died when Gunn botched an operation on her carotid artery on December 6, 2005, the suit alleges.

Lang's surgery went so badly that medical sales representative Rhonda Rott, who was observing the surgery, was at one point asked to find help from a vascular surgeon in another city, according to court documents. She called a doctor in Ashland.

Sharice Lang Stafford, Lang's daughter, declined to comment for this story.

But "Bertie" Lang was beloved around Mason County, according to Ernie Hillenmeyer, who worked with her for more than 40 years. She always had time to help out her neighbors, and did volunteer work for St. Patrick's Church, senior citizens and the fire department, said Hillenmeyer, a part owner of the now-defunct Parker Tobacco Co., where Lang was a secretary.