Dr. Thomas C. Weiner, the oncologist who was the topic of a 2024 ProPublica investigation, won’t ever once more follow drugs within the state of Montana.
Final week, medical board members revoked Weiner’s license, citing seven circumstances of malpractice. The board concluded that he had violated guidelines {of professional} conduct and offered substandard care. By regulation, it should report Weiner to a federal database that tracks medical doctors who’ve been disciplined — which can make it extraordinarily tough for him to follow drugs.
That call comes greater than a yr after ProPublica uncovered how, for years, Weiner had been suspected of wounding sufferers, together with some who died, at St. Peter’s Well being, the one main hospital serving the state capital of Helena. The story, constructed on court docket and medical information, confirmed Weiner subjected sufferers who didn’t have most cancers to chemotherapy and different harmful therapies, uncared for to correctly deal with sufferers who had been critically sick, overprescribed addictive narcotics and was suspected by colleagues to have hastened the deaths of greater than a half dozen individuals.
Weiner, 62, has denied mistreating sufferers. He didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the board’s resolution to revoke his license. St. Peter’s Well being, which fired him in 2020, accusing him of malpractice, didn’t present remark. The hospital has beforehand attributed the mistreatment of sufferers to a rogue physician and says it supplies high-quality care.
Weiner sued St. Peter’s for wrongful termination, a case the hospital in the end gained. Weiner additionally filed a defamation declare in opposition to Dr. Randy Sasich, a former St. Peter’s colleague who lodged complaints about his care. Sasich stays a defendant in that lawsuit.
In line with an order by the Montana Board of Medical Examiners, Weiner agreed to by no means once more search a medical license within the state and stated he not meant to follow there.
Earlier than his termination, Weiner was the best paid physician at St. Peter’s. Over time, he made tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} and wielded his affect in the neighborhood to drive out hospital leaders who questioned his judgment. Colleagues feared him, and few challenged him. His firing prompted a public outcry, led by his nursing employees and former sufferers, a lot of whom proceed to assist him in a “We stand with Dr. Tom Weiner” Fb group and on billboards expressing their assist.
The ProPublica investigation recognized scores of problematic circumstances. The medical board, although, targeted on simply seven. Amongst them was the case of Scot Warwick, whose dying and subsequent post-mortem was the catalyst for Weiner’s downfall.
As ProPublica reported, Weiner recognized Warwick in 2009 with Stage 4 lung most cancers, a illness that kills most individuals in months. For the following 11 years, Weiner subjected his affected person to spherical after spherical of debilitating therapies together with chemo. In 2020, he began to say no quickly, gaining the discover of Sasich, who couldn’t make sense of his authentic analysis and unbelievable survival span. However earlier than Sasich might discover solutions, Warwick died an agonizing dying. His widow, Lisa Warwick, ordered an post-mortem. It got here again unfavourable for most cancers — a discovering Weiner has repeatedly dismissed — and concluded he possible died from the chemotherapy that Weiner had ordered.
Medical board members confirmed the post-mortem’s findings. In its written order, the board concluded that Warwick died “resulting from gemcitabine-associated pulmonary toxicity.” In different phrases, the chemotherapy killed him.
The board famous that “Weiner disagrees with this discovering and doesn’t admit to it.”
In response to the board’s resolution, Lisa Warwick stated, “It’s positively welcomed information — very pleased to listen to it — however with the caveat that this entire factor took approach too lengthy.” For 5 years, a board that’s supposed to guard sufferers, she added, “blatantly turned a blind eye.”
In line with a hospital spokesperson, after St. Peter’s fired Weiner in 2020, it offered the medical board with hundreds of pages of paperwork detailing its allegations, together with that Weiner took over full management of his sufferers’ care, which made it tough for different medical doctors to see or query his remedy. These paperwork, many later obtained by ProPublica, languished for years with out assessment by the board, a thriller its spokespeople have declined to elucidate.
The board renewed Weiner’s license in 2021 and 2023. After ProPublica’s investigation publicly revealed the hospital’s allegations in opposition to Weiner, the board renewed his license for a 3rd time this yr.
Weiner’s troubles lengthen past dropping his license. Final yr, the U.S. Division of Justice sued him, accusing him of prescribing unnecessary therapies, double billing, seeing sufferers extra often than crucial and “upcoding” — billing for dearer therapies than he delivered. Weiner has denied the costs. For its half, St. Peter’s already agreed to a $10.8 million settlement for quite a few violations of the False Claims Act associated to Weiner’s billing of federal insurance coverage packages.
Individually, the dad and mom of a deceased 16-year-old woman whose case was prominently featured within the ProPublica investigation have filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in opposition to Weiner, the hospital and different employees, accusing them of substandard care and fraud, which is ongoing. In a prolonged interview with ProPublica, Weiner denied that his remedy led to her dying.
A legal investigation can be underway, led by the Montana Division of Justice with assist from federal investigators, in line with a number of individuals who’ve been interviewed by regulation enforcement. That workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark. Weiner has not offered touch upon the continued legal investigation.
Weiner offered his house in Helena this yr, abandoning a metropolis deeply divided over his legacy and many individuals who nonetheless imagine he was a world-class physician who has been unfairly focused by the hospital and the media.
Anthony Olson, a former affected person whom Weiner prescribed 9 years of chemotherapy for a most cancers that by no means existed, was amongst that group of supporters till medical doctors at St. Peter’s helped him settle for what had occurred to him. His physique continues to be recovering from being poisoned for therefore lengthy. He has considered becoming a member of the Weiner Fb group to share his story. However, he stated: “I assume there’s nothing I can say to them that can carry them round to cause. I’m simply glad that nobody else goes to be injured.”
