Seventy Suits are Settled Surrounding Putnam General Hospital

March 23, 2008

Charleston, WV - One doctor, John Anderson King, practicing medicine at Putnam General Hospital has been the object of one hundred twenty-two medical malpractice suits, of which seventy have been settled. He sustained the suits for malpractice while in the employ of the hospital. His stay was not long and the situation has been fraught with controversy. The suits also involved the company that holds ownership of the hospital, The Hospital Corporation of America, Inc. The suits were settled by the Putnam General Hospital and The Hospital Corporation of America, Inc. Both entities are working hard to try to come to swift settlement agreements with patients in these situations. The settlements were for an undisclosed amount of money. The situation with the doctor is of great controversy within the medical field in Alabama and any states he committed malpractice within.

Some final settlements will be conducted soon pertaining to patients that sustained loss of life or were minors at the time of the incidents. Putnam General was purchased from HCA and its new name is CAMC Teays Valley Hospital. There are not ties to the former owners. The cases involve the hospital with its former name of Putnam General and its owner HCA at the time of the medical incidents.

Dr. King is set to file personal bankruptcy in order to protect himself in the suit settlements. The doctor's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing was for just $500 in assets. This was the sum and total of the value of his 1993 Volvo. Suits against the doctor had begun to be filed since the early portion of 2005. Prior to the cases being moved to the U.S. District Court, Judges O.C. Spaulding and Ed Eagloski of the Putnam Circuit had conducted over thirty total hearings involving the Dr. King suits.

Some of the people filing suit against Dr. King and Putnam General Hospital were upset that their cases weren't properly sent to federal court. Dr. King has undergone the revocation of his medical license within ten states including West Virginia. Not only has he had the lawsuits, but he was accused of taking medical records at a Florida area hospital as well.

The doctor still holds medical licensure in the states of: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Tennessee. The state of Alabama is mulling over the idea of permanently suspending his medical license to practice in their state. This idea comes on the heels of an alleged incident where Dr. King caused a patient to overdose to the point of being placed in a coma for twenty-four hours.

It appears that the doctor will be leaving the medical field and entering into the field of real estate appraisals. Recently, he applied for a license in the real estate appraisal field within the state of Tennessee. His application for the license stated that he left the medical field because he was involved as a whistleblower against a group of physicians who were engaged with health care fraud.

Reporting medical malpractice law news.