Fugitive Doctor Found Hiding Near Italian Glacier

Chicago - A fugitive doctor from Indiana, on the run for five years, has been captured in the Italian Alps. Dr. Steven Weinberger is wanted on federal charges of health care fraud and is also being sued by dozens of people for medical malpractice.

My sister went through such hell before she died and I do hold him totally responsible, said Peggy Hood.

Her sister, Phyllis Barnes, was a patient of Weinbergers. Barnes died from throat cancer in 2004, and he's being sued for misdiagnosing her.

She was not treated properly or promptly and had she been treated properly and promptly she probably would have survived, said attorney Kenneth J. Allen, who represents Barnes family, and more than 50 other former patients of Weinberger.

Weinberger, who marketed himself as The Nose Doctor, ran the Merrillville Center for Advanced Surgery. He vanished days after Barnes' death, leaving his wife while they vacationed on his 80-foot yacht in Greece. Michelle Kramer has since divorced him.

As the disappearance stretched on, patients' horror stories multiplied.

David Cutshaw of Indianapolis, whose firm represents more than 100 of Weinberger's former patients, said Weinberger promised patients $40,000 modern sinus surgeries that should have taken up to two hours. Instead, Cutshaw said, Weinberger performed outdated procedures that took as little as 24 minutes, enabling him to grind patients through his private surgery center as if they were on an assembly line.

After Weinberger disappeared, federal authorities indicted him on 22 counts of health care fraud, alleging he overbilled insurance companies for surgeries, some of which he never performed.

Attorney Allen called it diagnosis for dollars.

We want him, Weinberger, to look these people in the eye and explain why, why he did this, Allen said.

Peggy Hood said Weinbergers arrest will give her family some closure. I think that all that anybody wants is for him to be held accountable for what he did, she said.

www.kenallenlaw.com

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[animalliberation0961]

Filthy smokers should NEVER be allowed to sue anyone for any cigarette related problems they have. The risks are outlined on each and every cigarette pack.

And everyone who is sickened by a smoker should be able to sue them.