CMC wants two wrongful-death lawsuits dismissed
Sep. 4—Lawyers for Catholic Medical Center want two wrongful-death lawsuits connected to the work of a former cardiovascular surgeon dismissed, claiming the suits were filed well past the statute of limitations and the two patients knew the risk of their surgeries.
The lawsuits allege the hospital failed to properly discipline Dr. Yvon Baribeau for two prior deaths that could be considered reckless.
Baribeau has settled at least 20 New Hampshire malpractice cases dating from 1999 to 2021. Seventeen were threatened malpractice claims presented at one time to Baribeau after his retirement in August 2019, CMC has previously said.
The hospital claims the suits are barred by a 3-year statute of limitations and 6-year repose period. The filing also says a discovery rule, which allows the clock to start when a plaintiff discovers the injury, does not apply to wrongful death.
The suits contain "mostly hyperbole and conclusory allegations," according to the motion to dismiss filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court by attorney William Smart of the Morrison Mahoney law firm.
A retired pawn shop owner, Myron Louis Bishop Jr., died after complications from surgery performed by Baribeau in 2012, and a retired police officer, John William Queen, died on the operating table after bleeding out in 2013, according to the suits.
The families could have learned how the hospital verifies credentials and how "they track and report morbidity and mortality rates, investigate adverse events, and conduct peer review, among other things," the motion reads.
The lawsuits allege Baribeau should not have been performing surgeries after the deaths of two of his patients in 2012 and 2013 were identified as possible reckless behavior by CMC's peer review system. One of those patients died after Bishop.
"These allegations are not reasonably susceptible to a construction that CMC was negligent in allowing a board certified, and highly experienced heart surgeon to see patients at the hospital," the motion reads.
The lawsuits go into great detail about allegations that the hospital knew Baribeau's morbidity and mortality rates were dramatically higher than those of his partners, Drs. Benjamin Westbrook and David Charlesworth — at times more than double and in 2005 more than nine times higher.
The families "had every reason to suspect that CMC was aware of Dr. Baribeau's surgical history at the hospital (whatever it might be), and that it had a role in credentialing and privileging him to perform surgery," the motion reads.
Baribeau was placed on a 28-day suspension by the hospital, but "a suspension of less than 30 days does not have to be externally reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank," according to the lawsuits.
"The law simply does not allow new actions by or against deceased parties for an indefinite period of time after a person's death," the motion reads.
The lawsuits allege the families were left in the dark and never informed of the two prior deaths, which prompted a review. The results of the reviews were not shared, "which would have allowed them to file a claim for his wrongful death."
In 2022, the Boston Globe ran a series of articles on Baribeau, which led to an independent review by a Pittsburgh law firm, Horty, Springer & Mattern.
"Indeed, nothing revealed by the Boston Globe, or the report of Hoyt Springer, was necessary to accrue a cause of action against CMC," the motion reads.
The lawsuits were filed by the two men's estates and seek an amount sufficient to compensate for injuries and losses.
