Doctor accused UPMC surgeon of drug use and 'compromised patient care'

The attorney for the doctor who filed a whistleblower complaint against the head of UPMC cardiothoracic surgery published his client’s original anonymous complaint in court on Tuesday.

Written in all capital letters and displayed on the projection screen, the complaint was filed by Dr. Jonathan D’Cunha against Dr. James Luketich on April 24, 2018.

“This report is aimed at exposing a culture of leadership issues that stems from active drug use,” D’Cunha wrote. “The drug use has compromised patient care and developed an unsafe and harmful work environment. The surgeon involved here is James Luketich at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital.

“What follows below is only a partial list and if you dig deeper, more will be uncovered. Many harmed patients will see this when it goes to the press, and the lawsuits will come.”

The complaint was right — in that the lawsuits have come. In addition, Luketich is the subject of a federal civil complaint filed last year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh.

That complaint said Luketich had improperly performed multiple surgeries at the same time and risked patient outcomes by leaving them under anesthesia for longer than necessary.

It also accuses him, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Physicians of submitting hundreds of false claims to Medicare.

The parties are in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court this week as Luketich, who has filed a cross-claim of defamation against D’Cunha and resident Dr. Lara Waleed Schaheen, battles to keep out of the case a recording of a conversation he had with his primary care physician who had been prescribing him suboxone.

Luketich said the recording was secretly made on Feb. 26, 2018.

He has filed an injunction to keep the recording from being used in a civil suit against him and from being further disseminated and potentially causing harm to him and his reputation. He believes the recording was made by D’Cunha or Schaheen to retaliate against him after he reported that they may have been having an improper relationship and after he formed a committee to investigate allegations of potential academic misconduct by D’Cunha.

“The timing is extremely important here,” Luketich said.

Both D’Cunha and Schaheen have since left UPMC and work in Phoenix. D’Cunha, who was hired in 2012 and served as the surgical director of lung transplantation at UPMC, left in 2019. He is now the head of cardiothoracic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.

The recording was played in court on Monday, but only after the judge ordered the courtroom to be cleared of the public and media.

Luketich testified on Monday that he injured his shoulder in the late 1980s and developed a dependency on the pain killers he’d been prescribed.

He testified that he voluntarily sought help and was involved in the Pennsylvania impaired physicians program for several years.

Then, after suffering back pain from a slipped disc, he was prescribed suboxone around 2008.

Suboxone was a main subject in the anonymous complaint given to UPMC by D’Cunha, who referred to text messages claiming that Luketich “is using narcotics actively and gets high from it.”

Throughout his testimony, Luketich has said that he used the suboxone at the dosages prescribed by his doctors and was not impaired by it. He also said he did not believe he had a problem with suboxone.

However, during cross-examination, D’Cunha’s attorney, Robert M. Barnes, published an admission form from October 2018 at Caron Addiction Treatment Center.

The form said “patient presents to Caron for an inpatient treatment evaluation regarding his history of using suboxone for the last 12 years. Patient claims he may have an addiction disorder. … He is the head of cardiothoracic surgery at UPMC, and he feels there are vindictive efforts being made by people under him.”

Luketich said he went to Caron voluntarily to participate in a suboxone study for five days.

“I wasn’t there to be treated as an inpatient,” he said.

The paperwork from the facility listed Luketich as having a diagnosis of “opioid use disorder, severe criteria.”

As Barnes published a list of those criteria, Common Pleas Judge Philip A. Ignelzi lost his patience.

“I would hope you would understand the court has heard enough on this suboxone issue,” Ignelzi said from the bench. “It’s a collateral issue. I’m done with suboxone questions.”

He told the attorneys that if they asked one more suboxone-related question, he would hold them in contempt and send them to jail.

The focus of the hearing, Ignelzi said, is supposed to be whether the recording of Luketich talking to his doctor was made illegally, whether Luketich had an expectation of privacy at the time and whether it can be used in court.

Barnes argued that the judge allowed Luketich to present his story to the court about what Luketich saw as motive for filing the anonymous complaints against him, and that Barnes should be able to rebut those allegations.

“It came into the case to establish motive,” Ignelzi said. “This is insanity I’m watching.”

Barnes responded: “The truth is the opposite. They didn’t have any motive. You have heard (Luketich’s) version. That’s not the true version.”

Ignelzi then asked Barnes if he denies that his client submitted the anonymous complaint against Luketich.

“No,” Barnes replied. “They actually had a duty to report.”

Luketich completed his testimony late Tuesday and was excused. The hearing will continue Wednesday morning.