Abortionist investigated for dumping medical records

This week we detailed the complaint that Operation Rescue filed against sleezy abortion doc Nareshkumar Patel.

Today, Oklahoma’s News9 is reporting on that story:

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office confirms it is investigating a complaint against an Oklahoma doctor that was brought to their attention by a pro-life group.

The group, called Operation Rescue out of Wichita, Kansas, claims the doctor has dumped medical waste and sensitive medical information into its dumpsters.

And in a six page letter they sent to the Attorney General in January, they claim the doctor has a blatant disregard for his patients, their private medical information and the law.

“What we see is despicable,” said Troy Newman, the executive director of Operation Rescue. “We have countless people that have come forward.”

Newman says on Tuesday, they received confirmation from the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office that they are indeed investigating the claims. He also received confirmation from the state’s Medical Licensure Board last month that they are reviewing the claims as well.

“I have stacks and reams of private medical information, that needs to be put in the right hands,” said Newman. “Because this man is just disregarding state law and privacy concerns.”

In their letter to the attorney general, Operation Rescue claims Dr. Nareshkumar Patel and the Outpatient Services for Women clinic on N.W. 63rd Street violated the law a number of ways including:

dumping confidential medical records,
not reporting abortions they have performed,
improperly disposing medical waste,
failing to protect and properly dispose of employment applications,
and failing to observe the 24 hour voluntary and informed consent rule.
“And we have dozens and dozens of his former patients records,” said Newman. “These are the most private, the most secure, most sensitive pieces of information. And that shows a callous disregard for the patients and the integrity of his medical practice.”

Newman claims all of these records have come from confidential sources, and were brought to their attention last March.

“Mostly they come out of the trash receptacles,” said Newman. “Some of the most private information a person can have should not be disposed of into a place that is just open for public scrutiny.”

News 9 did reach out to Dr. Patel and the clinic for comment. They did not return our calls.

Back in 1994, Dr. Patel was put on trial on allegations he sexually assaulted some of his patients, but a jury found him not guilty and acquitted him of all charges. A search of News 9 archives also reveal Patel made national news in 1992, for admitting he dumped and burned fetuses in a field near Shawnee. The board later dismissed the complaint on that matter.

Mike Haley, the regional director of Operation Rescue National, called the dumping and burning of the fetuses “an outrage on our society” and likened the activities to the Nazi death camps.

Patel said he and his office manager had tried to find a waste disposal company to take the fetuses after Seminole Municipal Hospital told him on Sept. 5, 1990, that he no longer could use its incinerator.

He testified he took two boxes of fetuses from the clinic on April 14 after a storage room became too full. He acknowledged there could have been as many as 1,000 fetuses in the room.

Patel said he and his office manager took the fetuses to an abandoned recreational vehicle park he owned near Shawnee and he set fire to them on a gravel road.

“We stayed until the fire was completely burned off,” he said.

“Just looking from the headlights of my car, it looked like everything was burned off, the fire was burned off, everything was covered with ash. … Still we decided that we would go back there … the next day after work was over to make sure it was completely burned off. ” But, he said, two trespassers discovered the fetuses on his fenced property April 15, before he could return.

“If I had known that there would be so much unnecessary publicity, I would have never done it,” he said.

He said he now has a contract, signed April 16 – the day after the fetuses were found – with American Medical Disposal Inc. of Oklahoma City to dispose of the fetuses. He said his office manager again called waste disposal clinics after the publicity began.

Patel admitted burning the fetuses and said of the burnings, “We took only one small amount. This was the first time we were trying. We wanted to see if it would be all right. … to see if we could dispose of it completely or not. ”

Medical examiners determined that one fetus was 21 weeks old and “the other remains were all of 16 weeks gestation or less. ” An autopsy report noted: “The multiple fetal parts that are identifiable consist of … a definite 53 right hands, 47 left hands, 51 right feet and 55 left feet. This is used to determine a minimum number of grossly recognizable human fetuses of 55.

Doctors determined the remains had been kept in formaldehyde before their disposal.

An autopsy report listed the abortion on the 21-week-old fetus as a homicide but chief medical examiner Fred Jordan said, “We do not believe that the 21-week fetus was at a stage of development whereby it could have independently survived outside the mother. ” No criminal charges were filed.

Patel also was disciplined at the June 1990 hearing for failing to keep accurate records on prescription drugs. That ruling was upheld.

Patel moved his first Warr Acres clinic after a legal fuss with his landlord. The landlord had terminated Patel’s lease in 1989 after an air-conditioning repairman complained of finding “babies in bottles” in the attic above the clinic.

Patel has told authorities that he keeps the fetuses for up to seven months before disposal.

1990

In 1992, a witness testified in one case in Oklahoma County District Court that Patel performs as many as 20 abortions “on any given Saturday,” at his Oklahoma City clinic. Medical records obtained from the state licensure board confirmed those numbers.

The woman, a medical assistant who worked at the Oklahoma City clinic and occasionally at the Shawnee clinic, also testified that Patel kept fetal tissue from completed abortions stored in both clinics until it was destroyed.

“We put them in boxes and date them. And he takes so many,” said the witness, identified in court documents as medical assistant Nancy J. Standerfer.

He was ordered to pay $240,000 in damages after an Oklahoma County judge ruled in favor of a 15-year-old girl left permanently injured following an attempted abortion in June 1989.

The state medical board reprimanded Patel on June 9, 1990, “for a procedure done in an unprofessional manner in an unprofessional setting. ” That reprimand was later overturned after he appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Standerfer, the medical assistant who witnessed the 1989 abortion attempt on the 15-year-old girl, described how she saw Patel “pull out some tissue and take it in his hands. ” Then the woman testified she heard Patel say, “‘That’s her small intestine,’ and he put it all inside … ” The doctor then told his assistant to call an ambulance and the girl was rushed to Oklahoma Memorial Hospital. She later underwent emergency surgery for a perforated uterus, where a male fetus was found floating in blood inside her abdominal cavity.

Eventually, the girl’s fallopian tubes, ovaries, and a portion of her colon were removed, and a temporary colostomy was performed.

In a separate incident, medical authorities said Patel was accused of abandoning a patient.

No action was taken in that case “because there was not enough evidence presented to make a finding on the claim,” said Daniel Gamino, attorney for the Oklahoma State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision.

A lawsuit filed by Terrell Dockery of Shawnee in April 1990 against Patel was dismissed by mutual agreement. Dockery said Patel wanted to induce labor in January 1989 about two weeks before her delivery date so he could go to India for a vacation.

She agreed, but she said he rushed through the delivery and neglected to suture a tear caused by the birth. She claimed she bled excessively and suffered an infection “because of him and his greed,” and he was not available to help her.

She asked for $20,000 damages, and Patel filed a counterclaim for $355 he said she still owed him, records show. Patel produced hospital records showing he sutured the woman for a 1 1/2-centimeter (.6 inch) tear after delivery and again during the night when the suture line began bleeding.

1993

In 1993, NEWSOK reported that a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma County District Court by Ashley Trent alleges Patel was negligent in treating her following an April abortion. Trent is asking for $10,000 in actual damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

Patel was released on $100,000 bond after he was charged with one count each of forcible oral sodomy and sexual battery. The alleged victim in the criminal charge also is a former patient, but the two cases are unrelated.

Patel is accused of calling Trent on April 29 and asking her to meet with him under the guise of discussing her mental condition following the mid-April abortion.

Trent agreed to meet Patel at a predetermined location, got into his car, and rode with him to Lake Stanley Draper. There, the lawsuit says, the doctor attempted to grab and kiss Trent.

The lawsuit also alleges that Patel failed to make a thorough examination of Trent and took advantage of her “known mental and emotional status” when he forced himself upon her.

The criminal charges stem from a March 25 incident in which a patient alleged Patel tried to kiss and fondle her while she lay nude and sedated on an examination table.

A judge initially set bond at $500,000, after prosecutors argued that Patel was a flight risk because he had airline tickets to India. The amount later was lowered to $100,000 when Thomas convinced a second judge the higher amount was unreasonable.

In 1994, Patel was found not guilty in the sexual assault of the 25 year old female patient.

In that case another woman testified Tuesday that she had been a patient of Patel’s in 1989 and had been raped by him while under sedation at the Warr Acres clinic. The woman, then 19, admits she never told anyone of the alleged attack until five years later.

Patel testified he never had sex with any of the patients. He testified the woman whose allegations led to the charges had wanted to date him and would call him four times a week.

The woman taped telephone conversations between her and Patel and on one recording he apologized to her.

Patel said he “was so tired of her calling, I would say anything to get her to stop. ” Patel’s attorney, D.C. Thomas, claims the woman tried to set up Patel for the purpose of filing a $5 million civil lawsuit against him.

In 1994, A Pottawatomie County jury found in favor of Dr. Nareshkumar Gandalal Patel, who had been sued by Rochelle Brown, a former worker in his Shawnee office.

Brown sought $200,000 in damages, claiming in part that Patel repeatedly touched her breasts and buttocks in a Chicago hotel room in November 1990. The woman testified she was surprised upon their arrival to learn that Patel had reserved only one room, said her attorney, James Branum.

Brown testified that she quit her job after returning to Shawnee, but that Patel convinced her to return to work two months later, Branum said.

She claimed that Patel assaulted her again in January 1991.

Patel went to medical school in India, entering when he was 17 and finishing when he was 21. “Over there,” he said in a 1990 deposition, “doctors are considered as God. ” He moved to the United States in 1978 and had further medical training at a New Jersey hospital before moving to Oklahoma in mid-1984.