Health & Welfare | Daily Report

Albert Israel, 77, says he realizes that he didn’t actually need an internal defibrillator implanted in his chest.

But the Los Angeles retiree got one anyway – and almost died on the operating table.

Phto by Lisa Setrini-Espinosa

And now, in legal documents filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Israel says he has discovered he underwent the unnecessary surgery for the most “venal” of motives.

His cardiologist, Dr. Michael Burnam of Tarzana, had recently gotten his son a $200,000-per-year job as a salesman for St. Jude Medical Inc., which manufactures defibrillator devices, Israel’s lawsuit says.

In exchange for giving his son the job, the physician promised to prescribe St. Jude Medical devices for his patients, a former employee of St. Jude has testified.

That’s the only reason Burnam told Israel to undergo surgery for the implant, the lawsuit says.

The alarming allegations in Israel’s lawsuit suggest a scenario in which a physician swapped the Hippocratic Oath for a cash-and-carry ethos.

“We expect our physicians to be motivated solely by the well-being of their patients and nothing more,” said Los Angeles attorney Jeffrey D. Wolf, who represents Israel.

Lawyers for Burnam and St. Jude couldn’t be reached for comment. In legal filings, Burnam  denied wrongdoing.

Burnam is a longtime Los Angeles-area cardiologist. In 2001, he was publicly reprimanded by the state medical board for “surgical errors” that caused an angioplasty patient to have a heart attack, records show.

Earlier this month, St. Jude said it would pay $3.7 million to settle U.S. Justice Department allegations that it had paid kickbacks to some hospitals in Ohio to get heart device business, the Associated Press reported.

According to his lawyer, Israel has had some heart problems and for years wore a pacemaker, which Dr. Burnam monitored. Then, in 2008, Burnam told Israel his heart problems were so serious he needed the defibrillator implant, also called an ICD, which is supposed to ward off heart attacks. Burnam falsely told the surgeon who was to do the operation that Israel had suffered a heart attack, court records show, and made other alleged misrepresentations about Israel’s condition, as well.

During surgery, the implant accidentally stabbed Israel’s heart, the lawsuit says. Surgeons managed to save Israel's life, but he hasn't fully recovered, his lawyer says.

Unbeknownst to Israel, a few months earlier, Burnam had begun negotiating with St. Jude for a job for his son, Brad. The son admits he was hired because he could bring his father’s “business” to St. Jude, the lawsuit says.

A former St. Jude employee, Mark House, said in pretrial testimony that in addition to the job for his son, Burnam wanted money for heart research.

Burnam “wanted (the son) to have $200,000,” House testified. Burnam also “wanted a research site set up … he wanted enough money for computers and potentially have a research coordinator nursed there.”

The quid pro quo was explicit, according to the testimony.

“He said that we would get the business if there was something that we could do for Brad and for him,” House said.