Family suing IC VA for hiring surgeon with malpractice history
Hunter
6/26/19
The family of a Davenport war veteran is suing the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City after learning that the doctor who performed surgeries on him had a history of malpractice before being hired by the VA.
The Des Moines Register reports that 65-year-old Richard Hopkins died in 2017 from a post-surgery infection. The lawsuit specifically blames the medical negligence of Dr. John Schneider, who performed four brain operations on Hopkins, as the reason for the man’s death.
What Hopkins and other patients didn’t know at the time was that Dr. Schneider’s license had been revoked in Wyoming in 2014 after allegations of poor patient care. The Iowa City VA hospital hired Schneider in the spring of 2017 despite a law forbidding doctors whose state licenses had been revoked from working there.
Schneider resigned late that year after the USA Today newspaper inquired about his status and the VA moved to fire him.
The suit also alleges that at least three other patients at the hospital suffered similar complications.
Hopkins developed the infection after his first surgery for a non-cancerous brain tumor and died a few weeks later after three additional surgeries.
The Register reports that Schneider was sentenced last year to spend two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraudulently hiding assets in a bankruptcy case in Montana. His bankruptcy filing came while he was facing medical malpractice judgments from earlier cases. Online records show his Montana medical license was revoked in 2018.