Medical board clears doctor
Family never consented to fatal procedure
The Texas Medical Board has concluded — for a second time — that there is insufficient evidence to sanction a Sugar Land doctor accused of performing a fatal procedure on an elderly woman without her family’s consent.
According to witnesses, Dr. Yassir Sonbol did not consult the children of 87-year-old Manuela Chapa as required by law before attempting to insert a dialysis catheter in her neck on March 12, 2015, at Kindred Hospital Sugar Land. The wire became lodged in a vein, according to medical records and witnesses, causing blood to pour from the woman and sending her into cardiac arrest.
Her daughter, Cris Chapa, learned the graphic details of her mother’s death nearly two years later, only after a whistleblowing nurse sent her a letter along with a stack of records, the Houston Chronicle reported in April. Chapa was not even aware that Sonbol, an interventional cardiologist, had attempted the procedure.
By then, however, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had investigated the incident and conclud-
ed the doctor and hospital had violated her mother’s rights by failing to discuss possible risks and obtaining informed consent before attempting the procedure.
The Texas Medical Board, the state agency that licenses and disciplines physicians, also had taken a look at the case by then, but the board reached a different conclusion. It cleared Sonbol of wrongdoing in March 2016, without ever contacting Chapa’s family.
In a confidential letter obtained by the Chronicle, the board said a full investigation was not warranted because it had received “medical records and affidavits” showing that Sonbol had received legal consent to perform the procedure.
Earlier this month, the medical board agreed to take another look at the case after receiving an affidavit from Cris Chapa and her brother, Jesse Chapa, stating they never were consulted, as well as a signed statement from Linda Patton, the nurse who first reported the medical error to regulators. Chapa’s family also submitted copies of their mother’s medical records, which included an unsigned consent form for the procedure.
‘Insufficient evidence’
The medical board’s Disciplinary Process Review Committee examined the additional evidence on June 15 and a week later issued its findings in a letter: “After a careful review of the file and all the information regarding this matter, (the committee) determined there is insufficient evidence to support a violation.”
Cris Chapa received notice of the decision Wednesday.
“You have no idea how disappointed I am,” she said. “They say it’s still not enough evidence. What more do they want?”
The Texas Medical Board, which is comprised of physicians, considers disciplinary investigations confidential and does not comment on its decisions. In an email, board spokesman Jarrett Schneider noted that “a violation of hospital bylaws does not necessarily equate to a violation by a medical practitioner individually.”
H.C. Chang, a lawyer representing the Chapa family in a malpractice lawsuit against Sonbol and the Sugar Land hospital, said he was stunned by the board’s conclusion.
“I read what the medical board wrote, and it just boggles the mind,” Chang said. “I believe it’s clear as day that Kindred and Dr. Sonbol did not have consent to do this procedure. I’m not sure what the board was thinking.”
Denies allegations
Sonbol’s lawyer, Don Stephens, declined comment on the medical board decision. As for the civil case, “Dr. Sonbol strongly denies the allegations against him in the suit filed by the Chapa family and we anticipate that Dr. Sonbol will prevail at the time of trial,” Stephens wrote in an email.
Dr. Gary Idelchik, a New Yorkbased cardiologist who reviewed Chapa’s medical file on behalf of the plaintiffs, concluded that Sonbol failed to get legal consent for a procedure that was not warranted and then appeared to falsify medical records to cover up the mistake.
“Her death was proximately caused by the negligence and gross negligence of Dr. Yassir Sonbol,” Idelchik wrote in an expert report filed in the case earlier this month.
Stephens since has filed a counter motion disputing the veracity of Idelchik’s opinion, noting that Manuela Chapa, who had come to the hospital with pneumonia, was very ill at the time of the procedure and had gone into cardiac arrest twice a day earlier, making any determination about her cause of death speculative.
mike.hixenbaugh@chron.com twitter.com/Mike_Hixenbaugh