Doctor fearful before suicide
Broward Health CEO did not think he’d ‘survive’
In the days before his inexplicable and shocking suicide, Dr. Nabil El Sanadi was deeply worried about his future as chief executive officer of Broward Health, a report obtained by the Sun Sentinel shows.
El Sanadi, 60, had undergone triple bypass heart surgery seven days before his Jan. 23 suicide at his Lau-derdale-condo building. In the intervening week, he was “anxious to return to work,” pacing restlessly and sleeping poorly, his widow, Lori El Sanadi, told investigators.
She said her husband “stated he didn’t think he would survive ‘this’ but [she] did not believe he was referring to the surgery but rather professionally and his position at work,” according to a five-page cause of death report from the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office.
Lori El Sanadi did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Her husband was troubled greatly by a newspaper article published the day before he killed himself and “a rumored picture floating around” of him meeting for a meal with a hospital district commissioner, Lori El Sanadi said in the report.
A Jan. 22 Sun Sentinel editorial detailed conflicts at Memorial Healthcare System,
which serves south Broward, and referenced a meeting between one of its board members, Laura Miller, and El Sanadi.
“Most surprisingly, Miller also met with the leader of the North Broward Hospital District, who’s at odds with Memorial,” the article noted. Miller said she met with El Sanadi because “I need a sounding board from time to time,” the article said.
El Sanadi ran the county’s other public hospital system, Broward Health, also known as the North Broward Hospital District. Miller could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A witness to the meal in question told the Sun Sentinel it took place Sept. 13 at Joe’s Café in Fort Lauderdale. Over breakfast, Miller and El Sanadi discussed Frank Sacco, outgoing chief executive of the Memorial System.
That witness was Sacco’s son, Nick Sacco. In an interview Tuesday, Nick Sacco told the Sun Sentinel he happened to be dining with his fiancee at the restaurant when he overheard conversation about his father at a nearby table. El Sanadi did most of the talking.
“Theywere basically talking about howto screw over Frank Sacco in his last few months,” Nick Sacco said. “He was basically educating her on how to rule over the board.”
El Sanadi advised Miller to demand reports from department heads using a management technique called SWOT, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, Nick Sacco said.
“He basically went on and on how to use different ways to put pressure on him,” he said. “He spoke specifically about how to use (Florida’s public records) law to her advantage to get emails so she could review them and put him in a tough spot.”
El Sanadi became president and CEO of Broward Health in December 2014. The system provides hospital and health care services for the northern two-thirds of Broward County.
He was guiding Broward Health, and its more than 8,000 employees and 1,800 physicians, through the aftermath of a $70 million settlement with the federal government stemming from events before he took over.
The hospital system has been in turmoil since El Sanadi’s suicide.
Days after his death, an email from an outside private investigator El Sanadi had hired came to light. It accused the district’s lawyers of obstructing an FBI investigation into the district’s activities and said El Sanadi refused to discuss anything sensitive in his office because he feared itwas bugged.
Another investigation was disclosed on the day of El Sanadi’s funeral, when the Florida Chief Inspector General’s Office announced it was opening a wide-ranging inquiry into contracts awarded by the district.
El Sanadi had “no previous suicidal ideations or attempts,” his wife told investigators.
El Sanadi was with his father-in-law when he stepped into a restroom in the lobby of his condo building and shot himself in the chest.
When El Sanadi was found in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor, he had already tucked his gun, a white metal Smith & Wesson .38 revolver, into the front right pocket of his sweatpants.
“The brain has 10-15 seconds of oxygen after the heart stops working,” Broward’s Chief Medical Examiner Craig Mallak said. That would have given El Sanadi enough time to put the gun in his pocket before he collapsed, he said.
No suicide note was found, but a search of El Sanadi’s apartment turned up a legal notepad with a heading of “My 5Wishes” in what was believed to be El Sanadi’s handwriting, the cause of death report said.
Only a single wish was noted: “Relax.”