Kabins helps the government without benefit
Las Vegas spine surgeon Mark Kabins on Thursday was sentenced to five years probation, six months of home confinement, 250 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution to victim Melodie Simon in the latest development in the federal investigation of collusion involving local doctors and lawyers.
The real news is contained three paragraphs down in the U.S. Attorney’s press release: “In his guilty plea agreement, Dr. Kabins admitted that on August 3, 2000, in Las Vegas, he assisted another orthopedic surgeon, John Thalgott, M.D. in performing spine surgery on patient Melodie Simon. Simon became paralyzed from complications that arose after the surgery.
Dr. Kabins knew that experts could say that he fell below the standard of care in his treatment of Simon, and that he could be sued.
To avoid being sued, Dr. Kabins asked Howard Awand, a medical consultant who referred personal injury cases to him and to lawyers, to persuade Simon’s attorney, Noel Gage, not to sue him and Dr. Thalgott. Dr. Kabins believed that Awand would corruptly attempt to persuade Gage by referring lucrative personal injury cases to Gage. After receiving referrals from Awand, Gage chose not to sue Dr. Kabins or Dr. Thalgott. Instead, he sued an anesthesiologist.
Dr. Kabins believed that Gage did not sue him because Awand had referred cases to him. To help Gage sue the anesthesiologist, Dr. Kabins drafted a “Letter of Complaint” from which he intentionally omitted information about his secret dealings with Gage and information about Simon’s medical condition following her surgery.”
Brutal. Undeniably brutal.
Kabins’ attorneys have wrung their hands and whined about how their client took his plea and didn’t cooperate with the government. But by signing off on the above set of facts, Kabins has essentially assisted the prosecution in the cases against medical consultant Howard Awand and attorney Noel Gage without receiving the benefits of cooperation enjoyed by Thalgott and Venger.
Of the three physicians whose names have surfaced in the investigation, Kabins took the biggest hit.
Do you suppose he’s begun to ask himself why he went to all that trouble?
