Judge pushes Excela, doctors to resolve pending stent lawsuits

A Westmoreland County judge on Wednesday ordered Excela Health and two of its former cardiac doctors to engage in settlement talks and mediation to resolve 35 outstanding lawsuits filed by patients who contended they received unnecessary stents.

Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway during a conference with lawyers for patients, the hospital and doctors, said trials will be scheduled next year for the pending cases. A majority of lawsuits against Excela and the doctors were initially filed in 2011.

“We need to resolve them,” Hathaway said.

Those lawsuits were filed after Excela in early 2011 sent letters to 192 patients disclosing they may have received unnecessary stents from doctors Ehab Morcos and George Bou Samra during medical procedures conducted during the previous two years. Stents are mesh tubes used to widen and improve blood flow in blocked arteries.

About 117 lawsuits from patients were filed alleging the unnecessary stenting resulted in potential for serious medical conditions for patients. The lawsuits contended Excela was aware of the doctors’ actions but did not immediately step in to halt the improper medical procedures.

Most lawsuits have been settled, though details of those resolutions have remained private.

One case went to trial. It was filed by a North Huntingdon man who claimed five of seven stents he received in 2008 during three procedures at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg were not medically required.

A Westmoreland County jury in 2014 ruled in favor of the hospital and Morcos. Bou Samra was not a defendant in that lawsuit.

In court Wednesday, David Johnson, attorney for Excela, said the hospital has exhausted its primary insurance to settle stent cases, and a secondary insurance fund could be tapped to resolve pending lawsuits.

“We’ve extended offers in each of the (pending) cases,” Johnson said.

Attorney Victor Pribanic, who represents all but one of the patients with pending lawsuits, said he will consider using a mediator in an attempt to reach resolutions but asked that trial dates be set.

“The best encouragement to secure a settlement is the prospect there will be a trial,” Pribanic said.

The lawyers are required to submit in writing to the judge within the next 45 days the status of each unresolved case.

“We need to set a timeline,” Hathaway said.