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May 9, 2007 9:16 pm US/Central
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CBS 11 Reveals Doctor's Hidden Criminal Past
by Robert Riggs
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Faye Scroggins lies motionless in her hospital bed at the Green Acres nursing home in Emory, Texas, as her two, middle-aged sons pace back and forth in the hallway, despondent over their inability to ease her suffering.
They say she was a vibrant woman, with a lot of happy years ahead of her before Dr. Jack Thomas operated on her hip. Soon after the hip replacement surgery, her body was overtaken by a severe infection, which has since paralyzed most of her body.
"My life is really dead… laying here 24-hours a day," Scroggins explains.
Still grappling with the reality of his mother's deteriorating condition, Jack Scroggins says he wasn't prepared for what he saw on CBS11's 10 p.m. newscast May 7.
"My heart raced, first. My stomach turned. It all made sense," he recalls.
The story that elicited his response was a CBS11 investigation detailing the
hidden criminal history of Dr. Thomas, as well as the doctor's knee replacement surgery on former patient Bernie Murrey, which resulted in amputation.
Dr. Thomas has two, felony convictions and was sentenced to state prison in 1991 for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and received 10 years probation for violating the controlled substances act. As a result, the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in 1991, but reinstated it in 1999.
Physicians are required to self-report their criminal convictions to be included in the physicians' online personal profile on the Board's website. But for the last three years, Dr. Thomas reported to the Board that he had no criminal convictions, and that is what was posted online for public reference.
Scroggins says if she would have known about Thomas' criminal record, she would never have allowed him to operate on her.
"I think more of my life than that," she said.
No one from Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, where Dr. Thomas performs his surgeries, would talk on camera. However, in a statement, the hospital noted that it adheres to standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and that Dr. Thomas is a "Board Certified orthopedic surgeon."
CBS11 confronted Phillip Killgore, an elected member of the Hunt Memorial Hospital District Board and former Hunt County deputy, at his office.
When asked if he thought the hospital has an obligation to inform patients of Dr. Thomas' criminal past, he said, "No."
Jack Scroggins finds that attitude troubling.
"We live in America, and I don't think it's our point of view that we should have to do a background check when you have an emergency to check on the doctor to make sure he's not a criminal…," he said. "Shame on you. Shame on you. How could you?"
Jack and his brother, Leon Scroggins, have contacted an attorney to file a malpractice lawsuit.
In the wake of our initial story, five of Dr. Thomas' former patients have contacted the station complaining of severe infections following their surgeries.
(CBS 11 News)