There's a warning for thousands of patients of a Grand Rapids dermatologist. They could be at risk for hepatitis and HIV.
Read more: State
His patients number in the thousands, many with lasting scars, and horrifying tales. Patient Christopher Haas describes Dr. Robert Stokes as a butcher. Haas went to Dr. Stokes to have a cyst removed back in 2000. "I was told to remove my shirt and face the wall," recall Haas, "I had never met the guy yet and he just came in and stuck a needle in my back." Haas says the two inch hole left in his back got infected, bled through his shirt and left this lasting scar and he's not the only one. WOOD Television in Grand Rapids obtained a stack of civil complaints filed by patients against Dr. Stokes for malpractice. Some were dismissed, others settled or still pending and just this week the Kent County Health Department sent out a letter. warning patients to get tested for hepatitis b and c as well as hiv.
The health department says Stokes may have re-used instruments including scalpels, syringes and sutures on multiple patients. The same allegations outlined in a state complaint against Stokes that is still under review. "I was tested immediately," says Melissa Poluito, another of Stokes former patients. Poluito says she was left scarred by Stokes from a procedure in 2006. She was there as Stokes was tried in federal court a year later for defrauding insurance companies and billing for unnecessary procedures. A process she says took too long. "He continued to see patients for months," Poluito says, "and I don't think that should have occurred."
Dr. Stokes' medical license is officially still valid. The state says they didn't take steps to revoke it because under the terms of his federal case, he's no longer allowed to practice medicine.
Story Courtesy: WOOD-TV
