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Dr. George Fielding, the NYU surgeon who performed a weight-loss operation on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, has been accused of sloppy care that led to four patients’ deaths.
Fielding, a pioneer of the lucrative obesity treatment, has been named in 12 malpractice lawsuits in New York, including one brought by ex-Met Lee Mazzilli after his teenage daughter suffered stomach perforations. The families of three women who died have sued him.
He was also sued in 11 cases in Australia, where he previously practiced, and rapped for his “entrepreneurial approach” in a scathing coroner’s report on the 2003 death of Shannon Tang, 21. A probe found Fielding met the 381-pound Singaporean a day before surgery and failed to do a preoperative workup or advise him of the risks.
Fielding, chief of NYU Langone Weight Management Program, is also at the center of an ongoing whistleblower lawsuit. A fellow doctor complained that Fielding and his partner, now-wife Dr. Christine Ren, rushed patients through the ER without adequate medical histories.
Dr. Neelu Pal was so alarmed after patient Rhonda Freiberg, 53, went into cardiac arrest 36 hours after surgery, he called to warn other patients. A suit stemming from Freiberg’s death was settled in 2008.
Christie’s office would not say Friday if he knew of Fielding’s rocky record. The governor told The Post last week Fielding came highly recommended by Jets coach Rex Ryan, who lost 100 pounds since 2010, when the doctor operated on him.
In the “lap band” procedure, an incision is made through the belly button and a silicone tube tied around the top of the stomach to restrict food intake.“He appeared from my research to be the foremost expert on it in the country,” Christie said “He told me he’s done over 5,000 of the surgeries and he had the surgery himself. He kinda sold me in this respect.”
Christie said he met at least twice with Fielding, last October and again in December, before agreeing to have the procedure done on Feb. 16.
“I went in at 7 a.m. He met me in the lobby, walked me upstairs, and I had the surgery at 7:30.,” Christie said. “I was out of surgery by 8:10 and home by 5.”
Christie has lost about 40 pounds so far and said he feels fine.
Other patients were not so lucky. A suit by the family of Rebecca Quatinetz, 27, says she suffered six weeks before dying in her Stuyvesant Town apartment after Fielding gave her a lap band in May 2009. The band was too tight, despite six follow-up visits, the suit says.
“She was starving,” said family lawyer Karyn Schiller. “She couldn’t get or keep anything down.”
An autopsy found Quatinetz, just sworn in as a lawyer, died from a heart condition she was unaware of. The family learned that preoperative tests ordered by Fielding revealed the condition, but no one told her.
“We believe Dr. Fielding did not review the results of his own tests,” Schiller said. “So Rebecca, who met him once, three days before surgery, did not give informed consent or get treatment that could have saved her life.”
Another suit blames Fielding for the 2009 death of Anne Marie Harrington, 45, of Brooklyn, several days after lap-band surgery. Fielding and his team failed to detect an esophageal perforation, the suit says.
Fielding referred questions to NYU, which declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Isabel Vincent and Kathianne Boniello