James R. Caputo, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.          1200 East Genesee Street Suite 201 Syracuse, NY 13210
Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology

October 23, 2014

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo,

I am again writing you in an effort to address a disease that has long infected a branch of your State government, that being the Department of Health (DOH), and it is my utmost hope that you and your office will finally attend to what will be heretofore disclosed, once and for all, since you are the lead executive for New York.  I previously wrote you a letter in February of 2013 along with having written your predecessor back in July of 2010 detailing this issue and how it was responsible for wreaking havoc on my own professional career.  I got nothing from you or your staff and a disappointing response from that of Mr. Paterson’s staff as well.  As a life-long citizen of this great State of New York, it is my curiosity as to when my elected officials will step up and ultimately deal with this critical matter that has had a direct effect on not just my interest as a physician, who has long been a champion for quality, but also that of all other physicians and every resident of New York who expects their State government to protect them from corruption in medicine and atrocious healthcare being perpetrated upon them while said practices, being a bona fide reality, are simultaneously being swept under the proverbial rug as those who see fit to engage in this behavior go unscathed.  Is it that you are simply not aware of this issue and would otherwise make sweeping changes to rid your State government and at least one known member of your Medical University system (that being Upstate Medical University) of unspeakable corruption and bad medicine where (as one serious consequence) women and babies are repeatedly placed at serious risk and in some cases wrongfully lose their lives?  Or is it that your governorship condones a form of treachery where such bad clinical outcomes go unchecked with how the practice of medicine in New York is overseen by the highest branch of State government entrusted by those who live here to keep watch over these matters for their benefit?  It has to be one of these two.  This is the challenge to you as the purpose of this letter.

I am going to be direct and to the point with what I am about to once more divulge.  Therefore, among the many options being considered in making this problem known to all who ought to be aware, I will be posting this letter on my practice website along with my previous letter to you in addition to numerous other documents referred to in this correspondence that clearly establish the corruption that has gone unrestrained within this State agency (the DOH) as well as what is also going on in various hospitals in this State for far too long.  In order to capture as much attention as possible to this vile situation, the title of the webpage (and any other modality chosen to reach the masses) will be:  Malevolent Medical Politics, Money, Malpractice and Murder:  The Mainstream in New York State Medicine?  Certainly a stark title with as much reality as there is shock value – including, as part of the information that will be made known, the premeditated murder of a five day old newborn baby by a local Syracuse hospital in order to avoid a would-be large liability payout as a result of possibly the most egregious instance of negligence this physician has ever seen. 

Everything underlined in this letter indicates a link to a supporting document made available to any online reader in order to verify these truths to what I write.  I suspect that there will be other links subsequently added following the mailing of this communication to your office.  I will also be posting a letter I was recently obligated to write to the United States Department of Health and Human Services and their Federal Branch of the Office of Inspector General after they came knocking on my door because of the most recent fallout to my medical career experienced at the hands of your Department of Health.  I impress upon your staff and all others to read it.  In it, I furnished them with definitive evidence of corruption, deceit and cheating within your State Government where a high ranking insider within the DOH purposely rigged an entire prosecution and ruination of my medical license and career, while working in concert with the two local doctors who incited the entire thing as part of years of abusing their own power in order to maintain it.  What stands out above all else is that none of my prosecution was patient driven or was the result of any matter concerning quality of care, regardless of what has been “officially” written about my practice of medicine along with the successful effort by those trying to avoid their own accountability to publicly disseminate false information to the community as part of the entire plan of destroying a once brilliant medical career.  You know, the old, “destroy the messenger so that you don’t hear the message” thing.  Are we all really that gullible to fall for this time and time again?  No, in reality it was ALL filthy politics and nothing else.  I encourage your administration as well as any online observer to carefully read this latest letter to you along with the evidence links, since one document in particular not only names the names of those involved as part of an original (and completely ignored) complaint to the DOH back in 2002, but also shows just how consistent my account of this affair has remained for thirteen years, though the tenor of my writing has changed somewhat as I have consequently become seasoned by this mess during that time.

Governor Cuomo, I do not take this course of action so as to embarrass you or to provoke any sort of retaliation upon my life, career or family but to make it clear to you first and foremost as well as all others in this State and beyond that I did what was necessary in the name of quality and integrity in medicine for the benefit of millions of your constituents as a result of my dreadful experience.  This is much more about them than it is about me, though my having gone through such an appalling thing is what enables me to speak clearly about the issues in question.  An experience where everything this doctor worked for over twenty five years was fraudulently taken from me after simply maintaining an upright stance when aggressively prosecuted on trumped up and baseless charges, surreptitiously driven by those who know they can shamefully use your State government as a weapon against their fellow physicians in order to annihilate them.  What’s all the more outrageous is a division of State government all too willing to engage and moreover, to be complicit with these very shenanigans.  The result of this sort of nefarious game of doctor-on-doctor crime not only strands any number of patients who suddenly find themselves without their long-term physician, but also stifles healthy dissent especially when quality in medical care is involved.  This is an unseemly practice that has been allowed to exist and persist, so long as those committing this scheme enjoy any combination of the following: continued anonymity as provided by the DOH’s rules; a State agency known for malicious prosecutions where all jurisprudence goes out the window in order to get that ever-so-important conviction; inside connections within the DOH itself that enable otherwise proper care to be given the stamp of “misconduct” outside of any due process rights or even the DOH’s own rules; and/or certain alliances within their local hospital who allow these things to occur without any oversight or true adherence to written bylaws and where money and politics and not so much that of quality healthcare are often the order of the day.  It is my hope that your administration has no tolerance for such activities as they not only ultimately fall under your jurisdiction but are also a testimony as to the effectiveness of your rule as Governor not to mention the honorability of your legacy for those (doctors AND patients) who have suffered needlessly as a result, and who now (as a result of this correspondence) know that your office is more than aware of the problem. 

This abusive practice is absolutely not limited to just my experience but to many other doctors who have also been wrongfully destroyed at the hands of those whose will was to do just that.  Yet, I dare say that my encounter with the DOH has got to be perhaps the most scandalous by both knowing the absolute facts of the medical cases inconceivably distorted in order to give the appearance of wrongdoing along with also having personally lived through such incredible dishonesty going on now over thirteen years.  But more than just my experience, (and this is the whole point), I have personally witnessed countless patients having had their lives indelibly harmed by an unspeakable level of horrendous care by individuals who know they can ultimately use your State government to silence any physician who recognizes their badness and their morally bankrupt activities in an effort to avoid any accountability of their own.  In fact, many practitioners in the community and region have lived in fear of the men that did this to me because it is no secret as to what they are capable of doing should anyone dare cross them.  All of this will be much clearer as you read on.

The actual official entity at the heart of this entire matter at the State level is a division of the Department of Health well known to physicians across the State as the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC).  Imagine my shock when returning to N.Y. from Michigan where I completed my specialty training to have been warned within a few months about this agency after seeing them publicly destroy a colleague who was a solid doctor from all that I knew.  By their mere existence, OPMC has caused most every physician in the State to live and practice with trepidation as a result of their ominous jurisdiction over one’s medical license.  So heinously has this agency operated over their tenure that two State Senators introduced a Reform Bill several years ago attempting to fix the well-known abuses perpetrated by them, only to see it go nowhere due to once again, politics and not anything about doing the right thing for the citizens of the State, not to mention their doctors.  Let me be clear.  I am not opposed to OPMC serving the interests of patients by policing and disciplining bad medicine or misconduct amongst physicians.  However, when there are upwards of fifty attorneys within the agency with quotas to meet in prosecuting physicians, it is hardly a formula that serves the public interest in protecting them.  Quotas?  Seriously?  Rather, such a construct only serves a bloated and patently dishonest agency, who must justify their existence where anyone with an axe to grind can knowingly capitalize on blood thirsty attorneys who I have seen first hand take properly managed medical cases, where they then twist and distort the information with the help of misfit doctors working for the DOH and purposefully formulate it into what, (to the public especially), appears to be a legitimate prosecution.  In other words, it is open season all year long on doctors in New York State, and it is no secret to many.  In fact, my recent attorney stated that they might get four OPMC cases a year in the past.  Now, they are getting at least 4-5 a month.  This agency is out of control and you are the one who ultimately allows it to continue. 

Mind you, ALL of this abuse of power by OPMC is done without so much as an ounce of Constitutional protection for the hapless doctor who finds himself on the receiving end of such aggression.  These “tribunals” are all done behind closed doors where wholly unqualified adjudicators and attorneys carry out their charade as all rights to a fair trial are the last thing one can expect.  Just look at the fact that I had to have two separate hearings (trials) used in my case because the first one in 2005 had to be thrown out on appeal because the two bandits from my local hospital who were in cahoots with their DOH insider were able to plant one of their buddies on my jury (or hearing panel) who behaved so badly and where it was so obvious to everyone that he was “in on it” as part of a predetermined purpose, that even the Administrative Review Board, (the Appellate Division of the DOH who almost never ever overturns a conviction) couldn’t overlook how observable the “fix” was.  Of course, as a result, I was convicted on everything, without a single material basis other than opinionated testimony from a hired liar.  Yet, the ARB did something NEVER before done in the history of the Department of Health in that they literally threw the entire conviction out citing the fact that “bias pervaded the entire proceeding.”  Stop and think about that statement for a second so you can fully grasp such a thing.  Imagine what it was like to go through, day in and day out for eight straight hours having to watch lie after lie being foisted against your life and a medical career that stood out as one of the premier ones in the State.  Believe it or not, there were other precedents as well that were part of my prosecution because in order to ram a big fat lie through any sort of legal process, all kinds of rules and rights HAVE to be forcibly broken and denied.  It didn’t matter.  In 2007, OPMC rebooted their entire ruse and rammed their lie once more, again with as much dishonesty as ever, but this time were able to get away with it as the ARB literally ignored every component of the subsequent appeal and simply rubberstamped the counterfeit Determination.  In the end, much of what results for patients is a climate where medical mediocrity is what usually rules and anyone who dares speak out against such a deficiency in care finds themselves at great risk of being put on the infamous OPMC track of destruction.  Nice system, ay?  Hardly.

It must be said that I make every single claim in this letter with the utmost of transparency - something that has never ever been the case with those who have chosen to carry out this con.  In fact, I will also be sending a copy of this letter to the most recent prosecuting attorney for OPMC just so they know precisely what has been written in response to what they have once more done.  I encourage anyone reading this letter to examine the State’s conviction document online concerning my prosecution and ask themselves, “how could any of that be wrong?”  I would say the exact same thing had I not been privy to the actual facts and not those that were purposely deranged in order to give the appearance of being a “bad doctor”.  This is what makes this entire thing so disgusting since there is nothing about that document that could ever withstand any open and honest foray into the actual truth and standards pertaining to those cases or my practice of medicine.  Who does such a thing?  I mean, who is willing to be so transparent other than someone who knows without question the reality of what is true and what isn’t.  About three years ago, I took this State conviction document and wrote a line-by-line refutation concerning all of it with the true facts that are contained in the actual medical records as correlated with the formal standards that exist for my specialty.  It is a very technical document with a bit of commentary along the way given how revolted I was to have been homeless and penniless at the time (and for a total of thirty months) as a result of it all.  

I stand, as I always have, ready and more than able to take anyone on with the facts and material evidence as to what is the real truth behind my conviction as well as every single thing I write as part of this account.  Many with an opinion on this matter carry themselves as a so-called “expert” with what they think they have all figured out about James R. Caputo, M.D.  As much as I have cried foul, this is about way more than what happened to me, though I know many are lamenting the loss of their doctor, once again, to this deceptive method of oversight used by OPMC.  If any of this seems ridiculous, then I offer your administration and OPMC themselves this challenge.  There is a nice large teaching auditorium in the Marley Education Building adjacent to the Syracuse University Campus, and part of Crouse Hospital’s School of Nursing that could serve as the suitable venue for OPMC to publicly justify what I am calling out as an absolute fraud and abuse of power in how they used tax payer money to wreck my career as well as carry out other such travesties against other physicians who have had their lives equally ruined.  As far as I am concerned, anyone from the public as well as any physician (especially Ob/Gyn’s) are more than welcome to attend.  Put it on c-span even, for all I care.  Exposing this corruption would make my day and would stand to benefit every single doctor in this State as well as every patient who has been and who will someday again be detrimented by a system that has failed them miserably.  This call to transparency is something OPMC as well as each of the individuals behind this matter could never do as they still “stand” on their lies as the basis of what they have done in the name of New York State not to mention the two local hospitals I have personally had the displeasure of dealing with along these lines as well.  So long as the parties involved maintain the lie with an official seal of their respective State offices and/or institutions, they apparently feel that they do not have to answer to anyone since they are their own oversight.  How do you feel about this challenge, Governor?  I trust that this is thus far concerning to you and not a matter simply brushed off as unworthy of your consideration given how many are affected by what I have so far disclosed, not to mention what is still yet to be discussed below.

How this career destruction is primarily accomplished by doctors against other doctors is through what is known as sham medical peer review.  This too is a tasteless practice occurring usually at the hospital level that takes an otherwise legitimate exercise where doctors are to honestly and fairly oversee each other within any given medical institution in order to promote high quality standards and not mediocre ones and turns it on its head by weaponizing the process for untoward intentions.  The problem typically occurs when peer review committees become populated with marginal physicians who see an opportunity to abuse this institutional power towards anyone who they might not like or feel threatens their own inadequacies or in some cases, their own aggrandizement.  All three of these factors were in operation in my case.  If you are politically motivated enough to either sit on one of these committees or rub elbows with those who do, then you can enjoy a certain degree of confidence that you will be immunized against any significantly problematic review that might come your way should you put forth any sort of questionable effort as a physician.  It shouldn’t surprise any reader to know that the good ‘ol boy system doesn’t stop at the doors of the medical establishment.  What’s all the more sickening is that there are many hospital administrators who condone this sort of practice so long as the overall interests of the institution are maintained – which usually involves money and keeping those who generate the most revenue for the hospital happy.  Forget about any sort of dignity or honor.  The goal is to keep the status quo and the money a’ flow, even if it involves corrupt individuals in control.  In order for those who choose this path to be able to do any of this, the peer review process is done without so much as any openness as well.  If the “hit” is out on you, then you are going to get it with your entire medical career now hanging in the balance after being falsely disciplined.  Sure, these hospitals will provide an institutional avenue for appealing whatever has befallen you, but don’t EVER count on it changing anything.  This practice is alive and well at both Crouse and St. Joseph’s Hospitals and I have plenty of documents to prove it.  Welcome to professional medicine.  Better yet, welcome to adulthood, where individuals in positions of great responsibility and dignity behave in a manner that they would just assume punish their own children for engaging in.  Yet, somehow it becomes acceptable when they do it.  The question is, what would their own children or even their own mother think of what they have, in reality, become or more like, always were?

The peer review system within New York hospitals is directly connected to the DOH and specifically OPMC since there is mandatory reporting of any disciplinary measure against a physician.  This automatic reporting, however, does not preclude anyone with the know-how to singlehandedly reign in someone’s career all on their own while being able to hide behind their desk via the anonymous protection afforded them by how the DOH has set up their rules of prosecuting doctors.  All it takes is a specially crafted letter to OPMC with any sort of accusation, almost always fraudulent, and those hungry lawyers at OPMC now have another potential feast on which they can prey.  A combination of these two pathways was used in my case where four doctors from the Department of Ob/Gyn at Crouse Hospital saw fit to use this illicit form of peer review to do their deed.  And of course they could do such a thing since they sat in all the positions of power by which to have their every way.  In essence, though four put their names on the exploit, the crime was really perpetrated by two High Risk Obstetricians who were the primary culprits while the long-standing (at the time) incompetent chairman of the department rubberstamped much of what they set forth to do, so long as they all enabled each other to hold positions they could never have justifiably possessed if legitimate credentials, clinical acumen and dignified erudition were the true criteria for their respective appointments – which is what it is supposed to be.  No, through syrupy schmoozing (especially by that of the current chairman who, <surprise>, is one of the original four) with anyone in institutional authority and clever deception as to their true character and competence, they have managed to dominate the Department of Ob/Gyn at Upstate Medical University for decades (with emphasis) at the expense of countless patients whose medical care has suffered greatly due to their astounding inadequacies as physicians.  I am sure those who are named in the above linked document would vehemently oppose such a claim, yet I stand ready and able to rebut anything they might offer with material such as transcripts from a Medical Executive Committee hearing where they not only conspired to lie to everyone there in order to cover over their own lies, but their testimony clearly establishes their pitiful level of clinical competence, which honestly, was embarrassing to bear witness to.

As an added detriment, (as if all of this weren’t bad enough) countless medical students and especially resident physicians have also been unsuspecting victims of a department so deficient in proper medical education that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that in one graduating class, 3 out of the 5 residents failed the written Ob/Gyn board examination (designed for ease of passage for any resident with the most basic fund of knowledge) during my time on staff.  That is just one year I happened to hear about and can only image the overall track record for both the written as well as the oral examination administered two years post graduation.  Given what I have personally observed during my ten years on staff at Crouse Hospital, the main teaching institution for the Upstate Residency Program, I was so disturbed by what was unknowingly being foisted upon the unsuspecting residents, (because they had no clue how bad it was for them since they had no other experience from which to draw an opinion or knowledge), that I personally met with the Dean of the Medical School (who had authority over these matters) in addition to writing him a letter spelling out with great specificity the deficiencies that plagued the training program which had observable repercussions on their future performance as physicians.  Not only did he belittle the entire effort, (just like other examples of the contemptible culture in this medical community), tellingly, he was eventually ousted in shame for improprieties of his own.  

One reading this account might feel as though I am simply besmirching these men and institutions out of personal disgust or that I have my own axe to grind.  Or perhaps I am one of those “disruptive physicians” that is all too common the label for anyone who dares speak out against bad medicine and corruption.  The typical response is that I am “deluded” or “deceived” as to my own inadequacies as a physician and thus simply disgruntled because I just cannot accept the fact that my practice of medicine was subject to a State prosecution whereby I lost my medical license.  I think not..  In fact, (and OPMC fully knows this), during my ten years on staff at Crouse Hospital, I consistently posted the best overall performance profile of any physician in the department and I would dare say region and perhaps the entire State with a statistical rate of complication 30 – 40 times lower than the national average with only three complications in over 3,600 hospital cases.  For what it’s worth, RateMDs.com has me, as part of their own ranking system, listed as the top Ob/Gyn physician in the region out of 111 doctors.  The only document that I have ever been allowed to have (despite numerous requests for others being denied by Crouse Hospital) is the following QA Report from 2005 pertaining to Gyn performance in the department for that year.  For high volume physicians in the department, physician 1595 was at the top as far as what this document was illustrating for Gynecologic practice.  My Obstetrical record was just as outstanding.  Incidentally, my hospital physician identification number was 1595.  This was also the case for every year.  I am by no means a perfect doctor since we all are fallible.  Yet, my pursuit of excellence and precision is one that cannot be discounted, even with character assassination.  So, for anyone who thinks I don’t have a legitimate beef concerning what has occurred here, they can meditate on those facts for a while. 

So, yes, to be perfectly honest, I am disgruntled when one looks at the definition of the word as being “angry or dissatisfied”.  Not only did I have my career illegitimately stolen from me at the hands of crooked individuals who continue to operate to the detriment of a huge region within your State, Governor, but when I have repeatedly turned to those appointed at the State Government level to protect both my interest in the matter as well as the safety of patients, they have time after time failed to do the right thing and instead chose to “teach me a lesson” as to who holds the power over my medical license.  Led by the OPMC insider aiding and abetting this entire pretense, those who used your Office of Professional Medical Conduct as a dirty dish rag still remain unaffected while fleecing the State out of millions of dollars in profiteering at the expense of the entire Central region of New York State (more on this fact below).  While the parties who are most to be held accountable reside at Crouse Hospital, I have seen this very same sham peer review ruse perpetrated at St. Joseph’s Hospital as well, simply because they knew that they could get away with it and choose to do so.  It must be said that in no way is this disclosure an indictment of each of these hospitals as a whole as there are many, many fine physicians and staff that occupy the ranks therein.  Yet, to make reference to what we have all heard as an illustration of this sort of thing, how many rotten apples does it take before something is done to clean up the apple cart?  Because the entire thing stinks for so many patients who have been victimized already and they don’t even know it.

Here’s where things get a little interesting and where your administration has some decisions to make as to what you wish to be known as when it comes to dealing with outright corruption and criminal behavior within the ranks of your own Department of Health and one of your State hospitals.  Even though the primary location of the events described in this letter occurred within Crouse Hospital, those who committed these acts of malfeasance operate under the auspices of the State University of New York, namely Upstate Medical University, which is physically connected to Crouse.  Like mentioned above, after being homeless and penniless as a result of a multimillion dollar practice being destroyed by unfathomable dishonestly in the name of official State business, I was able to finally put the pieces back together and reopen my practice in June of 2012.  It wasn’t long before my new admitting hospital, (St. Joseph’s in Syracuse), decided that they too were party to the practice of sham peer review.  What they did in order to oust me from the hospital (after putting me through over a year of credentialing nonsense) was so heinous, that I simply couldn’t remain quiet any longer.  So, in March of 2013, I wrote what turned out to be a rather lengthy account of my entire experience in this morally bankrupt medical community – specifically pertaining to the Ob/Gyn leadership as well as the administrators at the two hospitals involved with my sham who formulated and then authorized the whole thing, respectively. 

This autobiographical account of what permeates this community as it was experienced by me was entitled, The Truth Test.  It was posted online at my practice website and soon had thousands of web hits from all over the world.  Two of the most noteworthy IP addresses noted to have found their way to that document were from the Department of Health in Albany.  In fact, between these two IP addresses, there were more than 600 page loads of The Truth Test where every single evidentiary and exculpatory document that was linked within the story was downloaded by whoever sat at the desks belonging to these highly specific online computer locations within the Department of Health, and I suspect OPMC in particular.  The combined printout of these page loads exceeds thirty pages and can be seen online for all to see. (IP Address 1 and IP Address 2)  The importance of the fact that the DOH engaged in this information gathering is this.  Contained within the story of The Truth Test was some serious revelatory information concerning the activities of those who orchestrated my demise.  Aside from what they did to me, (which you should be aware of by this point in this letter), and the fact that their incompetence is exceeded only by their ability to escape accountability pertaining to it, great detail was given as to how these men have, for decades, purposefully used unsuspecting women who are at risk for premature birth to make enormous profits for the institution at the expense of these women’s health and that of their soon to be premature babies.  Highly specific argument was offered as to how I could make such a claim.  To summarize what was written in that exposé, premature birth was the one area of clinical interest that I extensively studied throughout my career where I was essentially able to eliminate it from my practice for the six years prior to the whole thing unraveling at the hands of OPMC.  In other words, I know what I am writing about when I speak to premature birth and saw repeatedly how limited the effort was by this high risk Obstetrical division to substantially and properly treat these patients so that the more premature babies they could stuff into the NICU, the more money for the hospital.  It shouldn’t, therefore, be any surprise that this unit, (the NICU) is the most profitable in the entire hospital (Crouse).  Does this sort of practice sit well with you Governor?  It doesn’t with me nor should it for anyone living in this State not to mention those reading this who might believe that they were victims of such a scam.  Imagine alone how many millions of dollars of Medicaid has been lost to this sort of profiteering.  Fleecing the coffers of the various insurance companies by way of churning out premature babies through under-treatment is beyond the pale as far as anything resembling medical ethics and yet, it continues to this day. 

To add insult to an already disgusting story, it was an inconceivable occasion that I would eventually find out about an act of evil that perhaps trumps anything anyone could imagine as far as how this institution and department operate.  For those already familiar with The Truth Test, such as many patients who have personally expressed their revulsion as to what they read, as well as the Department of Health, who, if you remember from just above, loaded these pages more than 600 times, they all can also tell you that this one hospital, Crouse Hospital, decided that in order to escape the liability that they would have had to face because of a level of negligence that defies any sort of believability in a twin delivery case, it was simply better for them to murder the five day old baby A who was damaged as a result of their incompetence than to own up to their error and do the right thing, not to mention, allow that family to have enjoyed the life of their child instead of burying him on a lie.  Though that was one long sentence, punctuated so as not to be a run-on, I encourage you to read it again in order to fully grasp what it said.  Incidentally, I have the medical records for both mother and baby where there is no question as to what transpired as well as the sickening letter written to the family by the hospital purposely deceiving them into buying their bogus explanation of what happened to the mother’s care and subsequently, her baby.  If you are one, as Governor, to condone the fact that those operating under the auspices of the State University of New York would choose to murder a baby by way of an active euthanasia after weighing the statistical odds of what they (Crouse Hospital – a private institution) might have had to pay out to the tune of millions of dollars, then how can anyone who lives in this community or State, for that matter, feel safe under your leadership?  It would stand to reason that you are an honorable man and would certainly step up and do something about this once and for all, because your Department of Health has done nothing, despite knowing ALL about this for more than a year and a half.  By the way, for those reading this who don’t fully understand the reason for why this baby had to die, here’s how it works, or at least worked at that point in time.  In civil law, when malpractice is committed (in this case, within the specialty of Obstetrics), a damaged baby that survives is worth millions due to long term care and the suffering of the child, as opposed to a dead one, who (according to the law) hasn’t shown any legitimate future earning potential.  Thus, there is little value to this life and therefore, highly beneficial for those who screw up to have this mishap end up in death to the baby.  If the baby sadly happens to die from its injuries, then those involved can “breath a sigh of relief” having, in their own minds, dodged a multimillion dollar bullet.  So when, (as in this case), such a baby is showing signs that he/she is going to make it, yet carry a significant possibility that it will endure a lifetime of struggle from its injuries, to at least those at Crouse Hospital, they were going to take matters into their own hands.  You and all others can read the detailed account here as specific excerpts of The Truth Test are once again made available.

So what’s the bottom line to this entire letter?  Well, having been made aware of these facts and with the public and other agencies now privy as well, as Governor, is it finally time for you to take action and deal with this tainted and dishonored element within the DOH and specifically, OPMC?  Is there ever going to be a fair and equitable system of peer review and physician oversight that medical professionals can rely on to do the right thing while not having to live in fear of reprisal for either speaking up about quality or corruption or even making a mistake?  The State of Michigan Supreme Court saw fit to do something about this scourge by ratifying a measure of their own in 2006.  At least it was a start for them to address this same nonsense that is really going on nationwide.  Are you going to be known as the Governor who set an equal or better precedent in New York for all other States to look up to?  Will there finally be sweeping changes at OPMC such as those proposed by the Reform Bill referenced above?  What am I really asking of you here?  This is a righteous request with not one downside but that of proper jurisprudence when it comes to the oversight of medical licenses for New York physicians as a result of what shamefully happened to this one physician who writes you now. 

If I am not mistaken, one of your platforms for election and beyond was that you vowed to rid your State government of corruption.  If this is not corruption after examining all that has been contained in this letter, then please tell all of us citizens of New York what is corruption and abuse of power in your eyes?  And please tell us how we should feel as far as OPMC failing to fulfill their mission of protecting the public from bad doctors and bad medicine when all they have truly become is a giant bully with deep pockets so as to pound any doctor into the ground if they so much as question or challenge them.  Last I knew this was still the United States, although that too is fast becoming unrecognizable.  I want to believe that you will do the right thing for all the right reasons or how else can we have confidence in even your administration?  The purpose of this letter was not to draw any undue attention to myself but to challenge you as the leader of this State to do just that.  All I ever wanted to do is be an awesome doctor for my patients and my official record speaks clearly to that.  Something I have always been grateful for.  All I have ever wanted to do from the start of this assault was to get back to work for those patients who have stood by my side, and for my five children who have had to live their entire lives under the cloud of this disgrace to justice.  

When OPMC decided to attack my career, they unfortunately chose the wrong physician given the body of work I have put up in spite of what they felt they could do to that record and to me on paper, just because they could.  If anyone were to truthfully look into any of what I have written here or in the past, they would see that there is not one false claim.  Not one.  But don’t take my word for it.  Find someone honest within the DOH to tell you.  They know.  They have all the records and information about me, the cases they used against me where the actual patients testified on my behalf – shocked that their case was being used against their own doctor, my hospital performance records, you name it.  It all adds up to precisely what I have described here and where I have more than demonstrated an open willingness to speak to it without hiding behind an official agency’s letterhead.  But in typical fashion, the immediate response to all of this will be a desire to ignore that loudmouth doctor from Syracuse who, again, just cannot accept his own reality about the kind of doctor he was such that he had to be taken out of circulation.  To that I say, I stand ready and willing to take on any critic or any expert with the actual records and written standards of care and nothing else as my weapon.  But if you don’t believe me, then ask the DOH yourself because in summary:

• I don’t have to be the one to tell you that my entire prosecution, loss of my medical license and thus thousands of patients losing their doctor was a fraud, OPMC can tell you that. 

• I don’t have to tell you that my performance as a physician was one of the best in the entire State given the cold hard facts and statistics, because OPMC can tell you that.  They know this and chose to ignore it altogether as they prosecuted lie after lie.   

• I don’t have to tell you that were your administration to take me up on my challenge of facing off against OPMC in an open and honest public forum that the facts would speak clearly that I have been defrauded and that my record should be cleared and all negative reporting expunged at both the State and National levels, because OPMC can tell you that. 

• I don’t have to tell you that the leaders of the Department of Ob/Gyn at Upstate Medical University have inflicted badness on this community for decades while enjoying enormous salaries as women, babies, residents and medical students have been harmed as a result, because OPMC along with their insider aiding and abetting these miscreants in charge can tell you that.   

• I don’t have to specifically tell you that these same criminals running the Ob/Gyn Department at Upstate have decided that making money at the expense of under treating patients at risk of early delivery so as to capitalize on the enormous revenue generating potential of premature babies, because OPMC can tell you that.  600 page loads, remember?
  

• I don’t have to tell you that certain individuals at Crouse Hospital, the same immoral group of administrators in charge of the baseless actions against me, chose to literally murder a baby in order to avoid the accountability they ought to have faced because of the indescribable incompetence rampant in the Department of Ob/Gyn that is run by the very individuals I have spoken of here because OPMC can tell you that.  They read it plenty of times during their six hundred page loads.  What does it say about this agency that nothing has been done?

• I don’t have to tell you that the present Department Chairman of Ob/Gyn at Upstate (elevated to this position within the past two years, as expected) is said to be the one who has the inside connection at the DOH (a relative of some sort) who has been the one to rig my entire demise from within over and against a performance record that should have exculpated me instead of purposely being left out of any part of their investigation, because OPMC can tell you that. 

• I don’t have to tell you that sham peer review is alive and well still in Syracuse, the most recent personal example and experience being at St. Joseph’s Hospital during the Fall and Winter of 2012-2013 because OPMC can tell you that as well.

I could list dozens more facts that should cause anyone to highly question the integrity by which the Department of Health operates, and in particular their Office of Professional Medical Conduct, but every physician in this State as well as OPMC themselves, can tell you that.  Just look at the latest round of prosecution I had imposed upon my life this past year where I had no choice but to plead no contest and sadly surrender my license (after all these years of rightfully defending it) because of what was ruthlessly being inflicted this time around (more detail on this in the letter referenced above to HHS OIG).  When asked as to why they were doing this to me once again with unjustifiable means, the most recent prosecuting attorney (who honestly seemed like an honorable guy) simply stated, “I am just following my marching orders.”  Marching orders?  From who?  Precisely what I already knew. 

This problem is begging to be solved and unless it is, every woman and baby unduly harmed moving forward by the continuation of these individuals being in charge of a huge region of Obstetrical care under their control will also be part of your legacy as well.  In January of 2014, I met with the President of Upstate Medical University to discuss these very issues.  This is a man who served as President of this Institution when I went to medical school here.  [My own alma mater did this to me, go figure.]  He had to return to the post because his predecessor, Dr. David Smith, (who I also sat down with personally only to do nothing) was ousted due to corruption of his own.  It seems that this town is replete with a culture of individuals who operate in darkness and enjoy, for a time, the relative ease by which they can get away with it.  Just look at a couple other men from the same generation of so-called professionals.  One being the crook who sold me a practice for $700K and then stole it back after he got his final payment.  Or the latest revelation of another Ob/Gyn physician who is presently up on murder charges regarding his wife.  They are all contemporaries of one another.  What this town needs is a good house cleaning of both the riffraff that runs the Ob/Gyn world and the hospital administrators who enable their depravity.  As opposed to what these men felt was necessary to do to me in order to eliminate what they must have perceived as a threat to their continued reign of terror, I do not wish for their lives to be destroyed, nor do I wish for them to get in trouble.  However, I do wish for them to get lost.  This town deserves much better.  The public and patients deserve much better.  And it all starts with you Governor.  Do the right thing once and for all.  You won’t be disappointed nor will the patients be either, who also happen to be your constituents.  It might seem a little painful to some at first, but removing a cancer like this is the first step towards a long term cure.  Be the one to do this because a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, that has all the makings for greatness but has been a disgraceful cesspool of bad medicine, bad education and bad morals can once again achieve distinction and honor should you have the vision to take the necessary steps.  I and millions of others are counting on you.  Many thanks for your time and attention.

Most Sincerely,

James R. Caputo, M.D.