SVMH, ex-doctor to pay big for a patient who was groped while sedated.

In October 2016, Regina Linares, an administrative secretary at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, began experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath, stemming from a hereditary heart condition. She was admitted to the hospital through the emergency room and underwent a procedure in the cath lab.

She was given anesthesia drugs – fentanyl, an opioid painkiller and Versed, a sedative that lessens anxiety and also causes the temporary loss of ability to make new memories. After the procedure, she was sent home.

About a month later, Lea Woodrow, SVMH’s senior administrative director of risk management, called to ask her what she remembered from the procedure – and to tell her that staff present in the cath lab filed a report stating they witnessed the cardiologist, Robert Wlodarczyk, place his hands on her breasts during the procedure.

It wasn’t a necessary part of the care he was providing her; he just reached out and helped himself to a part of her body.

And as a result, Wlodacrzyk – who was criminally charged, pleaded no contest to a count of committing a lewd act in public and surrendered his medical license – and the hospital’s insurance company will be writing Linares a rather sizable check.

A sizable check because, it turns out, it wasn’t the first complaint that had been lodged against the 75-year-old physician, and SVMH knew it, although Linares’ attorney says the hospital tried to keep it hidden.

“There were prior reports from employees of the hospital of alleged inappropriate conduct by this doctor,” says Dave Spini, who represented Linares in her civil lawsuit, filed in 2017 in Monterey County Superior Court, against Wlodarczyk, the hospital and several hospital board members and administrators. “We initially requested from the hospital those kinds of documents and we were told they didn’t exist.”

In the court record, the hospital ascribes its inability to find those records to an “administrative error.” But when the District Attorney subpoenaed the same records during the criminal prosecution, “suddenly they were found,” Spini says.

The existence of those records and whether Linares could use them as evidence in her suit had been the subject of an intense battle, one that became more intense in the past month as both sides prepared for a trial that was scheduled to begin Feb. 24.

In all, court records state, there were three prior complaints made to the hospital by employees about Wlodarczyk’s behavior, one in 2008 and two in 2012. A fourth complaint was made by the daughter of a patient who “complained she perceived Dr. Wlodarczyk was more interested in speaking to her than treating her mother.”

Wlodarczyk’s attorney referred to it as “me too” evidence that shouldn’t be allowed because it was character evidence being offered to prove his conduct on a specific occasion. SVMH also argued that all evidence of the four prior complaints should be excluded.

But last week, on Feb. 20, Judge Marla Anderson ruled that those four prior reports would be admitted. And on Feb. 22, two days before the trial was to begin, Wlodarczyk agreed to pay Linares $1,050,000 and the hospital’s insurance company to pay her $850,000 to settle the suit.

That million-plus will be coming straight from the former doctor’s pocket. “It’s always easier to resolve with insurance companies,” Spini says, “but getting personal funds out of a defendant is much more difficult. Once it became clear these past allegations were going to be part of a trial, the doctor wanted to minimize a very bad potential outcome and he came up with more money.”

Linares, Spini says, “is really relieved. The doctor won’t be in a position to do this anymore, and there will be some financial security for her. She’s had a hard time since this happened.”

SVMH issued a statement that reads, “As an organization nationally recognized for quality care and patient safety, we prioritize creating a safe environment for patients and staff. We have worked diligently to resolve this issue and take our responsibility to the community very seriously.”

Wlodarcyk’s attorney, Michael Garvin, did not respond to a request for comment.

MARY DUAN writes Local Spin for the Monterey County Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/maryrduan