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The columnist, a Los Angeles freelancer, is a former Detroit News business reporter who blogs at Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
CEO Adam Spiegel Adam Spiegel, CEO of the controversial outsourcing firm linked to the recent colonoscopy patient death at Beaumont Royal Oak, is fast learning that payback’s a bitch – especially when dished out by the hospital’s tough-as-nails nurse anesthetists. Spiegel last summer thought he hit pay dirt when his low-cost NorthStar outfit landed a contract to handle all the anesthesia procedures at Beaumont Health’s flagship Royal Oak hospital, as well as its facilities in Troy and Grosse Pointe, beginning January 1. Beaumont Royal Oak is one of the busiest hospitals in the country, performing well over 200 surgeries a day.
Share February 04, 2021, 4:55 PM
This is reposted with the writer s permission from her blog on medical topics. She s a diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and a past president of the California Society of Anesthesiologists.
By Dr. Karen S. Sibert Every death related to anesthesia is a tragedy, especially when a minor procedure such as a colonoscopy leads to a completely unexpected death. Everyone knows that open heart surgery carries a mortality risk, but few of us walk into the hospital for a colonoscopy thinking that death is a plausible outcome. We know so few facts at this point about what happened Jan. 21 at Beaumont Royal Oak Hospital. The patient who died, 51-year-old Richard Curbelo, walked into the hospital for a routine colonoscopy.
The Red Wings honored him at a recent home game.
The columnist, a Los Angeles freelancer, is a former Detroit News business reporter who blogs at Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman The passing of Richard Curbelo, who died two weeks ago undergoing a routine colonoscopy at Beaumont Health’s flagship Royal Oak hospital, reaffirmed a belief I know anecdotally to be true: Very bad things disproportionally happen to really good people. When I first got word of the horrific tragedy – colonoscopies are statistically very safe procedures that can prevent colon cancer – my immediate instinct was, “I’ll bet the victim turns out to be a selfless individual with a loving spouse, took care of an ailing parent, and who friends and colleagues insist was among the nicest people they’d ever met.
Share January 27, 2021, 10:10 PM
The columnist, a Los Angeles freelancer, is a former Detroit News business reporter who blogs at Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Richard Curbelo and fiancée Connie Strong To the visiting NorthStar Anesthesia staff attending to Richard Curbelo last Thursday, he was just another patient, one of about eight to 10 they’d sedate that day working in Beaumont Royal Oak’s ground-floor endoscopy suite. To Connie Strong, a mental health professional living across the border in Windsor, Curbelo was the “kind, loving, and compassionate” man she planned to marry next month in the Southfield home Curbelo shared with his 79-year-old mother, who has dementia.
Share January 27, 2021, 10:10 PM
The columnist, a Los Angeles freelancer, is a former Detroit News business reporter who blogs at Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Richard Curbelo and fiancée Connie Strong To the visiting NorthStar Anesthesia staff attending to Richard Curbelo last Thursday, he was just another patient, one of about eight to 10 they’d sedate that day working in Beaumont Royal Oak’s ground-floor endoscopy suite. To Connie Strong, a mental health professional living across the border in Windsor, Curbelo was the “kind, loving, and compassionate” man she planned to marry next month in the Southfield home Curbelo shared with his 79-year-old mother, who has dementia.