A Miami doctor inserted a filter on a major vein — on the wrong patient, the state says
A Florida Department of Health administrative complaint has been filed against a Miami doctor after, the complaint says, he did a surgical procedure on the largest vein in a patient’s body.
But, the complaint says, Dr. Jose A. Rodriguez cut open the wrong patient.
The administrative complaint, filed Jan. 22, asks the Board of Medicine to penalize Rodriguez in any way the Board sees fit. Records say Rodriguez, 50, has a clean previous disciplinary record on a license first issued in December 2006.
The Miami Herald emailed Rodriguez for comment at the address listed with his license and left a phone message after calling several numbers for him. He had not responded as of Thursday afternoon.
Something lost in text messages
The administrative complaint says after a New Year’s Day 2019 car crash, an 81-year-old man with the initials “V.W.” was brought to Aventura Hospital and Medical Center and put in intensive care unit room No. 430N.
On Jan. 5, 2019, the trauma medical director texted Rodriguez, the on-call interventional radiologist, and asked that the patient in Room 430N receive an inferior vena cava filter.
The inferior vena cava or IVC, as described by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, “is the largest vein in your body. It carries blood from your lower body to your heart and lungs.”
And, “an IVC filter is a small device that is placed in your inferior vena cava to prevent blood clots from moving through your blood into your lungs.”
Johns Hopkins Medicine says the incision for access to the vein is usually gained through a small cut in the groin or neck. Sloan Kettering says the procedure takes about 30 minutes, but the patient should expect to be in the room for about an hour.
Rodriguez asked for the patient’s name, the complaint says, “and was told a surname beginning with the letter “B.”
But, the complaint says, it was patient “V.W.” who was taken to the catheter lab, where Rodriguez inserted the filter.
“The IVC filter was intended for Patient C.B.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 1:29 PM with the headline "A Miami doctor inserted a filter on a major vein — on the wrong patient, the state says."
