Medical examiner says he was fired for speaking out
In letters to Romney, doc said state office negligent in elderly,
disease-related deaths

By Christine Walsh
Published: 6/15/2004

BOSTON - Dr. Abraham Philip says he spent several months trying to
work for change within the state medical examiner's office.

Not noticing any improvement, he decided to go public with
allegations of the office's shortcomings: failure to conduct
toxicology studies of elderly bodies with high levels of morphine;
not screening for drugs during autopsies; and moving slowly to
examine cases of disease-related deaths.

Philip, 52, of Beverly, expressed his concerns in letters he wrote to
Gov. Mitt Romney on March 1 and 2. On March 4, he was fired from his
job as a medical examiner.

The Bangalore native has filed two lawsuits against the medical
examiner's office, claiming that speaking out against possible
violations of the law cost him his job. One suit was filed in U.S.
District Court against the man who fired Philip, the office's chief
administrator, John Cronin. The suit alleges that Cronin violated
Philip's right to free speech.

The other is in Suffolk Superior Court, under the state whistleblower
act, which protects employees against retaliation for reporting
wrongdoings to the government. It names the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Richard Evans and Executive
Office of Public Safety Director Edward Flynn. (The medical
examiner's office is part of the office of public safety.)

The office of public safety did not respond to a request for comment.

Philip's attorneys, Dan Sharp and Elaine Whitfield Sharp of
Marblehead, said the case is one of "retaliation against Dr. Philip
for his speech on an issue of public concern.

Dan Sharp said the lawsuits aim to win compensation for Philip -
including reinstatement to his job with back pay - and to force the
Romney administration to clean up what he calls a "disgraceful"
medical examiner's office.

Sharp would not specify how much money the lawsuits seek, but did say
that Philip has lost $42,000 in salary.

Philip spent two-and-a-half of the past three years working in the
medical examiner's office. He returned to Massachusetts in September
after a six-month stint in the New York medical examiner's office.

Whitfield Sharp told INDIA New England that Philip has a "tremendous
amount of support" within the Massachusetts medical examiner's office.

"He has very strong ethics," she said. "He comes from a culture where
one is not expected to sit back and stay with the status quo."

Among the incidents Philip shared with the governor was the case of a
19-year-old car accident victim whose organs were removed before he
was completely brain dead, according to Philip.

"This young man was severely injured and he may not have lived,"
Philip said. "But he was not yet brain dead, and it was too early to
say that he was in a permanent vegetative state."

Philip said that after he refused to give permission for the man's
organs to be removed, an organ-donation group went over his head and
got approval from Evans.

Philip said the medical examiner's office is putting the public at
risk in a couple of ways. By being slow to examine deaths caused by
diseases like hepatitis, severe acute respiratory syndrome and West
Nile virus, the office is not protecting the public from infection,
he said.

"If someone dies from hepatitis and we don't know about it for a
month or more, how many other people might be infected before we
alert the public to take protective measures?" Philip said.

As for nursing home and hospital patients, particularly the elderly,
the lack of toxicology studies on bodies means that people are not
being protected from possible wrongdoing or medical errors at those
facilities, he said.

Both lawsuits say Philip pointed out these failings to Cronin, along
with other ways the office may have violated state regulations or
created dangers to public health and safety. He made numerous
suggestions to Cronin between December and March for improving the
office's operations, the lawsuits say.

Other alleged violations of state regulations include a failure to
conduct adequate toxicology studies on bodies for illicit drugs like
Ecstasy, PCP, Fentanyl and Ketamine, or for the abuse of prescription
drugs, according to the lawsuits.

Philip also charges that the office did not equip its employees with
adequate protective equipment, such as blood-proof aprons that would
limit exposure to infectious diseases.

Cronin did not address any of Philip's concerns, according to the
lawsuits, and the men's relationship deteriorated over time.

On Feb. 13, Philip was performing an autopsy on the body of a female
rape and homicide victim when a funeral-home representative came to
the medical examiner's office for a signature on a death certificate.

According to the suits, Cronin sent an employee to get Philip's
signature. Philip said the death certificate would have to wait about
an hour, until the autopsy was done, the lawsuits say. A short time
later, the employee's supervisor came with Cronin's demand that the
certificate be signed immediately. Philip did so, and blood wound up
on the certificate, the lawsuits say.

Cronin gave Philip a one-day suspension for the bloodstain, the
lawsuits say. Two weeks later, Philip wrote his first letter to
Romney.

When Cronin wrote a letter to end Philip's employment, he referred to
Philip's communications with the governor as a reason for the firing,
the lawsuits say.

The lawsuits say the defendants have caused Philip to lose income and
suffer "humiliation, anxiety, sleeplessness, physical discomfort and
extreme emotional distress."

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