Imminent Danger
In 2016, Amy Lam was at an exciting time in her life. She’d recently graduated from Columbia journalism school and was expecting her second child. But what was supposed to be a joyful moment took a terrible turn when she was brought to Harlem Hospital shortly after giving birth at home. Medical records would later say she bled to death under the care of several physicians.
One of those doctors was Dr. Thomas Byrne, an OB/GYN with an alarming past that spans more than three decades. In 1990, New York health officials had declared him to be an “imminent danger” to the public and revoked his medical license. So why was he still allowed to practice in multiple states?
This multiplatform audio and digital series takes an in-depth look at Byrne’s long and troubling career and exposes systemic failings in health care that allow doctors with questionable track records to hop from state to state, and to even regain a license to practice after it had been taken away. Karen Shakerdge’s reporting reveals how the safeguards that are supposed to protect the public are broken, and how state medical boards, hospitals and a federal database of information on doctors known as the National Practitioner Data Bank can often fail patients.
Listen to the podcast episodes and read the accompanying articles below.
