A retired OB/GYN in southern California could face disciplinary action from the state medical board over a patient who died after he performed vaginal repair surgery on her at an unaccredited surgery center.

The California Medical Board filed a formal accusation in December 2009 and an amended accusation last month against Lawrence H. Hansen, MD, accusing the Cypress, Ca.-based physician of gross negligence, incompetence, performing surgery in an unaccredited facility and failing to report a patent's death, among other charges.

The accusations stem from a posterior colporrhapy with perineal repair Dr. Hansen performed on a woman on March 13, 2008, at Hills Surgical Institute in Anaheim Hills, which was not accredited at the time of the surgery (it reportedly received Joint Commission accreditation in August 2008). In 1996, California became the first state to mandate accreditation for all outpatient facilities that administer sedation or general anesthesia.

According to the state medical board, Dr. Hansen's patient began bleeding during the procedure, a fact not recorded in the doctor's post-op dictation, and lost about 250 ml of blood. After the colporrhapy, she underwent liposuction performed by a different physician; Dr. Hansen left the facility while the patient (called "M.G." in state documents) was still under general anesthesia.

When the liposuction procedure was complete, the patient became hypotensive and went into cardiovascular arrest, documents say. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and died approximately 1 hour later. According to the autopsy, she died of intra-abdominal hemorrhage.

Dr. Hansen told authorities in an April 3, 2009, deposition that he'd retired from active OB/GYN practice in July 2003, and that at the time of the March 2008 surgery, it had been 5 years since he'd last performed a colporrhapy with perineal repair.

The medical board accuses Dr. Hansen of gross negligence because he first met the patient 15 to 30 minutes before the procedure and failed to take a thorough history and obtain her informed consent before performing the surgery. It further accuses him of incompetence in failing to determine whether the surgical facility was accredited; leaving the facility without ensuring the patient's status was being monitored by another physician; failing to go to the hospital to evaluate the patient when informed of her complications; and failing to report her death to the medical board within 15 days as required by law.

A hearing on the matter has been set for Sept. 27-29, according to the medical board. Dr. Hansen could not be reached by phone.

Irene Tsikitas

More breaking news