A Massachusetts surgeon who has performed more than 6,000 bariatric surgeries during a 30-year career is at the center of a swirling multi-faceted controversy, his license suspended by the state Board of Registration despite support from prominent Harvard physicians and others, the Boston Globe reports.

The state board has declared that Sheldon Randall, MD, is an "immediate and serious threat" to the public, asserting that he failed to recognize and treat post-surgery complications quickly enough in 4 patients, 2 of whom died. Dr. Randall denies the allegations and has appealed his suspension. His supporters point out that the complications the 4 suffered are known bariatric-surgery risks, with one saying he has "taken on some of the more challenging people and saved a lot of lives."

Dr. Randall's lawyer tells the Globe that neither he nor Dr. Randall, who has also been sued for malpractice at least 8 times in the last 13 years, would comment on the allegations. But in a motion opposing his suspension, Dr. Randall claims that one of the experts who reviewed his cases for the board might be a competitor with "a direct financial interest'' in trying to discredit him.

A backdrop to the debate over Dr. Randall's competency is what the Globe calls a defect in the state's health care system: the fact that after a 17-month investigation began last March and Dr. Randall was suspended by 2 hospitals — Hallmark Health System and Winchester Hospital — he continued to practice at a third, MetroWest Medical Center, until August of this year. Hospitals, the Globe says, don't routinely tell each other about disciplinary actions against doctors. MetroWest would not say whether it knew the others had suspended him.

During the 17-month investigation, Dr. Randall was negligent in his care for 2 additional patients, according to the state board.

The board also found fault with the fact that Dr. Randall continued to perform open gastric bypass surgery even as the field moved toward laparoscopic approaches, saying open surgery is associated with higher rates of infection and other complications.

Jim Burger