A Tucson orthopedic surgeon with a long history of surgical and medical errors has stopped performing surgery and has been placed on probation by state medical authorities.
Dr. Roy R. Gettel, who operated on local patients for nearly 25 years, was disciplined last month for botched surgery on a woman's fractured ankle that left her disabled and in pain, according to records from the Arizona Medical Board.
That was the sixth time in five years that the board has warned or disciplined Gettel for mistakes, most involving board findings of poor patient care.
Gettel called the board's latest action against him unfair and said he plans to challenge the discipline next month with testimony from orthopedic experts saying he did nothing wrong in a difficult case.
Gettel stopped performing orthopedic surgeries two years ago for personal reasons, he said. However, he maintains an active nonsurgical orthopedic practice and has not ruled out a return to surgery.
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Gettel's problems with the medical board date to 1990, when the agency charged with disciplining Arizona's doctors first warned him of what it called an "inadequate" repair of a fracture.
Similar warnings were issued throughout the 1990s and into this decade, citing technical surgical errors and inadequate fracture repairs among the mistakes. Less than two years ago, Gettel was formally censured by the board for negligent care that resulted in the amputation of a 47-year-old man's leg. A censure is an official rebuke for unprofessional conduct.
In this latest case, the board not only censured Gettel for his failed ankle surgery on a 45-year-old woman but also put him on probation for five years, forbidding him to perform this common type of surgery.
"It is necessary for this decision to take place immediately to protect the public health and safety," the board's Dec. 12 order states.
Gettel's troubled history with the medical board, as well as a string of medical malpractice lawsuits filed against him, were aggravating factors leading to this action, the medical board's executive director said.
"When you see some type of action against a doctor six times in five years, that's a short time frame — that's a red flag, definitely," Timothy C. Miller said.
The Tucson woman involved in the case leading to the current censure, Blanca Rosete, crushed her ankle when she fell off a stool in her home in 2001. At then-Kino Community Hospital's emergency room, she was evaluated by Gettel, who then operated on her ankle.
Gettel pinned the bones improperly, leaving them misaligned, according to medical board records and documents filed in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Gettel.
Gettel also mismanaged Rosete's postoperative care by allowing her to bear weight on the fracture, resulting in a permanently misaligned ankle and post-traumatic arthritis, according to medical board records.
"She has lost full range of motion, flexibility, and is in constant pain," said Barry Davis, Rosete's attorney in the malpractice lawsuit.
Rosete declined to comment on her experience with Gettel.
Davis said the doctor "is a really smart guy with excellent academic credentials. You just have to scratch your head and wonder when you see some of the errors he's made."
Gettel said Rosete's injury involved "poor feminine older bone," which made a solution difficult.
"There's really no way to address that, and the patient did not accept the alignment procedure I wanted to do," he said. "I think we could have fixed it, but she said no."
He said he plans to take a course in ankle surgery next month and will recruit "four or five" top surgeons then to substantiate his version of the case.
"I'm going to counter what the board did. I think it was unfair, and it's damaging to my record," Gettel said.
He said he stopped performing surgery two years ago for personal and physical reasons, and not because of the board's action against him. He now practices office-based orthopedic medicine.
"I treat patients nonsurgical-ly," he said. "If they need surgery, I refer them out to another doctor."
After saying he might return to performing orthopedic surgery, Gettel added, "But I'm very happy doing what I'm doing, so I probably won't."
25
Nearly the number of years Dr. Roy R. Gettel, has operated on local patients.
2
years ago, he was censured for negligent care that resulted in the amputation of a 47-year-old man's leg.
