A Colorado man died during routine cataract surgery after his medical team allegedly silenced critical alarms while playing music bingo, according to a lawsuit filed by his widow.
In February 2023, 56-year-old Bart Reiter underwent cataract surgery at InSight Surgery Center in Lone Tree, Colorado. His wife, Chris, was told she could run an errand and would be contacted when the procedure was finished, Local 12 reported. However, when Dr. Carl Stark Johnson, Reiter’s surgeon, met her in a parking lot near the hospital, he asked Chris if she believed in God and invited her to pray with him before telling her that her husband of 23 years had died.
“It just didn’t make sense. Bart was 56. I mean, we skied every weekend. We bike together, we hike together,” Writer said, according to Atlanta News First.
Staff noticed Reiter’s vital signs were abnormal 11 minutes into the procedure. He was rushed to a nearby medical center, where he later died.
Although she initially believed her husband’s death was a tragic accident, Chris filed a lawsuit after another physician contacted her to raise concerns about her husband’s medical team. That doctor disclosed Dr. Johnson and anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Urban often played a game called “music bingo” during operations, a practice he described as a “major distraction.” The game involved Dr. Urban playing songs from his phone while the team guessed the tunes.
According to depositions obtained by 9News, both doctors were playing the game during Reiter’s procedure. Further testimony revealed Dr. Urban had turned off a monitoring machine that would have alerted staff to Reiter’s deteriorating condition without informing Dr. Johnson.
“Dr. Johnson relies on the anesthesiologist to provide the proper dose and type of anesthesia, to properly monitor the patient’s condition, and to communicate all relevant information to the surgeon including if they have elected, for whatever reason, to silence the audible alarms,” the surgeon’s attorney stated, according to 9News.
Dr. Johnson stood by his practices and blamed the anesthesiologist for not “paying attention to the vital signs and doing his job.” Nonetheless, he and his legal team ultimately settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
Originally published on Latin Times
