Complaint Review: Mayo Clinic Department of General Internal Medicine - Rochester Minnesota

Dr. Bundrick publishes Clinical Pearls in Internal Medicine Series in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and runs this segment of the American College of Physicians Meetings.  Yet he looks the other way for the Mayo Clinic General Surgery service misdiagnosing, mistreating and causing deformities of the abdominal wall especially in women patients. 

Hundreds of cases of this - which he never discusses.  The stats are in the Mayo Clinic surgical files under 'neuroma.'  The abdominal nerves are removed and sent to Pathology - and never get to the General Internal Medicine Service for injection or reassurance - they are cut up.  Dr. Bundrick has been told of cases - and never reviews them for Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  The patients undergo unnecessary NEURECTOMIES - without any medical pre-treatment, labs or workup.  Usually these neurectomies have to be treated on Medicine - at least at every other hospital, clinic, and office outside of Mayo Clinic.  The Surgery Services at Mayo Clinic do not do Carnett's test - they find an open spot in tomorrow's surgical cases - an empty OR. 

The Legal Department covers it all up.  Surgeons at Mayo Clinic are allowed to do procedures on women patients without consent or discussion - there's no patient consent involved in these neurectomies.  Dr. Bundrick knows this - has been given patient files to check - and says nothing.  

This has been going on for at least 15-20 years - even though the correct treatment has been known in the Surgical literature since 1926.  Dr. Michael Sarr has a whole list of 'neurectomy' procedures - he can do anything you want to abdominal wall nerves - and Dr. Bundrick knows this. Dr. Bundrick knows women professionals that this has been done to - he has their charts but won't publish the cases in Mayo Clinic Proceedings - he needs to publish a case wrongly surgerized - and the Legal battles that ensue where Dr. Sarr tries to sue the women for defamation of character.  There are at least 10 superficial abdominal nerves accessible to the General Surgeon -- some of them get into trouble with the laparoscopy hernia repairs, others get removed by the General Surgery Service for chronic abdominal wall pain.  Dr. Bundrick has done NOTHING to stop this. 

Women patients coming to Mayo Clinic are quickly sent to surgery where all abdominal muscles are 'cut,' and the normal nerves removed - Jill Beed-Smith in Legal covers this up.  Dr. Sarr can't 'feel' a swollen nerve in a nerve foramen and inject directly before he removes the nerve - he feels the cash.  The patients are put under anesthesia that they don't consent to - have no anesthesia consult for.  Physician parents call upset and are lied to.

The women patients, don't consent, the procedure is never discussed - it's called a 'neuroma.'  Check Dr. Sarr's surgical records & cases over the last 15 years - probably hundreds of patients (female>male) have been 'butchered' this way.  No one reads the Clinical Pearls in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings except the patients who come home butchered - not the Mayo Clinic physicians.  These cases are never injected, Carnett's maneuver is never done or on the chart, and no one cares - it's all for the money.  Examine some of those abdominal walls - even after multiple plastic surgeries they are painful.

Women patients have asked for repair of this - and written to Dr. Bundrick - and nothing has been done.  The muscles need to be repaired in layers, and Mayo Clinic needs to compensate monetarily for all normal nerves removed.  And the charts say 'normal' nerves on the Pathology Reports.  Someone needs to ask Dr. Bundrick about this at the American College of Physician Meetings.

Dr. Michael Sarr, Dr. Andrew Oldenburg - all the surgeons at Mayo Clinic facilities in AZ, FL and MN - are doing this for chronic abdominal wall pain or adding it to vascular & other procedures.  It's a con - and all the vascular surgeons defend Dr. Sarr's butcher jobs on women patients - for the interns & students to learn from.  Dr. Sarr brings in 3-month interns and black medical students who can't sew, cut or hold instruments - it's a brutal procedure that even the Anesthesiology Service then can't charge for - but Dr. Sarr charges for this.  In other words, after these procedures, everyone gets a conscience except Dr. Michael Sarr - he still bills even though the other surgeons tell him not to.  Surgeons outside of Mayo Clinic have taken him to task, but no one internally at Mayo Clinic. 

Yet Dr. Bundrick publishes about the one case: This case is classic for chronic abdominal wall pain, an entity first described by the British surgeon J. B. Carnett in 1926. He described the maneuver whereby the tender spot is located and then patients are asked to raise either their legs or torso (thus tensing the abdominal muscles). If the pain does not decrease (and especially if it increases) during the maneuver, then it is very unlikely to be from a visceral source and may reliably be localized to the abdominal wall muscles. False-positive Carnett maneuvers occur infrequently (<5% or so), almost always in the setting of acute appendicitis (due to irritation of the adjacent parietal peritoneum). Chronic abdominal wall pain is typically described by the patient as being constant in nature and may worsen slightly after eating (abdominal distention) or more commonly after a bowel movement (from straining of the abdominal muscles). Obesity and depression are common comorbid conditions, as are fibromyalgia and other painful conditions.

However, NO ONE gets past the surgeons to the General Medical Service for this - except the 'token' patient in the case study.  The Plastics Service refers these cases to Dr. Michael Sarr - not Medicine - and they are 'surgerized' - the nerves are removed and can't ever be injected.  Yet Dr. Bundrick advises:  With a conservative approach, about 50% of patients will improve over several months of follow-up. Trigger point injections provide relief in about two-thirds of patients. In all cases, the diagnosis helps to provide reassurance, while avoiding unnecessary expense, testing, and confusion.

There's no reassurance by Dr. Michael Sarr - his students & residents - they cut creating all kinds of unnecessary expenses, testing, confusion and chronic pain.  The pain is worse after the neurectomy - which causes skin atrophy.  The cut muscles go into spasms, and rip apart with the common mass closure.  Dr. Bundrick never sees these cases, even after the neurectomy - even if the patients write to him. 

Dr. Bundrick has been in a unique position to stop the unnecessary surgeries, and to orchestrate repair procedures for those women unnecessarily traumatically surgerized -  yet he has done nothing except promote himself.  There's no reassurance after the fact, when you read Dr. Bundrick's article and then send it to Jill Beed-Smith in Legal at Mayo Clinic Rochester - she hangs up on you and 'doctors' the case in the computer - so you can't recognize what happened.  Stupid secretaries, and assistants, are left defending that the 'case is closed.' 

Dr. Sarr will cut every abdominal muscle, and cut out the nerve that Dr. Bundrick advises to inject with 2% lidocaine, and will close with a common mass closure deformity.  Dr. Sarr then creates a neuroma - a cut nerve that proliferates and enlarges causing pain.  Common mass closures all rupture after 3-5 years, and then the patient has to come back for mesh - which many women are allergic to.  It's a take, a hoax, and Dr. Bundrick is in on this as all Mayo physicians do 'teamwork.'  It's not one surgery, but a sequence of surgeries.  Women patients don't the options, they are gotten NAKED for abuse.  And women that question are really butchered - multiple plastic surgeries will be required as in one case.

How much does Dr. Bundrick get/woman patient stripped naked and cut apart?  Probably 20% of the $1500-$2000 surgeon's fee for the job.  Women say 'No muscles, No nerves,' and everything is cut.  The incisions are horrible - 3-month intern efforts.  And Dr. Bundrick knows about the take - cases have been referred to him after the fact and he says NOTHING.  Their files are sent to him - with Dr. Sarr's signature and redos of operative reports trying to justify.  Someone should cut up Dr. Bundrick's abdominal wall and remove a few anterior cutaneous nerves for fun.