HAINES CITY, Fla. — Sitting in her home, Carla Baker says at one point in her life she was an avid walker. Now, it’s hard for her to get off the couch without an assist, and getting across the room is a struggle.
“I would never want for anyone to experience this in their life,” said Baker, a mother of two children.
She believes it didn’t have to be like this, but a medical experience changed everything for her.
“It didn’t have to happen,” Baker said.
'I felt something pop in my leg'
Baker says in 2013, she had a mild heart attack. When she moved to Orlando a few years later, she needed a cardiologist.
“I went to the office and asked if they do things for the heart. They told me, 'yes.' And that’s when that was the beginning of my appointments with Dr. Pal,” Baker said.
She says her first stent was put in back in 2016 at Dr. Ashish Pal’s office in Haines City. But she says the stents didn’t stop there.
“I got several stents,” Baker said.
Carla says Pal recommended another procedure in August 2022.
“I went in, and then we started doing a procedure, and in the middle of my procedure, I was trying to tell him, ‘It’s hurting,’ because I was awake. ‘It’s hurting, it’s hurting, please stop.’ I was begging him, ‘Dr. Pal, please stop, it’s hurting.’ [Then I felt] something pop in my leg,'” Baker said.
She was rushed to Orlando Regional Health.
“Thank God for that doctor. I'm still alive. But the balloon...he told me the balloon is still in my leg,” Baker said.
She says before having any procedures, she could walk perfectly fine.
“It’s bad. I must say, if anything, they probably got to amputate my leg,” Baker said.
Baker filed a lawsuit against Pal claiming some of the procedures were unnecessary in the first place. Her lawsuit is still going through the system.
'Unnecessary procedures'
But other patients have made the same claims against Pal which is why he was front and center at a Florida Board of Medicine meeting on Aug. 4. Two patients filed these administrative complaints with the board alleging medical malpractice that included unnecessary procedures.
“From Feb. 25 through May 13, 2015, the respondent treated HW for numbness in legs during period respondent performed numerous unnecessary procedures. Next case has same exact allegations,” a representative from the Florida Department of Health said.
In the investigative paperwork sent to the board, Pal disputed all the allegations in the complaints that any of the procedures were unnecessary.
“The expert opinion is quite damaging to you. It’s quite obvious most of these procedures were not necessary,” said Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah, a cardiologist and board member for Florida’s Board of Medicine.
Here’s the thing — “unnecessary procedures” are the same words written by the Department of Justice when they released a press release announcing a settlement with Pal for $6.75 million in 2021 to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act by performing medically unnecessary ablations and vein stent procedures.
“We had this DOJ response go on four and a half years, and they wanted to proceed further, and we wanted a settlement at that point,” Pal said during the board meeting.
“The expert says most of the procedures were unnecessary. My main concern — you have an integrity agreement. I don’t see too many doctors who have integrity agreements with the DOJ. If you’re a credible physician, DOJ won’t want anything to do with you,” Zachariah said.
Before the hearing, The Department of Health had reached a settlement agreement with Pal that would require a letter of concern and a fine of $20,000 cost not to exceed $15,000. He was also supposed to complete some continuing medical education credits.
“You know, most of the interventional cardiology trainee program they don't do any vascular venous. So did you teach yourself all those you wrote about and taught yourself?,” asked Hector Vila, a medical doctor and Board Member for the Florida Board of Medicine.
“Yes,” Pal said.
The Board ultimately voted that settlement wasn’t enough.
“There’s no question he should have supervision,” Vila said.
Instead, they countered he should have a letter of reprimand, two-years probation, 20 percent of his records reviewed and not be allowed to perform the vascular procedures on lower extremities.
Pal had seven days to reject or accept the reprimand. The counteroffer from the board was officially rejected by Pal. The case will be heading to the Division of Administrative Hearings.
If you log on here to his practitioner’s profile, it says his license is clear and active. There is no discipline on file. The only thing on the profile is the public complaints. The public complaints date back to procedures from 2015. Some were signed by then-Surgeon General Scott Rivkees in 2020 and are the same complaints that were being heard back at the board meeting.
'It's going to take a long time'
The board not only heard Pal’s cases but other complaints against doctors that go back years. 10 Investigates caught up with the medical board’s chair asking him why some of these cases take so long to hear.
“It takes many years sometimes because these cases can be very complicated and long time to do the investigations. We need to get experts in that case matter to look at these cases and determine whether the physician practiced outside the standard of care. It's going to take a long time to do that. There's also staffing issues. We have staffing issues to get these cases moved through the system and that could take time as well,” said Scott Ackerman, medical doctor and chair of the Florida Board of Medicine.
Meanwhile, Baker worries that time may not be on her side.
“Something needs to be done. I didn’t know. This is something that needs to be done,” Baker said.
Regarding the DOJ settlement with Pal, that is nowhere on his practitioner’s profile. The DOH does not require federal settlements to be posted publicly on the site.
10 Investigates tried to talk with Pal after his hearing, and he refused to answer any questions. We also reached out to both Pal and his attorney after the hearing via email and have not heard back.