Originally published by ProPublica.
On June 14, 2017, just before noon, a doctor made an incision near a patient’s groin. Kari Kirk, a representative for the world’s largest medical device company, Medtronic, looked on and began texting her colleague a play-by-play.
“Fixing both legs from the ankles,” she wrote.
It was a fairly common procedure at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas, performed to treat blockages in the leg vessels.
Within reach were an array of Medtronic products: tubes with blades attached to shave hardened deposits off of artery walls; stents to widen blood vessels; balloons coated with therapeutic drugs.
Each time a doctor puts a foreign device in someone’s body, it carries a risk of complication, which can include clots or even require amputation. So medical experts, research and even Medtronic’s own device instructions urge doctors to use as few as are necessary.
But, as revealed in Kirk’s text messages, this doctor took an aggressive approach.
“Just used 12 [drug-coated balloons]!!” Kirk texted her colleague.
“Does that mean I owe u $$,” he responded.
“Thats what I’m thinking!!! ,” she said. “And now 14 balloons!”
“- but only one stent so far??”
“So far!”
As the texting continued, her colleague replied, “U are going to want to start going to the VA all the time.”
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