Stony Brook to reopen pediatric cardiology program

Four years after it was ordered closed, Stony Brook University Medical Center is planning to reopen its pediatric cardiac surgery program, according to a New York State Department of Health spokeswoman.

In 2006, then state health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello fined the hospital $72,000 following the deaths of three children at the medical center: a 1-year-old from Mastic, who died of a medication overdose; a 7-year-old from West Islip, who died of cardiac arrest during routine adenoid surgery; and an infant born prematurely at 24 weeks with a heart defect. Novello cited the hospital for an array of problems, including the failure of an anesthesiologist to verify the proper dose of medication, which was connected to the first death; inadequate testing before an operation, involved in the second death; and the lack of an experienced backup pediatric heart surgeon, associated with the third death.

The health department also ordered Stony Brook's pediatric cardiac surgery program to close because it lacked a full-time surgeon. Instead, it had relied on the part-time services of a NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital surgeon.

Wednesday, state Department of Health spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said plans were under way to reopen the program at Stony Brook in partnership with Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

"We have given them permission to go to the next step to partner with Mount Sinai," Hutton said, adding the program "has proceeded far enough that they can start interviewing a surgeon."

Hutton said the state would have to approve the hire. She could not supply details on how the partnership would work.

Lauren Sheprow, spokeswoman for the hospital, would not comment except to say: "We still have a strong interest in pediatric cardiac surgery and have continued to discuss it with the DOH."