Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Vicki Walsh has settled a malpractice lawsuit against a suspended Manhattan surgeon. Walsh alleged that in 2020, during what she understood would be emergency surgery, a doctor working under David Greuner’s practice implanted as many as six metal stents in her pelvic region without her knowledge. She said the procedure left her in constant pain and unable to walk normally for months. Walsh, an East Norwich Republican first elected in 2020, brought the case against Greuner and others.
Walsh filed the case in 2022 against Greuner, his then-business partner Adam Tonis, and their firm, NYC Surgical Associates, alleging negligence and medical malpractice, according to Newsday. Her attorney, Kevin McAndrew, reported in a court memo that the case settled after mediation on October 23. He declined to discuss the terms, citing a confidentiality clause. Greuner’s attorney, Michael Sonkin, confirmed the settlement and said Tonis had been dropped from the case earlier and was not part of the resolution.
A $243 Groupon That Led to Major Surgery
Walsh’s dealings with NYC Surgical Associates began in 2018, when she bought a $243 Groupon, discounted from $2,400, for spider-vein treatment, Newsday reported. She underwent several treatments in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, the practice offered her a complimentary sonogram of her venous system and told her the imaging showed a problem requiring immediate attention. Greuner founded NYC Surgical Associates in 2011.
In her lawsuit, Walsh said she expected surgeon Arno Rotgans to perform only a minimally invasive blood-flow test while she was under anesthesia. Instead, she alleged, Rotgans told her an ultrasound showed a serious vascular blockage that needed immediate surgery and implanted as many as six 18-by-20-millimeter stents in her pelvic region without her consent. Rotgans died of leukemia months after the procedure.
Weeks of Stabbing Pain and Blood Thinners
Walsh said she developed sharp, stabbing pain in her groin and lower extremities in the weeks after the procedure and needed daily blood-thinner injections from her husband, according to Newsday’s reporting.
By June 2020, Greuner had told Walsh that the stents were too large for her frame, had moved down her leg and were pressing on a nerve, Newsday reported. Walsh later sought treatment at St. Francis Hospital, where a vascular surgeon told her that multiple stents had been implanted unnecessarily. Walsh said the devices had broken apart or grown into the vein wall and collapsed, causing blood clots that required emergency angioplasty. She was told they could not be removed because removal risked shredding her veins. The practice billed Walsh’s insurer $440,000 for the surgeries and procedures, according to reporting on the settlement; an earlier Newsday account of the lawsuit put the amount at $400,000. At a court hearing, McAndrew said the procedures were unnecessary and should not have been performed.
A Pattern Beyond One Patient
Walsh’s complaint says she later found online accounts from other Greuner patients describing free ultrasounds followed by recommendations for immediate surgery they believed they did not need. In an affidavit cited in the lawsuit, a former doctor at the practice said employees were trained to move patients from minor procedures to major ones to increase revenue. The complaint also alleges the practice used false or misleading information to persuade patients to undergo operations.
Newsday reported that Greuner has faced more than a dozen malpractice lawsuits in recent years. His New York medical license was suspended by the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct on April 19, 2023, and his licenses in New Jersey and Florida were also suspended, the outlet reported. The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board separately suspended his authorization to treat injured workers.
What the disciplinary record establishes
Newsday reported that New York’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct suspended Greuner’s medical license on April 19, 2023. The New York State Department of Health cautions that charges in public physician-discipline records can be allegations that a licensee may contest. That general guidance does not specify the grounds for Greuner’s suspension or establish findings in his case.
Other lawsuits paint a similar picture. In a case brought by Delise Jones, a New York Supreme Court justice considered allegations of medical malpractice, lack of informed consent, and fraudulent misrepresentation after Jones said she sought treatment for leg lymphedema but that Greuner instead performed a procedure on her liver and renal vein, according to the decision reproduced by law.justia.com. The court denied Jones's motion for a default judgment without prejudice, saying she would need a physician's expert affidavit to proceed.
Separately, Daily Voice reported that three patients suffered severe complications after Greuner's catheter embolization procedures, requiring emergency surgeries and hospitalization. One patient whose rectal tissue became necrotic during a pelvic embolization needed her rectum and part of her colon removed and now uses an ostomy bag; that case reportedly settled for $3.65 million. Another woman settled for $3.36 million after Greuner performed 11 allegedly unnecessary embolization procedures, per that report's attribution to Law.com.
Unresolved Questions Remain
Greuner had not sat for a deposition in Walsh's case by the time of settlement; his attorneys attributed the delay to cognitive issues stemming from a 2022 fall from a seven-story condo roof and a high-speed motorcycle crash the following year, though they later told the court he was medically competent to participate in a deposition in June. Records show Greuner also faced criminal charges in Nassau County, including second-degree aggravated harassment and fourth-degree stalking involving Tonis and his family, and later second-degree criminal contempt and harassment for disregarding a stay-away order; he still faces a charge for reckless operation of an e-bike.
