Federal Fraud Case Agains Medical School Uce in Dominican Republic
DOCTORS HARMED BY DOMINICAN CASE
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May 20, 1984
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The artificial medical diploma scandal that led to the closing of two universities in the Dominican Commonwealth is bringing turmoil to several one thousand Americans who are students or graduates of the institutions.
American students there say they fear it will be months or years earlier the credentials scandal is cleared upwards, while graduates with legitimate degrees from the schools study difficulty finding positions in Amerian hospitals.
Graduates of the 2 universities, which were airtight a week ago by officials of the Dominican Republic, said they were being shunned by hospitals after they disclosed the source of their medical diplomas.
Dr. Joseph Sholomon of Brooklyn, a graduate of one of the schools now closed, said several hospitals in the New York area had not even replied to his applications.
Graduates Given 'a Bad Name'
''Some greedy morons in the Dominican Republic - Americans too - have given all of us a bad name,'' Dr. Sholomon said.
''When hospital officials detect out you went to a Dominican medical school they care for you as if y'all were poison,'' said Dr. Bruce Gordon of Douglaston, Queens, a graduate of the other school.
Dr. Gordon said he had gone to medical schoolhouse legitimately and had passed the basic tests of medical knowledge necessary to work in American hospitals.
But he added that he and others like him ''at present are outside the mainstream of American medicine.'' He estimated that he had spent $70,000 on his medical studies and said he may accept wasted his money.
Colleagues of Dr. Gordon and Dr. Sholomon take placed advertisements in newspapers and magazines pleading for positions in hospitals and offer ''donations'' to any person or institution that tin can offering a position as an intern or resident in a teaching hospital. Authentication of Diplomas
Dr. Luis Montalvo, the president of the Dominican Council on Higher Education and a fellow member of the special commission investigating the scandal in the Caribbean nation, said the panel hoped to have the credentials confusion cleared upwards by early July.
Dr. Montalvo said the special committee intended to effect certificates authenticating diplomas that were awarded properly. Investigators in that location have estimated that 2,000 artificial degrees were sold to Americans for prices as high as $50,000.
The ii schools ordered closed past President Salvador Jorge Blanco were Universidad Centro de Estudios Tecnologicos, commonly called Cetec, and Universidad Centro de Investigacion, or Cifas. The Dominican constabulary arrested 15 people continued with the two schools and charged them with forging documents.
Dr. Montalvo said the investigation had institute no wrongdoing at two other medical schools, Universidad Tecnologica de Santiago, or Utesa, and Universidad Central del Este, or U.C.Eastward.
He said suspicions that degrees had been concocted at Utesa had been unfounded, and ''a few'' cases of altered U.C.E. credentials had been traced to persons not connected with the school. Transfers for Students Sought
Dr. Montalvo said the commission likewise met with the heads of the other medical schools in the country to try to conform transfers of students from the closed universities.
''The worst case involves a student who was due to graduate in June,'' Dr. Montalvo said in a phone interview. ''Such a student now must transfer to another academy for six months or a yr. There is no other way.''
However, David Tharp, a spokesman for the several thousand students at the 2 affected universities, said other medical schools had asked prospective transferees for additional tuition payments ranging from $5,000 to $xx,000.
''I've been living on bananas and coconuts down hither for several years, and neither I nor most of the other students can come up up with sums that big,'' Mr. Tharp, of Alexandria, Va., said in a telephone interview. ''And even if we exercise find a way to cease medical school, because of the scandal a lot of united states are wondering what sort of reception we are going to get when we get habitation and try to find a hospital position.'' Malpractice Suits Feared
About half of the first 100 people found to have bought bogus medical degrees were working in hospitals, a few of them in operating rooms.
This has aroused concern over possible malpractice cases at the institutions, even though the doctors involved in the treatment of a particular patient might have been properly certified.
No 1 is known to have been harmed by treatment by a doctor with a fraudulent caste, and no lawsuits alleging injury are known to have been filed. Merely hospital officials say privately that they feel information technology is only a matter of time.
George L. Priest, a Yale University Law School professor knowledgeable well-nigh malpractice law, said: ''I know of no cases all the same but I foresee that some hospitals that employed people with fraudulent degrees will be having terrific problems. Cases of this type are like shooting fish in a barrel to prove to a jury, so defendants tin be scared into raising settlement offers.''
Despite such offshoots of the scandal, Dominican officials said they had to have a full investigation, not just to end illegal activeness, but as well to restore public conviction in their educational system.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/20/us/doctors-harmed-by-dominican-case.html
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