UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Richmond Division

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,              ]

 ex rel. Lokesh Vuyyuru, M.D.,                                ]

                                                            Plaintiffs,        ]

vs.                                                                               ]           Civil Action No. 3:06cv180

                                                                                    ]

Gopinath Jadhav, M.D.,                                            ]          

and                                                                              ]

Southside Gastroenterology Associates, Ltd.          ]          

and                                                                              ]

Petersburg Hospital Company, LLC                        ]

and                                                                              ]

The Cameron Foundation,                                         ]

a Virginia non-profit corporation,                              ]

and                                                                              ]

Columbia/HCA John Randolph, Inc.             ]

                                                            Defendants.    ]

 

VUYYURU DECLARATION – RE: DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

 

            Comes now Lokesh Vuyyuru, who states under penalty of perjury, that the following is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief:

1.      My name is Lokesh Vuyyuru, M.D.

2.      The complaints contained herein are not in retaliation or for purposes of intimidation, but are part of the reasons I became black-balled in the medical community.

3.      In Vuyyuru v. Metropolitan Hosp., 1998 WL 972210 (Richmond City, Va. Cir. Ct. May 22, 1998), the court dismissed on demurrer without leave to amend only the conspiracy claim not because individuals were not acting in concert to maliciously injure me, but because “the motion for judgment made it clear that all of the defendants [were] agents and principals of each other.”  My privileges were restored at Metropolitan Hospital and an apology was made to me together with damages.  The inferences made by defendants are simply false.

4.      In Virginia Times, et al. v. Capel, et al, (Civil Action No. CL05-233 (Chesterfield County, March 1, 2005), the case was not tried on the merits and defendants statements that the suit is the “most bizarre” is simply a conclusion based in ignorance with regard to the facts or motives of the litigants.  The case did not proceed because my attorney (not Mr. Roberts) reported to me that he was unable to locate the defendants to effectuate service.

5.      The facts and witnesses support the allegations that Dr. Jadhav frequently biopsies the IC Valve which is unnecessary and that he documented procedures like the History and Physical that he simply did not due.  U.S. Tax payers should not have to pay for such procedures, simply because defendants attack me.

6.      Long before the March 30, 2005 front-page article titled “Alleged insurance, quality-of-care fraud at SRMC”, I was speaking with the FBI and an several Assistant U.S. Attorney Generals and other government officials describing the fraudulent scenario involving IC-Valve procedures and colonoscopies  performed in less than five minutes by Dr. Jadhav.  The fact that nurses cooberated this to Rowley and that she used them as a source does not mean that for purposes of the FCA, I am not an original source.

7.      The excerpt providing a mere conclusion taken out of context from a deposition of my deposition, where he was represented by counsel defending a malpractice action in which I was a defendant together with Columbia/HCA John Randolph, Inc.,[1] one of the defendants in this present action was not an admission that I am not an original source of the information contained in the complaint. 

8.      In and around 2002, 2003 and 2004, I spoke with FBI Agents Vanosten and Irons regarding the improper medical procedures and Medicaid and Medicare Fraud by Dr. Jadhav, SRMC and JRMC.  

9.      Additionally, in and around 2002 and 2003, I spoke with the Attorney General’s Office with a representative responsible for investigating Medicaid Fraud regarding the improper medical procedures by Dr. Jadhav and billing fraud at both SRMC and JRMC—despite promises by the Government that they would follow up with me, there was no follow-up or action taken.

10.  Additionally, in 2003, I filed a complaint with the Board of Medicine against Dr. Jadhav regarding unnecessary procedures, but was directed to Center for Quality Health Care. In the complaint, I complained that on around May, 2002, Dr. Jadhav entered the endoscopy suite and performed a colonoscopy with biopsies upon Donald F. Case, Jr., a patient waiting for me and scheduled for a regular screening colonoscopy.  For a screening colonoscopy biopsies are not required for normal colonic mucosa.  The patient was not a patient of Dr. Jadhav.  The patient had not given consent to Dr. Jadhav.  Dr. Jadhav did not conduct a history or physical upon the patient.  Without the history or physical, there was no basis for conducting a biopsy, which returned normal, since Dr. Jadhav had no prior knowledge of the patient.  Notwithstanding, Dr. Jadhav falsified by creating a history and physical (H&P) in the patient’s chart after the procedure.  I alleged to both the FBI and the Virginia Board of Medicine that this conduct was part of a consistent pattern by Dr. Jadhav resulting in many false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, Champus and Medicaid HMOs.  It was not until April 27, 2005, that the Virginia Times published its story on this patient, publishing a letter from the patient, Donald F. Case, Jr. on the front-page of the newspaper.  (attached)

11.  At the Center for Quality Health Care, I also provided information regarding who, what, when, where and how of the alleged fraud by Dr. Jadhav.

12.     As director of endoscopy at JRMC, I investigated Dr. Jadhav and presented the data in multiple meetings from 2001 to 2005, including “who, what, when, where, and how” to administration at JRMC, yet no action was taken by JRMC.

 

10/24/2006                                                             _________________________________________

                                                                                                Lokesh B. Vuyyuru, M.D.


[1] In that action, Columbia/HCA John Randolph, Inc. negligently failed to properly equip a crash cart with the most basic medical devices required for such an emergency cart, including a laryne scope, a face mask for the ambu-bag and a defibulator.  Matheny v. Columbia/HCA John Randolph, Inc., Case No. CL05000345-00 (Petersburg Cir. Ct. Va., filed October 19, 2005)