MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

What is just as disgusting as the theft from a corpse is that the hospital did not report this crime to the Stockton Police Department. That is typical of hospitals. When was the last time you heard of a hospital notifying the police that they caught one of their nurses stealing Demerol or other narcotics? They just fire the drug addicted thieving nurses, leaving them free to get a job at another hospital.

IS THIS STUPID AND TRAGIC, OR WHAT???
By Bob Walsh

PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
September 28, 2009

Jerry Kubena Sr. was a retired Manteca [California] police lieutenant on June 1 when he died in the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Stockton. Cleveland J. Edmond was a 32-year old doctor working in the E. R. at the same time. Jerry Kubena Jr. and Karie Nelson, survivors of Jerry Sr. are suing, claiming Dr. Edmond let their father die so that he could steal the Presidential Rolex off his wrist. They further claim staff and administrators tried to cover the whole thing up.

Dr. Edmond is a traveling doctor, who lives in Hermosa Beach. He has been licensed since 2006 and has no record of disciplinary action. He was actually employed by Apexx Physicians Medical Corporation through some sort of contractual arrangement with Catholic Healthcare West, which owns and operates St. Joseph's.

After Lt.Kubena died one of the nurses attending asked specifically about what happened to his wristwatch, which she noticed on him before he passed. Two nurses, including the one who asked the original question, have stated on the record that they noticed a bulge in the doctors pocket at about that time which they described as "watch-like". Security was called and Dr. Edmond ignored their very specific orders to stay in the immediate area and went to the parking lot. A nurse who followed him said she saw Dr. Edmond throw something into the grass and she recovered the watch in question from the area where she saw Dr. Edmond throw something. Security cameras support the nurses portion of this story. Dr. Edmond was fired from the hospital immediately.

The Kubena family assert in their lawsuit that the hospital kept them in the dark about the watch incident for 11 days, in an effort to conceal the doctor's action and avoid liability. Allegedly hospital staff have asserted that they didn't call law enforcement because the Stockton P D has, in the past, been abusive towards them for reporting criminal activity at the E. R.

Presidential Rolexs sell for from $11,000 to over $40,000.

Do we have a doctor who took advantage of a situation to steal an expensive watch from a corpse? Do we have a doctor who took advantage of a situation to let a man die so that he could steal the watch from his body? Maybe there is something else entirely going on (but probably not). In any event there is what I am sure is a massive wrongful death suit in the works and the doctor is being arraigned today on grand theft charges. As far as I know there are no criminal charges in the works for the death.