FAYETTEVILLE -- Another family of a veteran who died after a missed diagnosis filed suit Friday against the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks.
The pathologist who missed the diagnosis was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced Jan. 22 to 20 years in federal prison.
Jerry R. Kolpek, 83, of Bella Vista went six years without treatment for prostate cancer after pathologist Robert M. Levy reviewed his tissue samples in 2012 and declared him cancer-free. Kolpek was correctly diagnosed in 2018. He died in 2020.
Kolpek's case came up in testimony during Levy's sentencing hearing, after Levy pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in another veteran's case. Dr. Margie Scott, Medical Center director at the Central Arkansas Veteran's Healthcare System in Little Rock, testified at the sentencing hearing that Kolpek's "diagnosis was not difficult" and telltale signs of cancer were obvious in Kolpek's tissue samples. Tissue samples used by pathologists are routinely sealed and preserved, which allowed Scott to review the slides before her testimony.
This is the second wrongful death case involving Levy filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville. The suits say the plaintiffs have exhausted their administrative appeals against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Friday's suit asks for unspecified damages.
Levy received the 20-year sentence for the 2014 death of John Ray Gibbs, 61, of Gravette. Levy did diagnose cancer in Gibbs' case, but the wrong kind. Gibbs' estate was the first to file suit.
Levy's role at the health care system was to examine test results of tissue and fluid samples to determine illnesses, if any.
The pathologist got out of substance abuse rehabilitation in mid-October 2016 after being found intoxicated on the job. The health care system required Levy to submit blood and urine samples for testing as a condition of reinstating his employment. Later investigation found he obtained a drug, 2m-2b, that also intoxicates, but cannot be found with blood or urine tests for alcohol.
Fayetteville police arrested Levy on March 1, 2018, for driving under the influence. The breathalyzer test reported an "interfering substance" result. What that substance was remained a mystery until the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general's office investigated, finding Levy's internet orders of the drug.
Both the Gibbs and Kolpek families' lawsuits come after a June 2 report by the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on its investigation of how Levy was able to work impaired for years. The report found Levy worked almost unsupervised for 12 years.
Levy was in charge of the quality management program of his own department, the inspector general found. He "controlled all aspects of the quality management program in a service with only one other pathologist," who was a subordinate of Levy, the report states.
Levy's 2018 arrest triggered a review of all 33,902 cases he had worked on at the health center. In all, 592 missed diagnoses were found. Of those, 30 had serious medical consequences, according to the review.