Deadly Power (2018): Season 1, Episode 1 - Diagnosis and Deception - full transcript
Hundreds of cancer patients discover that the place they should feel safe, might be the most dangerous after all.
- A doctor at the top
- A doctor at the top
of his field...
- So many physicians
seemed to refer to him.
He was regarded as godlike.
- Patients desperate for help...
- He told us my husband had
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
I just thought,
"Oh, my God, no."
- And they say,
"Well... how long you got?"
"I don't know."
- But when a colleague makes
a grim discovery...
- I looked up all
their lab numbers,
and only two of them had ever
qualified for the drug.
- Authorities uncover
a medical malpractice
that shakes health care
to its core.
- The victim does not even
know that they're victims.
- Being diagnosed with cancer
is a frightening experience.
- He's gotta get
in trouble for this,
or something's gotta happen.
- And there's potential that
he could easily
cover his tracks.
- You abuse them like that
just so you can gain
access to money? It's evil.
- I lost my best friend,
my strength,
my everything that day.
- He was probably
treated to death.
- In 2003, oncologist
Dr. Farid Fata opens
a treatment center
in Rochester Hills, Michigan
and develops a reputation
as one of the best
cancer specialists
in the Detroit area.
Patients do anything they can
to get an appointment
with Dr. Fata.
Over the next few years,
upwards of 17,000 patients
will visit Dr. Fata's clinics,
bringing in millions of dollars.
But when the need
for success and prestige
overpowers responsibility,
the results can be catastrophic.
These are the stories of three
brave victims who provide
a sobering reminder
that no one is immune
to the temptations of power,
and greed.
- Vincent and I met back
in his high school days
in Rochester, Michigan.
I was a college student
and he was a high school boy.
He went to Rochester Adams
High School
with my brother Robert,
and he kind of
had a crush on me.
I was four years older than him.
And he and I kept in contact
while I was away
in college in Florida.
And basically, after four years
of him asking, I finally gave in
and went out with him.
- In a blossoming romance,
Kat and Vincent begin
dating in 1991
and become Mr. and Mrs. Pietila
six years later.
- We were a very happy couple
and just enjoyed life,
just the two of us.
We bought a big home
in Macomb County.
We had four pugs
as our little kids,
because unfortunately,
I couldn't have children.
We were each other's
best friends.
We did everything together.
We had a great life.
- But come 2007, that life
gets slowly interrupted
as Vince experiences
unexplained issues
with his back.
- So we went to see our
primary care physician.
And she did some blood work.
And she was a little concerned
with some numbers
in the blood work,
so she had said
that it would be wise
for her to send that paperwork
to a hematologist-oncologist
that would be able
to review that.
That is how we got into
the hands of Dr. Farid Fata.
- Dr. Farid Fata is one of
Michigan's most successful
hematologist-oncologists,
whose practice has been
growing at a steady clip
since its opening in 2005.
- There was a kind of sense
of wonder and awe about him,
because he worked nonstop.
He was always available,
and he had an insatiable drive.
- But the prominence
the cancer doctor holds
speaks volumes when considering
his humble roots
across the globe.
Farid Fata was born in
Lebanon, 1965,
into a family
of Christian missionaries.
He grows up a diligent student,
and eventually studies medicine.
- So Fata trained at Memorial
Sloan Kettering in New York,
which is regarded as one of
the premiere cancer centers
in the United States
and probably the world.
After that,
he moved to Pennsylvania,
where he and his wife,
Samar, had three children
before they moved to Michigan.
- With over a decade
of experience
and a family to provide for,
in 2005,
Dr. Fata forges
his own medical destiny,
and opens Michigan Hematology
Oncology in Rochester Hills.
- Hi, I am Dr. Farid Fata
with Michigan
Hematology-Oncology.
- From humble beginnings,
Dr. Fata's practice grew,
and so many physicians seemed
to refer to him.
He was regarded as,
you know, godlike.
- I did talk
to other physicians.
I even asked my parents.
They called their physicians,
and everyone had
given the same thing,
saying that Dr. Farid Fata
was the best doctor.
The first time that
we met in his office,
he was quiet and soft-spoken,
but very knowledgeable.
And he reassured us that we
were in the best of hands.
He just kind of talked to us
about what he believed
to be going on.
He wanted to do a biopsy
on my husband's lymph node
and some CAT scans
and a PET scan.
- When the tests come back,
Dr. Fata gives the couple
some troubling news.
- He told us that my husband
had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
I just thought, "Oh my God, no."
It was heartbreaking.
We were, at that point,
in turmoil.
But Dr. Fata
assured me that my husband
was gonna be just fine.
He was really good
at just making you feel
like it was gonna be okay.
- Dr. Fata's reputation
as the top cancer doctor
in the region
brings 58-year-old
Robert Sobieray to the clinic.
- When he first sat us down
and told me I had multi myeloma,
he told me about how
it's a blood-borne disease.
My wife burst out crying,
and I didn't know what to do.
He goes,
"Hopefully we got it in time.
You have to be on these
injections every month."
And I goes, "Well, how long
will I be on injections?"
And he goes, "Probably
the rest of your life."
I said, "Wow, okay.
Every 30 days,
gonna go get an injection. Wow."
He goes, "You'll do
that forever."
He says, "Keep getting
injections,
you might be all right."
- As his patient load
continues to increase,
Dr. Fata expands his practice
to seven clinics,
opening up a
multimillion-dollar facility,
and hiring additional
medical professionals.
- I was hired
in November of 2010.
I always wanted to be a nurse,
and I became an oncology nurse
because the month that
I graduated nursing school,
my aunt passed away
of pancreatic cancer.
And so I decided
to go into oncology.
Dr. Fata was in
the "Hour" magazine
as one of the top
hematology-oncology doctors
in Detroit, and I had worked
with some of the top
hematology-oncology doctors
in Detroit, so I thought,
"Well, if he's in there,
"then he's gotta be
the best doctor
and good to his patients."
- In 2012, I started
working for Dr. Fata.
I came from a medical family.
My dad's clinic and hospital
is where I grew up.
My father, he passed away
three months after
being diagnosed
with brain cancer.
I had come to the conclusion
that being a cancer doctor
is what I want to do.
If you want to be successful,
then Michigan Hematology
Oncology
is where you should be.
You're gonna be busy.
There's a referral base.
The reputation is very high.
Dr. Fata is very up-to-date,
very aggressive.
- But Dr. Fata's
aggressive treatments
begin to take
a toll on his patients.
- Vincent was going
to chemotherapy very often.
After the second week,
my husband could barely
get off the couch.
He was just throwing up.
And I had said to Dr. Fata,
"I'm very concerned about
the amount of chemotherapy
and the type of drugs that
my husband's receiving."
- Whatever he said
we needed, we did.
Iron infusions,
hydration infusion.
I went to radiation every day
for three weeks.
It was just making me sick.
And next time I seen Dr. Fata,
I told him about it,
and he goes,
"Yeah, that's about right.
"It'll get to be, after a while,
"where you won't even notice it.
It's part of European protocol."
- He told me that it is
a European protocol
that he follows,
which is highly successful.
But my husband was very ill,
so I asked Dr. Fata,
"Do I need to be concerned?"
And then, he said,
"You know what?
Do you have the
Sloan Kettering education?"
- Coming up...
- He would not let me
see any of his patients.
There was something going on.
She is receiving treatment
that is not required.
- He kept telling me,
"You're gonna need more chemo."
- $45 million drug
purchases in a quarter,
so bells and whistles
were going off in our heads.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
about multiple myeloma
or your treatment,
it is important for you
to get in touch with me,
or a member of my staff.
- Farid Fata's aggressive
methods for treating cancer
has earned him a reputation
as one of Michigan's top
hematologist-oncologists,
and his patient load
is growing by the day.
- When you would go
to Dr. Fata's office,
there was always
a lot of people
getting chemotherapy.
You had to get there early,
or you might not get a seat.
- First time I go
in there to take chemo,
everybody's in here.
You know, it was like 20,
30 people in the waiting room.
It was like... so I'm like,
"Jeez, this guy is...
I got a good doctor," you know?
- Teddy Howard, a 51-year-old
from Clinton Township, Michigan,
first visited Dr. Fata's office
when abnormalities appeared
on a routine blood test.
- When I went to see
Dr. Farid Fata,
he says, "You have
a form of blood cancer."
Well, when I hear
the word "cancer,"
it's like... an earthquake.
I'm thinking about my family,
and, "I gotta tell
my kids I got cancer."
When I said "cancer"...
it was like...
It's just... everybody just...
fell apart.
Dr. Fata told me,
"I'm gonna maintain
"your quality of life.
"You're gonna have a long life.
"You just have to be treated
with chemotherapy,
"and I'm the person
that can do that.
"I know what I'm doing.
You're gonna be okay."
I mean, this guy talks like
he has honey dripping
off of his mouth.
You know,
he's really soft-spoken.
He looks right at you.
He's very professional.
His bedside manner
is just impeccable.
- When my husband would
be in the hospital,
it wouldn't be unusual
for Dr. Fata to come
and visit my husband at,
like, 1:00 in the morning
and check up on him
or read his charts
or do some work
or order some tests.
He was there all the time.
- Dr. Fata really
never went on vacation.
He seemed to work 22 hours a day
and sleep two hours a day.
But he never wanted any
other doctors
to lay eyes
on any of his patients.
- To maintain such
intense supervision,
Dr. Fata employs
administrative methods
that seem strange
to his employees.
- Dr. Fata was
scheduled 60 patients to see
while I have three patients,
because he would not let me
see any of his patients.
And then I was assigned
to a clinic
that he never ever goes,
which I couldn't understand why.
- And to help ensure
his medical organization
is being run swiftly,
Dr. Fata has an electronic
security system
installed at every clinic.
- I had found out there were
video cameras
in every
single corner of the office
so that he could monitor
everyone
from either his monitor
on his computer
or his phone at all times,
even while driving.
He just wanted to keep
tabs on everyone.
He seemed like
that kind of person.
He wanted to know where
everyone was at every minute.
Only time I've ever
encountered anything like that
in my whole history as a nurse.
- And soon, Dr. Maunglay
finds himself
experiencing a similar feeling
on the rare occasion Dr. Fata
is away on vacation.
- There was a patient
of Dr. Fata's who
had to go to a hospital.
She broke her leg.
Monica Flagg had
just been diagnosed
with multiple myeloma.
She has just begun treatment.
Because Dr. Fata is out of town,
she's referred to Dr. Maunglay.
- She is a 50-plus-year-old,
very healthy-looking lady.
She was lying in bed
with a cast on.
- In the course
of examining her,
he looks at her chart.
- I just was in disbelief.
When I was looking at her
and her blood work,
I found out
that her disease was gone.
It was just incredible.
- Dr. Maunglay notices
there isn't
a single myeloma cell
detected
in Monica Flagg's blood.
- Some cancers are very
sensitive to treatment,
and so sometimes,
cancer cells go down
very rapidly in three,
sometimes four months.
But she had just
started chemotherapy
two days before I saw her.
So that puzzled me.
One treatment does not cure
a person in two days.
So it was impossible.
There was nothing to prove
that she had active cancer,
so I told her that
she doesn't have cancer,
and she is receiving treatment
that is not required.
This was very, very odd to me.
- But Dr. Fata's record
is not without its share
of medical success stories.
- In the end of May of 2008,
my husband was going to get
a follow-up PET scan
and some other tests done.
We were told, "Great news!"
Dr. Fata told us that Vince
We were told,
"Great news!" no longer had the lymphoma.
He was cured.
He was in remission.
He was considered to be
a cancer survivor
and cancer-free.
We were thrilled.
We couldn't believe it.
We thought this was it.
This is what we expected.
This is what Dr. Fata
told us was gonna happen.
And we were really happy
and everything was terrific.
- It is true that we are curing
more patients with cancer.
You have to be proactive
in initiating treatment.
- Seeking the same
miracle outcome
the Pietilas experienced,
new patients arrive every day
at Michigan Hematology Oncology,
awaiting treatment by Dr. Fata.
But as his exceptional
practice expands,
so does his need
for exceptional staff.
Oncology nurse Angela Swantek
is invited in
to interview
and shadow the nurses.
- I had been an oncology
nurse for 19 years,
so I got up in the morning,
put my scrubs on,
went to the office,
and I thought,
"Wow, it's 8:30,"
and there probably
was 17 chairs
in the infusion room,
and every single one was filled
already, and I thought,
"Wow! This is great.
This is a busy place.
I'm gonna be busy."
But I started
to notice a couple things
within ten minutes.
OSHA guidelines specify
how chemotherapy is
supposed to be disposed.
- OSHA,
or the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration,
dictates disposal buckets
be placed next to every
infusion chair
to minimize toxic
drug exposure in the air.
- And we weren't disposing
of the chemotherapy properly,
so that was strike one.
- Swantek then notices
one of the nurses
giving a chemo patient
the drug Neulasta.
- And I said, "Well,
Neulasta's not supposed
to be given
the same day as chemo."
She said, "Well, that's
how we do it here."
This was strike two.
- She then sees a nurse
giving the drug Velcade
to a patient through an IV
instead of through a syringe.
- I said, "Why are you infusing
it in an hour in an IV bag?"
"Well, that's how we do it here.
We don't push any medications."
Strike number three.
And that's when I said,
"You know what?
I... I need to leave."
- Air Force recruit - Dr. Farid Fata is
Virginia Messick expanding his clinic
and has just brought
nurse Angela Swantek
in for an interview.
After witnessing how
drugs are given to patients,
however, Swantek is
having second thoughts.
- I went from,
"This is a potential place
that I could be working at,"
to, "There's no way
I'm ever gonna work here.
I wanted to say to the patients,
"You need to come with me."
But I can't...
I couldn't do that,
so I did the next-best thing...
Is I wrote up my allegation
and reported Dr. Fata
to the State of Michigan.
- Angela Swantek fills
out a form online
reporting what she's seen
and recommending
government agencies
thoroughly investigate
Fata and his practice.
- I thought to myself,
"Am I committing career suicide
by mailing this in?"
And the fear went out the door
because I thought
about the patients.
- After more than a year passes,
in May of 2011,
Angela Swantek finally
gets a response
from the State
Licensing Department,
saying after a thorough
investigation,
"violations of the Public
Health Code
could not be established."
The file is closed.
- I was offended
by the fact that
they spelled my last name
incorrectly.
Obviously,
nobody took this seriously.
I mean,
who did the investigation?
If they had any questions,
why didn't anybody call me?
- Without any means of recourse,
Angela finds herself helpless
on the sidelines
as Dr. Fata's
Michigan Hematology Oncology
continues to expand
before her very eyes.
- I started working
at another clinic.
And Fata was building
his new practice
attached to the same building.
And I thought, "Oh my God,
he is literally gonna be
in this building?"
So I had to walk past
his waiting room
every day to walk into
our infusion suite.
His waiting room
was always packed.
I kept thinking
about those patients.
They have no idea that
they're getting horrible care.
- I got chemo
for 18 straight weeks.
- After Teddy Howard is
diagnosed with blood cancer,
he begins regular
infusions with Dr. Fata.
- Dr. Fata, he kept telling me,
"You're not getting any better.
You're gonna need more chemo."
Then I develop a complication
from the chemotherapy,
and I'm scared to death
because I got blood
coming out of my penis.
I don't want to hear
anything about any chemo.
- I went to radiation
every day for three weeks.
The radiation treatments
would make me sick.
Then I tell Dr. Fata,
"My teeth start hurting
and my jaw,"
And he goes, "Oh, I don't know."
He says, "That's nothing."
He wanted me to get
more radiation treatment,
and I said, "No, I'm not
going back to radiation."
And he says, "Well,
you're alive, aren't you?"
- A few months
after Dr. Fata told us
that he was in remission,
we were told that
the cancer was back
and that the cancer
had metastasized,
and he had a testicular
cancer that was inoperable.
I just thought, "Oh my God,
no, we're not gonna
go through this again."
But Dr. Fata assured me,
"It's just a bump in the road.
"We're gonna get through it.
"We're just gonna add
30 days of chemotherapy,
"and we're gonna add radiation
to the regimen now,
and I expect everything
should be fine."
- Meanwhile, patients at
Michigan Hematology Oncology
aren't the only ones
questioning the doctor's orders.
- It was about late July when
I was sitting
and talking to my colleagues
about this IVIG infusion
that we gave a ton of...
Very expensive,
every four to six weeks.
We just felt like,
"Gosh, we have a lot
of that stuff in the office."
IVIG is for
hypogammaglobulinemia.
It's for an immunodeficiency
disorder.
And if you're getting
this kind of medicine,
and you don't have a problem
with your immune system,
you're gonna have one.
You're probably gonna
be more susceptible
to secondary infections,
lung infections,
heart problems.
It's a very serious drug.
I looked up my next
week's worth of patients.
I had 40 patients
scheduled for IVIG.
I looked up all
their lab numbers,
and only two of them had
ever qualified for the drug.
38 were getting it
and they didn't need it.
- Misprescribing of such
a potentially harmful drug
on such a large scale
stops Mary dead in her tracks.
- It made me feel really angry
and disgusted and sick.
And I went and talked
to Dr. Maunglay,
and I shut the door, and I said,
"I just found this."
Dr. Maunglay and I had always
been good friends.
Ever since he started
working there,
I felt like he was somebody
I could confide in.
That's why I went to him.
I said to Dr. Maunglay,
"He's gotta get
in trouble for this,
or something's gotta happen."
And Dr. Maunglay, he said,
"Go give him the test results."
Dr. Fata was at his desk.
I just went to him,
and I just threw the paper down
on the table.
And I said,
"None of these people
have ever qualified for IVIG."
And I said, "I'm cancelling
38 people for next week."
And he just looked at me like,
"How dare you?"
- Air Force recruit - In 2013, Dr. Farid
Fata Virginia Messick has seven clinics
and treats over 1,000 patients.
But when a nurse discovers
that 38 of them
may not need this potentially
harmful medication,
she confronts her boss.
- He just looked at me like,
"How dare you?"
And I left,
and about a half hour later,
the nurse manager came out
and she said,
"Fine, cancel all 38 people."
- Mary, she came to me and said,
"Dr. Maunglay, please stop
the unnecessary IVIGs."
And I asked,
"What do you mean 'stop'?"
She says that Dr. Fata
agreed to stop it.
- He didn't fight
back whatsoever.
- If you're a doctor, and if
you believe in your protocol,
you just don't stop it one day.
This is a lifesaving drug
if it is needed.
You can't just stop it.
And then, with all these things
that were happening around it,
like Monica Flagg,
that just gave me such an...
uncomfortable feeling
that there's something going on.
- And slowly, Dr. Fata's
true motives come into focus.
- He was giving this $4,000
to $7,000 drug once a month
for the rest of the patient's
life just to profit.
I calculated it
as $200,000 a year.
Think about it.
Monica Flagg is healthy, right?
She's 50 years old,
and the chemotherapy drug she
got a shot of will harm her,
but very slowly.
She may be given this drug
for 15 years
until either the drug...
Or, the side effect
of the drugs...
Or infections kills her.
- After 30 more days
of radiation,
my husband was super sick.
And the chemo just
kept going on and on.
- I couldn't stand up or walk
straight for very long.
You know, it was like
I was getting sicker
and sicker and sicker,
not better.
- My kids had to start
taking care of me.
They said, "Dad...
how long you got?"
And I say...
"I don't know."
- The victim does not even
know that they're victims.
- Being diagnosed with cancer
is a frightening experience,
and there's a lot of information
for you to digest.
- This is too big of information
that I can't
share it with just anybody.
It could go back to Dr. Fata,
and there's potential
that he could
easily cover his tracks.
- Dr. Maunglay approaches
General Manager
George Karadsheh,
a trusted colleague
in the clinic,
and tells him about
Dr. Fata's malpractice.
- And he was in a daze.
He was speechless.
He looked like he
was really devastated.
- Karadsheh copies
the clinic's financial records
and alerts the US Attorney
for the Eastern District
of Michigan.
- On August 2, 2013, we
interviewed George Karadsheh.
He provided information that
people were being treated
with serious medications
that were not necessary.
We worked as fast
as humanly possible
to either corroborate
the allegations
or to disprove them.
We'd researched
Medicare billings
and patient records
and employed every resource
that we had at our disposal.
- And what the Department
of Justice would learn
in just four days
of investigation
is truly astonishing.
- We looked at other
hematology-oncology practices
in the state of Michigan
and looked at
their billing
and their purchases
versus Dr. Fata's
billing and purchases.
And we could not see
anybody who was even
in the same realm as him.
$45 million drug
purchases in a quarter,
versus the normal single
oncologist would be somewhere
in the neighborhood $1.9,
$2 million on the high side.
So bells and whistles were
going off in our heads.
- Dr. Fata's office was
processing
an extremely high
volume of patients.
Our review of his records
established
that he had over
16,000 historical patients,
and he had over 1,500 patients
in August of 2013.
- Dr. Fata has put
Vince Pietila back on chemo
after diagnosing him
with cancer for a second time.
- In May, right after
his 39th birthday,
my husband, Vincent, wound up
going into chemotherapy,
but he passed out
at Fata's clinic.
And they had to take him
by ambulance to Crittenton.
After a couple of days,
they realized that my
husband was bleeding out...
That his organs
were shutting down.
There was nothing
that they could do.
So I laid down next
to my husband, and...
They injected him with
his final dose of morphine,
and that was it.
- Authorities raced
to stop Dr. Fata
from harming anybody else.
- Many of his patients
and all of the patients'
loved ones
are extremely vulnerable.
They believed
they were suffering
from something that they
weren't really suffering from.
When really, these physical
and emotional side effects
were actually
caused by Dr. Fata.
- We had to move fast.
We wanted to get this solved
as fast as possible
and stop the perpetrator
from hurting any more people.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
has been racing
to confirm allegations
of medical malpractice
by employing every resource
at their disposal,
including interviewing
Dr. Fata's key employees.
- When the results of those
interviews came in,
we absolutely knew 100%
that we had probable
cause to arrest Dr. Fata.
- Dr. Fata was committing
health care fraud
with patient harm.
Regular health care fraud
is a 10-year sentence.
When you have patient harm,
it's an enhancement
to where they can get
extra time in prison.
And in this case,
we had overwhelming evidence
of patient harm.
- That was enough
for our assistant
United States attorneys
and the DOJ to come
up with a complaint
that we could get
sworn out by a judge.
- On August 6, 2013,
at 7:00 a.m.,
federal agents simultaneously
arrest Dr. Farid Fata
and raid all seven of his
cancer treatment clinics
across Michigan.
His home in Oakland Township
is also raided.
- I drove past the office,
and there were helicopters
and SUVs everywhere,
and it was just, like,
straight out of a movie.
- We executed six
search warrants.
The patient files
and the financial records
for all of the businesses
were the most
important evidence.
- They were taking
the computers away
and taking all of the files.
They said, "Dr. Maunglay,
Give us until 11:00,
we're gonna wrap this up."
And of course, there
are a bunch of patients
waiting to get treatment
and a bunch of nurses
all in shock.
I saw some of them in tears,
and I decided
I'd everything down.
I cancel the infusions
because I don't know
who's what at this point.
- Our priority was
Dr. Fata's patients.
We absolutely had
to have a system in place.
We couldn't let these people
just show up at the door
for their treatment
and have nowhere to turn,
not knowing whether their
diagnosis was accurate or not.
- My wife called me. She says,
"You need to turn
the television on.
"That doctor you've been
seeing is getting arrested,
and they're raiding his office."
I turn the TV on...
- Horrifying allegations
against a cancer doctor
in Michigan.
- There he is.
He's getting arrested.
They're raiding his office.
So I gotta have chemo
the next day, and because
he's getting arrested,
where am I gonna go?
I'm panicking,
because I don't have a doctor.
The FBI contacts us and says,
"We have your records."
So we find another
hematologist-oncologist.
And I get tested.
The results come in.
She says, "Mr. Howard,
do you have a lawyer?"
"Why do I need a lawyer?"
She said, "Well, Mr. Howard,
I got some good news for you,
and I got some bad news
for you."
She says...
"You don't have cancer.
"You never had cancer,
and you never needed drug
infusions at all."
So I want to know
what the bad news is.
She says, "All of that
unnecessary drugs
"that you'd been taking...
has damaged you."
So I got anger and happiness
at the same time.
- So we found another doctor
right away.
That doctor had got
the records back from the FBI
and ran all these tests again.
And he says, "You have
nothing wrong with you.
You haven't got no cancer
whatsoever in your body."
Your mouth drops, like,
"What the heck's going on here?"
'cause... you just...
You realize
what you've been through.
I go,
"So why do I feel so sick?"
He goes, "'Cause all
of the crap you got in you."
I was on 32 different
medications.
Here I am, cancer-free,
but my body's in poor shape.
I'm... I'm...
I'm not a human being anymore.
I didn't feel like
a human being.
- As hundreds of tragic
tales like Teddy's
and Robert's come to light,
the Department of Justice
faces its most important task.
- In order to establish
the mistreatment
of individual patients
beyond a reasonable doubt,
it was necessary for us
to consult with experts
in the field to review
Dr. Fata's treatment.
- Two Harvard Medical School
professors,
practicing
hematologist-oncologists,
review around 100 cases,
and recognize that only one
has been appropriately treated.
- I was shocked
by the cold-bloodedness
of his approach.
He overprescribed medication,
and it was the expert's opinion
that he had done that so that
he would always use
the full vial.
And he was getting dollars
for every drop of drug
that he ordered.
- But while the DOJ continues
putting together
a strong case against Dr. Fata,
the once mighty cancer doctor
and his legal team
don't appear to be concerned.
- His attorney was
on the news saying,
"There's no evidence
to support these
allegations against Fata."
- They're allegations only,
and they're unsupported,
factually and legally,
at this particular point.
- There's nobody credible
who can come forward.
And it set a hate fire
inside of me,
and I got in my car
and I drove down
to the federal courthouse.
And all the news stations
were standing there.
I got out of the car,
and I said,
"I have a story about Farid Fata
that you have not heard."
Once the story came out,
my phone was ringing
quite a bit.
Patients and families
wanted to ask me questions,
"Could you help me?"
So I would meet one-on-one
with the individual patients
once they got their records
back from the FBI.
And I would look
at their information,
and I cried every single time,
especially when I would find out
that they didn't have cancer.
- Somebody from the FBI
notified me
that Fata was arrested
and that they had found
my husband's medical records.
Stating that my
husband had passed away
from a metastasizing
testicular cancer.
Angela Swantek reviewed
all of his test results,
and she was very confused
as to why
there was no pathology report
that actually could show that
my husband had this cancer.
- He was probably treated
to death.
- Michigan's most highly sought
after
hematologist-oncologist,
Farid Fata,
is now under arrest,
and charged with
health care fraud,
conspiracy,
and money laundering.
Armed with her husband's
newfound medical records
and knowledge of the accusations
being hurled at Dr. Fata,
Kat seeks justice.
- In all of my scans
that I got from Crittenten
and the paperwork that I have...
All of his medical charts...
There is no pathology report
in there.
Angela Swantek reviewed all
of his testicular readings,
which she said were normal
throughout his treatment...
I do feel that Dr. Farid Fata
which raised a red flag. overmedicated,
and potentially caused
my husband's death...
and that he knew what
he was doing all along.
- Yet, for the
Department of Justice,
prosecuting Dr. Fata for murder
is one charge that eludes them.
- The victims often asked us
why he wasn't charged
with murder.
It is crucial for a prosecution
to be able to achieve
justice swiftly.
In this case,
there was no question
that we could establish
health care fraud
beyond a reasonable doubt
very swiftly.
- There was just so many
things that he did
that were so egregious
and so heinous.
553 individual patients
that we could say
were definitely
victimized by Dr. Fata.
- On September 16, 2014,
Farid Fata pleads guilty
to 13 counts
of health care fraud,
two counts of money laundering,
and one count of conspiracy
involving kickbacks.
During sentencing,
honorable Judge Paul Borman
sets aside nearly four hours
for the victims of Fata
to deliver impact statements
face-to-face with Farid himself.
- I told him, "I lost
thousands and thousands
of dollars because of you.
"I've been in pain constantly
because of you.
I lost my teeth!"
And he wouldn't even
look at me...
Wouldn't even
acknowledge I was there.
- After the unnecessary chemo,
I was diagnosed with late-stage
chronic cirrhosis of the liver,
and I needed a liver
transplant to live.
I have to be on
anti-rejection medication
for the rest of my life.
- I really wanted Dr. Fata
to look me in the eye
and acknowledge who I was
and what he did,
but he just kept his head down.
I expressed my anger
that Dr. Fata not only took
the dignity of my husband away,
but his ability to say
good-bye to anybody.
My husband believed,
until the very last breath
that he took,
that Fata was saving him.
My husband didn't just die.
He was taken.
He was stolen from me.
I lost my best friend,
my strength,
my lover,
my everything that day.
- Before the gavel comes down,
Farid Fata addresses
the court through tears,
saying, "My quest for power
is senseless and destructive.
"I abused the trust my
patients placed in me.
"They came to me
seeking compassion and care.
I failed them."
On July 10, 2015,
Farid Fata is sentenced
to 45 years in prison.
It is the longest sentence
for health care fraud
in American legal history.
- Our goal was
to ensure that Dr. Fata
never walked out
of prison, ever.
- These people look
to their doctors...
Especially an oncology doctor...
And you're putting
your life in their hands.
And they look at him like,
"Here's my body," you know,
"mend it and make me better
so I can go back to my family."
And then you turn around
and you abuse them like that
just so you can gain
access to money?
It's just... it's evil.
- Investigators recover
$13 million in assets
of the $17 million
in fraudulent profit.
A restitution fund
is established
to help the doctor's victims
recover medical costs
and other expenses.
- The victims and former
patients of Dr. Farid Fata,
we are a very close network
through social media.
There's over 1,500
of us in the group,
and we do, yearly,
have light-illuminating
balloon sendoffs
for our loved ones.
It's just to be there
for each other,
'cause we've all shared
a very similar situation
with the same doctor.
- In good times and in crisis,
we rely on experts to help us.
And when we're sick, we turn
to our most trusted experts,
our doctors, to heal, not harm.
Dr. Farid Fata used his position
to build the trust
of a community.
Instead of honoring that trust,
he took advantage of it
to amass a fortune,
while draining the life
out of the most valuable:
his patients.
But through the bravery
and determination
of a few people
bound by a true responsibility
to their patients,
Dr. Fata's sham was revealed
and his destructive abuse
of power halted.
Dr. Fata is now serving
a 45-year sentence
in federal prison.
He will never practice
medicine again.
- A doctor at the top
of his field...
- So many physicians
seemed to refer to him.
He was regarded as godlike.
- Patients desperate for help...
- He told us my husband had
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
I just thought,
"Oh, my God, no."
- And they say,
"Well... how long you got?"
"I don't know."
- But when a colleague makes
a grim discovery...
- I looked up all
their lab numbers,
and only two of them had ever
qualified for the drug.
- Authorities uncover
a medical malpractice
that shakes health care
to its core.
- The victim does not even
know that they're victims.
- Being diagnosed with cancer
is a frightening experience.
- He's gotta get
in trouble for this,
or something's gotta happen.
- And there's potential that
he could easily
cover his tracks.
- You abuse them like that
just so you can gain
access to money? It's evil.
- I lost my best friend,
my strength,
my everything that day.
- He was probably
treated to death.
- In 2003, oncologist
Dr. Farid Fata opens
a treatment center
in Rochester Hills, Michigan
and develops a reputation
as one of the best
cancer specialists
in the Detroit area.
Patients do anything they can
to get an appointment
with Dr. Fata.
Over the next few years,
upwards of 17,000 patients
will visit Dr. Fata's clinics,
bringing in millions of dollars.
But when the need
for success and prestige
overpowers responsibility,
the results can be catastrophic.
These are the stories of three
brave victims who provide
a sobering reminder
that no one is immune
to the temptations of power,
and greed.
- Vincent and I met back
in his high school days
in Rochester, Michigan.
I was a college student
and he was a high school boy.
He went to Rochester Adams
High School
with my brother Robert,
and he kind of
had a crush on me.
I was four years older than him.
And he and I kept in contact
while I was away
in college in Florida.
And basically, after four years
of him asking, I finally gave in
and went out with him.
- In a blossoming romance,
Kat and Vincent begin
dating in 1991
and become Mr. and Mrs. Pietila
six years later.
- We were a very happy couple
and just enjoyed life,
just the two of us.
We bought a big home
in Macomb County.
We had four pugs
as our little kids,
because unfortunately,
I couldn't have children.
We were each other's
best friends.
We did everything together.
We had a great life.
- But come 2007, that life
gets slowly interrupted
as Vince experiences
unexplained issues
with his back.
- So we went to see our
primary care physician.
And she did some blood work.
And she was a little concerned
with some numbers
in the blood work,
so she had said
that it would be wise
for her to send that paperwork
to a hematologist-oncologist
that would be able
to review that.
That is how we got into
the hands of Dr. Farid Fata.
- Dr. Farid Fata is one of
Michigan's most successful
hematologist-oncologists,
whose practice has been
growing at a steady clip
since its opening in 2005.
- There was a kind of sense
of wonder and awe about him,
because he worked nonstop.
He was always available,
and he had an insatiable drive.
- But the prominence
the cancer doctor holds
speaks volumes when considering
his humble roots
across the globe.
Farid Fata was born in
Lebanon, 1965,
into a family
of Christian missionaries.
He grows up a diligent student,
and eventually studies medicine.
- So Fata trained at Memorial
Sloan Kettering in New York,
which is regarded as one of
the premiere cancer centers
in the United States
and probably the world.
After that,
he moved to Pennsylvania,
where he and his wife,
Samar, had three children
before they moved to Michigan.
- With over a decade
of experience
and a family to provide for,
in 2005,
Dr. Fata forges
his own medical destiny,
and opens Michigan Hematology
Oncology in Rochester Hills.
- Hi, I am Dr. Farid Fata
with Michigan
Hematology-Oncology.
- From humble beginnings,
Dr. Fata's practice grew,
and so many physicians seemed
to refer to him.
He was regarded as,
you know, godlike.
- I did talk
to other physicians.
I even asked my parents.
They called their physicians,
and everyone had
given the same thing,
saying that Dr. Farid Fata
was the best doctor.
The first time that
we met in his office,
he was quiet and soft-spoken,
but very knowledgeable.
And he reassured us that we
were in the best of hands.
He just kind of talked to us
about what he believed
to be going on.
He wanted to do a biopsy
on my husband's lymph node
and some CAT scans
and a PET scan.
- When the tests come back,
Dr. Fata gives the couple
some troubling news.
- He told us that my husband
had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
I just thought, "Oh my God, no."
It was heartbreaking.
We were, at that point,
in turmoil.
But Dr. Fata
assured me that my husband
was gonna be just fine.
He was really good
at just making you feel
like it was gonna be okay.
- Dr. Fata's reputation
as the top cancer doctor
in the region
brings 58-year-old
Robert Sobieray to the clinic.
- When he first sat us down
and told me I had multi myeloma,
he told me about how
it's a blood-borne disease.
My wife burst out crying,
and I didn't know what to do.
He goes,
"Hopefully we got it in time.
You have to be on these
injections every month."
And I goes, "Well, how long
will I be on injections?"
And he goes, "Probably
the rest of your life."
I said, "Wow, okay.
Every 30 days,
gonna go get an injection. Wow."
He goes, "You'll do
that forever."
He says, "Keep getting
injections,
you might be all right."
- As his patient load
continues to increase,
Dr. Fata expands his practice
to seven clinics,
opening up a
multimillion-dollar facility,
and hiring additional
medical professionals.
- I was hired
in November of 2010.
I always wanted to be a nurse,
and I became an oncology nurse
because the month that
I graduated nursing school,
my aunt passed away
of pancreatic cancer.
And so I decided
to go into oncology.
Dr. Fata was in
the "Hour" magazine
as one of the top
hematology-oncology doctors
in Detroit, and I had worked
with some of the top
hematology-oncology doctors
in Detroit, so I thought,
"Well, if he's in there,
"then he's gotta be
the best doctor
and good to his patients."
- In 2012, I started
working for Dr. Fata.
I came from a medical family.
My dad's clinic and hospital
is where I grew up.
My father, he passed away
three months after
being diagnosed
with brain cancer.
I had come to the conclusion
that being a cancer doctor
is what I want to do.
If you want to be successful,
then Michigan Hematology
Oncology
is where you should be.
You're gonna be busy.
There's a referral base.
The reputation is very high.
Dr. Fata is very up-to-date,
very aggressive.
- But Dr. Fata's
aggressive treatments
begin to take
a toll on his patients.
- Vincent was going
to chemotherapy very often.
After the second week,
my husband could barely
get off the couch.
He was just throwing up.
And I had said to Dr. Fata,
"I'm very concerned about
the amount of chemotherapy
and the type of drugs that
my husband's receiving."
- Whatever he said
we needed, we did.
Iron infusions,
hydration infusion.
I went to radiation every day
for three weeks.
It was just making me sick.
And next time I seen Dr. Fata,
I told him about it,
and he goes,
"Yeah, that's about right.
"It'll get to be, after a while,
"where you won't even notice it.
It's part of European protocol."
- He told me that it is
a European protocol
that he follows,
which is highly successful.
But my husband was very ill,
so I asked Dr. Fata,
"Do I need to be concerned?"
And then, he said,
"You know what?
Do you have the
Sloan Kettering education?"
- Coming up...
- He would not let me
see any of his patients.
There was something going on.
She is receiving treatment
that is not required.
- He kept telling me,
"You're gonna need more chemo."
- $45 million drug
purchases in a quarter,
so bells and whistles
were going off in our heads.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
about multiple myeloma
or your treatment,
it is important for you
to get in touch with me,
or a member of my staff.
- Farid Fata's aggressive
methods for treating cancer
has earned him a reputation
as one of Michigan's top
hematologist-oncologists,
and his patient load
is growing by the day.
- When you would go
to Dr. Fata's office,
there was always
a lot of people
getting chemotherapy.
You had to get there early,
or you might not get a seat.
- First time I go
in there to take chemo,
everybody's in here.
You know, it was like 20,
30 people in the waiting room.
It was like... so I'm like,
"Jeez, this guy is...
I got a good doctor," you know?
- Teddy Howard, a 51-year-old
from Clinton Township, Michigan,
first visited Dr. Fata's office
when abnormalities appeared
on a routine blood test.
- When I went to see
Dr. Farid Fata,
he says, "You have
a form of blood cancer."
Well, when I hear
the word "cancer,"
it's like... an earthquake.
I'm thinking about my family,
and, "I gotta tell
my kids I got cancer."
When I said "cancer"...
it was like...
It's just... everybody just...
fell apart.
Dr. Fata told me,
"I'm gonna maintain
"your quality of life.
"You're gonna have a long life.
"You just have to be treated
with chemotherapy,
"and I'm the person
that can do that.
"I know what I'm doing.
You're gonna be okay."
I mean, this guy talks like
he has honey dripping
off of his mouth.
You know,
he's really soft-spoken.
He looks right at you.
He's very professional.
His bedside manner
is just impeccable.
- When my husband would
be in the hospital,
it wouldn't be unusual
for Dr. Fata to come
and visit my husband at,
like, 1:00 in the morning
and check up on him
or read his charts
or do some work
or order some tests.
He was there all the time.
- Dr. Fata really
never went on vacation.
He seemed to work 22 hours a day
and sleep two hours a day.
But he never wanted any
other doctors
to lay eyes
on any of his patients.
- To maintain such
intense supervision,
Dr. Fata employs
administrative methods
that seem strange
to his employees.
- Dr. Fata was
scheduled 60 patients to see
while I have three patients,
because he would not let me
see any of his patients.
And then I was assigned
to a clinic
that he never ever goes,
which I couldn't understand why.
- And to help ensure
his medical organization
is being run swiftly,
Dr. Fata has an electronic
security system
installed at every clinic.
- I had found out there were
video cameras
in every
single corner of the office
so that he could monitor
everyone
from either his monitor
on his computer
or his phone at all times,
even while driving.
He just wanted to keep
tabs on everyone.
He seemed like
that kind of person.
He wanted to know where
everyone was at every minute.
Only time I've ever
encountered anything like that
in my whole history as a nurse.
- And soon, Dr. Maunglay
finds himself
experiencing a similar feeling
on the rare occasion Dr. Fata
is away on vacation.
- There was a patient
of Dr. Fata's who
had to go to a hospital.
She broke her leg.
Monica Flagg had
just been diagnosed
with multiple myeloma.
She has just begun treatment.
Because Dr. Fata is out of town,
she's referred to Dr. Maunglay.
- She is a 50-plus-year-old,
very healthy-looking lady.
She was lying in bed
with a cast on.
- In the course
of examining her,
he looks at her chart.
- I just was in disbelief.
When I was looking at her
and her blood work,
I found out
that her disease was gone.
It was just incredible.
- Dr. Maunglay notices
there isn't
a single myeloma cell
detected
in Monica Flagg's blood.
- Some cancers are very
sensitive to treatment,
and so sometimes,
cancer cells go down
very rapidly in three,
sometimes four months.
But she had just
started chemotherapy
two days before I saw her.
So that puzzled me.
One treatment does not cure
a person in two days.
So it was impossible.
There was nothing to prove
that she had active cancer,
so I told her that
she doesn't have cancer,
and she is receiving treatment
that is not required.
This was very, very odd to me.
- But Dr. Fata's record
is not without its share
of medical success stories.
- In the end of May of 2008,
my husband was going to get
a follow-up PET scan
and some other tests done.
We were told, "Great news!"
Dr. Fata told us that Vince
We were told,
"Great news!" no longer had the lymphoma.
He was cured.
He was in remission.
He was considered to be
a cancer survivor
and cancer-free.
We were thrilled.
We couldn't believe it.
We thought this was it.
This is what we expected.
This is what Dr. Fata
told us was gonna happen.
And we were really happy
and everything was terrific.
- It is true that we are curing
more patients with cancer.
You have to be proactive
in initiating treatment.
- Seeking the same
miracle outcome
the Pietilas experienced,
new patients arrive every day
at Michigan Hematology Oncology,
awaiting treatment by Dr. Fata.
But as his exceptional
practice expands,
so does his need
for exceptional staff.
Oncology nurse Angela Swantek
is invited in
to interview
and shadow the nurses.
- I had been an oncology
nurse for 19 years,
so I got up in the morning,
put my scrubs on,
went to the office,
and I thought,
"Wow, it's 8:30,"
and there probably
was 17 chairs
in the infusion room,
and every single one was filled
already, and I thought,
"Wow! This is great.
This is a busy place.
I'm gonna be busy."
But I started
to notice a couple things
within ten minutes.
OSHA guidelines specify
how chemotherapy is
supposed to be disposed.
- OSHA,
or the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration,
dictates disposal buckets
be placed next to every
infusion chair
to minimize toxic
drug exposure in the air.
- And we weren't disposing
of the chemotherapy properly,
so that was strike one.
- Swantek then notices
one of the nurses
giving a chemo patient
the drug Neulasta.
- And I said, "Well,
Neulasta's not supposed
to be given
the same day as chemo."
She said, "Well, that's
how we do it here."
This was strike two.
- She then sees a nurse
giving the drug Velcade
to a patient through an IV
instead of through a syringe.
- I said, "Why are you infusing
it in an hour in an IV bag?"
"Well, that's how we do it here.
We don't push any medications."
Strike number three.
And that's when I said,
"You know what?
I... I need to leave."
- Air Force recruit - Dr. Farid Fata is
Virginia Messick expanding his clinic
and has just brought
nurse Angela Swantek
in for an interview.
After witnessing how
drugs are given to patients,
however, Swantek is
having second thoughts.
- I went from,
"This is a potential place
that I could be working at,"
to, "There's no way
I'm ever gonna work here.
I wanted to say to the patients,
"You need to come with me."
But I can't...
I couldn't do that,
so I did the next-best thing...
Is I wrote up my allegation
and reported Dr. Fata
to the State of Michigan.
- Angela Swantek fills
out a form online
reporting what she's seen
and recommending
government agencies
thoroughly investigate
Fata and his practice.
- I thought to myself,
"Am I committing career suicide
by mailing this in?"
And the fear went out the door
because I thought
about the patients.
- After more than a year passes,
in May of 2011,
Angela Swantek finally
gets a response
from the State
Licensing Department,
saying after a thorough
investigation,
"violations of the Public
Health Code
could not be established."
The file is closed.
- I was offended
by the fact that
they spelled my last name
incorrectly.
Obviously,
nobody took this seriously.
I mean,
who did the investigation?
If they had any questions,
why didn't anybody call me?
- Without any means of recourse,
Angela finds herself helpless
on the sidelines
as Dr. Fata's
Michigan Hematology Oncology
continues to expand
before her very eyes.
- I started working
at another clinic.
And Fata was building
his new practice
attached to the same building.
And I thought, "Oh my God,
he is literally gonna be
in this building?"
So I had to walk past
his waiting room
every day to walk into
our infusion suite.
His waiting room
was always packed.
I kept thinking
about those patients.
They have no idea that
they're getting horrible care.
- I got chemo
for 18 straight weeks.
- After Teddy Howard is
diagnosed with blood cancer,
he begins regular
infusions with Dr. Fata.
- Dr. Fata, he kept telling me,
"You're not getting any better.
You're gonna need more chemo."
Then I develop a complication
from the chemotherapy,
and I'm scared to death
because I got blood
coming out of my penis.
I don't want to hear
anything about any chemo.
- I went to radiation
every day for three weeks.
The radiation treatments
would make me sick.
Then I tell Dr. Fata,
"My teeth start hurting
and my jaw,"
And he goes, "Oh, I don't know."
He says, "That's nothing."
He wanted me to get
more radiation treatment,
and I said, "No, I'm not
going back to radiation."
And he says, "Well,
you're alive, aren't you?"
- A few months
after Dr. Fata told us
that he was in remission,
we were told that
the cancer was back
and that the cancer
had metastasized,
and he had a testicular
cancer that was inoperable.
I just thought, "Oh my God,
no, we're not gonna
go through this again."
But Dr. Fata assured me,
"It's just a bump in the road.
"We're gonna get through it.
"We're just gonna add
30 days of chemotherapy,
"and we're gonna add radiation
to the regimen now,
and I expect everything
should be fine."
- Meanwhile, patients at
Michigan Hematology Oncology
aren't the only ones
questioning the doctor's orders.
- It was about late July when
I was sitting
and talking to my colleagues
about this IVIG infusion
that we gave a ton of...
Very expensive,
every four to six weeks.
We just felt like,
"Gosh, we have a lot
of that stuff in the office."
IVIG is for
hypogammaglobulinemia.
It's for an immunodeficiency
disorder.
And if you're getting
this kind of medicine,
and you don't have a problem
with your immune system,
you're gonna have one.
You're probably gonna
be more susceptible
to secondary infections,
lung infections,
heart problems.
It's a very serious drug.
I looked up my next
week's worth of patients.
I had 40 patients
scheduled for IVIG.
I looked up all
their lab numbers,
and only two of them had
ever qualified for the drug.
38 were getting it
and they didn't need it.
- Misprescribing of such
a potentially harmful drug
on such a large scale
stops Mary dead in her tracks.
- It made me feel really angry
and disgusted and sick.
And I went and talked
to Dr. Maunglay,
and I shut the door, and I said,
"I just found this."
Dr. Maunglay and I had always
been good friends.
Ever since he started
working there,
I felt like he was somebody
I could confide in.
That's why I went to him.
I said to Dr. Maunglay,
"He's gotta get
in trouble for this,
or something's gotta happen."
And Dr. Maunglay, he said,
"Go give him the test results."
Dr. Fata was at his desk.
I just went to him,
and I just threw the paper down
on the table.
And I said,
"None of these people
have ever qualified for IVIG."
And I said, "I'm cancelling
38 people for next week."
And he just looked at me like,
"How dare you?"
- Air Force recruit - In 2013, Dr. Farid
Fata Virginia Messick has seven clinics
and treats over 1,000 patients.
But when a nurse discovers
that 38 of them
may not need this potentially
harmful medication,
she confronts her boss.
- He just looked at me like,
"How dare you?"
And I left,
and about a half hour later,
the nurse manager came out
and she said,
"Fine, cancel all 38 people."
- Mary, she came to me and said,
"Dr. Maunglay, please stop
the unnecessary IVIGs."
And I asked,
"What do you mean 'stop'?"
She says that Dr. Fata
agreed to stop it.
- He didn't fight
back whatsoever.
- If you're a doctor, and if
you believe in your protocol,
you just don't stop it one day.
This is a lifesaving drug
if it is needed.
You can't just stop it.
And then, with all these things
that were happening around it,
like Monica Flagg,
that just gave me such an...
uncomfortable feeling
that there's something going on.
- And slowly, Dr. Fata's
true motives come into focus.
- He was giving this $4,000
to $7,000 drug once a month
for the rest of the patient's
life just to profit.
I calculated it
as $200,000 a year.
Think about it.
Monica Flagg is healthy, right?
She's 50 years old,
and the chemotherapy drug she
got a shot of will harm her,
but very slowly.
She may be given this drug
for 15 years
until either the drug...
Or, the side effect
of the drugs...
Or infections kills her.
- After 30 more days
of radiation,
my husband was super sick.
And the chemo just
kept going on and on.
- I couldn't stand up or walk
straight for very long.
You know, it was like
I was getting sicker
and sicker and sicker,
not better.
- My kids had to start
taking care of me.
They said, "Dad...
how long you got?"
And I say...
"I don't know."
- The victim does not even
know that they're victims.
- Being diagnosed with cancer
is a frightening experience,
and there's a lot of information
for you to digest.
- This is too big of information
that I can't
share it with just anybody.
It could go back to Dr. Fata,
and there's potential
that he could
easily cover his tracks.
- Dr. Maunglay approaches
General Manager
George Karadsheh,
a trusted colleague
in the clinic,
and tells him about
Dr. Fata's malpractice.
- And he was in a daze.
He was speechless.
He looked like he
was really devastated.
- Karadsheh copies
the clinic's financial records
and alerts the US Attorney
for the Eastern District
of Michigan.
- On August 2, 2013, we
interviewed George Karadsheh.
He provided information that
people were being treated
with serious medications
that were not necessary.
We worked as fast
as humanly possible
to either corroborate
the allegations
or to disprove them.
We'd researched
Medicare billings
and patient records
and employed every resource
that we had at our disposal.
- And what the Department
of Justice would learn
in just four days
of investigation
is truly astonishing.
- We looked at other
hematology-oncology practices
in the state of Michigan
and looked at
their billing
and their purchases
versus Dr. Fata's
billing and purchases.
And we could not see
anybody who was even
in the same realm as him.
$45 million drug
purchases in a quarter,
versus the normal single
oncologist would be somewhere
in the neighborhood $1.9,
$2 million on the high side.
So bells and whistles were
going off in our heads.
- Dr. Fata's office was
processing
an extremely high
volume of patients.
Our review of his records
established
that he had over
16,000 historical patients,
and he had over 1,500 patients
in August of 2013.
- Dr. Fata has put
Vince Pietila back on chemo
after diagnosing him
with cancer for a second time.
- In May, right after
his 39th birthday,
my husband, Vincent, wound up
going into chemotherapy,
but he passed out
at Fata's clinic.
And they had to take him
by ambulance to Crittenton.
After a couple of days,
they realized that my
husband was bleeding out...
That his organs
were shutting down.
There was nothing
that they could do.
So I laid down next
to my husband, and...
They injected him with
his final dose of morphine,
and that was it.
- Authorities raced
to stop Dr. Fata
from harming anybody else.
- Many of his patients
and all of the patients'
loved ones
are extremely vulnerable.
They believed
they were suffering
from something that they
weren't really suffering from.
When really, these physical
and emotional side effects
were actually
caused by Dr. Fata.
- We had to move fast.
We wanted to get this solved
as fast as possible
and stop the perpetrator
from hurting any more people.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
has been racing
to confirm allegations
of medical malpractice
by employing every resource
at their disposal,
including interviewing
Dr. Fata's key employees.
- When the results of those
interviews came in,
we absolutely knew 100%
that we had probable
cause to arrest Dr. Fata.
- Dr. Fata was committing
health care fraud
with patient harm.
Regular health care fraud
is a 10-year sentence.
When you have patient harm,
it's an enhancement
to where they can get
extra time in prison.
And in this case,
we had overwhelming evidence
of patient harm.
- That was enough
for our assistant
United States attorneys
and the DOJ to come
up with a complaint
that we could get
sworn out by a judge.
- On August 6, 2013,
at 7:00 a.m.,
federal agents simultaneously
arrest Dr. Farid Fata
and raid all seven of his
cancer treatment clinics
across Michigan.
His home in Oakland Township
is also raided.
- I drove past the office,
and there were helicopters
and SUVs everywhere,
and it was just, like,
straight out of a movie.
- We executed six
search warrants.
The patient files
and the financial records
for all of the businesses
were the most
important evidence.
- They were taking
the computers away
and taking all of the files.
They said, "Dr. Maunglay,
Give us until 11:00,
we're gonna wrap this up."
And of course, there
are a bunch of patients
waiting to get treatment
and a bunch of nurses
all in shock.
I saw some of them in tears,
and I decided
I'd everything down.
I cancel the infusions
because I don't know
who's what at this point.
- Our priority was
Dr. Fata's patients.
We absolutely had
to have a system in place.
We couldn't let these people
just show up at the door
for their treatment
and have nowhere to turn,
not knowing whether their
diagnosis was accurate or not.
- My wife called me. She says,
"You need to turn
the television on.
"That doctor you've been
seeing is getting arrested,
and they're raiding his office."
I turn the TV on...
- Horrifying allegations
against a cancer doctor
in Michigan.
- There he is.
He's getting arrested.
They're raiding his office.
So I gotta have chemo
the next day, and because
he's getting arrested,
where am I gonna go?
I'm panicking,
because I don't have a doctor.
The FBI contacts us and says,
"We have your records."
So we find another
hematologist-oncologist.
And I get tested.
The results come in.
She says, "Mr. Howard,
do you have a lawyer?"
"Why do I need a lawyer?"
She said, "Well, Mr. Howard,
I got some good news for you,
and I got some bad news
for you."
She says...
"You don't have cancer.
"You never had cancer,
and you never needed drug
infusions at all."
So I want to know
what the bad news is.
She says, "All of that
unnecessary drugs
"that you'd been taking...
has damaged you."
So I got anger and happiness
at the same time.
- So we found another doctor
right away.
That doctor had got
the records back from the FBI
and ran all these tests again.
And he says, "You have
nothing wrong with you.
You haven't got no cancer
whatsoever in your body."
Your mouth drops, like,
"What the heck's going on here?"
'cause... you just...
You realize
what you've been through.
I go,
"So why do I feel so sick?"
He goes, "'Cause all
of the crap you got in you."
I was on 32 different
medications.
Here I am, cancer-free,
but my body's in poor shape.
I'm... I'm...
I'm not a human being anymore.
I didn't feel like
a human being.
- As hundreds of tragic
tales like Teddy's
and Robert's come to light,
the Department of Justice
faces its most important task.
- In order to establish
the mistreatment
of individual patients
beyond a reasonable doubt,
it was necessary for us
to consult with experts
in the field to review
Dr. Fata's treatment.
- Two Harvard Medical School
professors,
practicing
hematologist-oncologists,
review around 100 cases,
and recognize that only one
has been appropriately treated.
- I was shocked
by the cold-bloodedness
of his approach.
He overprescribed medication,
and it was the expert's opinion
that he had done that so that
he would always use
the full vial.
And he was getting dollars
for every drop of drug
that he ordered.
- But while the DOJ continues
putting together
a strong case against Dr. Fata,
the once mighty cancer doctor
and his legal team
don't appear to be concerned.
- His attorney was
on the news saying,
"There's no evidence
to support these
allegations against Fata."
- They're allegations only,
and they're unsupported,
factually and legally,
at this particular point.
- There's nobody credible
who can come forward.
And it set a hate fire
inside of me,
and I got in my car
and I drove down
to the federal courthouse.
And all the news stations
were standing there.
I got out of the car,
and I said,
"I have a story about Farid Fata
that you have not heard."
Once the story came out,
my phone was ringing
quite a bit.
Patients and families
wanted to ask me questions,
"Could you help me?"
So I would meet one-on-one
with the individual patients
once they got their records
back from the FBI.
And I would look
at their information,
and I cried every single time,
especially when I would find out
that they didn't have cancer.
- Somebody from the FBI
notified me
that Fata was arrested
and that they had found
my husband's medical records.
Stating that my
husband had passed away
from a metastasizing
testicular cancer.
Angela Swantek reviewed
all of his test results,
and she was very confused
as to why
there was no pathology report
that actually could show that
my husband had this cancer.
- He was probably treated
to death.
- Michigan's most highly sought
after
hematologist-oncologist,
Farid Fata,
is now under arrest,
and charged with
health care fraud,
conspiracy,
and money laundering.
Armed with her husband's
newfound medical records
and knowledge of the accusations
being hurled at Dr. Fata,
Kat seeks justice.
- In all of my scans
that I got from Crittenten
and the paperwork that I have...
All of his medical charts...
There is no pathology report
in there.
Angela Swantek reviewed all
of his testicular readings,
which she said were normal
throughout his treatment...
I do feel that Dr. Farid Fata
which raised a red flag. overmedicated,
and potentially caused
my husband's death...
and that he knew what
he was doing all along.
- Yet, for the
Department of Justice,
prosecuting Dr. Fata for murder
is one charge that eludes them.
- The victims often asked us
why he wasn't charged
with murder.
It is crucial for a prosecution
to be able to achieve
justice swiftly.
In this case,
there was no question
that we could establish
health care fraud
beyond a reasonable doubt
very swiftly.
- There was just so many
things that he did
that were so egregious
and so heinous.
553 individual patients
that we could say
were definitely
victimized by Dr. Fata.
- On September 16, 2014,
Farid Fata pleads guilty
to 13 counts
of health care fraud,
two counts of money laundering,
and one count of conspiracy
involving kickbacks.
During sentencing,
honorable Judge Paul Borman
sets aside nearly four hours
for the victims of Fata
to deliver impact statements
face-to-face with Farid himself.
- I told him, "I lost
thousands and thousands
of dollars because of you.
"I've been in pain constantly
because of you.
I lost my teeth!"
And he wouldn't even
look at me...
Wouldn't even
acknowledge I was there.
- After the unnecessary chemo,
I was diagnosed with late-stage
chronic cirrhosis of the liver,
and I needed a liver
transplant to live.
I have to be on
anti-rejection medication
for the rest of my life.
- I really wanted Dr. Fata
to look me in the eye
and acknowledge who I was
and what he did,
but he just kept his head down.
I expressed my anger
that Dr. Fata not only took
the dignity of my husband away,
but his ability to say
good-bye to anybody.
My husband believed,
until the very last breath
that he took,
that Fata was saving him.
My husband didn't just die.
He was taken.
He was stolen from me.
I lost my best friend,
my strength,
my lover,
my everything that day.
- Before the gavel comes down,
Farid Fata addresses
the court through tears,
saying, "My quest for power
is senseless and destructive.
"I abused the trust my
patients placed in me.
"They came to me
seeking compassion and care.
I failed them."
On July 10, 2015,
Farid Fata is sentenced
to 45 years in prison.
It is the longest sentence
for health care fraud
in American legal history.
- Our goal was
to ensure that Dr. Fata
never walked out
of prison, ever.
- These people look
to their doctors...
Especially an oncology doctor...
And you're putting
your life in their hands.
And they look at him like,
"Here's my body," you know,
"mend it and make me better
so I can go back to my family."
And then you turn around
and you abuse them like that
just so you can gain
access to money?
It's just... it's evil.
- Investigators recover
$13 million in assets
of the $17 million
in fraudulent profit.
A restitution fund
is established
to help the doctor's victims
recover medical costs
and other expenses.
- The victims and former
patients of Dr. Farid Fata,
we are a very close network
through social media.
There's over 1,500
of us in the group,
and we do, yearly,
have light-illuminating
balloon sendoffs
for our loved ones.
It's just to be there
for each other,
'cause we've all shared
a very similar situation
with the same doctor.
- In good times and in crisis,
we rely on experts to help us.
And when we're sick, we turn
to our most trusted experts,
our doctors, to heal, not harm.
Dr. Farid Fata used his position
to build the trust
of a community.
Instead of honoring that trust,
he took advantage of it
to amass a fortune,
while draining the life
out of the most valuable:
his patients.
But through the bravery
and determination
of a few people
bound by a true responsibility
to their patients,
Dr. Fata's sham was revealed
and his destructive abuse
of power halted.
Dr. Fata is now serving
a 45-year sentence
in federal prison.
He will never practice
medicine again.