BONITA SPRINGS -
An attorney for the Bonita Springs doctor accused of performing controversial stem cell treatment on a patient who then died expects depositions to be taken this week that he says will help clear his client's name.
Dr. Zannos Grekos had his medical license suspended back in March after a patient, 77-year-old Richard Poling, died following an injection of his own stem cells.
Documents posted on the Department of Health's website show that Poling paid $8,000 by wire transfer to have his own stem cells removed from his body and sent by courier to a lab in Boynton Beach. The cells were to be processed and returned the same day.
According to the documents, Poling had stomach pains before his cells were returned. Doctors discovered the man had a hematoma, and made him comfortable while he waited for his tissue to be returned for re-injection.
The Department of Health found the laboratory used to process the cells "turned out to be a small office in a strip mall" and "the person that allegedly operated the machine that performed the ultrasonic cavitation on the sample of R.P.'s tissue was unsupervised and was not licensed either by the Florida Board of Medicine or by the Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel."
Further, documents state the stem cell material was not tested, only visually inspected before being brought back to Bonita Springs.
Poling went into cardiac arrest as the cells were injected into his body.
The Department of Health report states the stem cells were found during autopsy in the pulmonary arteries and capillaries.
Grekos' attorney says the clinician who worked at the Boynton Beach lab did not need a license. He tells NBC2 the clinician and an assistant will be interviewed this week by the Department of Health. Department officials have not confirmed that information.
Read more from the original source:
New details in Grekos patient death case