Editor's note: The previously posted story should have stated that the 66-year-old patient was discharged from Zannos Grekos practice and appeared still sedated and was carried into her home, where her condition worsened and she was hospitalized. Tests revealed significant brain swelling. The story has been corrected below.
K.K.Yankopolus
Photo by Allie Garza
Dr. Zannos Grekos, a cardiologist whose practice is in Bonita Springs, speaks with a seminar attendant after one of his educational seminars about stem cell treatment, using one's own stem cells, for treating heart disease and other medical conditions, on Monday, March 14, 2011, at the Collier County Library. Allie Garza/Staff
FORT MYERS _ A Fort Myers physician has rejected a settlement agreement with state regulators over his role in a stem cell treatment with a patient who later died.
The deal that Dr. Konstantine Yankopolus turned down had him paying a fine of $25,000 and the state Department of Health's case expenses of $12,200. He would have been on probation for two years with another physician indirectly supervising him.
Yankopolus, who has a primary-care practice in Fort Myers, assisted Dr. Zannos Grekos in March with the controversial stem cell treatment on a 77-year-old Indiana man, according to state reports.
Now that Yankopolus has rejected the settlement terms, which would have needed approval of the state Board of Medicine, the state is reopening its complaint against him. An administrative hearing that had been canceled when the settlement was in the works will be scheduled again.
Yankopolus declined to comment about his decision to reject the deal and take his chances with what an administrative law judge may recommend for discipline. His license is now restricted he is prohibited from doing anything with stem cells.
The patient, Richard Poling, was seeking treatment for pulmonary hypertension and went into cardiac arrest in Grekos' Bonita Springs practice and died later at a hospital.
Link:
Fort Myers doctor rejects settlement in stem cell case in which patient died