PRACTICE AREAS:: BREAST CANCER:: Attorney

Under cross-examination by Opazo's lawyer, Michael Gunzburg, Rikher admitted he's Ovrutsky's sonNew York PostSunday October 3, 2004HOSPITAL HAS NO X-CUSESickly x-ray reader flubs cancer diagnosis: suit By Susan EdelmanAn 80 year old radiologist at Queens public hospital- whose own doctor says he is so ill he "should have retired years ago" - misread a woman's mammography and failed to diagnose her rapidly spreading cancer, a law suit charges. Yakov Ovrutsky suffers from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, bowel problems, kidney stones and anxiety, his doctor testified last week in Supreme Court Long Island City. But the ailing radiologist is still reading breast x-rays three days a week at Elmhurst Hospital. Luz Opazo, 49, of Elmhurst who has two young children, is suing Ovrutsky and three other Elmhurst doctors for allegedly failing to diagnose her breast cancer in 2001. She first complained of pain and hardness in her left breast in May of that year and was referred for a diagnostic mammogram on September 10, 2001. The x-rays, displayed in Court, Showed a large lesion the size of a golf ball. But Ovrutsky sent Opazo home with a letter stating the lesion was "probably benign" and to return for a follow-up mammogram in six months, the lawsuit claims. With her pain worsening, Opazo said she went to another doctor two months later who preformed a biopsy. She learned she had advanced breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes, Court records say. Opazo had a mastectomy to remove her left breast in December 2001 and underwent Chemotherapy. Doctors gave her a 25 percent chance of surviving 10 years. Ovrutsky takes nine medications and an anti-depressant, according to his doctor, Kirll Rikher. "I told him three years a he should retire" Rikher told the Court. Ovrutsky was so stressed out about the trial that he could suffer a heart attack if called to the witness stand. Rikher said. "I'm afraid his anxiety will turn into a full-blown panic attack," he said -in-law and lives in the same Queens apartments building. But Judge Timothy Flaherty was still so concerned about Ovrutsky's health that he ruled Friday the radiologist will not have to testify at trial. In a sworn statement last March, Ovrutsky - who went to medical school in Russia and is not certified by the American Board of Radiology - said that when he began working at Elmhurst, he read mammograms only 10 percent of the time- mostly reading other x-rays. He began reading mammograms full-time in 1999, he said. "I was alone. People didn't work because of low salary" he said. The City's Health and Hospital Corp., which runs Elmhurst, would not comment on Ovrutsky's qualifications, training and ability to read mammograms despite his failing health. "We do not comment on a case that is presently before the Courts" said spokeswoman Kate McGrath. She added every HHC facility that does mammograms is accredited by the Food and Drug Administration. Ovrutsky's lawyer declined to comment. View image-version of this article