An airline pilot contends that a doctor, angry that the pilot refused to participate in a clinical study, retaliated by sending false health information to the Federal Aviation Administration – a move that grounded him.
James R. Sweller, a veteran United Airlines pilot from Littleton, said in a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court that he declined to volunteer for an invasive heart- monitoring test because it wasn’t medically necessary.
Walter Kusumoto, a research doctor with Kaiser Permanente, got angry and told the FAA that Sweller had a history of unexplained fainting, Sweller said in the lawsuit filed Monday.
Kaiser spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said the allegations against the doctor and Kaiser are untrue.
Kaiser is trying to get a medical-records release so the company can talk about Sweller’s case, she said.
“We will file a response, and we are denying the allegations,” she said.
According to the lawsuit, Sweller underwent angioplasty in March 2004 to remove blockage in an artery. While he’d had a brief irregular heartbeat during the night after his surgery, his doctor said he was fine.
The doctor, a Kaiser cardiologist, asked him to consider volunteering for an electrophysiology study being conducted by Kusumoto, a colleague, the lawsuit said.
Kusumoto entered Sweller’s room and, “with his surgical team waiting in the wings,” began a high-pressure pitch to persuade Sweller to participate, the lawsuit said.
The doctor acknowledged there was no clinical need for the test but told Sweller: “You owe it to the people,” and “I can’t believe you call yourself a professional,” the lawsuit said.
Sweller called an outside doctor who advised him not to participate in such an invasive test if it wasn’t medically necessary. Sweller declined the test.
Six months later, he got a letter from the FAA that said it would have returned him to flight status “but for an ongoing history of unexplained episodes of fainting,” according to the lawsuit.
The letter said he would require additional testing, including the electrophysiology test he had declined.
Sweller was dumbfounded because he didn’t have such a history and discovered that Kusumoto, who had never examined or treated Sweller, had sent a letter to the FAA alleging Sweller had a history of fainting, the lawsuit said.
The only time Sweller has fainted, he contends, was 35 years ago when his hand was crushed by a steel beam.
Kusumoto refused to amend the report he sent to the FAA, and Sweller had to prove to FAA doctors that he did not have a history of fainting, the lawsuit said.
Ultimately, FAA doctors agreed with Sweller, rejected the Kusumoto report and cleared Sweller to return to flight duty Jan. 1, the lawsuit said.
Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at acaldwell@denverpost.com or 303-820-1930.
