Northwestern University last month let go a cardiologist, known for raising flags about a surgeon who allegedly implanted a heart device without patient consent, the physician says. Now Dr. Nalini Rajamannan says she was fired for providing evidence to federal investigators about the university's famous surgeon, Dr. Patrick McCarthy, reports MassDevice.
Rajamannan in 2008 accused McCarthy of implanting what was originally known as the Myxo annuloplasty ring invented by McCarthy, without patient consent. The Myxo ring has been at the center of investigations by the Senate, the FDA, and other lawsuits, reports heartwire.
Although Rajamannan asserts that her termination resulted from her accusations and helping investigators, Northwestern says that she was not fired as retaliation and "was not dismissed," Alan K. Cubbage, Northwestern's vice president for university relations, told heartwire. Instead, Northwestern argues that she was terminated because she was denied tenure, according to MassDevice.
"Northwestern University has a policy that specifically defends the right of faculty and staff members to make complaints without retaliation. That policy and related procedures were followed in this case. There was no retaliation by Northwestern University against Dr. Rajamannan," Cubbage said to heartwire.
Rajamannan said that she anticipated making tenure but that bringing up the issue ended her career at the institution.
"...I didn't know my career would end so quickly and end, no doubt, as a result of the revelations I made. Since I brought the issue of the implantation of the Myxo ring without informed consent to the attention of hospital officials, my career has taken an unexpected downward spiral," Rajamannan said in an emailed statement to heartwire.
For more information:
- read the Forbes article
- read the MassDevice article
- read the heartwire article
- read The Chronicle of Higher Education article (sub. req.)
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