Botched Surgery Lawsuits Settled in South Dakota

ARMOUR, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota judge has signed off on the settlement of three dozen lawsuits accusing a doctor of performing unnecessary surgeries and botching many of them, leaving patients maimed or dead.

Judge Bruce Anderson on Thursday in Douglas County dismissed the 36 lawsuits against Dr. Allen Sossan and the two Yankton hospitals where he worked, Lewis & Clark Specialty Hospital and Avera Sacred Heart. An attorney for the plaintiffs says the terms of the settlements could not be disclosed.

According to the Argus Leader, the lawsuits say Sossan performed surgeries from 2008 to 2012 on patients that other doctors complained were unnecessary. Many patients were worse off than before their procedures and some died.

Sossan fled the U.S. in 2015 for his native Iran after he was accused of lying on his medical license application.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.