Docs Decide to Table Surgery For Later, Ditch Patient

Surgeons still on suspension after April incident

A woman waiting for brain surgery lay anesthetized on an operating table with her head shaved, but there was no surgeon around to perform the procedure.

This week, suspensions remain in place for two of the city's top surgeons involved in the April 10 incident.

Drs. Thomas Milhorat and Paolo Bolognese were suspended from the hospital for two weeks.

"Right now, they're away at a conference in Italy, but the suspensions remain in place," North Shore Hospital spokesman Terry Lynam said.

Bolognese was supposed to perform the surgery, but panicked colleagues couldn't find him when it was time to operate. And Milhorat wouldn't come to the rescue because the woman was not his patient.

Milhorat earned a tops-in-the-city $7.2 million in 2007, according to a source cited by the Daily News, and Bolognese earned $2.4 million, which isn't too shabby either.

North Shore released a statement today that said the usual PR stuff.

"This incident in no way reflects the high standards of quality to which they adhere," the statement said.

Because of privacy regulations, Lynam couldn't confirm whether the woman finally got the surgery she'd needed.

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