Tales Of Brave Ulysses

The Guam Memorial Hospital board of trustees voted last night to suspend privileges for Dr. Vivien Batoyan-Sagisi. Sayonara doctor. Astute readers might remember that she plead guilty to a drug charge earlier this year. It’s a step in the right direction. Too bad the board refused to consider similar actions against Dr. Davina Lujan, who also plead guilty earlier this year to drug charges revolving around illicit Percoset prescriptions. The general consensus is that Lujan was played by the powers that be, and that she went along with the deals because she comes from a prominent family. Of course, that might be why she is being spared public vilification that Batoyan-Sagisi has endured in the newspapers and television. But still Batoyan-Sagisi is also the central figure in a series of suspect payments totaling $300,000 by the hospital while it was under the purview of former governor Carl Gutierrez.

While their privileges are in danger at the hospital, U.S. attorneys have cautioned the Guam Board of Medical Examiners from taking legal action against the two doctors. So they can still practice medicine on island. I suspect this is because both doctors are cooperating with federal investigations. To me, the charges against these two were basically a squeeze job by the U.S. attorneys, designed to trap them and turn them against the previous administration. Looks like it has worked. Previous attempts to get former cronies to testify against other administrations have met with little success. Why wouldn’t they? Take the fall for a corruption charge, keep your mouth shut, serve a few years in federal prison, your family is taken care of and you have a nice job waiting for you in the private sector upon your release. Maybe the doctors figured they had something more to protect than their higher-ups. I doubt the whole story will ever come to light.

Oh yeah, the public auditor is reviewing the suspect contracts involving a radiology contract at the hospital that was signed while Carl Gutierrez had direct control of the hospital. Something smells fishy about that one too. Always did. Why would a cardiologist get awarded a radiology contract? It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.