Settlement in lawsuit filed by Oyster Bay councilwoman contending suspended surgeon's practice implanted stents without consent

Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Vicki Walsh has reached a settlement with a onetime celebrity Roslyn surgeon, after a doctor in his office implanted metal stents in her pelvic region without her knowledge, leaving her in constant pain, according to her lawsuit.

The settlement agreement, whose terms were undisclosed, ends a more than four-year medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Walsh, an East Norwich Republican first elected in 2020, against David Greuner, of Manhattan, the suspended surgeon who ran a now shuttered medical clinic on Nassau's Gold Coast. Greuner briefly gained prominence as one of "America's Most Beautiful Doctors" after appearances on syndicated talk shows "The Doctors" and "Dr. Oz."

A checkered past

In recent years, Greuner has been sued more than a dozen time for malpractice; had his medical license suspended in three states, including New York; was accused in civil cases of dealing opioids to patients; for exposing a former female employee to pornographic material; and regularly using cocaine and ketamine; filed for personal bankruptcy; and was charged in Nassau with second-degree aggravated harassment and the fourth-degree stalking of Adam Tonis, his former business partner, and Tonis' family, records show.

He was later charged with second-degree criminal contempt and second-degree harassment after he ignored the court order to stay away from Tonis, records show.

The criminal cases, records show, were resolved, although details were not available. A spokeswoman with the district attorney declined to comment on the cases. Greuner still faces charges in Nassau for the reckless operation of an e-bike, records show.

Newsday reported exclusively last year that Walsh had sued Greuner, Tonis and their former firm, NYC Surgical Associates, for negligence and medical malpractice.

Walsh contended that a supposedly emergency surgery, performed in 2020 by Dr. Arno Rotgans, then a surgeon in the practice, was rushed, improperly performed, done without the patient's consent and unnecessary.

On Oct. 23, amid ongoing legal disputes between the two sides about efforts to obtain Greuner's medical, psychiatric and disability records — and with the defendant's bankruptcy case continuing in New York's Southern District — Walsh attorney Kevin McAndrew, filed a memo with the court saying a settlement was reached following a mediation session, records show.

McAndrew declined to discuss the terms of the deal, citing a confidentiality clause.

Greuner attorney Michael Sonkin confirmed the settlement, but declined to comment other than to say Tonis had been dropped from the case and was not part of any settlement.

Greuner, who did not respond to requests for comment from Newsday, had yet to sit for a deposition in the case, with his attorneys citing cognitive issues stemming from a fall from the roof of a seven-story condo in 2022 and a high-speed motorcycle crash the following year, court records show. In June, his attorneys told the court that Greuner was now medically competent to participate in the deposition. 

'I can't even move'

The case began in 2018, when Walsh met with NYC Surgical Associates, which Greuner founded seven years earlier. She had purchased a $243 Groupon — discounted from $2,400 — for the treatment of spider veins in her legs. 

Walsh said she underwent multiple spider vein treatments in 2018 and 2019 and returned in 2020 after the clinic offered her a complimentary sonogram of her venous system.

In interviews, the councilwoman said she was placed under anesthesia, expecting Rotgans — who died of leukemia months later — to perform a minimally invasive test of the blood flow in her veins.

But when she awoke, Walsh said she learned Rotgans had implanted, without her consent, as many as six 18-by-20 mm stents into her pelvic region, the lawsuit stated. Walsh said Rotgans told her that an ultrasound showed a serious vascular blockage that required immediate surgery, the suit said.

In the subsequent weeks, Walsh, a mother of three, said she experienced sharp, stabbing pain in her groin and lower extremities that made it difficult to bend over or drive and required daily injections of blood thinners by her husband.

"I couldn't understand what was happening," Walsh told Newsday last year. "I can't even move, especially my left side. I can't walk. I'm out of breath all the time."

NYC Surgical billed Walsh's insurance company $440,000 for the surgeries and procedures that "were unnecessary and should not have been performed," McAndrew said, according to a transcript of a court hearing. 

Walsh said she soon discovered multiple online stories from other Greuner patients who were offered free ultrasounds and then recommended immediate surgeries they unlikely needed, the suit states.

A former doctor in the practice said in an affidavit submitted in the case that NYC Surgical employees were trained to "convert" patients from minor procedures to major ones to increase revenue.

Greuner, who previously lived in East Hampton, told Walsh in June 2020 that the stents inserted by Rotgans were too large for her frame, had moved down her leg and were pressing on a nerve, court records state.

Walsh was eventually treated at St. Francis Hospital, where a vascular surgeon told her that multiple stents had been implanted unnecessarily, the suit said. The stents, she was told, had broken apart or grown into the vein wall, and had collapsed, causing blood clots that required an emergency angioplasty.

Complicating matters, Walsh said she was told the stents could never be removed as they could "shred" her veins, she told Newsday.

Greuner has since had his medical license suspended in New York, New Jersey and Florida, the three states where he'd been licensed to practice, while the New York State Workers' Compensation Board suspended his authorization to treat injured workers, records show.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.