If you were to look at the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice’s website, you would think that Dr. Stefan Joseph Knasiewicz has had a squeaky clean practice. In reality, he has been sued nine times since he began practicing.
According to the Board, they do not display or otherwise release malpractice records due to "privacy statutes." While everyone is entitled to a degree of privacy in their lives, concealing malpractice can become enabling malpractice. Dr. Knasiewicz’s history is a case in point.
Of the nine cases brought against him, Dr. Knasiewicz settled 7 out of court. Two of these cases actually involved the death of his patients. One case was of a routine carpal tunnel procedure gone wrong, where the patient was left permanently disabled.
Only one of his cases was made public, where his settlement of $355,000 was specifically requested by the plaintiff to be in the court record. All told, Dr. Knasiewicz has settled cases for more than $3.2 million in damages. Eventually, nearly ten years after his first malpractice settlement, he was officially sanctioned by the MBMP after a St. Louis County coroner asked for him to be investigated for incompetence or recklessness.
Unfortunately, doctors with inadequately documented histories of malpractice are not uncommon. The Health Resources and Services Administration, much like the MBMP, keeps its information about malpractice histories under tight wraps to prevent people from identifying physicians with their histories. Many doctors, once having lost their license to practice in one state will move to another.
While on the individual case level, our medical malpractice lawyers in Marylandat Snyder and Snyderbelieve in getting all the damages which you are entitled, there is a bigger picture. When doctors are incompetent, or reckless, they have to be stopped before they injure more people. Your case may be the one that will make a difference by stopping unsuitable and unqualified physicians from practicing medicines.