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How could any organization have certified a guy like this as meeting its quality standards? Obviously, only one with pathetic quality standards, like CRSQA.
• Dello Russo is a tireless self-promoter who has spent millions claiming to be a Lasik "pioneer" and, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger (2/11/01), once even proclaimed that after doing 5,000 LadarVision Lasik procedures, he had experienced no complications among his patients. Some of his former patients opined otherwise, and filed lawsuits against Dello Russo.
• Dello Russo has displayed a shocking lack of judgment in hiring medical staff. According to the New Jersey Record (Doctor's Helper Brings Trouble, 1/17/02), Dello Russo hired William T. Kellogg, a doctor who has a disciplinary history in New Jersey dating back to 1989, when his license was first suspended for three years. In July 1993 and February 1994, New Jersey's Attorney General's Office filed complaints charging Kellogg with violations involving 37 patients. Kellogg's license was ultimately revoked in 1995, though it has since been reinstated. Various lawsuits were filed against Dello Russo alleging that during the 3-year period Kellogg worked for Dello Russo, Kellogg evaluated patients after surgery without a license to practice medicine.
Dello Russo attempted to stifle revelations about his less-than-illustrious staff and the resulting lawsuits. As one of the lead plaintiff's attorneys, David Mazie, noted in the New Jersey Record article, "...without blinking an eye, they offered $2 million...They expressed to us that Dr. Dello Russo would pay out of his own pocket without going to his insurance carrier. He was concerned about his reputation." According to the Record, Mazie's clients ultimately rejected the offer, and Mazie's firm also would not agree to another condition of the proposed settlement: that the firm not file any future suits against Dello Russo or the Eye Center.
• To read more about Dello Russo's legal troubles, click here.
• For someone who is no stranger to the use of medical experts to help defend malpractice lawsuits against him, Dello Russo displays an almost pathological hostility towards experts who testify for injured patients. If you are over 18 and want to read one of Dello Russo's puerile rants on a bulletin board operated by the International Society of Refractive Surgery, click here.
• According to the North Jersey Media Group, a civil suit has been filed by Montville, New Jersey-based Lakeland Bank stating that Dello Russo failed to make timely payments on $737,923 worth of medical equipment leased from Lakeland. According to the news service, the suit contends that Dello Russo owes $667,784 plus late charges and attorney fees. The news service further states that on 12/1/03, the Bergen County Sheriff's Department went to Dello Russo's New Jersey Eye Center to tag approximately $750,000 worth of equipment for repossession. The North Jersey Media Group also notes in the article that John Mavroudis, Dello Russo's lawyer in the matter, stated that the payment dispute stems from confusion over to whom Dello Russo should have been writing the checks.
• According to the New Jersey Law Journal (3/29/04), Dello Russo "wants to stop fighting 16 former patients from New Jersey who claim in malpractice suits he made their vision worse. Without admitting that Dello Russo did anything wrong, his lawyers agreed on 3/12/04 to settle on the issue of liability and let an arbitrator decide how much compensation, if any, is due to plaintiffs treated at one of his clinics, the New Jersey Eye Center of Bergenfield." Apparently, "confidentiality appeared to be a central element of the settlement..."
• According to the New York Post (9/19/05), one of Dello Russo's patients, Julie Mallen Dorry, was left with "[i]nflammation, debris and scar tissue buildup [that] had sparked the first stages of glaucoma..." and would have blinded her had it been left untreated. Dorry went to see another doctor, Dr. Gerald Dunham. "They went ballistic, called Dr. Dunham 'a freak,' and said, 'Don't go to him, we're sending a car to bring you to us,'" Dorry said. "I think they were terrified another doctor would see what Dello Russo had done." Dr. Dunham was about to operate to fix Dorry's problems when he received a threatening call from Dello Russo, insisting that he send Dorry back to him. "He was livid – ranting and raving that I should 'make her come back.' I said I couldn't make her do anything," said Dunham..." To read the entire sordid story, click here.
Disciplinary Action Against Dr. William T. Kellogg
The Board of Medical Examiners of the State of New Jersey issued an Order of Temporary Suspension to William T. Kellogg on July 30, 1993 for advising "a large number of patients that they suffered from optic diseases or significant retinal conditions which warranted surgical treatment with a laser, when in fact those procedures were unnecessary or insufficiently justified by pathology or clinical symptomology." Kellogg later became affiliated with Joseph Dello Russo of the New Jersey Eye Center, from 3/13/00 through at least 12/1/03.
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