A 40-year-old Phoenix, Arizona, man is in trouble for posing as a fertility doctor. Jeffrey Graybill posted ads on Craigslist and offered men thousands of dollars for sperm donations. Sometimes the "patients" would go to the suspect's house - sometimes the suspect would go to the victims' homes. Graybill would conduct a "physical" on the victims, which included touching young men's genitals. He also had them provide a semen sample. Graybill allegedly conducted the scam in both California and Arizona. He is being held without bond.
A 47-year-old woman goes in for a new set of breasts and comes out with four; she now wants $5 million to pay for her pain and suffering.
Maria Alaimo consulted with Dr. Keith Berman, whom she found in an online ad, in 2003 in order to bring her bra cup size up to a 36C. What she came out of surgery with was nothing less than a disaster; she came out of the operation room with basically four breasts rather than the two that she had requested.
Alaimo is suing Dr. Berman for $5 million for damages caused by the surgery. She claims that the surgery caused pain, loss of self esteem, and embarrassment to name a few. She also alleges that this is the reason she and her husband, Dominic Alaimo, divorced; she refused to undress in front of him because she was too embarrassed.
Photos taken after the surgery reveal scars on Alaimo’s breasts which Kuharski referred to as “double-bubble” deformities.
Dr. Berman said that he reviewed all the risks with Alaimo before the surgery and that she was concerned only with being glamorous, while Alaimo says that Dr. Berman was only worried with collecting his $7,000 fee.
The North Carolina Medical Board says doctors and interns at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center attempted to induce labor on a patient, but when that didn't work, they performed a cesarean section only to find out there was no baby.
The incident happened in November 2008, but the state medical board spent the past year reviewing the case. In January, they issued the two doctors involved letters of concern.
ABC11 Eyewitness News spoke with one of the doctors involved who explained how something so bizarre could have happened.
Doctor Gerianne Geszler was in charge of the doctors on duty at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center the night of the incident.
Geszler says several doctors had examined and attempted to induce labor on the patient for several days before the C-section incident.
"They did an epidural on her and when they opened up and made the incision, they saw a non-pregnant uterus," Geszler said.
At that point the doctors "closed her back up."
Doctor Dorette Grant is the physician who performed the C-section.
The NC Medical Board issued her a letter of concern that said in part, "you attempted to perform a cesarean section delivery on Patient A after a failed attempt at induction of labor."
"At the time of surgery, it was discovered that Patient A was not pregnant," Board President Donald E. Jablonski said in the letter.
Dr. Geszler says an intern made the original diagnosis.
"And so she said she did an ultrasound and she said no heart beat," Geszler said. "So [the patient] convinced the resident that she wanted to be induced at Cape Fear Valley, so the resident said can I induce here and I said okay."
According to the medical board, the initial diagnosis was made by healthcare providers without the necessary experience to make the appropriate diagnosis.
"Your inappropriate reliance on their diagnosis and the failure to conduct your own examination were contributing factors in the unnecessary attempt at a caesarian delivery," said Jablonski in a letter to Geszler.
The patient was actually suffering from pseudocyesis, symptoms associated with pregnancy even though they are not pregnant. The false pregnancy can be caused by changes in the body and hormones, emotional distress or an endocrine disorder.
