September 10, 2025 • 67 mins
What happens when the person wearing the white coat is more dangerous than the disease they claim to treat? The horrifying saga of Dr. Anthony Pignataro reveals how a man with fabricated credentials and failed medical training managed to operate on unsuspecting patients from a makeshift basement surgery room.
Born into medical privilege but lacking any genuine talent, Pignataro constructed an elaborate house of cards—forged diplomas, exaggerated abilities, and a bizarre claim to fame with his "snap-on toupee" invention. Behind this facade lurked a true medical predator who performed complex surgeries without proper equipment or qualified staff.
This chilling case serves as a stark reminder to verify your healthcare provider's credentials and never assume that the diplomas on the wall guarantee competence. The next time you consider a medical procedure, remember Sarah Smith and take those extra steps to ensure your provider's qualifications are legitimate. Your life may depend on it.
- “Last Dance, Last Chance” by Ann Rule
- OxygenWKBW 7 News BuffaloiHeartLauren Delisle.
- WSVN 7NewsWKBW 7 News Buffalo.
- Podcast, Housewives of True Crime, Dr. Death, the story of Dr. Anthony Pignataro
- Podcast, True Crime Campfire, Pygmalion: D
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello Amanda, Welcome Allie.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's spooky season.
We caught the germs.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Back to school germies.
Oh honey, you sound awful.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Actually you know how , when you wake up, you first
try to talk and you're like, oh,that's not good.
And then you talk throughoutthe day, so like, actually, this
sounds really good right now.
Yesterday I was like, oh, Ican't hardly talk instead of
(00:44):
your normal.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh wow, yeah, that's.
If I try to go high, she cutsout your base.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I was trying to talk to my niece on facetime and you
know, using the mother eastvoice and I like just cut out, I
was like a nope, she's probablya little happy to help by this.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Auntie wishes she could sleep because,
accompanying this, cold is aheadache.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You guys know how it feels.
You know when your pillow is aboulder.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, yeah that, oh well, dang those little Petri
dishes of germs, those students,One of these years.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Maybe I'll be immune one of these years.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I don't know.
I think these kids keepinventing new germs as they go.
Well, bless your heart.
Well, the good thing is that Ican let you take a backseat.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Listeners there may not be as much banter today,
which I hope you're sad about.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Unless we, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I guess, if not, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, but honestly, we can just jump right in and
put everyone out of their misery, because I know you're on your
edge of your seats about parttwo, dr Anthony Pignataro our
snap on, snap off, sociopath.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
This is not really a correction per se, but my
caption for the last post was Isaid something like okay,
frankenstein, but it's becauseJenna said to me just personally
I thought it was on therecording that and maybe you're
(02:37):
going to say this later, so I'msorry if I ruin it but they
called him Frankenstein in jailand so that's why I said that,
but I was like I wonder ifpeople are like that's a weird
weird that she said that.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
But yeah, I, I think we're going to mention it, but
yeah, they wouldn't let him wearhis toupee in jail.
He just this bald head withfour bolts coming out, nefarious
.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I was listening to his back, I was just like if he
caught a breeze, it's like underthere kind of like a little
like a flying squirrel, kind oflike hanging out on all corners.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Like when we used to play those parachute games, and,
and, and in elementary school.
Okay, everybody One, two, threelift.
Yeah, I mean, it's a spectacle.
It's a spectacle, it'sspectacular.
I mean, yeah, if he didanything for society, he at
(03:38):
least gave us a giggle for that,even though he's a dire person
who did not contribute muchother than that.
So not to bring it down, oh myGod Don't.
Oh, there you go.
God, you're so creepy.
Listen, you're going to need toget sick around October 31st.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Just sit in my garage a second yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Do we have any other corrections?
I, I know, jenna, you had thecorrection section, but that's a
good one.
Did we do anything else?
Oh sure, okay, we'll just saythat for now.
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(05:58):
So today our sources will belisted in our show notes, as
usual, but the main source isagain Last Dance, last Chance,
the novel by Anne Rule, andtrigger warnings.
The episode will discussemotional abuse, medical
malpractice and moida.
(06:18):
So be warned.
So to recap, born into privilegeas the son of a prominent
Buffalo surgeon, anthonyPignataro seemed destined for
medical greatness, but thereality was far darker.
He could only secure admissionto an unaccredited medical
school in Puerto Rico and hefailed out of three separate
(06:40):
residencies, earning thechilling label of medical
sociopath.
And yet still managed to forgecredentials to practice medicine
.
Patients paid the price indeaths and disfigurements.
Pignataro briefly tasted fameand fortune with his bizarre
invention, the snap-on toupee.
But behind the glossy marketinglay a man who performed
(07:03):
dangerous surgeries in hisbasement operating room,
including a liposuction surgeryso botched that it nearly killed
patient Terry Lamotti.
Colleagues and loved onesdescribed a pattern of
grandiosity, blame-shifting anda startling lack of empathy.
His wife, debbie, bore thebrunt of his emotional abuse
(07:24):
even as she propped up hisfraudulent career and raised
their children Exploitingloopholes and deception.
Pignataro constructed a houseof cards masquerading as medical
practice, one that wouldultimately collapse
spectacularly and horrifyingly.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I was going to say you're catching my germs, You're
rubbing off on me.
I'm getting all gravelly.
I was going to say are you?
Catching my germs.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I think you're rubbing off on me, I'm getting
all gravelly.
This week is part two, where weexplore the homicide case that
became Anthony's undoing and atwist that will send a chill
(08:05):
straight down your spine.
I'm concerned about his mishapresulting in the almost fatal
sepsis of patient Terry Lamotti.
Anthony set about looking forthe next flashy trend in plastic
surgery that would earn himmore money and bolster his fame.
He attended conferences on arelatively new technique for
breast augmentation called TUBA,which stands for transumbilical
breast augmentation, and I feellike you talked about this.
(08:27):
I was going to look it up.
Was the episode 20 about yourplastic surgeon also gone wrong?
Okay, anyway.
So TUBA involves tunneling acannula from the belly button to
the armpit area next to thebreast and then expanding the
endoscope to widen the area topush a tightly folded sac into
the area of augmentation to fillit with saline.
(08:48):
This approach wouldsignificantly reduce scarring.
Anthony visited onepractitioner, one to observe a
couple procedures and thendecided well, he was ready.
I mean he could provide thatservice himself.
After all, he sat through alecture, watched a couple.
I mean, you're totally prepared, right?
He'd been shoving underwiresinto female corpses for years,
(09:12):
so there was no need forhands-on practice.
Why not practice on thepatients so you can make money
at the same time?
I'm so mad.
An article by one of thepioneers of the surgery
highlighted that the advantagesof this approach include
minimizing risks like bleeding,infection and poor healing, as
the procedure is less invasivethan the traditional approach.
(09:34):
But he warned that the greatestdanger of any implant surgery
is that it's done by someone whois not qualified to do it.
In his article he expresseddeep concern about the fact that
many surgeons were taking aweekend course and then going on
to do it themselves.
He sagely advised the generalpublic that a patient can die
(09:56):
from any type of anesthesia andany kind of surgery and that
every potential patient shouldcheck out the qualifications of
the surgeon and theanesthesiologist, which is good
advice, but that's assuming thatthere was an anesthesiologist
involved.
Anthony felt they wereunnecessary.
That was an unnecessary expense.
He told Debbie he could easilyshow her what to look for while
(10:19):
the patient was out and therewas no need to have nurses and
other qualified staff on site.
It was just needlessly added tothe expense of the procedure.
I know For each procedureAnthony only had three possible
assistants a 22-year-old LPNwith no prior experience, his
(10:43):
wife with no formal training anda 17-year-old high school
student interested in maybebecoming a doctor someday.
In the real world, medicalassistants play a crucial role
in the outcome of any surgicalprocedure.
They are RNs and physicians andare a requirement for any
(11:03):
licensed facility.
Minor mistakes in surgery canbe life-threatening to the
patient and may result in thesurgeon losing their license,
but no matter.
Anthony was in the business ofpinching pennies to make money.
Also, I couldn't imagine himtaking the advice of an actual
qualified medical assistant,given his grandiose sense of
(11:25):
self.
His ego did not allow foradvice or other people's
opinions.
There was never enough space inthe room for that.
Let's talk about Sarah Smith.
Sarah Smith was a slender,beautiful woman tall, clear blue
eyes and blonde hair.
She'd been a cheerleader inhigh school, and her friends and
(11:46):
family described how that roleperfectly fit her personality.
She was positive, she had asunny disposition.
She was friendly to everyone,compassionate and energetic.
She was close with her family,especially her brother, david,
who was four years her senior.
Tragically, david had musculardystrophy, which is a
progressive disease.
(12:06):
So throughout their childhood,sarah took on the role of
David's friend, confidant andprotector.
According to her father Russell.
Sarah met Dan as a senior inhigh school while cheering for
his basketball team, and it waslove at first sight.
They began dating in highschool and kept up their
relationship even though longdistances were difficult, while
(12:32):
they were both attendingcolleges in different towns.
Sarah's brother, david, died inFebruary 1990 before he could
graduate from college.
In June that year, dan andSarah married.
They had their first child,nathan, shortly afterwards.
Sarah was an optimist and Dandescribes her as his soulmate,
who taught him how to look atlife positively.
Dan was tall, with broadshoulders and handsome, and
(12:54):
Sarah appeared docile and quietuntil he got to know her.
Her mother-in-law, sandy,recalled she was feisty.
She was firm emotionally.
She and Dan decided what theywanted out of life together.
Dan worked as a drafterdesigner and Sarah worked for a
law firm.
They both worked full-time andhad a business together that
(13:14):
they started in college,creating solutions for companies
that wanted to ship productslike heavy machinery and ensure
that those products arrived ingood condition.
We called it DSS for Dan andSarah Smith.
Dan said by August of 1995, theyhad saved enough for a down
payment on their first home.
Sarah took on the legal legworkfor the purchase, which saved
(13:37):
the couple money.
They were thrilled.
Dan built a shed out back forhis man toys and Debbie
discovered that she lovedgardening.
She spent hours plantingflowers and landscaping.
She called it their potluckgarden because there was a whole
section of the back gardenwhere she planted packets of
wildflower seeds and they justnever knew what would come up.
(13:59):
Dan later talked about howdaisies were her favorite
flowers.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that's so wholesome.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I love that A potluck garden.
Years after Nathan was born,the couple welcomed a daughter
named Amanda.
Aw Amanda.
Nathan was like his mother,sandy Smith said thoughtful and
strong.
He was his mother's son and hethought that she was the most
(14:27):
special mother in the world.
When Sarah had Amanda, amandawas a miniature vision of her, a
version of her mother, butAmanda's emotions were more on
the surface.
Dan and Sarah's time off workwas spent with family and good
friends.
Friday nights were special tous, dan said we rented kids'
movies and made popcorn and weall bundled up in blankets on
(14:48):
the living room couch.
We usually fell asleep there.
Sometimes in the summer we wentfor drives on Friday nights.
One night at her in-laws' house,sarah attended a farewell party
for the in-laws for an exchangestudents at their pool.
Sarah wore a bikini and Sandyrecalled that, even though Sarah
looked stunning, she revealedto Sandy how inadequate she felt
(15:11):
with small breasts.
She bemoaned the fact that,despite having two children, she
was still small.
She told Sandy to remember herin that suit as she was planning
to have augmentation surgery.
A friend of hers at college hadrecommended this plastic
surgeon who was doing a new,less invasive technique.
It would be in and out andvoila.
(15:31):
She would have moreself-confidence.
Dan and I love this guy Danremembers being confused about
why on earth Sarah would want todo this.
Because he thought she wasperfect just as she was.
But he wanted to support herand all of her desires, so he
went along with her plans.
(15:52):
Sarah received a promotion atwork six months earlier and so
she saved the extra money toafford the surgery.
When she first met Dr Pignatarofor her initial consultation,
she was impressed.
He told her oh, what a greatcandidate she was for his new
technique.
Dan later recalled he told herhe was going to charge more for
(16:12):
it eventually, but since it wasa new technique he was prepared
to give her an excellent price.
What a salesman.
Dr Pignataro noted on her chartthat he'd done a thorough workup
on Sarah, although he had notdone anything.
He didn't do any x-rays orcheck her heart rhythms with an
EKG.
These are all crucial tests todo before undergoing anesthesia.
(16:33):
He told her testing was notnecessary because she was under
40.
So Sarah signed the consentforms agreeing to the risks of
surgery and her surgery wasscheduled for August 25, 1997 at
9 30 am.
Presurgical screenings for anysurgery requiring general
anesthesia require a basicevaluation of the patient's
(16:56):
heart and lungs.
This is because the medicationsthat allow patients to sleep
throughout the procedure canalso affect the heart's rhythm,
which an EKG would identifybeforehand.
A chest x-ray is also requiredbecause these studies can easily
catch subclinical pneumoniasand rare tumors.
Her age didn't change the factthat her surgery was complicated
(17:17):
and Anthony's failure to screenher was negligent.
On Friday, august 22nd, dan andSarah hosted a movie night
popcorn camp out in the livingroom with their children.
It breaks my heart.
Right there it was almost LaborDay, school would start for
Nathan soon and Amanda wouldstart preschool On August 25th.
(17:41):
Dan drove Sarah to Bignitar'soffice for her appointment.
Almost immediately she wastaken to a back room and given a
variety of pills meant to relaxher.
Then she was returned to thewaiting room, which was
surprising to Dan because themeds had clearly affected her
and she was woozy and drowsy.
But then things got evenstranger as his wife was led
(18:02):
behind a closed door.
Anthony insisted that Dan leavethe waiting room.
Dan resisted, stating hepreferred to wait right where he
was.
Anthony came back several timesand repeated himself, urging
Anne go do errands, come backlater.
So, feeling pressured, danfinally left.
Then Sarah was taken to thebasement surgery, where Anthony
(18:24):
only had a blood pressure cuffand a pulse oximeter, which he
told his wife to watch.
There was no heart monitor and,additionally, there were no
devices available to maintainher airway and deliver oxygen
during the procedure.
Anesthetics administeredimproperly can slow or stop
(18:45):
breathing, leading to death.
It's imperative that themedical team closely monitor and
assist a patient's respirationwhen they're under anesthesia.
Dr Pignatar would have knownthis.
I mean, it's surgery 101.
However, he proceeded with theprocedure nonetheless, without
any of these safeguards in place.
He gave Sarah a cocktail ofdrugs that he hoped would keep
(19:07):
her asleep for the next coupleof hours while he operated on
her.
During the first hour, sarah'sface began to lose color.
Debbie pointed this out to herhusband, who told her to remove
Sarah's fingernail polish andexamine her nail beds.
Pignataro didn't look up fromwhat he was doing as he made the
incision at her belly buttonand moved the tube-like device
(19:30):
into it to create a pathway toher breast.
Debbie tried to alert him again, but he ignored her.
Then the pulse wax alarm wentoff.
Her O2 levels were low, soAnthony barked at the LPN to
hook up the EKG, which showed aflatline.
She was in state of cardiac andrespiratory arrest, with a
(19:50):
doctor with no crash cart, nointubation kit and not a single
registered professional aroundhim to assist.
Anthony instructed his teenageintern to call 911, and within
five minutes sirens roared intothe parking lot outside the West
Seneca practice.
When EMTs entered the basementsurgery, they were horrified to
(20:12):
discover Anthony trying tosecure Sarah's airway with a
wire coat hanger.
This is so dangerous and stupid.
Medics delivered CPR andshocked Sarah's heart into
beating before taking her to thehospital, but by the time they
loaded her into the ambulanceshe'd been without oxygen for 19
(20:33):
to 20 minutes.
She slipped into a coma in theemergency room.
Emts later described howobstructive, in a way, and
clueless, dr Pignataro had beenand like the dumbass in episode
20 apparently in his episode 20he tried to throw himself into
the ambulance with sarah and waskicked out.
(20:54):
What is it with these guys?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
probably like I'm gonna be able to talk my way out
of this.
If I can control the narrativeon the drive or something like
that, do you think it's got tobe a narcissistic drive of sorts
?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right, because this is.
I had to keep looking back atyour episode going.
Am I telling the same story?
Because some of this stuff wasjust so crazy that it's it's.
Yeah, it's eerie that that theybehaved in the same way.
But you're right, it's probablyto do with this narcissism.
But poor Dan, dan the husband.
He had no idea that any of thiswas happening and anthony
(21:32):
refused to take responsibility.
So he told his wife that shewas the one needed to tell dan
that his wife was in criticalcondition and in the hospital.
Can you imagine, poor debbie.
So she said, dan, I mean, she'shad no training on how to be a
nurse.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
She was like I was just going to take off the nail
polish to check the nail beds.
I'm still in shock about that.
We have nothing actually herefor anesthesia, but we've got
some fucking nail polish so wecan watch your nail beds.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I know, I know, and she had faith that her husband
was a good doctor.
I mean, she didn't know.
I'm sure she didn't know halfthe stuff he was up to.
She said we've had a littleproblem.
Your wife was not breathing,but she's breathing now.
She's on the way to thehospital, I'll drive you.
(22:23):
It wasn't until, and in the bookLast Dance, last Chance by Anne
Rule she mentions that Dan waslike well, I can drive myself.
Why do I need to be driven?
But he realized as he was beingdriven it was because, you know
, he got this sense of doom.
And then he got to the hospitaland a priest came out to greet
(22:44):
him, yeah.
And then he realized theenormity of the situation.
He was taken to see sarah inthe icu.
She was comatose, with tubesand a ventilator coming out of
her body.
He said it was like somebodygrabbed my ankles.
I fell on my knees with shock.
I realized then, when hecontacted his mother, sandy, all
(23:04):
he could do was yell she's'sflatlining, she's flatlining.
The first thought that Sandyhad was oh my God, sarah's
parents have lost their son andnow they're married.
Oh gosh, yeah, I forgot aboutthe brother.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I'm also like have a priest available by all means,
and like near in case, but likelet's not be greeting at the
door, we don't need to be goinginto panic mode before we're
already entering her icu room.
You know, like like in thatsituation I would have like
already blocked out before Ieven got there.
I wouldn't even remember goingto the room, which maybe would
(23:38):
be a good thing, I don't know,yeah, god, that's like throwing
a kleenex box at people.
Yeah, that would be bad, badnews, terrible.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So the rescue team reported the tragedy to the West
Seneca Police Department.
Thank God they did that becausethey were like this basement
surgery center was not a thingthey're like it was ill-equipped
.
It was lacking basic and propertools to ensure patient safety.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I mean, they did have nail polish.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I mean, most ORs don't have that.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So they've got that in court.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Most ORs won't let them in until that stuff's been
done.
You know what I mean you can'twear nail polish to a surgery.
Anyway, knowing that his timewas limited, anthony accelerated
his surgery schedule.
I wish they could have justmade him stop right away, but he
was like I got to get as muchmoney as possible before they
take my license away.
So God forbid he actuallylearned anything about the
(24:46):
tragedy that he just propagatedthrough his dangerous and
negligent practices.
Nope, let's go gangbusters.
No lesson to learn here, folks.
It's time to make the money.
So that's what he did breakfrom this revolting story, and
(25:13):
we're gonna do a.
I don't know, can you do?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
yeah, it sounds like a boat horn, let's do that again
, all I can think about isliving in duluth yes, a fairy
noise ready but are we sayingchart?
Are we just doing?
Oh, we're saying chart, no,ready?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
are we just doing quote notices?
We're saying chart note Ready.
No, we're doing chart noteChart note that's horrible.
I love it.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, wow, geez, thanks.
Anyway, welcome to chart note.
She's like wow, that washorrible, awesome, Welcome
Exploiting my germs.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
What I did to you.
No, no, you're your foghorn wasgreat welcome to chart.
Knows where we look at what'snew, weird and potentially
life-saving in health care.
Who put?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
weird in there.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I was gonna say that's when I wasn't looking I
don't remember writing that wasthere a little fairy that got in
there and put the word weird.
All right, well, we're gonnalook at what's new, weird and
potentially life-saving.
You didn't do that, that was inmy template no, but the next
part.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Read the next part.
Is that why it says weird?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
so you don't have to scroll through pubmen at 2am.
I thought that you were saying.
This is where you found itscrolling pubmen at 2am wow,
there's been a little AI theory,maybe into our chart note
situation, which is interestingbecause it's all about
(26:47):
healthcare and AI updates.
So not only have they messedwith our template, but there's
some other stuff going on.
So, okay, ai I'm going to talkabout a few different things
just quickly.
But AI gets a stethoscopeupgrade.
So forget the old rub andlisten.
Researchers in the UK developedan AI powered stethoscope that
(27:09):
can detect heart failure, atrialfibrillation and valve disease
in 15 seconds.
That means you might walk intoa clinic complaining of just a
little fatigue and walk outknowing that the precise
difference between I need a napand my heart's quite low.
So, of course, the doctorscaution.
(27:30):
Yeah, it's fast, it's smart,but it's not a replacement for a
cardiologist.
But humans still get the finalsay.
Number two for AI andhealthcare update a digital twin
for your heart, and maybe moreso.
Ta-ta, ta-ta, t-a ta-taconsultancy services debuted a
(27:52):
digital twin heart.
It's a virtual, ai-poweredreplica of your actual heart,
running data from MRI scans andreal-time sensors to monitor
your recovery or warn of trouble.
Think of Iron Man's seatbeltfor your circulatory system.
So early tests with marathonrunners showed that it can spot
subtle signs of stress,inefficiency or damage that
(28:14):
might not trigger alarms untilmuch later.
In the not-too-distant future,this might be a wearable health
tech device giving yourcardiologist early warnings
before your heart decides tostage a mutiny.
Number three stroke diagnosisfast-tracked.
In England, stroke centers arenow using a new AI CT scan tool
(28:42):
that slashes the time fromhospital arrival to treatment
from 140 minutes to just 79.
Since time is brain is morethan a saying it's literally how
many brain cells you can save.
This has tripled the rate ofstroke patients recovering with
little or no long-termdisability.
This is amazing.
So, in other words, patientsare walking out of the hospital
with fewer limp arms and fewerregrets about ignoring that
(29:06):
nagging headache.
That seems a little cavalier,that last comment, but honestly,
yeah, to basically cut the timefrom hospital arrival to
treatment in half.
That's amazing, yeah.
Number four just greenlitamvutra, which is a drug by
(29:33):
Alnylam for treating a rare butdeadly condition called
transthyretin cardiomyopathy.
Until now, people with thisdisease have often had limited
options and survival rates havebeen grim.
Amvutra works by reducing theproduction of the mutant protein
that builds up in the heart,helping to slow or even reverse
damage.
It's not cheap, so there's asix-figure price tag per
(29:53):
injection, but for patients andfamilies facing oblique
prognosis, this is a significantleap forward.
Number five entire body scansAgain in the UK.
It's our UK, I mean what, thesize of Chicago they're doing
all the AI medical research.
Good for you guys.
(30:14):
You guys are so smart.
In the UK, researchers havecompleted a massive project full
body imaging of 100,000volunteers combined with genetic
, lifestyle and health data.
So the result is a billionanonymized scans that are
teaching us wildly things likeearly signs of dementia that can
(30:37):
show up as tiny brain sizechanges, or how fat distribution
matters more than BMI.
Okay, well, that's true.
Like where the fat is.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I don't know if it's a type that's really like I'm
going to Google it while youtalk.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Okay, number six precision medicine meets gene
editing.
The frontier of personalizedmedicine continues to expand.
Genomics and artificialintelligence are now being used
to tailor treatments to apatient's genetic profile,
particularly in cancer, rarediseases and chronic illnesses.
In some cases, crispr geneediting is being tested in
(31:19):
patients with inherited blooddisorders, with the ultimate
goal of achieving a one-timefunctional cure.
Add to that the rise ofcontinuous remote monitoring in
wearables and sensors, and we'reinching towards a healthcare
model that doesn't merely treatdisease it tries to predict it,
prevent it and neutralize it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
It feels smart, though we can just remember that
we graduated without AI.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
We graduated without AI Summarize.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
the other day I asked if I found this recipe that I
wanted to make.
But it was a gluten-free recipeand I don't have to be
gluten-free, so I don't own theflour to make things gluten-free
.
So I asked I'm like, how do Imake this?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
yummy.
How do I make this glutinous?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Like to avoid buying more flour.
Can I sub?
Can I sub?
No, I'll put this flour for thisand I got this ginormous
breakdown of like for bakedgoods.
Typically, yes For like ifyou're trying to thicken things
or like whatever.
It was like a whole detailedthing about like different
things you're trying to do withflour, if it will work or not,
(32:28):
and why not.
So I was like, wow, thank you.
So like the science behind it?
Yeah.
And then they happened tonotice that all the measurements
for the recipe were in gramsand it must know I'm not from
that side of the pond and itsaid would you like me to
convert these for you?
So I said, sure, thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, see, there you go.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I'm almost 40, though Well, you're not over 40, but
oh my God.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
That sounds so weird to say that I'm just like, okay,
I need to take this class, yeah, but you're not, so stop it.
And also, I just want to takethe class so I can be like, okay
, I know what's going down, Imean I've got no business okay
(33:19):
so can you ever?
but like, could you go to ai andbe like okay, here's a couple
of graphs, what can you pull outof this?
That's meaningful Crunch of thedata.
For me, I mean, that kind ofstuff would be great because
it'll save time.
I don't have to learn how touse Adobe whatever the hell, the
(33:40):
Adobe app that never loads andI can learn some stuff I don't
know what's going on with Adobe?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It's never worked well.
Yeah, adobe Acro.
I don't know what's going onwith Adobe.
It's never worked well.
Adobe Acrobat.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Get a life, get a life.
Well, they're doing all theseads now, where it's like Acrobat
can do this and that and thatand that and it's stuck in my
head.
I'm like but what is itactually doing for me?
Okay, but any who's old?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Also, where are you in your life, where you're
seeing?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
I think I was on peacock watching, watching a
sitcom.
Honestly, if you want to know,there's a spinoff of the office
called the paper and I bingewatched it yesterday in its
entirety and you know, I thinkit's pretty good.
I think characters are growingon me.
But, yeah, we had somethingelse about Acrobat and it stuck
in my head.
So, yeah, ear worms that theywere.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'm not going to be able to go that long again.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Shall we go back to the case.
Yeah, yeah, maybe we can usethat as like a little snippet
and just like, keep playing it.
And just like keep playing it.
I can just make it.
I'll try it.
Amanda's like probably I'llgrab everyone at the end Direct
turn voice so you can clip that.
Go to the case.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
You know I'm feeling the brother Five hours.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Five hours mental.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Literally this probably feels like five hours.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
People are probably like skip, skip, skip skip
Skippity, what is it skippity,what is it skippity toilets you
have teenagers the kids.
I went to skippity.
I went to skippity toilets.
I still don't know what itmeans, but whatever, I'm in like
(35:23):
flint.
Well, I can't say that.
Alright, so we're gonna go backto the case.
I'm trying to avoid it becauseI really hate this guy.
We're off the rails this time,all right.
So let's go back.
And we're talking about thisdoofus.
Officers reached him at hispractice for questioning, but
Anthony was vague.
What a surprise.
(35:44):
He said he'd sedated Sarah witha local anesthetic and
something that would make hersleep if something just randomly
, something that would make hersleep.
Before he started surgery hestated he was concerned about
the pulse ox alarm andconjectured that perhaps she
took something before coming tohis office that she hadn't told
him about.
When questioning gotuncomfortable, he bowed out
(36:07):
claiming I got patients waitingfor me.
Classic.
On Monday September 1st 1997,dan had to make the devastating
decision to pull the plug onSarah.
She would be a I know it'sterrible she would be a
vegetable her whole life.
She was brain dead.
He felt that she was alreadygone and she wouldn't want the
shell vegetable.
Her whole life she was braindead.
(36:27):
He felt that she was alreadygone and she wouldn't want the
shell of her existence to bekept alive like this.
Dan later told the media thatat Sarah's memorial service he
overheard their little girl,amanda, telling one of her
friends that their moms diedwhen they were 26.
So they better be prepared,because that was going to happen
to their moms too.
I mean, I'm crying, baby girl.
(36:52):
So now we have a homicideinvestigation and the case was
escalated from a local policematter to a case for the
district attorney's office.
Seasoned detectives Pat Finityand Chuck Craven were pulled on
as lead detectives for the DA.
They didn't waste time andbegan interviewing key witnesses
.
I was like they didn't wastetime interviewing key witnesses.
(37:14):
They did, and it wasn't a wasteof time.
They didn't waste any time.
They began immediately.
What really propelled theinvestigation forward, however,
was the testimony from the22-year-old LPN who had been at
the scene.
So imagine these two old,seasoned Irish detectives and
they're like dude.
She was a little dim, this LPNlicensed practical nurse, and
(37:41):
she didn't seem to know what anymedical terms like scalpel and
ambu bag.
She called it an amber bag, andthey were like what.
And ambu bag?
She called it an amber bag andthey were like what is an amber
bag?
So she?
But eventually they were ableto scrape together, revealing
details of what actuallytranspired.
So on the day of sarah'ssurgery, anthony gave sarah 20
(38:02):
milligrams of valium and thendirected his nurse to administer
six cc's of sodium pentothal inthree cc's of versed.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
I'd be like see you next Thursday.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Bye, yeah, I'm out, and this was funny.
Before you send her back to thelobby, it's like holy cow.
So she's just sitting therelike whoo Was she in a gown with
things flapping in the breeze?
Like, come on, probably, anyway, whoo Was she in a gown with
things flapping?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
in the breeze Like come on what I don't know,
Probably.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Anyway, I guess, so combining, yeah, well, this is
before the surgery.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
He gave her these pills.
Yeah, no, I mean normally, whoknows that Pignataro's surgery,
so combining.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Oh God, combining CNS depressants is always
potentially dangerous.
Valium is used for anxiety andsodium pentothal is a
quick-acting hypnotic.
Versed acts like a sedative.
So using the three togetherwhen supervised by a trained
anesthesiologist, is potentiallysafe, but definitely lethal in
the hands of someone likeAnthony.
(39:08):
This was bad enough.
But then the nurse toldinvestigators that before the
surgery began, anthony told herto give Sarah a second dose of
sodium pentothal through her IVport.
Minutes later, as Dr Pignatarobegan his incision into her
belly button, sarah yelled ouch.
So that I mean, let that sinkin.
(39:29):
She could feel it.
So then Anthony told his nurseto give a third dose of sodium
pentothal through her port.
So even to investigators whoweren't well-versed in medicine,
it seemed like a high amount ofsubstances, especially given
Sarah's petite frame.
A few weeks later the medicalexaminer shared Sarah's
(39:51):
toxicology report results.
It confirmed their suspicions.
An excessive amount of sodiumpentothal and other substances
had caused asphyxiation.
Sarah's death was the directresult of the drugs that Anthony
(40:17):
Pignataro had given her duringher procedure and then, failing
to secure her airway sealed thedeal.
It's so senseless.
When the media got a hold of thestory, patients of Dr Pignataro
began coming forward with theirown catastrophic stories.
Among them was Terry Lamotti,the last patient to experience
Anthony's malpractice andsurvive.
That was enough for the DA tosecure a search warrant.
And while Anthony wasn't at hispractice, investigators got
inside.
(40:37):
Like many patients before them,they descended the basement
steps and found an unequippedmakeshift surgery.
A single chair sat haphazardlyat the center with a light to
help Pignataro see duringoperations.
There were a few itemsconnected to wires and very
little sterilization equipmentand no emergency kits around.
(40:59):
One might expect to find asimilar setup in a stage play
where an actor performs as aphysician For a real doctor.
The scene practically screamedmalpractice.
And there was another red flag.
Along the walls of Anthony'soffice, diplomas hung proudly in
frames, creating a picture ofthe perfect professional.
(41:21):
But Pat and Chuck weren't soquick to trust them.
They rang the institutionslisted and call after call, the
same news came back Nobody hadgiven Anthony Pignataro any of
those diplomas.
And this single shocking truthupended the entire investigation
.
Not only had this guy killed aninnocent woman by improperly
(41:42):
medicating and caring for her,but he also screwed up on a
handful of other patientswithout so much as an honest
certification, as back alleydoctors go.
This guy was as fake as theycome, but his farce met its foil
.
On January 27, 1998, anthony wasindicted before a grand jury on
six counts Manslaughter in thesecond degree, assault in the
(42:05):
second degree, falsifyingbusiness records in the first
degree, reckless endangerment inthe second degree, criminal
possession of a forgedinstrument in the third degree
and criminally negligenthomicide.
Though Anthony wanted to fightfor his innocence, his attorneys
told him that going to trialwas going to lead to more prison
time, so they urged him toplead guilty.
(42:25):
With his name on the line,anthony wavered.
It was clear to the public thathe'd made mistakes as a doctor,
but he wasn't sure he waswilling to own up to what he'd
done.
Admitting where he'd been wronghad never been his game.
Throughout the spring of 1998,39-year-old Anthony Pignataro
faced a difficult decisionaccept a plea deal or go to
(42:46):
trial on significant charges,including the criminally
negligent homicide of26-year-old Sarah Smith.
On June 8, 1998, he made up hismind.
He pleaded guilty, waiving hisright to appeal his sentence and
relinquishing his medicallicenses.
I mean, this wasn't exactly ahuge sacrifice, given that most
of his credentials were fake or,at the very least, exaggerated.
(43:08):
So three months later, onAugust 4th, he was sentenced to
six months in jail, five yearsof probation, 250 hours of
community service and a $2,500fine.
I mean for killing a woman.
That was nothing.
For killing a woman.
That was nothing.
So, but still that madePignataro the first doctor in
Western New York historyconvicted of homicide for a
(43:30):
patient's death.
The judge snarled at him.
You will never practicemedicine again anywhere in the
world.
To recap, pignataro wasstripped of his medical license,
convicted of second-degreemanslaughter, negligent homicide
and more, and was sentenced toonly six months in jail and five
years probation.
(43:51):
Six months that's barely enoughtime to watch five true crime
documentaries about your owntrial.
Victim Terry Lamardi gasped whenshe learned the news.
Watching this miscarriage ofjustice Later on she asked with
heartbreak and outrage he'sgetting away with this and yet
somehow Anthony still had theloyalty of his wife While he had
(44:18):
made some mistakes.
Debbie still believed he was agood guy.
It was a lie she'd clung to for20 years.
Debbie trusted that the latestobstacles would change her
family for the better, even ifthey now made her the wife of
the convicted felon.
Maybe in her mind, some jailtime, wow, how sad is that when
40-year-old Anthony I know, Iknow right, and they say.
(44:39):
It takes the average victim ofintimate partner violence,
whether it's emotional orphysical abuse, 11 years to get
out, once they realize yeah,yeah, so I forget where I was.
(45:03):
So when 40-year-old Anthony wasdischarged from prison on
December 7th 1998, debbie hadhope and Anthony sat on the
couch watching videos of hisson's junior high school
football games or nurturingtheir gymnast daughter.
He appeared to be renewed Forhis community service hours.
He decided to volunteer at atherapeutic writing center that
(45:24):
serves individuals fromunderrepresented backgrounds and
those with disabilities.
This was a cherry on top of thenew and improved Anthony, but
it was merely another act.
Just a week after he returnedfrom jail, debbie got a letter
(45:47):
In it, the news that Anthony washaving an affair.
The relationship had begunbefore he went to prison and
continued after his release.
This wasn't the first time thathe cheated on her, and Debbie
had forgiven him in the past,but she just wasn't sure she
could do the same this time.
She held her tongue, biding hertime and sorting out how she'd
respond.
On the one hand, she wanted herchildren to continue living the
(46:09):
lives they knew, and she wasn'tsure if she could support them
on her own.
On the other hand, anthony'sbehavior had once again
shattered their marriage,despite his claim that he was a
changed man.
As she pored over her options,debbie wondered if there were
other things her husband washiding from her.
On their bank statements, shesoon found that Anthony was
(46:31):
making regular $100 mysterywithdrawals from their account.
Desperate for answers, debbiedid more digging and found
Anthony's mistress's homeaddress.
One day in February 1999, shedecided to pay a visit.
But when she pulled up she sawtheir family cadillac parked in
the driveway.
Upset debbie drove the car home, leaving her.
(46:53):
So she got in the cadillac thatthe asshole had driven there
and left her car.
So she left her car for anthonyto find when he decided to head
home.
But that evening evening hedidn't come home, coward.
Instead he called his wife andhe tried to tell her it's not
what it looks like.
(47:15):
The excuse rang empty.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
I hate it when my Cadillac just parks itself in
the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Mm-hmm, the excuse rang empty in Debbie's ears.
Anthony pushed her too far thistime.
She had all the locks changedon the house to ensure that he
couldn't come back unless hedemonstrated a willingness to
change.
She also withdrew all the moneyfrom their joint account.
Even worse, anthony's mom foundout about his affair and
threatened to cut him off fromhis dad's estate if he left
(47:46):
Debbie.
Anthony didn't like the soundof that, so he did what he
always did when he was in apinch.
He devised a scheme.
Debbie's house was vandalizedand he came over to protect the
family.
Debbie felt safer with himaround.
On one such occasion, thevandals scrawled killer, killer,
killer in spray paint on thegarage door.
(48:07):
What she didn't know was thatAnthony was likely the one doing
the defacing, and if so, it hadthe intended effect.
Cornered by fear, debbie wasmore lenient about letting
Anthony spend the night.
By June, anthony was overregularly, but it was around
this time that Debbie fell sick.
She felt excruciating pain inher stomach, and while doctors
(48:28):
suspected it might bepancreatitis, they couldn't be
sure.
Ultimately, debbie was senthome from the hospital with more
questions than answers, and asthe summer heat rose, so did her
mystery illness.
She developed soreness andnumbness all over her body and
found it harder to rememberthings.
Some days she couldn't evenmake it out of bed, and when
that happened, her husband wouldbring her food.
(48:49):
The food never tasted right,though.
There was always a metallicflavor that tainted almost
everything she ate, and she grewweaker and weaker, and
physicians racked their brainstrying to figure out what was
going on.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
I hate him.
I did not see this coming.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
I hate him so much.
This is the twist, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, yeah, ugh.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
I'm so mad.
I am mad too.
But then she started feelingweak, numb, her coordination
failing and symptoms thatdoctors couldn't explain.
The tests came back Arseniclevels were sky high, some of
the worst ever seen in New YorkState.
Forensic analysis of Debbie'shair samples showed a slow but
(49:34):
steady increase in arsenic untilone section of her hair showed
that what should have been afatal dose, and that timeline
they could trace back.
This is amazing.
They could trace that timelinein her hair sample back to the
night that Anthony told her, toDebbie's surprise.
Oh, you don't look like youfeel well.
You should rest.
I'll bring you chicken soup.
If only that was all she got,but it was soup with a side of
(49:56):
arsenic.
Investigators learned thatAnthony had purchased taro,
which is an ant killer, witharsenic, and if it wasn't enough
I know People in prisonmentioned that they ratted on
him.
He's mounting an insurancescheme in a side room.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
One of my psychos that I covered in the past also
used.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
Tarot ant killer.
Yes, really that's crazy.
And he was asking around inprison like apparently that's
what they're like.
Well, yeah, darrow ant killerapparently that's common
knowledge ant killer, so debbietold.
Debbie told seven eyewitnessnews.
(50:41):
You don't want to believe thatyour spouse could be capable of
something like this.
After some digging,investigators, chuck and Pat
learned about Anthony's latestaffair and what a mess it had
been.
Then they found out thatAnthony's mother had told them
that he was going to lose hisinheritance if he divorced
Debbie.
Next they learned that Debbiehad a $100,000 life insurance
policy and her husband was thebeneficiary.
(51:05):
As far as new beginnings withhis mistress were concerned, it
made more sense for Anthony tokill Debbie than to leave her.
However, it wasn't until anunexpected witness came forward
that Chuck and Pat were able toconfirm their theory.
A man that's pseudonym, adam,had come forward saying he spent
time in jail with Anthony andaround that time Anthony started
doing heroin and after both ofthem got released they still met
(51:28):
.
Sometimes Adam rememberedAnthony bringing up the subject
of poison and how annoyed hiswife made him.
He hated how constantly shechecked on him.
He even said Debbie has to go.
Though Adam knew what thatmeant, he didn't think that
Anthony was capable of murderinghis own wife.
When the news reports came outabout Debbie's poisoning in
August, he almost couldn'tbelieve it.
(51:50):
At the start of September theyalso came into possession of
Anthony's mistress, whoconfirmed a similar story.
Meanwhile, debbie tried hervery best to remain loyal to the
man who poisoned her.
She didn't want to believe thathe'd done it.
But then a family memberrevealed that Anthony was still
(52:10):
actively involved in his affair.
And finally it seemed thatDebbie's unshakable devotion to
her husband had been shattered.
She was convinced that she hadto let him go.
Throughout the fall.
Debbie remained in the hospital, undergoing extensive physical
rehabilitation for thepersisting numbness in her limbs
.
Although the majority ofDebbie's symptoms were abating,
her numbness persisted andworsened.
(52:32):
Intestinal symptoms like pain,nausea and diarrhea are usually
temporary.
Doctors often stopinvestigating the cause after
those symptoms resolve.
Arsenic's toxic effects on thenerves, however, become
irreversible after one to fourweeks of repeated exposure.
This is a result of arsenic'sability to cause cellular death
(52:54):
in the body's peripheral nerves.
So during her long days spenttrying to regain mobility in her
body, debbie finally had timeto consider how she'd like to
move forward.
It wouldn't be hard to getAnthony charged with their
poisoning.
The DA investigators, chuck andPat, now had substantial
evidence.
Plus, anthony had broken hisprobation which said he had to
(53:16):
stay drug and alcohol free andcouldn't leave the county
without consent from the courts.
In the months following hisrelease from jail, anthony had
been drinking large quantitiesof tequila and his friend Adam
admitted that they'd done herointogether.
At times, anthony had crossedstate lines without permission
to attend a job interview andmade plans to move to Florida to
(53:36):
start a new life there.
On February 1, 2000, he wassentenced to the maximum prison
term of 15 years for attemptingto poison his wife Pathetic.
I mean she should have diedfrom the amount that he gave her
.
Like doctors were, likecouldn't believe that she
survived this lethal dose.
I mean she was paralyzed,immobile and in a wheelchair,
(54:00):
but she survived.
Ultimately, he was convicted ofseveral crimes, including
attempted murder.
Anthony tried to keep incontact with his son while he
was locked up, but the damage totheir relationship was
irreparable.
Ralph did end up writing to hisfather, but that letter was to
ask his father to do right bytheir family for once.
(54:22):
In December 2013, anthony wasreleased from his sentence early
for good behavior snort, and hemoved to Florida where he
settled in a Palm Beach area andchanged his name to Anthony
Hout H-A-U-T-E, like a badsequel that nobody asked for.
He immediately set aboutreinventing himself.
He moved to Florida to shed hisold name like a snakeskin
(54:45):
rebranding, and, under thisshiny new persona, he launched
Tony Haute Cosmetic and SkincareLLC.
Glamorous right.
In reality, it was the same oldPinotaro hustle, just with palm
trees.
He started selling miraclecreams and something he dubbed
DNA, which were plasmatreatments which, spoiler alert,
(55:06):
was pseudoscience in a jar.
And naturally, he did what alldisgraced fake doctors do when
they want to look legit he threwon a crisp white lab coat,
struck a pose and introducedhimself as Dr Hote.
Imagine Dr Oz meets late-nightinfomercial, only with fewer
credentials and way more felonybaggage.
Infomercial, only with fewercredentials and way more felony
(55:28):
baggage.
It was classic Pignataro anendless parade of deception.
In 2019, he advertised hisservices as a qualified carer
for the elderly.
Would you want this buffoonwith a body count looking after
your granny?
I don't think so.
Hopefully nobody took him up onthe offer.
You can change your name,change your identity, but you
can't change your rap sheet.
As a judge once told Anthony,your life to me has been a
(55:49):
charade of misrepresentation,self-centered, manipulative
disrespect for the value ofhuman life.
End quote.
So, alleycats, thanks forjoining this unnervingly
outrageous tale of malpractice,murder, poison and identity
theft, say skeptical of bargainprocedures, basement clinics and
suits Dang.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
That plot twist I did not see coming.
But then the double plot twistof Debbie turning him in.
Then I was like fuck yeah,debbie, debbie, yes.
Debbie go what a loser, debbie,yes, debbie go.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
what a what a loser yeah, and it just goes to show
like I mean, this wasn't thatlong ago, guys, it's just a
handful of years ago.
So I'm not against electiveprocedures, do what makes you
feel good about yourself, butplease make sure that your
(56:49):
practitioners are boardcertified.
Look them up online Don't justtake the thing hanging on the
wall in the office and then, youknow, check out what their
practices are.
Is their clinic actuallylicensed to be a surgical center
?
Because that's not a smallthing.
And yet this wasn't the firstcase we've talked about where
(57:12):
people just do stuff to peoplein their basements.
These people exist.
It's so crazy, absolutely crazy.
Oh, I mean I feel like we weretalking about old times, but I
was like five years ago why didthis take place?
Speaker 2 (57:29):
and then you would say a year.
I'm like okay, that was notthat long ago.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
And then he got out of prison in 2013, guys so, yeah
, he's out there now and in 2019.
He is like advertising I'lltake care of your granny.
I'll take care of old people.
Yeah, no, he's out there, buthe's got a different name, so
don't let anybody named DrAnthony Hote H-A-U-T-E.
Look after anyone you careabout.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Floridians, be careful, there's that Right.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
So our second sponsor of the day I'm just going to
jump in is old glory.
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Speaker 2 (59:09):
Stay suspicious.
I know that's a shock.
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Truth listeners, you're welcome.
So now it's time for a medicalmishap, and this is an email.
Normally I would have amandaread it, but if you're if you're
(59:34):
scratching okay, I will read it.
Okay.
So this email says dear amanda,jenna and alley cats, I
absolutely love the pod, ohbless.
I've been a listenerpractically from day one and I
can't wait for Wednesdays toplay the new episode during my
lunch hour.
(59:54):
Oh good.
I was going to say sorry forthose days that you can't do it
all in one lunch hour.
Yeah, also, how much lunch doyou get?
We're probably five minutesfaster lunch hour at this point,
but okay, so you should.
Now I play it on a bluetooth.
Oh no, you should know, I playit on a bluetooth speaker in the
(01:00:17):
break room and we all gatheraround to hear the later, latest
episode, gasping and sometimeslaughing at the stories you tell
oh, that's not the first timeI've heard that either, though I
wanted to write from the.
No, I know we're going off inthe, we're moira in the lunch
room.
I wanted to write from thebeginning, but it took a bit of
(01:00:39):
courage and overcomingprocrastination.
I get you.
I get you so for real.
But I did it.
Yay, you did it.
So here it goes.
I've been a nurse in a rehabunit for years and you'd be
amazed at the things thatpatients misplace Phones,
slippers, wedding rings butnothing prepared me for the
(01:01:00):
great denture disappearance.
One morning Mr L, a sweet oldergentleman recovering from hip
surgery, starts panickingbecause his dentures are missing
.
So we tear the room apartbedding, drawers, the trash,
nothing.
We even check the laundry binsbecause stranger things have
happened.
But by lunchtime the whole unitis on denture watch.
(01:01:24):
His roommate swears that he sawmr l chewing something earlier,
which is he chewing his owndenture, which should not help
the mystery.
Finally, after hours ofsearching, searching, a dietary
aid comes running down the hallholding a sealed cup of vanilla
pudding from the breakfast tray,and inside, bobbing like a tiny
(01:01:46):
shipwreck, were the dentures.
Mr l apparently taken them out,tucked them into his pudding
for safekeeping and thenpromptly forgot and sent the
tray back.
When we brought them to him.
He just popped them back in andgrinned at us with vanilla
pudding still dripping off theedges, and said you found my
(01:02:07):
treasure.
The entire staff lost it Fromthen on whenever we couldn't
find something we'd joke checkthe pudding, mr L.
That's so gross too.
Mr L healed just fine dentures,and all but the image of that
dental treasure floating inpudding will haunt me forever,
and all but the image of thatdental treasure floating in
(01:02:29):
pudding will haunt me forever.
I can imagine she says keepdoing what you're doing.
Your stories educate andeliminate the issues surrounding
healthcare, which is essentialfor everyone to be aware of.
Thank you for reading this,even if it doesn't make it on
the pod.
Oh, but it did, yours truly,june.
Thank you, june.
Thank you, june.
Dentures in pudding.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Now I'm going to double check my pudding cups
before I dive in.
Guys, put them in a safe place,Right?
This does not include a puddingcup.
He's probably like they'll benice and secure in here.
They won't slide off becausethere's stuff in the pudding.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
But also I don't feel like eating the pudding stuff
let's just send that back yuckoh my goodness.
Well, that was quite an episode.
Do we know what we can expect?
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
next week, commander, if you need some time.
Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
No, I don't know I don't know, I don't know, I know
.
Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Whatever it is, I'm like so busy at work right now
and I'm like reports behind andI'm like I don't know, it's
going to be a surprise to all ofus.
Our break is over, guys.
Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Yeah, well, we get that.
Listen.
We put a lot of heart and souland time and effort into this
for for you, dear listeners.
So if you're interested incontinuing to follow doctoring
the truth wherever you enjoyyour podcasts for stories that
shock, intrigue and educate,please download, rate and review
(01:04:05):
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts.
We need that, we need to showthat we're out there and we keep
getting personal which I lovepersonal texts and emails and
whatever.
But we need you to actually getout there on the sites that
you're listening to this stuffon and actually rate and review
all good stuff, of course, rightAbout how much you love us and
(01:04:27):
what you like and what you wantto hear, so that we can continue
doing this.
But, you know, maybe in a morepublic way, are we ready to go?
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
public guys.
Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
We love our followers .
You guys are awesome.
I mean yeah, I mean 31.
We're like living the dream.
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
The 30s are the best years ever, would you agree,
amanda?
I've not made it out of.
The 30s are the best years ever, would you agree, amanda?
I've not made it out of the 30syet, but I would say it's been
definitely my favorite decade.
Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
No, you haven't.
I'm not saying yeah, they weremy favorite decade, that's the
long behind.
But, dear listeners, pleasedownload Rate Review, please
don't be shy, it doesn't costyou anything, but it'll really
really really boost our morale,but our ratings, and will help
us keep this going.
So, with that, stay safe andstay suspicious.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I got to stop doing that jingle because it's not
ours.
Goodbye, bye, sorry for all mysniffles, you're gonna have to.
Hello Amanda, Welcome Allie.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's spooky season.
We caught the germs.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Back to school germies.
Oh honey, you sound awful.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Actually you know how , when you wake up, you first
try to talk and you're like, oh,that's not good.
And then you talk throughoutthe day, so like, actually, this
sounds really good right now.
Yesterday I was like, oh, Ican't hardly talk instead of
(00:44):
your normal.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh wow, yeah, that's.
If I try to go high, she cutsout your base.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I was trying to talk to my niece on facetime and you
know, using the mother eastvoice and I like just cut out, I
was like a nope, she's probablya little happy to help by this.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Auntie wishes she could sleep because,
accompanying this, cold is aheadache.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You guys know how it feels.
You know when your pillow is aboulder.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, yeah that, oh well, dang those little Petri
dishes of germs, those students,One of these years.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Maybe I'll be immune one of these years.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I don't know.
I think these kids keepinventing new germs as they go.
Well, bless your heart.
Well, the good thing is that Ican let you take a backseat.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Listeners there may not be as much banter today,
which I hope you're sad about.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Unless we, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I guess, if not, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, but honestly, we can just jump right in and
put everyone out of their misery, because I know you're on your
edge of your seats about parttwo, dr Anthony Pignataro our
snap on, snap off, sociopath.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
This is not really a correction per se, but my
caption for the last post was Isaid something like okay,
frankenstein, but it's becauseJenna said to me just personally
I thought it was on therecording that and maybe you're
(02:37):
going to say this later, so I'msorry if I ruin it but they
called him Frankenstein in jailand so that's why I said that,
but I was like I wonder ifpeople are like that's a weird
weird that she said that.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
But yeah, I, I think we're going to mention it, but
yeah, they wouldn't let him wearhis toupee in jail.
He just this bald head withfour bolts coming out, nefarious
.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I was listening to his back, I was just like if he
caught a breeze, it's like underthere kind of like a little
like a flying squirrel, kind oflike hanging out on all corners.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Like when we used to play those parachute games, and,
and, and in elementary school.
Okay, everybody One, two, threelift.
Yeah, I mean, it's a spectacle.
It's a spectacle, it'sspectacular.
I mean, yeah, if he didanything for society, he at
(03:38):
least gave us a giggle for that,even though he's a dire person
who did not contribute muchother than that.
So not to bring it down, oh myGod Don't.
Oh, there you go.
God, you're so creepy.
Listen, you're going to need toget sick around October 31st.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Just sit in my garage a second yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Do we have any other corrections?
I, I know, jenna, you had thecorrection section, but that's a
good one.
Did we do anything else?
Oh sure, okay, we'll just saythat for now.
Meanwhile, we're going to talkabout stan plus shoes because I
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Grueling 16-hour mailroomshifts left him with blisters
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Stan's shoes are made with XLextra light material that are
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They are ranked number one inlab tests for comfort and
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Their shoes are slip-resistanton dry and oily surfaces,
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They have ventilation holes,moisture-wicking insoles and
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(05:37):
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(05:58):
So today our sources will belisted in our show notes, as
usual, but the main source isagain Last Dance, last Chance,
the novel by Anne Rule, andtrigger warnings.
The episode will discussemotional abuse, medical
malpractice and moida.
(06:18):
So be warned.
So to recap, born into privilegeas the son of a prominent
Buffalo surgeon, anthonyPignataro seemed destined for
medical greatness, but thereality was far darker.
He could only secure admissionto an unaccredited medical
school in Puerto Rico and hefailed out of three separate
(06:40):
residencies, earning thechilling label of medical
sociopath.
And yet still managed to forgecredentials to practice medicine
.
Patients paid the price indeaths and disfigurements.
Pignataro briefly tasted fameand fortune with his bizarre
invention, the snap-on toupee.
But behind the glossy marketinglay a man who performed
(07:03):
dangerous surgeries in hisbasement operating room,
including a liposuction surgeryso botched that it nearly killed
patient Terry Lamotti.
Colleagues and loved onesdescribed a pattern of
grandiosity, blame-shifting anda startling lack of empathy.
His wife, debbie, bore thebrunt of his emotional abuse
(07:24):
even as she propped up hisfraudulent career and raised
their children Exploitingloopholes and deception.
Pignataro constructed a houseof cards masquerading as medical
practice, one that wouldultimately collapse
spectacularly and horrifyingly.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I was going to say you're catching my germs, You're
rubbing off on me.
I'm getting all gravelly.
I was going to say are you?
Catching my germs.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I think you're rubbing off on me, I'm getting
all gravelly.
This week is part two, where weexplore the homicide case that
became Anthony's undoing and atwist that will send a chill
(08:05):
straight down your spine.
I'm concerned about his mishapresulting in the almost fatal
sepsis of patient Terry Lamotti.
Anthony set about looking forthe next flashy trend in plastic
surgery that would earn himmore money and bolster his fame.
He attended conferences on arelatively new technique for
breast augmentation called TUBA,which stands for transumbilical
breast augmentation, and I feellike you talked about this.
(08:27):
I was going to look it up.
Was the episode 20 about yourplastic surgeon also gone wrong?
Okay, anyway.
So TUBA involves tunneling acannula from the belly button to
the armpit area next to thebreast and then expanding the
endoscope to widen the area topush a tightly folded sac into
the area of augmentation to fillit with saline.
(08:48):
This approach wouldsignificantly reduce scarring.
Anthony visited onepractitioner, one to observe a
couple procedures and thendecided well, he was ready.
I mean he could provide thatservice himself.
After all, he sat through alecture, watched a couple.
I mean, you're totally prepared, right?
He'd been shoving underwiresinto female corpses for years,
(09:12):
so there was no need forhands-on practice.
Why not practice on thepatients so you can make money
at the same time?
I'm so mad.
An article by one of thepioneers of the surgery
highlighted that the advantagesof this approach include
minimizing risks like bleeding,infection and poor healing, as
the procedure is less invasivethan the traditional approach.
(09:34):
But he warned that the greatestdanger of any implant surgery
is that it's done by someone whois not qualified to do it.
In his article he expresseddeep concern about the fact that
many surgeons were taking aweekend course and then going on
to do it themselves.
He sagely advised the generalpublic that a patient can die
(09:56):
from any type of anesthesia andany kind of surgery and that
every potential patient shouldcheck out the qualifications of
the surgeon and theanesthesiologist, which is good
advice, but that's assuming thatthere was an anesthesiologist
involved.
Anthony felt they wereunnecessary.
That was an unnecessary expense.
He told Debbie he could easilyshow her what to look for while
(10:19):
the patient was out and therewas no need to have nurses and
other qualified staff on site.
It was just needlessly added tothe expense of the procedure.
I know For each procedureAnthony only had three possible
assistants a 22-year-old LPNwith no prior experience, his
(10:43):
wife with no formal training anda 17-year-old high school
student interested in maybebecoming a doctor someday.
In the real world, medicalassistants play a crucial role
in the outcome of any surgicalprocedure.
They are RNs and physicians andare a requirement for any
(11:03):
licensed facility.
Minor mistakes in surgery canbe life-threatening to the
patient and may result in thesurgeon losing their license,
but no matter.
Anthony was in the business ofpinching pennies to make money.
Also, I couldn't imagine himtaking the advice of an actual
qualified medical assistant,given his grandiose sense of
(11:25):
self.
His ego did not allow foradvice or other people's
opinions.
There was never enough space inthe room for that.
Let's talk about Sarah Smith.
Sarah Smith was a slender,beautiful woman tall, clear blue
eyes and blonde hair.
She'd been a cheerleader inhigh school, and her friends and
(11:46):
family described how that roleperfectly fit her personality.
She was positive, she had asunny disposition.
She was friendly to everyone,compassionate and energetic.
She was close with her family,especially her brother, david,
who was four years her senior.
Tragically, david had musculardystrophy, which is a
progressive disease.
(12:06):
So throughout their childhood,sarah took on the role of
David's friend, confidant andprotector.
According to her father Russell.
Sarah met Dan as a senior inhigh school while cheering for
his basketball team, and it waslove at first sight.
They began dating in highschool and kept up their
relationship even though longdistances were difficult, while
(12:32):
they were both attendingcolleges in different towns.
Sarah's brother, david, died inFebruary 1990 before he could
graduate from college.
In June that year, dan andSarah married.
They had their first child,nathan, shortly afterwards.
Sarah was an optimist and Dandescribes her as his soulmate,
who taught him how to look atlife positively.
Dan was tall, with broadshoulders and handsome, and
(12:54):
Sarah appeared docile and quietuntil he got to know her.
Her mother-in-law, sandy,recalled she was feisty.
She was firm emotionally.
She and Dan decided what theywanted out of life together.
Dan worked as a drafterdesigner and Sarah worked for a
law firm.
They both worked full-time andhad a business together that
(13:14):
they started in college,creating solutions for companies
that wanted to ship productslike heavy machinery and ensure
that those products arrived ingood condition.
We called it DSS for Dan andSarah Smith.
Dan said by August of 1995, theyhad saved enough for a down
payment on their first home.
Sarah took on the legal legworkfor the purchase, which saved
(13:37):
the couple money.
They were thrilled.
Dan built a shed out back forhis man toys and Debbie
discovered that she lovedgardening.
She spent hours plantingflowers and landscaping.
She called it their potluckgarden because there was a whole
section of the back gardenwhere she planted packets of
wildflower seeds and they justnever knew what would come up.
(13:59):
Dan later talked about howdaisies were her favorite
flowers.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that's so wholesome.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I love that A potluck garden.
Years after Nathan was born,the couple welcomed a daughter
named Amanda.
Aw Amanda.
Nathan was like his mother,sandy Smith said thoughtful and
strong.
He was his mother's son and hethought that she was the most
(14:27):
special mother in the world.
When Sarah had Amanda, amandawas a miniature vision of her, a
version of her mother, butAmanda's emotions were more on
the surface.
Dan and Sarah's time off workwas spent with family and good
friends.
Friday nights were special tous, dan said we rented kids'
movies and made popcorn and weall bundled up in blankets on
(14:48):
the living room couch.
We usually fell asleep there.
Sometimes in the summer we wentfor drives on Friday nights.
One night at her in-laws' house,sarah attended a farewell party
for the in-laws for an exchangestudents at their pool.
Sarah wore a bikini and Sandyrecalled that, even though Sarah
looked stunning, she revealedto Sandy how inadequate she felt
(15:11):
with small breasts.
She bemoaned the fact that,despite having two children, she
was still small.
She told Sandy to remember herin that suit as she was planning
to have augmentation surgery.
A friend of hers at college hadrecommended this plastic
surgeon who was doing a new,less invasive technique.
It would be in and out andvoila.
(15:31):
She would have moreself-confidence.
Dan and I love this guy Danremembers being confused about
why on earth Sarah would want todo this.
Because he thought she wasperfect just as she was.
But he wanted to support herand all of her desires, so he
went along with her plans.
(15:52):
Sarah received a promotion atwork six months earlier and so
she saved the extra money toafford the surgery.
When she first met Dr Pignatarofor her initial consultation,
she was impressed.
He told her oh, what a greatcandidate she was for his new
technique.
Dan later recalled he told herhe was going to charge more for
(16:12):
it eventually, but since it wasa new technique he was prepared
to give her an excellent price.
What a salesman.
Dr Pignataro noted on her chartthat he'd done a thorough workup
on Sarah, although he had notdone anything.
He didn't do any x-rays orcheck her heart rhythms with an
EKG.
These are all crucial tests todo before undergoing anesthesia.
(16:33):
He told her testing was notnecessary because she was under
40.
So Sarah signed the consentforms agreeing to the risks of
surgery and her surgery wasscheduled for August 25, 1997 at
9 30 am.
Presurgical screenings for anysurgery requiring general
anesthesia require a basicevaluation of the patient's
(16:56):
heart and lungs.
This is because the medicationsthat allow patients to sleep
throughout the procedure canalso affect the heart's rhythm,
which an EKG would identifybeforehand.
A chest x-ray is also requiredbecause these studies can easily
catch subclinical pneumoniasand rare tumors.
Her age didn't change the factthat her surgery was complicated
(17:17):
and Anthony's failure to screenher was negligent.
On Friday, august 22nd, dan andSarah hosted a movie night
popcorn camp out in the livingroom with their children.
It breaks my heart.
Right there it was almost LaborDay, school would start for
Nathan soon and Amanda wouldstart preschool On August 25th.
(17:41):
Dan drove Sarah to Bignitar'soffice for her appointment.
Almost immediately she wastaken to a back room and given a
variety of pills meant to relaxher.
Then she was returned to thewaiting room, which was
surprising to Dan because themeds had clearly affected her
and she was woozy and drowsy.
But then things got evenstranger as his wife was led
(18:02):
behind a closed door.
Anthony insisted that Dan leavethe waiting room.
Dan resisted, stating hepreferred to wait right where he
was.
Anthony came back several timesand repeated himself, urging
Anne go do errands, come backlater.
So, feeling pressured, danfinally left.
Then Sarah was taken to thebasement surgery, where Anthony
(18:24):
only had a blood pressure cuffand a pulse oximeter, which he
told his wife to watch.
There was no heart monitor and,additionally, there were no
devices available to maintainher airway and deliver oxygen
during the procedure.
Anesthetics administeredimproperly can slow or stop
(18:45):
breathing, leading to death.
It's imperative that themedical team closely monitor and
assist a patient's respirationwhen they're under anesthesia.
Dr Pignatar would have knownthis.
I mean, it's surgery 101.
However, he proceeded with theprocedure nonetheless, without
any of these safeguards in place.
He gave Sarah a cocktail ofdrugs that he hoped would keep
(19:07):
her asleep for the next coupleof hours while he operated on
her.
During the first hour, sarah'sface began to lose color.
Debbie pointed this out to herhusband, who told her to remove
Sarah's fingernail polish andexamine her nail beds.
Pignataro didn't look up fromwhat he was doing as he made the
incision at her belly buttonand moved the tube-like device
(19:30):
into it to create a pathway toher breast.
Debbie tried to alert him again, but he ignored her.
Then the pulse wax alarm wentoff.
Her O2 levels were low, soAnthony barked at the LPN to
hook up the EKG, which showed aflatline.
She was in state of cardiac andrespiratory arrest, with a
(19:50):
doctor with no crash cart, nointubation kit and not a single
registered professional aroundhim to assist.
Anthony instructed his teenageintern to call 911, and within
five minutes sirens roared intothe parking lot outside the West
Seneca practice.
When EMTs entered the basementsurgery, they were horrified to
(20:12):
discover Anthony trying tosecure Sarah's airway with a
wire coat hanger.
This is so dangerous and stupid.
Medics delivered CPR andshocked Sarah's heart into
beating before taking her to thehospital, but by the time they
loaded her into the ambulanceshe'd been without oxygen for 19
(20:33):
to 20 minutes.
She slipped into a coma in theemergency room.
Emts later described howobstructive, in a way, and
clueless, dr Pignataro had beenand like the dumbass in episode
20 apparently in his episode 20he tried to throw himself into
the ambulance with sarah and waskicked out.
(20:54):
What is it with these guys?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
probably like I'm gonna be able to talk my way out
of this.
If I can control the narrativeon the drive or something like
that, do you think it's got tobe a narcissistic drive of sorts
?
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right, because this is.
I had to keep looking back atyour episode going.
Am I telling the same story?
Because some of this stuff wasjust so crazy that it's it's.
Yeah, it's eerie that that theybehaved in the same way.
But you're right, it's probablyto do with this narcissism.
But poor Dan, dan the husband.
He had no idea that any of thiswas happening and anthony
(21:32):
refused to take responsibility.
So he told his wife that shewas the one needed to tell dan
that his wife was in criticalcondition and in the hospital.
Can you imagine, poor debbie.
So she said, dan, I mean, she'shad no training on how to be a
nurse.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
She was like I was just going to take off the nail
polish to check the nail beds.
I'm still in shock about that.
We have nothing actually herefor anesthesia, but we've got
some fucking nail polish so wecan watch your nail beds.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I know, I know, and she had faith that her husband
was a good doctor.
I mean, she didn't know.
I'm sure she didn't know halfthe stuff he was up to.
She said we've had a littleproblem.
Your wife was not breathing,but she's breathing now.
She's on the way to thehospital, I'll drive you.
(22:23):
It wasn't until, and in the bookLast Dance, last Chance by Anne
Rule she mentions that Dan waslike well, I can drive myself.
Why do I need to be driven?
But he realized as he was beingdriven it was because, you know
, he got this sense of doom.
And then he got to the hospitaland a priest came out to greet
(22:44):
him, yeah.
And then he realized theenormity of the situation.
He was taken to see sarah inthe icu.
She was comatose, with tubesand a ventilator coming out of
her body.
He said it was like somebodygrabbed my ankles.
I fell on my knees with shock.
I realized then, when hecontacted his mother, sandy, all
(23:04):
he could do was yell she's'sflatlining, she's flatlining.
The first thought that Sandyhad was oh my God, sarah's
parents have lost their son andnow they're married.
Oh gosh, yeah, I forgot aboutthe brother.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I'm also like have a priest available by all means,
and like near in case, but likelet's not be greeting at the
door, we don't need to be goinginto panic mode before we're
already entering her icu room.
You know, like like in thatsituation I would have like
already blocked out before Ieven got there.
I wouldn't even remember goingto the room, which maybe would
(23:38):
be a good thing, I don't know,yeah, god, that's like throwing
a kleenex box at people.
Yeah, that would be bad, badnews, terrible.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So the rescue team reported the tragedy to the West
Seneca Police Department.
Thank God they did that becausethey were like this basement
surgery center was not a thingthey're like it was ill-equipped
.
It was lacking basic and propertools to ensure patient safety.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I mean, they did have nail polish.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I mean, most ORs don't have that.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So they've got that in court.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Most ORs won't let them in until that stuff's been
done.
You know what I mean you can'twear nail polish to a surgery.
Anyway, knowing that his timewas limited, anthony accelerated
his surgery schedule.
I wish they could have justmade him stop right away, but he
was like I got to get as muchmoney as possible before they
take my license away.
So God forbid he actuallylearned anything about the
(24:46):
tragedy that he just propagatedthrough his dangerous and
negligent practices.
Nope, let's go gangbusters.
No lesson to learn here, folks.
It's time to make the money.
So that's what he did breakfrom this revolting story, and
(25:13):
we're gonna do a.
I don't know, can you do?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
yeah, it sounds like a boat horn, let's do that again
, all I can think about isliving in duluth yes, a fairy
noise ready but are we sayingchart?
Are we just doing?
Oh, we're saying chart, no,ready?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
are we just doing quote notices?
We're saying chart note Ready.
No, we're doing chart noteChart note that's horrible.
I love it.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, wow, geez, thanks.
Anyway, welcome to chart note.
She's like wow, that washorrible, awesome, Welcome
Exploiting my germs.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
What I did to you.
No, no, you're your foghorn wasgreat welcome to chart.
Knows where we look at what'snew, weird and potentially
life-saving in health care.
Who put?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
weird in there.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I was gonna say that's when I wasn't looking I
don't remember writing that wasthere a little fairy that got in
there and put the word weird.
All right, well, we're gonnalook at what's new, weird and
potentially life-saving.
You didn't do that, that was inmy template no, but the next
part.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Read the next part.
Is that why it says weird?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
so you don't have to scroll through pubmen at 2am.
I thought that you were saying.
This is where you found itscrolling pubmen at 2am wow,
there's been a little AI theory,maybe into our chart note
situation, which is interestingbecause it's all about
(26:47):
healthcare and AI updates.
So not only have they messedwith our template, but there's
some other stuff going on.
So, okay, ai I'm going to talkabout a few different things
just quickly.
But AI gets a stethoscopeupgrade.
So forget the old rub andlisten.
Researchers in the UK developedan AI powered stethoscope that
(27:09):
can detect heart failure, atrialfibrillation and valve disease
in 15 seconds.
That means you might walk intoa clinic complaining of just a
little fatigue and walk outknowing that the precise
difference between I need a napand my heart's quite low.
So, of course, the doctorscaution.
(27:30):
Yeah, it's fast, it's smart,but it's not a replacement for a
cardiologist.
But humans still get the finalsay.
Number two for AI andhealthcare update a digital twin
for your heart, and maybe moreso.
Ta-ta, ta-ta, t-a ta-taconsultancy services debuted a
(27:52):
digital twin heart.
It's a virtual, ai-poweredreplica of your actual heart,
running data from MRI scans andreal-time sensors to monitor
your recovery or warn of trouble.
Think of Iron Man's seatbeltfor your circulatory system.
So early tests with marathonrunners showed that it can spot
subtle signs of stress,inefficiency or damage that
(28:14):
might not trigger alarms untilmuch later.
In the not-too-distant future,this might be a wearable health
tech device giving yourcardiologist early warnings
before your heart decides tostage a mutiny.
Number three stroke diagnosisfast-tracked.
In England, stroke centers arenow using a new AI CT scan tool
(28:42):
that slashes the time fromhospital arrival to treatment
from 140 minutes to just 79.
Since time is brain is morethan a saying it's literally how
many brain cells you can save.
This has tripled the rate ofstroke patients recovering with
little or no long-termdisability.
This is amazing.
So, in other words, patientsare walking out of the hospital
with fewer limp arms and fewerregrets about ignoring that
(29:06):
nagging headache.
That seems a little cavalier,that last comment, but honestly,
yeah, to basically cut the timefrom hospital arrival to
treatment in half.
That's amazing, yeah.
Number four just greenlitamvutra, which is a drug by
(29:33):
Alnylam for treating a rare butdeadly condition called
transthyretin cardiomyopathy.
Until now, people with thisdisease have often had limited
options and survival rates havebeen grim.
Amvutra works by reducing theproduction of the mutant protein
that builds up in the heart,helping to slow or even reverse
damage.
It's not cheap, so there's asix-figure price tag per
(29:53):
injection, but for patients andfamilies facing oblique
prognosis, this is a significantleap forward.
Number five entire body scansAgain in the UK.
It's our UK, I mean what, thesize of Chicago they're doing
all the AI medical research.
Good for you guys.
(30:14):
You guys are so smart.
In the UK, researchers havecompleted a massive project full
body imaging of 100,000volunteers combined with genetic
, lifestyle and health data.
So the result is a billionanonymized scans that are
teaching us wildly things likeearly signs of dementia that can
(30:37):
show up as tiny brain sizechanges, or how fat distribution
matters more than BMI.
Okay, well, that's true.
Like where the fat is.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I don't know if it's a type that's really like I'm
going to Google it while youtalk.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Okay, number six precision medicine meets gene
editing.
The frontier of personalizedmedicine continues to expand.
Genomics and artificialintelligence are now being used
to tailor treatments to apatient's genetic profile,
particularly in cancer, rarediseases and chronic illnesses.
In some cases, crispr geneediting is being tested in
(31:19):
patients with inherited blooddisorders, with the ultimate
goal of achieving a one-timefunctional cure.
Add to that the rise ofcontinuous remote monitoring in
wearables and sensors, and we'reinching towards a healthcare
model that doesn't merely treatdisease it tries to predict it,
prevent it and neutralize it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
It feels smart, though we can just remember that
we graduated without AI.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
We graduated without AI Summarize.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
the other day I asked if I found this recipe that I
wanted to make.
But it was a gluten-free recipeand I don't have to be
gluten-free, so I don't own theflour to make things gluten-free
.
So I asked I'm like, how do Imake this?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
yummy.
How do I make this glutinous?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Like to avoid buying more flour.
Can I sub?
Can I sub?
No, I'll put this flour for thisand I got this ginormous
breakdown of like for bakedgoods.
Typically, yes For like ifyou're trying to thicken things
or like whatever.
It was like a whole detailedthing about like different
things you're trying to do withflour, if it will work or not,
(32:28):
and why not.
So I was like, wow, thank you.
So like the science behind it?
Yeah.
And then they happened tonotice that all the measurements
for the recipe were in gramsand it must know I'm not from
that side of the pond and itsaid would you like me to
convert these for you?
So I said, sure, thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, see, there you go.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I'm almost 40, though Well, you're not over 40, but
oh my God.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
That sounds so weird to say that I'm just like, okay,
I need to take this class, yeah, but you're not, so stop it.
And also, I just want to takethe class so I can be like, okay
, I know what's going down, Imean I've got no business okay
(33:19):
so can you ever?
but like, could you go to ai andbe like okay, here's a couple
of graphs, what can you pull outof this?
That's meaningful Crunch of thedata.
For me, I mean, that kind ofstuff would be great because
it'll save time.
I don't have to learn how touse Adobe whatever the hell, the
(33:40):
Adobe app that never loads andI can learn some stuff I don't
know what's going on with Adobe?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
It's never worked well.
Yeah, adobe Acro.
I don't know what's going onwith Adobe.
It's never worked well.
Adobe Acrobat.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Get a life, get a life.
Well, they're doing all theseads now, where it's like Acrobat
can do this and that and thatand that and it's stuck in my
head.
I'm like but what is itactually doing for me?
Okay, but any who's old?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Also, where are you in your life, where you're
seeing?
Speaker 1 (34:13):
I think I was on peacock watching, watching a
sitcom.
Honestly, if you want to know,there's a spinoff of the office
called the paper and I bingewatched it yesterday in its
entirety and you know, I thinkit's pretty good.
I think characters are growingon me.
But, yeah, we had somethingelse about Acrobat and it stuck
in my head.
So, yeah, ear worms that theywere.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'm not going to be able to go that long again.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Shall we go back to the case.
Yeah, yeah, maybe we can usethat as like a little snippet
and just like, keep playing it.
And just like keep playing it.
I can just make it.
I'll try it.
Amanda's like probably I'llgrab everyone at the end Direct
turn voice so you can clip that.
Go to the case.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
You know I'm feeling the brother Five hours.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Five hours mental.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Literally this probably feels like five hours.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
People are probably like skip, skip, skip skip
Skippity, what is it skippity,what is it skippity toilets you
have teenagers the kids.
I went to skippity.
I went to skippity toilets.
I still don't know what itmeans, but whatever, I'm in like
(35:23):
flint.
Well, I can't say that.
Alright, so we're gonna go backto the case.
I'm trying to avoid it becauseI really hate this guy.
We're off the rails this time,all right.
So let's go back.
And we're talking about thisdoofus.
Officers reached him at hispractice for questioning, but
Anthony was vague.
What a surprise.
(35:44):
He said he'd sedated Sarah witha local anesthetic and
something that would make hersleep if something just randomly
, something that would make hersleep.
Before he started surgery hestated he was concerned about
the pulse ox alarm andconjectured that perhaps she
took something before coming tohis office that she hadn't told
him about.
When questioning gotuncomfortable, he bowed out
(36:07):
claiming I got patients waitingfor me.
Classic.
On Monday September 1st 1997,dan had to make the devastating
decision to pull the plug onSarah.
She would be a I know it'sterrible she would be a
vegetable her whole life.
She was brain dead.
He felt that she was alreadygone and she wouldn't want the
shell vegetable.
Her whole life she was braindead.
(36:27):
He felt that she was alreadygone and she wouldn't want the
shell of her existence to bekept alive like this.
Dan later told the media thatat Sarah's memorial service he
overheard their little girl,amanda, telling one of her
friends that their moms diedwhen they were 26.
So they better be prepared,because that was going to happen
to their moms too.
I mean, I'm crying, baby girl.
(36:52):
So now we have a homicideinvestigation and the case was
escalated from a local policematter to a case for the
district attorney's office.
Seasoned detectives Pat Finityand Chuck Craven were pulled on
as lead detectives for the DA.
They didn't waste time andbegan interviewing key witnesses
.
I was like they didn't wastetime interviewing key witnesses.
(37:14):
They did, and it wasn't a wasteof time.
They didn't waste any time.
They began immediately.
What really propelled theinvestigation forward, however,
was the testimony from the22-year-old LPN who had been at
the scene.
So imagine these two old,seasoned Irish detectives and
they're like dude.
She was a little dim, this LPNlicensed practical nurse, and
(37:41):
she didn't seem to know what anymedical terms like scalpel and
ambu bag.
She called it an amber bag, andthey were like what.
And ambu bag?
She called it an amber bag andthey were like what is an amber
bag?
So she?
But eventually they were ableto scrape together, revealing
details of what actuallytranspired.
So on the day of sarah'ssurgery, anthony gave sarah 20
(38:02):
milligrams of valium and thendirected his nurse to administer
six cc's of sodium pentothal inthree cc's of versed.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
I'd be like see you next Thursday.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Bye, yeah, I'm out, and this was funny.
Before you send her back to thelobby, it's like holy cow.
So she's just sitting therelike whoo Was she in a gown with
things flapping in the breeze?
Like, come on, probably, anyway, whoo Was she in a gown with
things flapping?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
in the breeze Like come on what I don't know,
Probably.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Anyway, I guess, so combining, yeah, well, this is
before the surgery.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
He gave her these pills.
Yeah, no, I mean normally, whoknows that Pignataro's surgery,
so combining.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Oh God, combining CNS depressants is always
potentially dangerous.
Valium is used for anxiety andsodium pentothal is a
quick-acting hypnotic.
Versed acts like a sedative.
So using the three togetherwhen supervised by a trained
anesthesiologist, is potentiallysafe, but definitely lethal in
the hands of someone likeAnthony.
(39:08):
This was bad enough.
But then the nurse toldinvestigators that before the
surgery began, anthony told herto give Sarah a second dose of
sodium pentothal through her IVport.
Minutes later, as Dr Pignatarobegan his incision into her
belly button, sarah yelled ouch.
So that I mean, let that sinkin.
(39:29):
She could feel it.
So then Anthony told his nurseto give a third dose of sodium
pentothal through her port.
So even to investigators whoweren't well-versed in medicine,
it seemed like a high amount ofsubstances, especially given
Sarah's petite frame.
A few weeks later the medicalexaminer shared Sarah's
(39:51):
toxicology report results.
It confirmed their suspicions.
An excessive amount of sodiumpentothal and other substances
had caused asphyxiation.
Sarah's death was the directresult of the drugs that Anthony
(40:17):
Pignataro had given her duringher procedure and then, failing
to secure her airway sealed thedeal.
It's so senseless.
When the media got a hold of thestory, patients of Dr Pignataro
began coming forward with theirown catastrophic stories.
Among them was Terry Lamotti,the last patient to experience
Anthony's malpractice andsurvive.
That was enough for the DA tosecure a search warrant.
And while Anthony wasn't at hispractice, investigators got
inside.
(40:37):
Like many patients before them,they descended the basement
steps and found an unequippedmakeshift surgery.
A single chair sat haphazardlyat the center with a light to
help Pignataro see duringoperations.
There were a few itemsconnected to wires and very
little sterilization equipmentand no emergency kits around.
(40:59):
One might expect to find asimilar setup in a stage play
where an actor performs as aphysician For a real doctor.
The scene practically screamedmalpractice.
And there was another red flag.
Along the walls of Anthony'soffice, diplomas hung proudly in
frames, creating a picture ofthe perfect professional.
(41:21):
But Pat and Chuck weren't soquick to trust them.
They rang the institutionslisted and call after call, the
same news came back Nobody hadgiven Anthony Pignataro any of
those diplomas.
And this single shocking truthupended the entire investigation
.
Not only had this guy killed aninnocent woman by improperly
(41:42):
medicating and caring for her,but he also screwed up on a
handful of other patientswithout so much as an honest
certification, as back alleydoctors go.
This guy was as fake as theycome, but his farce met its foil
.
On January 27, 1998, anthony wasindicted before a grand jury on
six counts Manslaughter in thesecond degree, assault in the
(42:05):
second degree, falsifyingbusiness records in the first
degree, reckless endangerment inthe second degree, criminal
possession of a forgedinstrument in the third degree
and criminally negligenthomicide.
Though Anthony wanted to fightfor his innocence, his attorneys
told him that going to trialwas going to lead to more prison
time, so they urged him toplead guilty.
(42:25):
With his name on the line,anthony wavered.
It was clear to the public thathe'd made mistakes as a doctor,
but he wasn't sure he waswilling to own up to what he'd
done.
Admitting where he'd been wronghad never been his game.
Throughout the spring of 1998,39-year-old Anthony Pignataro
faced a difficult decisionaccept a plea deal or go to
(42:46):
trial on significant charges,including the criminally
negligent homicide of26-year-old Sarah Smith.
On June 8, 1998, he made up hismind.
He pleaded guilty, waiving hisright to appeal his sentence and
relinquishing his medicallicenses.
I mean, this wasn't exactly ahuge sacrifice, given that most
of his credentials were fake or,at the very least, exaggerated.
(43:08):
So three months later, onAugust 4th, he was sentenced to
six months in jail, five yearsof probation, 250 hours of
community service and a $2,500fine.
I mean for killing a woman.
That was nothing.
For killing a woman.
That was nothing.
So, but still that madePignataro the first doctor in
Western New York historyconvicted of homicide for a
(43:30):
patient's death.
The judge snarled at him.
You will never practicemedicine again anywhere in the
world.
To recap, pignataro wasstripped of his medical license,
convicted of second-degreemanslaughter, negligent homicide
and more, and was sentenced toonly six months in jail and five
years probation.
(43:51):
Six months that's barely enoughtime to watch five true crime
documentaries about your owntrial.
Victim Terry Lamardi gasped whenshe learned the news.
Watching this miscarriage ofjustice Later on she asked with
heartbreak and outrage he'sgetting away with this and yet
somehow Anthony still had theloyalty of his wife While he had
(44:18):
made some mistakes.
Debbie still believed he was agood guy.
It was a lie she'd clung to for20 years.
Debbie trusted that the latestobstacles would change her
family for the better, even ifthey now made her the wife of
the convicted felon.
Maybe in her mind, some jailtime, wow, how sad is that when
40-year-old Anthony I know, Iknow right, and they say.
(44:39):
It takes the average victim ofintimate partner violence,
whether it's emotional orphysical abuse, 11 years to get
out, once they realize yeah,yeah, so I forget where I was.
(45:03):
So when 40-year-old Anthony wasdischarged from prison on
December 7th 1998, debbie hadhope and Anthony sat on the
couch watching videos of hisson's junior high school
football games or nurturingtheir gymnast daughter.
He appeared to be renewed Forhis community service hours.
He decided to volunteer at atherapeutic writing center that
(45:24):
serves individuals fromunderrepresented backgrounds and
those with disabilities.
This was a cherry on top of thenew and improved Anthony, but
it was merely another act.
Just a week after he returnedfrom jail, debbie got a letter
(45:47):
In it, the news that Anthony washaving an affair.
The relationship had begunbefore he went to prison and
continued after his release.
This wasn't the first time thathe cheated on her, and Debbie
had forgiven him in the past,but she just wasn't sure she
could do the same this time.
She held her tongue, biding hertime and sorting out how she'd
respond.
On the one hand, she wanted herchildren to continue living the
(46:09):
lives they knew, and she wasn'tsure if she could support them
on her own.
On the other hand, anthony'sbehavior had once again
shattered their marriage,despite his claim that he was a
changed man.
As she pored over her options,debbie wondered if there were
other things her husband washiding from her.
On their bank statements, shesoon found that Anthony was
(46:31):
making regular $100 mysterywithdrawals from their account.
Desperate for answers, debbiedid more digging and found
Anthony's mistress's homeaddress.
One day in February 1999, shedecided to pay a visit.
But when she pulled up she sawtheir family cadillac parked in
the driveway.
Upset debbie drove the car home, leaving her.
(46:53):
So she got in the cadillac thatthe asshole had driven there
and left her car.
So she left her car for anthonyto find when he decided to head
home.
But that evening evening hedidn't come home, coward.
Instead he called his wife andhe tried to tell her it's not
what it looks like.
(47:15):
The excuse rang empty.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
I hate it when my Cadillac just parks itself in
the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Mm-hmm, the excuse rang empty in Debbie's ears.
Anthony pushed her too far thistime.
She had all the locks changedon the house to ensure that he
couldn't come back unless hedemonstrated a willingness to
change.
She also withdrew all the moneyfrom their joint account.
Even worse, anthony's mom foundout about his affair and
threatened to cut him off fromhis dad's estate if he left
(47:46):
Debbie.
Anthony didn't like the soundof that, so he did what he
always did when he was in apinch.
He devised a scheme.
Debbie's house was vandalizedand he came over to protect the
family.
Debbie felt safer with himaround.
On one such occasion, thevandals scrawled killer, killer,
killer in spray paint on thegarage door.
(48:07):
What she didn't know was thatAnthony was likely the one doing
the defacing, and if so, it hadthe intended effect.
Cornered by fear, debbie wasmore lenient about letting
Anthony spend the night.
By June, anthony was overregularly, but it was around
this time that Debbie fell sick.
She felt excruciating pain inher stomach, and while doctors
(48:28):
suspected it might bepancreatitis, they couldn't be
sure.
Ultimately, debbie was senthome from the hospital with more
questions than answers, and asthe summer heat rose, so did her
mystery illness.
She developed soreness andnumbness all over her body and
found it harder to rememberthings.
Some days she couldn't evenmake it out of bed, and when
that happened, her husband wouldbring her food.
(48:49):
The food never tasted right,though.
There was always a metallicflavor that tainted almost
everything she ate, and she grewweaker and weaker, and
physicians racked their brainstrying to figure out what was
going on.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
I hate him.
I did not see this coming.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
I hate him so much.
This is the twist, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, yeah, ugh.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
I'm so mad.
I am mad too.
But then she started feelingweak, numb, her coordination
failing and symptoms thatdoctors couldn't explain.
The tests came back Arseniclevels were sky high, some of
the worst ever seen in New YorkState.
Forensic analysis of Debbie'shair samples showed a slow but
(49:34):
steady increase in arsenic untilone section of her hair showed
that what should have been afatal dose, and that timeline
they could trace back.
This is amazing.
They could trace that timelinein her hair sample back to the
night that Anthony told her, toDebbie's surprise.
Oh, you don't look like youfeel well.
You should rest.
I'll bring you chicken soup.
If only that was all she got,but it was soup with a side of
(49:56):
arsenic.
Investigators learned thatAnthony had purchased taro,
which is an ant killer, witharsenic, and if it wasn't enough
I know People in prisonmentioned that they ratted on
him.
He's mounting an insurancescheme in a side room.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
One of my psychos that I covered in the past also
used.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
Tarot ant killer.
Yes, really that's crazy.
And he was asking around inprison like apparently that's
what they're like.
Well, yeah, darrow ant killerapparently that's common
knowledge ant killer, so debbietold.
Debbie told seven eyewitnessnews.
(50:41):
You don't want to believe thatyour spouse could be capable of
something like this.
After some digging,investigators, chuck and Pat
learned about Anthony's latestaffair and what a mess it had
been.
Then they found out thatAnthony's mother had told them
that he was going to lose hisinheritance if he divorced
Debbie.
Next they learned that Debbiehad a $100,000 life insurance
policy and her husband was thebeneficiary.
(51:05):
As far as new beginnings withhis mistress were concerned, it
made more sense for Anthony tokill Debbie than to leave her.
However, it wasn't until anunexpected witness came forward
that Chuck and Pat were able toconfirm their theory.
A man that's pseudonym, adam,had come forward saying he spent
time in jail with Anthony andaround that time Anthony started
doing heroin and after both ofthem got released they still met
(51:28):
.
Sometimes Adam rememberedAnthony bringing up the subject
of poison and how annoyed hiswife made him.
He hated how constantly shechecked on him.
He even said Debbie has to go.
Though Adam knew what thatmeant, he didn't think that
Anthony was capable of murderinghis own wife.
When the news reports came outabout Debbie's poisoning in
August, he almost couldn'tbelieve it.
(51:50):
At the start of September theyalso came into possession of
Anthony's mistress, whoconfirmed a similar story.
Meanwhile, debbie tried hervery best to remain loyal to the
man who poisoned her.
She didn't want to believe thathe'd done it.
But then a family memberrevealed that Anthony was still
(52:10):
actively involved in his affair.
And finally it seemed thatDebbie's unshakable devotion to
her husband had been shattered.
She was convinced that she hadto let him go.
Throughout the fall.
Debbie remained in the hospital, undergoing extensive physical
rehabilitation for thepersisting numbness in her limbs
.
Although the majority ofDebbie's symptoms were abating,
her numbness persisted andworsened.
(52:32):
Intestinal symptoms like pain,nausea and diarrhea are usually
temporary.
Doctors often stopinvestigating the cause after
those symptoms resolve.
Arsenic's toxic effects on thenerves, however, become
irreversible after one to fourweeks of repeated exposure.
This is a result of arsenic'sability to cause cellular death
(52:54):
in the body's peripheral nerves.
So during her long days spenttrying to regain mobility in her
body, debbie finally had timeto consider how she'd like to
move forward.
It wouldn't be hard to getAnthony charged with their
poisoning.
The DA investigators, chuck andPat, now had substantial
evidence.
Plus, anthony had broken hisprobation which said he had to
(53:16):
stay drug and alcohol free andcouldn't leave the county
without consent from the courts.
In the months following hisrelease from jail, anthony had
been drinking large quantitiesof tequila and his friend Adam
admitted that they'd done herointogether.
At times, anthony had crossedstate lines without permission
to attend a job interview andmade plans to move to Florida to
(53:36):
start a new life there.
On February 1, 2000, he wassentenced to the maximum prison
term of 15 years for attemptingto poison his wife Pathetic.
I mean she should have diedfrom the amount that he gave her
.
Like doctors were, likecouldn't believe that she
survived this lethal dose.
I mean she was paralyzed,immobile and in a wheelchair,
(54:00):
but she survived.
Ultimately, he was convicted ofseveral crimes, including
attempted murder.
Anthony tried to keep incontact with his son while he
was locked up, but the damage totheir relationship was
irreparable.
Ralph did end up writing to hisfather, but that letter was to
ask his father to do right bytheir family for once.
(54:22):
In December 2013, anthony wasreleased from his sentence early
for good behavior snort, and hemoved to Florida where he
settled in a Palm Beach area andchanged his name to Anthony
Hout H-A-U-T-E, like a badsequel that nobody asked for.
He immediately set aboutreinventing himself.
He moved to Florida to shed hisold name like a snakeskin
(54:45):
rebranding, and, under thisshiny new persona, he launched
Tony Haute Cosmetic and SkincareLLC.
Glamorous right.
In reality, it was the same oldPinotaro hustle, just with palm
trees.
He started selling miraclecreams and something he dubbed
DNA, which were plasmatreatments which, spoiler alert,
(55:06):
was pseudoscience in a jar.
And naturally, he did what alldisgraced fake doctors do when
they want to look legit he threwon a crisp white lab coat,
struck a pose and introducedhimself as Dr Hote.
Imagine Dr Oz meets late-nightinfomercial, only with fewer
credentials and way more felonybaggage.
Infomercial, only with fewercredentials and way more felony
(55:28):
baggage.
It was classic Pignataro anendless parade of deception.
In 2019, he advertised hisservices as a qualified carer
for the elderly.
Would you want this buffoonwith a body count looking after
your granny?
I don't think so.
Hopefully nobody took him up onthe offer.
You can change your name,change your identity, but you
can't change your rap sheet.
As a judge once told Anthony,your life to me has been a
(55:49):
charade of misrepresentation,self-centered, manipulative
disrespect for the value ofhuman life.
End quote.
So, alleycats, thanks forjoining this unnervingly
outrageous tale of malpractice,murder, poison and identity
theft, say skeptical of bargainprocedures, basement clinics and
suits Dang.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
That plot twist I did not see coming.
But then the double plot twistof Debbie turning him in.
Then I was like fuck yeah,debbie, debbie, yes.
Debbie go what a loser, debbie,yes, debbie go.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
what a what a loser yeah, and it just goes to show
like I mean, this wasn't thatlong ago, guys, it's just a
handful of years ago.
So I'm not against electiveprocedures, do what makes you
feel good about yourself, butplease make sure that your
(56:49):
practitioners are boardcertified.
Look them up online Don't justtake the thing hanging on the
wall in the office and then, youknow, check out what their
practices are.
Is their clinic actuallylicensed to be a surgical center
?
Because that's not a smallthing.
And yet this wasn't the firstcase we've talked about where
(57:12):
people just do stuff to peoplein their basements.
These people exist.
It's so crazy, absolutely crazy.
Oh, I mean I feel like we weretalking about old times, but I
was like five years ago why didthis take place?
Speaker 2 (57:29):
and then you would say a year.
I'm like okay, that was notthat long ago.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
And then he got out of prison in 2013, guys so, yeah
, he's out there now and in 2019.
He is like advertising I'lltake care of your granny.
I'll take care of old people.
Yeah, no, he's out there, buthe's got a different name, so
don't let anybody named DrAnthony Hote H-A-U-T-E.
Look after anyone you careabout.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Floridians, be careful, there's that Right.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
So our second sponsor of the day I'm just going to
jump in is old glory.
It's the ultimate destinationfor officially licensed
merchandise, offering over 300000 items for music, sports
entertainment and pop culturefans, and they've been going
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(58:26):
fascinating things apparel,movies, lifestyle brands for
people that you just don't knowwhat to get.
You know what they like, youknow, but they have everything.
You know, everyone can getanything these days on Amazon.
So what's wonderful about thisis you can really pinpoint what
somebody is into and get themsomething unique that they've
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never, they never would haveexpected, so something they
never even knew they wanted.
And you can do that, dearlisteners, by joining, by using
our special promo code.
So you go to oldglorycom anduse our promo code.
Stay suspicious, I know thatour promo code.
Speaker 2 (59:09):
Stay suspicious.
I know that's a shock.
Stay suspicious.
What is it?
Speaker 1 (59:11):
Suspicious S-T-A-Y-S-U-S-P-I-C-I-O-U-S For
15% off any product which isexclusive to our Doctoring the
Truth listeners, you're welcome.
So now it's time for a medicalmishap, and this is an email.
Normally I would have amandaread it, but if you're if you're
(59:34):
scratching okay, I will read it.
Okay.
So this email says dear amanda,jenna and alley cats, I
absolutely love the pod, ohbless.
I've been a listenerpractically from day one and I
can't wait for Wednesdays toplay the new episode during my
lunch hour.
(59:54):
Oh good.
I was going to say sorry forthose days that you can't do it
all in one lunch hour.
Yeah, also, how much lunch doyou get?
We're probably five minutesfaster lunch hour at this point,
but okay, so you should.
Now I play it on a bluetooth.
Oh no, you should know, I playit on a bluetooth speaker in the
(01:00:17):
break room and we all gatheraround to hear the later, latest
episode, gasping and sometimeslaughing at the stories you tell
oh, that's not the first timeI've heard that either, though I
wanted to write from the.
No, I know we're going off inthe, we're moira in the lunch
room.
I wanted to write from thebeginning, but it took a bit of
(01:00:39):
courage and overcomingprocrastination.
I get you.
I get you so for real.
But I did it.
Yay, you did it.
So here it goes.
I've been a nurse in a rehabunit for years and you'd be
amazed at the things thatpatients misplace Phones,
slippers, wedding rings butnothing prepared me for the
(01:01:00):
great denture disappearance.
One morning Mr L, a sweet oldergentleman recovering from hip
surgery, starts panickingbecause his dentures are missing
.
So we tear the room apartbedding, drawers, the trash,
nothing.
We even check the laundry binsbecause stranger things have
happened.
But by lunchtime the whole unitis on denture watch.
(01:01:24):
His roommate swears that he sawmr l chewing something earlier,
which is he chewing his owndenture, which should not help
the mystery.
Finally, after hours ofsearching, searching, a dietary
aid comes running down the hallholding a sealed cup of vanilla
pudding from the breakfast tray,and inside, bobbing like a tiny
(01:01:46):
shipwreck, were the dentures.
Mr l apparently taken them out,tucked them into his pudding
for safekeeping and thenpromptly forgot and sent the
tray back.
When we brought them to him.
He just popped them back in andgrinned at us with vanilla
pudding still dripping off theedges, and said you found my
(01:02:07):
treasure.
The entire staff lost it Fromthen on whenever we couldn't
find something we'd joke checkthe pudding, mr L.
That's so gross too.
Mr L healed just fine dentures,and all but the image of that
dental treasure floating inpudding will haunt me forever,
and all but the image of thatdental treasure floating in
(01:02:29):
pudding will haunt me forever.
I can imagine she says keepdoing what you're doing.
Your stories educate andeliminate the issues surrounding
healthcare, which is essentialfor everyone to be aware of.
Thank you for reading this,even if it doesn't make it on
the pod.
Oh, but it did, yours truly,june.
Thank you, june.
Thank you, june.
Dentures in pudding.
Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Now I'm going to double check my pudding cups
before I dive in.
Guys, put them in a safe place,Right?
This does not include a puddingcup.
He's probably like they'll benice and secure in here.
They won't slide off becausethere's stuff in the pudding.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
But also I don't feel like eating the pudding stuff
let's just send that back yuckoh my goodness.
Well, that was quite an episode.
Do we know what we can expect?
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
next week, commander, if you need some time.
Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
No, I don't know I don't know, I don't know, I know
.
Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Whatever it is, I'm like so busy at work right now
and I'm like reports behind andI'm like I don't know, it's
going to be a surprise to all ofus.
Our break is over, guys.
Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Yeah, well, we get that.
Listen.
We put a lot of heart and souland time and effort into this
for for you, dear listeners.
So if you're interested incontinuing to follow doctoring
the truth wherever you enjoyyour podcasts for stories that
shock, intrigue and educate,please download, rate and review
(01:04:05):
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts.
We need that, we need to showthat we're out there and we keep
getting personal which I lovepersonal texts and emails and
whatever.
But we need you to actually getout there on the sites that
you're listening to this stuffon and actually rate and review
all good stuff, of course, rightAbout how much you love us and
(01:04:27):
what you like and what you wantto hear, so that we can continue
doing this.
But, you know, maybe in a morepublic way, are we ready to go?
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
public guys.
Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
We love our followers .
You guys are awesome.
I mean yeah, I mean 31.
We're like living the dream.
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
The 30s are the best years ever, would you agree,
amanda?
I've not made it out of.
The 30s are the best years ever, would you agree, amanda?
I've not made it out of the 30syet, but I would say it's been
definitely my favorite decade.
Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
No, you haven't.
I'm not saying yeah, they weremy favorite decade, that's the
long behind.
But, dear listeners, pleasedownload Rate Review, please
don't be shy, it doesn't costyou anything, but it'll really
really really boost our morale,but our ratings, and will help
us keep this going.
So, with that, stay safe andstay suspicious.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I got to stop doing that jingle because it's not
ours.
Goodbye, bye, sorry for all mysniffles, you're gonna have to.
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