Medical Justice provides free consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a free consultation – or use the tool shared below.
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We’ve been protecting doctors from medico-legal threats since 2001. We’ve seen it all. Here’s a sample of typical recent consultation discussions…
- Former employee stole patient list. Now a competitor…
- Patient suing doctor in small claims court…
- Just received board complaint…
- Allegations of sexual harassment by employee…
- Patient filed police complaint doctor inappropriately touched her…
- DEA showed up to my office…
- Patient “extorting” me. “Pay me or I’ll slam you online.”
- My carrier wants me to settle. My case is fully defensible…
- My patient is demanding an unwarranted refund…
- How do I safely terminate doctor-patient relationship?
- How to avoid reporting to Data Bank…
- I want my day in court. But don’t want to risk my nest egg…
- Hospital wants to fire me…
- Sham peer review inappropriately limiting privileges…
- Can I safely use stem cells in my practice?
- Patient’s results are not what was expected…
- Just received request for medical records from an attorney…
- Just received notice of intent to sue…
- Just received summons for meritless case…
- Safely responding to negative online reviews…
We challenge you to supply us with a medico-legal obstacle we haven’t seen before. Know you are in good hands. Schedule your consultation below – or click here to visit our booking page.
Dr. Hasan Gokal is a physician who worked for the Harris County Public Health department in Houston. He helped give COVID-19 vaccinations. He injected his 47-year-old wife with a vaccine, technically allowing her to “cut in line.” 47-year-old individuals living at home were not in the queue.
Dr. Gokal was fired.
Harris County’s district attorney, Kim Ogg, soon issued a news release with the headline: “Fired Harris County Health Doctor Charged With Stealing Vial Of Covid-19 Vaccine.”
“He abused his position to place his friends and family in line in front of people who had gone through the lawful process to be there,” Ms. Ogg said.
The district attorney filed criminal charges. A mug shot was taken. The world labeled him a bad person.
In my estimation, Dr. Gokal did nothing wrong. He just practiced good medicine.
Details matter.
Dr. Gokal moved to Texas in 2009. He worked in a suburban emergency department. He provided pro-bono assistance in rebuilding houses and delivering medical care after Hurricane Harvey devastated the Gulf Coast in 2017.
When the pandemic hit, he moved out of his house. Why? To mitigate the risk of infecting his wife, Maria, 47, who has pulmonary sarcoidosis. Maria experiences shortness of breath with minimal exertion.
The Harris County Public Health department recruited Dr. Gokal to become the medical director for its Covid-response team. The job paid less, but it limited his exposure to the coronavirus in emergency rooms. He could keep his wife safe.
On December 22, 2020, Dr. Gokal participated in a conference call instructing on “protocols” for delivering the Moderna vaccine. Each vial has 10-11 doses. Once the seal is broken, the doses are good for 6 hours. Would a dose be useful after 6 ½ hours? Probably. But the protocol was the protocol.
The first recipients were in the 1(a) category – healthcare workers and residents in long term care facilities. The next group was the 1(b) category – people over age 65 or with a health condition that increases the risk of COVID-related illness.
After that, [Dr.Gokal] said, the message was: “Just put it in people’s arms. We don’t want any doses to go to waste. Period.”
One week later, on December 29th, Dr. Gokal supervised an event intended mainly for emergency workers. The event was low-key. Not many knew about it. About 250 doses were administered.
At 6:45 PM, as the event was about to end, an eligible person arrived. A nurse punctured a fresh vial to pull out the vaccine. That started the clock for the remaining ten doses.
The likelihood ten people would show up to a minimally publicized event that was winding down was, well, close to zero.
Dr. Gokal turned into a man on a mission. He wanted every remaining does in someone’s arm.
[Dr. Gokal] said he first asked the event’s 20 or so workers, who either refused or had already been vaccinated. The paramedics on-site had left, and of the two police officers, one had been vaccinated and the other declined the doctor’s offer.
Dr. Gokal said he called a Harris County public health official in charge of operations to report his plans to find 10 people to receive the remaining doses. He said he was told, simply: OK.
So as he started the drive to his home in a neighboring county, he said, he called people in his cellphone’s contact list to ask whether they had older relatives or neighbors needing to be immunized.
He hit paydirt.
When he reached his house, two women with health problems (one in her 60s, another in her 70s) were ready, willing, and waiting. BAM! Inoculated. Two doses down. Eight to go.
The doctor got back in his car … and drove to a Sugar Land house with four eligible people: a man in his late 60s with health issues; the man’s bed-bound mother, in her 90s; his mother-in-law, in her mid-80s and with severe dementia; and his wife, her mother’s caregiver.
On the road, he was directed to a housebound woman in her late 70s and gave her a vaccine.
Three doses to go.
Three doses remained, but three people had agreed to meet the doctor at his home. Two were already waiting: a distant acquaintance in her mid-50s who works at a health clinic’s front desk, and a 40-ish woman he had never met whose child relies on a ventilator.
As midnight approached, Dr. Gokal said, the third would-be recipient called to say that he wouldn’t be coming: too late.
With 15 minutes to spare, Dr. Gokal injected his wife with the last dose. The alternative was simply to discard what remained. Should have been an easy decision.
The next day, he filed his paperwork. He let his supervisor and colleagues know what he did and the rationale. He was entirely transparent.
Yep, he was fired.
The officials maintained that he had violated protocol and should have returned the remaining doses to the office or thrown them away, the doctor recalled. He also said that one of the officials startled him by questioning the lack of “equity” among those he had vaccinated.
“Are you suggesting that there were too many Indian names in that group?” Dr. Gokal said he asked.
Exactly, he said he was told.
The DA’s office never contacted Dr. Gokal for his side of the story.
Dr. Gokal’s defense attorney requested a copy of the formal protocol that he supposedly violated.
It turned out in late December there were no written protocols.
Fortunately, a criminal judge dismissed the case for lack of probable cause.
Judge Franklin Bynum wrote:
“In the number of words usually taken to describe an allegation of retail shoplifting, the State attempts, for the first time, to criminalize a doctor’s documented administration of vaccine doses during a public health emergency,” he wrote. “The Court emphatically rejects this attempted imposition of the criminal law on the professional decisions of a physician.”
The Texas Medical Association and Harris County Medical Society rallied behind the doctor.
The DA said the matter would be presented to a grand jury. The case is not yet over.
Compare and contrast how COVID vaccines have been delivered in Israel. Israel does not manufacture its own vaccines. It buys them from companies in other countries. Israel has vaccinated more of its population than any other country.
The story of a pizza guy in Israel tells it all.
Here is a prime example showcasing Israel’s “organized chaos”. It was the end of the day in a vaccine center. A few doses of the vaccine remained and would soon expire. The nurses go out, spot a pizza delivery guy, and call him: “Pizza guy! Wanna vaccine?” Jab! And another person has spike mRNA!
My take. Leave Dr. Gokal alone. Give him back his job. Compensate him for his time off. Keep injecting as many people as possible.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. In closing, Medical Justice is equipped to address a bevy of medico-legal threats – including counsel specific to COVID-19. Use the tool below to schedule your complimentary consultation with our Founder and CEO, Jeff Segal, MD, JD, or click here to visit our booking page. Scheduling your consultation is quick and easy.
Medical Justice provides free consultations to doctors facing medico-legal obstacles. We have solutions for doctor-patient conflicts, unwarranted demands for refunds, online defamation (patient review mischief), meritless litigation, and a gazillion other issues. We also provide counsel specific to COVID-19. If you are navigating a medico-legal obstacle, visit our booking page to schedule a free consultation – or use the tool shared below.
"Can Medical Justice solve my problem?" Click here to review recent consultations...
We’ve been protecting doctors from medico-legal threats since 2001. We’ve seen it all. Here’s a sample of typical recent consultation discussions…
- Former employee stole patient list. Now a competitor…
- Patient suing doctor in small claims court…
- Just received board complaint…
- Allegations of sexual harassment by employee…
- Patient filed police complaint doctor inappropriately touched her…
- DEA showed up to my office…
- Patient “extorting” me. “Pay me or I’ll slam you online.”
- My carrier wants me to settle. My case is fully defensible…
- My patient is demanding an unwarranted refund…
- How do I safely terminate doctor-patient relationship?
- How to avoid reporting to Data Bank…
- I want my day in court. But don’t want to risk my nest egg…
- Hospital wants to fire me…
- Sham peer review inappropriately limiting privileges…
- Can I safely use stem cells in my practice?
- Patient’s results are not what was expected…
- Just received request for medical records from an attorney…
- Just received notice of intent to sue…
- Just received summons for meritless case…
- Safely responding to negative online reviews…
We challenge you to supply us with a medico-legal obstacle we haven’t seen before. Know you are in good hands. Schedule your consultation below – or click here to visit our booking page.
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Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Dr. Jeffrey Segal, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Medical Justice, is a board-certified neurosurgeon. Dr. Segal is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; the American College of Legal Medicine; and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is also a member of the North American Spine Society. In the process of conceiving, funding, developing, and growing Medical Justice, Dr. Segal has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice issues, counterclaims, and internet-based assaults on reputation.
Dr. Segal was a practicing neurosurgeon for approximately ten years, during which time he also played an active role as a participant on various state-sanctioned medical review panels designed to decrease the incidence of meritless medical malpractice cases.
Dr. Segal holds a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, where he also completed a neurosurgical residency. Dr. Segal served as a Spinal Surgery Fellow at The University of South Florida Medical School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the AOA Medical Honor Society. Dr. Segal received his B.A. from the University of Texas and graduated with a J.D. from Concord Law School with highest honors.
In 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on the discovery and development of first-of-class pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dr. Segal is also a partner at Byrd Adatto, a national business and health care law firm. Byrd Adatto was selected as a Best Law Firm in the 2021 edition of the “Best Law Firms” list by U.S. News – Best Lawyers. With over 50 combined years of experience in serving doctors, dentists, and other providers, Byrd Adatto has a national pedigree to address most legal issues that arise in the business and practice of medicine.
Do you know what is the difference between Dr Gogal and me? He got caught. God help us.
Something is F’d up in Texas. Give him his job back. The ethnicity of the recipients is the same as the ethnicity in his cell phone. Ridiculous. The prosecutor should now be fired for getting in the way of the pandemic response.
The doctor is a hero not a criminal. He drove all over to give vaccines so they weren’t wasted. We are not going to end this pandemic by squirting vaccine into the garbage can.
I would write down very carefully what happened, make sure it makes it to the newspapers both now, and when the DA runs for reelection.
Hospital admin and people who work under them do not truly care for doctors or patients. Since , they pay lot of money to politicians, they have all the controls . Appreciate what you do and give us voice and platform to stand .
As usual you got it right.
We hear stories like this all the time where some moron with no medical background or some bureaucrat decides a doctor did something wrong Next the doc is treated like a sociopath for the next 2 years or so until the system runs through its convoluted course.
Thank you for what you do.
This is a travesty. It will go into the national provider database and he will have difficulty getting a job the rest of his career. He went above and beyond his job to make sure it wasn’t wasted.
“First, Do No Harm.” & “Do Good.”
The Physician, Dr. Gogal, did his job and did the right thing.
What is justice in this case?
Proper compensation for Dr. G and proper consequences for those who harassed the physician for doing his job.
Dr. Mike
Michael F. Mascia, MD, MPH
As usual, no good deed goes unpunished!
A doctor does exactly what he should and is helping the community by not wasting doses of a vaccine that is still not abundant. There is always some jackass DA who can’t wait to make a name for himself.
I am an anesthesiologist that works at a GI endoscopy center that is not affiliated with a hospital. I am 60 years old and healthy. Apparently anesthesiologists that work at endoscopy centers are the highest risk individuals of ALL. Constantly in the face of patients coughing sneezing and breathing. I wasn’t able to get vaccinated since I had no affiliation with a hospital. My 3 daughters that all are MD’s at various hospitals were vaccinated relatively quickly, due to affiliations. I called the hospital nearest my house, Dr Phillips Hospital in Orlando Florida. At first they said I had to register online and didn’t fit the criteria they were going by. I clearly explained my situation and said I would come and sit in the lobby and wait for any extra doses at the end of the day. I was told that wasn’t possible. I insisted I knew how scheduling works and it never goes as planned. I was confident there would be left over doses. Finally, the receptionist on the phone said “give me your number, if any left over I will call you”. I said I could be there in 10 minutes. 1 hour later they were closing and had extra doses. 10 minutes later I showed up and 4 people were ready to vaccinate me. I was very appreciative that everyone there used good sense and didn’t waste the dose. Like the doctor in Texas “doing what’s right, doesn’t always follows the rules”. As physicians we practice the art of medicine, we don’t always follow policies or algorithms to do “what’s right “! Thank you to those at Dr Phillips hospital that used their brains and did what’s right. Long before other institutions figured it out.
It was unnecessary to read any further than about this doctor’s wife having active, symptomatic pulmonary sarcoidosis.
This is a complex, poorly understood granulomatous disease that is often refractory and more often than not requires a kind of “try anything to see if it works” approach.
The only two words necessary to defend this doctor are his wife’s diagnosis.
Michael M. Rosenblatt, DPM
What is wrong with these fucking people. The DA should be shot and the hospital administrator who fired him disciplined and released. Who else tries that hard to do the right thing. The guy is a hero.
Bravo you! You, your reaction, and your action plan ( 😉 are spot on! I wish more physicians expressed authentic outrage as you have. I think this way (I was a physician in the Navy) and am frequently in the minority.
As a pup I was taught that ethical professional behavior was always a higher standard than law or anybody’s “policy”, such that adhering to ethical professional behavior assured the physician of not running afoul of them. “Do the right thing” was safe harbor.
Not so much these days, it seems.
And not just in medicine.
Dr Hasan Gokal should get his job back.
But no ethical journal should ever depict a ruthless apartheid state like Israel as a model for COVID vaccinations as that country is working hard to deny COVID vaccinations to millions of Palestinians imprisoned under its brutal militatry occupation and siege.
What a dirty, antisemitic thing to say, you scumbag.
It is not Israel’s job to vaccinate the Palestinians. Despite this, they have done so. They have also vaccinated their own Arab citizens.
Anyone who thinks Israel is apartheid is guilty of ignoring truisms just the same as those who claim the election was rigged. You probably think the world is flat too.
Palestinians (made up term, in any case) were offered peace innumerable times, and refused. They are terrorist, welfare state animals. As, most likely, are you.
My favorite saying is that “No good deed goes unpunished.” The doctor did the right thing particularly given his wife’s medical condition. The idiots over seeing the process should all be fired and be replaced with people with a brain.
We now exist in a world where right is wrong and wrong is right.
Using vaccine is wrong. Throwing away vaccine is right.
How can we as ethical physicians navigate this doublespeak?
We need more laws to prevent the criminalization of medicine.
The DA is now seeking a grand jury to indict the doctor.
Grand juries will indict a ham sandwich. Try serving on one, one day and you’ll see what I mean.
But since the judge has already dismissed the case, trying to indict the doctor is akin to double jeopardy. But that doesn’t seem to matter either where DAs are trying to get notches on their belt as they run for higher office. All of the prosecutorial seeking the truth and only indicting people as a last resort are all gone. Now it is indict anyone for anything. We need to start eliminating white collar crimes from the criminal code and start taking power away from DAs to prosecute meaningless crimes. Hey if they can do it for the illegal aliens crossing the border and looking the other way at lesser felonies, why can’t they stop prosecuting doctors?
The doctor needs a rabid pit bull defence attorney. My dad was a ferocious advocate for his clients. It’s too bad he’s passed away. Could’ve helped this poor colleague.
I appreciate Dr. Woody’s seeming panic at his inability to get a vaccine. I am a dentist – in peoples’ faces all day, being breathed on, coughed upon, and, unlike Dr. Woody, generating aerosol. I also wear 2 masks, gloves, jackets up to here, with a medical-grade purifier going in each operatory all day, and a UV-ozone machine turned on in each room after each patient. I am category 1A, eligible for vaccine as of 4 January. I called a local hospital, only to be told that they are vaccinating their own personnel, sorry. Even though a number of their personnel are my patients. I finally got my first vaccine3 weeks ago. Half of my staff still can’t get scheduled.
NY State still has no problem throwing out vaccine at the end of the time period (highly stupid, in my opinion). In San Diego, CA, anyone can go to a vaccination center, whether or not they are eligible, a get vaccinated at the end of the day, assuming there is vaccine open and available. It may take a couple of attempts – but in the end the vaccine is not wasted and the people are vaccinated.
Bravo Dr. Gogal.
This Doctor saved public property been ruined by donating his own time and effort, and perhaps saved some of the people’s life by his heroic effort! I mean he did not even plan to vaccinate his wife who is definitely needed it. I think it is insane to punish this great doctor for his absolute professional duty-treat patient and safe lives with criminal law…..
So just waist ten dose then is the “right protocol” ? we have a insane DA here, no touch of human basic instinct.
At a local hospital at 11:45 PM there were no more eligible recipients available for vaccine that would shortly expire. Overhead call: “Anyone eligible for the vaccine come to the distribution POD.” A physician called, asking, can I bring my ineligible wife so that the dose is not wasted? “No!”
Another MD went down and said “my second dose is due tomorrow, I will take it today.” The answer was “No”
The dose was wasted, by nurses afraid to violate protocol. The lunatics are officially running the asylum.
If the facts are as stated then Dr.Gokal did nothing wrong. He is actually a hero for not wasting vaccine. Sometimes in the US too many ridiculous rules and protocols. Firing him was over the top. He should get back his job, and be compensated for time lost…if these are the facts, and there is no other side to the story.
This is just ridiculous, sad., infuriating. This doctor is a hero, not a criminal. Pray for karma.
Love this response!
Where are our professional societies in this? Why isn’t the AMA all over this and re-establishing physician leadership in these matters?
It’s heartwarming to read the positive sentiments regarding such a clear-cut case. The truth is that in order for physicians to be successful at what they do they need a looser leash. Sometimes we don’t make the best judgements but usually we have good intent. If an error is made because of some potential bad outcome which we couldn’t make out in our heads using stats it’s best to educate the physician and the medical community, have an open discussion, and focus on the goal. Not sure punishing the DA or firing the MD would change healthcare for better. Marring a physician’s professional record is devestating which I know from personal experience. But it harms the community far more than us. That physician will always have to report those events to all future potential employers and malpractice credentialing. A public facing position in the future is likely out of the question and so is any teaching position and possibly many volunteer positions.
Presuming all occurred as described above: Kim Ogg is an idiot, and appears to be racist as well,(too many Indian-sounding names!!!???) I will pray that Ms. Ogg,from this point, onward,,be treated only by physicians who are so stupid that they would perform in the exact way, opposite the doctor she CHARGED. Also,as mentioned above, where are the “PROFESSIONAL” Societies…no answer expected…in my 30+ years of practice, they all seem to be on the side AGAINST THE PHYSICIAN!?!?. Sadly,this,in my experiences true with regards to State Agencies,as well as Hospital Boards. There is a real hope for “Justice” though. There are SO MANY KIM OGGS out there now, that she and others like her, will someday face illness, then be face to face with the type of physician she appears to favor…an idiot like herself