Surgeon Melvyn Flye has been arrested and charged with felony perjury in Arkansas due to false testimony given under oath during a medical malpractice case. Flye was originally licensed in several states, and was frequently used as an expert witness in medical malpractice cases in Arkansas and Missouri.
In 2009, Washington University, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the St. Louis VA suspended Flye’s surgical privileges. Reasons included failure to maintain liability insurance, repeated problems with pre-operative judgment, failure to request help from senior colleagues when life threatening complications occurred, failure to properly supervise residents and concerns about post-operative complication rates.
Yet, in mid 2010, Flye served as a plaintiff’s expert witness in a botched gallbladder surgery case in Arkansas. As part of his testimony he told the jury that he was on staff at Barnes-Jewish Hospital without restrictions, despite the fact that his surgical privileges had been revoked. He also lied about how often he had been sued for medical malpractice.
Continue Reading
Arkansas prosecutors opened an investigation against Flye, and charged him with felony perjury – a very rare event. Flye has since voluntarily surrendered his medical license in Missouri and turned himself in to authorities in Arkansas on the felony charge. He is currently free on $50,000 bail pending trial.
