USA TODAY By John Pacenti
Berto Lopez committed malpractice after the West Palm Beach woman’s childbirth
More than 3½ years after Onystei Castillo-Lopez died of a postpartum hemorrhage after giving birth to her second child, the Florida Board of Medicine revoked her obstetrician’s medical license.
The board on Friday went beyond an administrative judge’s recommended sanction of a one-year suspension, agreeing with the Department of Health that the most severe penalty was warranted for Dr. Berto Lopez.
Lopez, 62, has been an OB-GYN in Palm Beach County since the late 1980s and has had two prior complaints filed against him by the state Health Department, alleging he violated the standard of care. He has practiced in West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.
Board members rejected Lopez’s argument that he no longer posed a threat because he voluntarily gave up surgeries and deliveries in his practice.
Lopez’s attorney said she will appeal the decision on several grounds.
Castillo-Lopez, 40, died in the early morning hours of July 26, 2017, at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Her baby, a son, survived.
At the time of her death, Lopez was under a settlement agreement with the Health Department not to perform any surgeries without the supervision of another physician.
Those supervisory restrictions were imposed after the April 2014 death of another patient at St. Mary’s Medical Center.In a settlement agreement with the Health Department, he agreed to supervision in April 2017 after a patient died from an arterial bleed following a C-section and tubal ligation.
Yet, even with supervision, Castillo-Lopez died a few months later because Lopez performed the wrong procedure to stop the bleeding, according to an administrative complaint…
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