Word: najarian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...long as ALG remained the central issue, Najarian's defenders could claim he had done nothing more immoral than run afoul of federal bureaucrats. But earlier this year, university officials disclosed irregularities in the surgery department's handling of federal grant money, including apparent diversions of funds to support the ALG program. Investigators also released documents suggesting that Najarian sometimes cheated on his expense accounts. Seven years ago, for instance, he allegedly asked the corporate sponsor of a conference held in Stockholm to reimburse him for $4,122 in travel charges after submitting a bill to the university claiming...
...surgeon's defenders argue that whatever mistakes he made, they were not the product of greed. Though Najarian earned as much as $600,000 a year and liked to fly first class, he shunned ostentatious cars and sent all his children to Minneapolis public schools. "My father could have made millions of dollars a year as a surgeon for the rich and famous," observes Jon Najarian, the eldest of four sons. "But it was never his goal to make millions of dollars. It was his goal to help people...
...While Najarian may not have been greedy, he was certainly ambitious. He saw himself, says a former colleague, as a pacesetter who was moving the field of transplant surgery forward, someone who couldn't be bothered with the details of the rules because he was changing the rules. And while Najarian is a personable man who enjoys chatting with patients, he's also an opinionated, imposing figure who can intimidate friends and foes without even trying. University president Hasselmo sees Najarian's situation as "a tragedy in the classic sense. It's the story of a hero who is destroyed...
Just wait for the trial, says Najarian, who believes he will be vindicated. In the meantime, his downfall has already produced heavy casualties. Transplant patients have lost a good drug, the University of Minnesota has lost millions of dollars in annual income, and the field of transplant surgery has lost a charismatic leader...
...larger lesson is that medical-school departments should not be allowed to operate as independent fiefdoms with little external oversight. At the University of Minnesota, at least, the lax administrative system that let Najarian get in such serious trouble is belatedly undergoing a radical overhaul-in hopes that none of the school's other stars will fall so far so fast...