In a Feb. 9 decision<\/a> made by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), a five-person panel delivered the penalty against Stefan Joseph Konasiewicz, who has clinics in Toronto, Hamilton and Newmarket and was previously the subject of a year-long medical supervision in connection with separate allegations of professional incompetence in 2022.<\/p>\n\u2018A lack of judgment, skill or knowledge\u2019<\/p>\n
Following that supervisory period, Konasiewicz\u2019s practice was reassessed by a CPSO-approved assessor who claimed the neurosurgeon \u201cfailed to maintain the standard of practice in 12 of 15\u201d patient charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis treatment plan did not change depending on results obtained. He repeated multiple injections without change, weekly or biweekly, even when there was evidence that the treatment was ineffective,\u201d a summary of a April 10, 2024 report reads.<\/p>\n
The review went on to say that while Konasiewicz did not expose any of those 15 patients to harm or injury, \u201che displayed a lack of judgment, skill or knowledge in 8 out of 15 charts, including performing sciatic nerve blocks and paravertebral injections for conditions where they were not indicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Months after the report\u2019s release, Konasiewicz performed a series of nerve blocks on a 70-year-old patient he had been seeing since 2015 for neck and shoulder pain.<\/p>\n
The patient, referred to as \u201cPatient A,\u201d collapsed after the procedure and died. The report noted that the patient had a history of cardiac issues. <\/p>\n
\u2018Significant risks to patient safety\u2019<\/p>\n
A separate review into that patient\u2019s death found that Konasiewicz\u2019s technique for performing the injections did not meet accepted standards and the improper needle placements presented \u201csignificant risks to patient safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecifically, there were multiple instances where Dr. Konasiewicz directed needles toward the spinal canal (not the intended target) without confirming their final position using required lateral views or ensuring adequate imaging quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Office of the Chief Coroner later determined that Patient A had experienced an \u201cinadvertent intrathecal injection of local anesthetics,\u201d meaning the injection went directly into their spinal canal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if any criminal charges were laid against Konasiewicz\u2019s following the patient\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The penalty issued to Konasiewicz by the tribunal is in line with a joint submission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were serious deficiencies in Dr. Konasiewicz\u2019s decision making as to when and how many injections he performed and most significantly, there were clinical deficiencies in the techniques he used to safely perform these injections.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report noted that Konasiewicz admits the facts regarding the reassessment of his practice and his care of Patient A.<\/p>\n
The CPSO barred Konasiewicz from performing similar injections in the aftermath of the patient\u2019s death. However, the province\u2019s physician watchdog said it had received a letter on May 5, 2025 from a patient who claimed Konasiewicz was still administering the shots.<\/p>\n
The doctor was handed a suspension on May 12 as a result of the breach. The six-month extension of his suspension serves to address the goals of \u201cspecific and general deterrence,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n
In addition to the suspension, Konasiewicz will be required to appear before the panel to be reprimanded. He will also be required to retain another clinical supervisor, at his own expense, for a 12-month period when the suspension is lifted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Ontario neurosurgeon specializing in pain medicine is facing a six-month licence suspension following a review of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":["post-586518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}