The doctor was suspended for six months after tribunal ruling and is not ‘currently practising’ medicine<\/p>\n
The Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal has suspended a Newmarket neurosurgeon over allegations of misconduct, including a patient death after alleged mistreatment.<\/p>\n
The tribunal released its findings March 30 for a hearing in the\u00a0case of\u00a0Dr. Stefan J Konasiewicz, who was heard Feb. 9. Konasiewicz previously worked in Newmarket\u2019s York Medical Health Centre, as well as offices in Toronto and Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He faced a six-month suspension of his registration, along with 12 months of clinical supervision. This came after Konasiewicz performed a series of nerve blocks to treat a 70-year-old patient\u2019s pain, after which the patient collapsed and eventually passed away.<\/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 the ruling said in part.<\/p>\n
Konasiewicz has faced controversy in the past. He was initially suspended for an ongoing investigation in May 2025<\/a>. He was investigated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) in 2022 for professional misconduct and was restricted to treating 45 patients per day with pain, and was later forced to resign as the medical director of Marcdo\u2019s Derma Care Cosmetic Clinic. He was also reprimanded in Minnesota and Wisconsin for misconduct in 2011 and 2017, according to a 2017 Toronto Star investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the latest finding, a patient \u2014 referred to as Patient A in the document\u2014 first met Konasiewicz in 2015 for neck and shoulder pain. On Oct. 31, 2024, Patient A saw Konasiewicz again, at which time Konasiewicz performed a series of nerve blocks. Following the procedure, Patient A collapsed, could not be resuscitated, and died despite the initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.<\/p>\n The CPSO reviewed the incident and expressed concern. The Office of the Chief Coroner also expressed concern about his practice on Jan. 17, 2025, opining that \u201cPatient A had experienced an inadvertent intrathecal injection of local anaesthetics,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n In April 2025, Dr. Geoff Alexander Bellingham reviewed the case and stated that Konasiewicz\u2019s technique did not meet the standards of practice.<\/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 the report said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe also identified concerns about the use of alcohol neurotomy in the cervical spine without image guidance, the use of nerve blocks not indicated for chronic pain management, and the performance of multiple injections in a single session without properly balancing the risks and benefits of such.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Konasiewicz agreed he had not met the standards of care, according to the report. Further review of Konasiewicz\u2019s other patient charts found that 12 out of 15 of them were not meeting the standard of practice.<\/p>\n Konasiewicz was halted from making any injections or nerve blocks for chronic pain as of Jan. 31, 2025. A patient letter received May 5, 2025, accused him of breaching that restriction on several occasions, which was confirmed and resulted in his May 2025 suspension.<\/p>\n Both the CPSO and Konasiewicz agreed on a six-month suspension for his conduct. A clinical supervisor from the college will also observe his treatment to varying levels over 12 months. Six months after the completion of supervision, he will undergo a reassessment. The six-month suspension commenced from Feb. 10, 2026. He was also ordered to pay $6,000, reflecting the tariff rate in the rules of procedure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are satisfied that the proposed penalty would not bring the administration of physician regulation into disrepute. We are also satisfied that the proposed penalty appropriately balances the penalty goals: the protection of the public, general and specific deterrence, rehabilitation, and expressing the tribunal and the profession\u2019s disapproval of the misconduct,\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n Asked to comment on the situation and whether or not the incident occurred in Newmarket, Medicentres,\u00a0which oversees\u00a0the York Medical Health Centre in Newmarket, said it is aware of the ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can confirm he is not currently practising within our clinics,\u201d the company\u00a0said. \u201cOut of respect for patient privacy and the college regulatory process, we are unable to comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The doctor was suspended for six months after tribunal ruling and is not ‘currently practising’ medicine The Ontario…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,225033,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-591232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthnewmarketontario-college-of-physicians-and-surgeonspolitics-and-government","12":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591232","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=591232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}