{"id":84728,"date":"2025-12-30T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/84728\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:38:10","slug":"dr-alexios-apazidis-blames-numc-procedures-for-alleged-copied-and-pasted-surgical-reports-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/84728\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Alexios Apazidis blames NUMC procedures for alleged copied-and-pasted surgical reports, records show"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Deer Park orthopedic spinal surgeon\u00a0accused of copying and pasting<\/a> 43 virtually identical surgical reports over a four-year period blamed a medical records template he was required to use while performing “standardized and highly repetitive” procedures at Nassau University Medical Center, according to new court records.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 16 filing, submitted as part of a lawsuit involving a couple who said\u00a0they were injured in a roof collapse inside their Brooklyn apartment, provides the most detailed explanation to date of\u00a0the nearly indistinguishable surgical reports submitted by Dr. Alexios Apazidis, a Harvard-educated surgeon now with Total Spine and Sports Care.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0medical insurance provider in the case is suing Apazidis, who operated on both people, arguing the injuries and roof collapse were fraudulent, and part of an alleged staged accident scheme.<\/p>\n

Apazidis told the court\u00a0that while performing spinal surgeries at NUMC, he was required to use the East Meadow public hospital\u2019s record system, which contained “recommended templates” that providers were encouraged to use.<\/p>\n

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND<\/p>\n

A Deer Park spinal surgeon, accused of copying and pasting 43 nearly identical surgical reports, attributed the issue to a medical records template he was required to utilize at NUMC, according to new court records.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 16 filing provides the most detailed explanation to date on the reports submitted by Dr. Alexios Apazidis, a Harvard-educated surgeon now with Total Spine and Sports Care.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit contends Apazidis “falsely manufactured” the\u00a0reports, knowing they would be used in lawsuits for patients, many of whom are non-English speaking immigrants involved in accident litigation.<\/p>\n

The surgeon contends he used a similar electronic health records template while performing orthopedic procedures at two New Jersey hospitals.<\/p>\n

“I used these templates and modified them to fit my practice,” Apazidis said, explaining why dozens of his\u00a0surgical reports on patients\u00a0included nearly identical language. “Many of the orthopedic procedures I perform have routine and uniform steps that must be taken in the preparation and execution of the procedure.”<\/p>\n

A spokesman for NUMC, whose board was taken over by the state earlier this year, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Apazidis, who also has an office in Westbury and lives in St. James, argued that while many surgeries are highly standardized, he would modify the template based on the patient\u2019s name and history, the kind of injury and its specific details, the implant size used and any additional procedures he performed.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn lawsuit contends Apazidis “falsely manufactured the contents of the operative reports,” knowing they would be used in lawsuits for patients, many of whom are non-English speaking immigrants involved\u00a0in accident litigation.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Apazidis, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon, who is also affiliated with New Jersey-based Precision Pain & Spine Institute, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Apazidis received privileges to perform surgeries at NUMC in 2016 and continues to maintain those privileges, records show.<\/p>\n

Dispute over alleged ‘canned justification’ for surgeries<\/p>\n

The surgical\u00a0reports in question<\/a> \u2014 which now number at least 43 patients, ranging in age from 18 to 63, on whom Apazidis allegedly performed spinal fusion surgeries between 2020 and 2024 \u2014 detail surgical procedures and are part of the\u00a0patient’s medical record. They are used for future patient care, billing and potential legal challenges.<\/p>\n

While the nature of the injuries vary \u2014 from workplace falls to car crashes \u2014 more than 800 words of highly technical language in each of the multipage surgical reports authored by Apazidis are identical in structure, findings, descriptions and language, differing only in the patient\u2019s name, the procedure date, their cervical spine level and the size of the hardware implanted during the surgery.<\/p>\n

Dan Johnston, a Melville-based attorney who filed the complaint on behalf of an insurance provider involved in the Brooklyn couple’s case, said Apazidis has repeatedly submitted statements under oath that his surgical findings were accurate and individualized.<\/p>\n

The new court filings, Johnston said, prove \u00a0Apazidis provided a “canned justification” for his surgeries that was\u00a0“wholly untethered to any clinical or diagnostic support.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0filings ask the court to refer Apazidis\u2019 conduct to the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct to investigate whether to suspend the doctor\u2019s medical license. The state Department of Health declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the surgeries occurred when Apazidis was affiliated with Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine between 2020 and 2023. Total Ortho, which has four locations in Nassau County, has been named in multiple lawsuits <\/a>alleging they provided unnecessary surgeries to individuals involved in staged accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The private company, which has denied the claims, continues to operate the Orthopedics Department at NUMC. The hospital’s\u00a0newly configured board of directors has launched an investigatory review<\/a> of surgeries\u00a0performed by Total Ortho doctors and plans to reduce the company’s outsized role in its orthopedics department.<\/p>\n

Previous misconduct allegations<\/p>\n

Apazidis has faced other allegations\u00a0of misconduct.<\/p>\n

In 2015, he had his medical license suspended for 36 months and was fined $50,000 after admitting to allegations of “negligence” and “incompetence,” according to Health Department records. The suspension was stayed, allowing Apazidis to continue practicing while on probation after paying the fine.<\/p>\n

Apazidis admitted improperly prescribing a compounded topical gel containing ketamine, a powerful anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects, to dozens of patients, records show. He also failed to use an official New York State prescription form when distributing the medication and inappropriately prescribed oxycodone without meeting with or evaluating a patient, according to the records.<\/p>\n

In August, Newsday reported<\/a> on a lawsuit filed by Kerry Dinallo,\u00a0of Amityville, who contends she twice nearly died following spinal fusion surgery performed by Apazidis.<\/p>\n

Court records allege\u00a0Apazidis severed Dinallo’s jugular vein during a 2022 surgery, leaving her near death on the operating table.<\/p>\n

Nearly two weeks after surgery, after being sent home from St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, Dinallo’s carotid artery ruptured from her surgical wound, leaving her again clinging to life, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Dinallo said she can eat only baby food or yogurt, and coughs and vomits daily. She said she has twitches in her left eye and limited use of her right hand, major gaps in her short- and long-term memory, and she suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

And Dinallo is not the first patient of Apazidis to accuse the surgeon of shoddy operating room technique.<\/p>\n

Court records show Crystal Hodgson, of East Islip, suffered an aneurysm of her carotid artery, a jugular blood clot and a\u00a0defect in her vertebral artery \u2014 all following spinal surgery performed by Apazidis in 2022. Hodgson suffered four post-surgical strokes and needed to relearn how to walk and speak.<\/p>\n

Apazidis’ surgical notes detailed none of those injuries.<\/p>\n

In his statement as part of\u00a0the Brooklyn lawsuit, Apazidis insists\u00a0his notes were accurate and denied there was a laceration to a major artery during Hodgson\u2019s surgery.<\/p>\n

“To my knowledge neither the Hodgsons, nor third-party plaintiffs\u2019 attorney [Johnston] are medical experts qualified to opine about my medical treatment or documentation standards in the medical field,” Apazidis wrote.<\/p>\n

But Johnston\u00a0said a half dozen medical professionals that reviewed the surgeon’s reports contradicted his findings or the need for surgery.<\/p>\n

“Dr. Apazidis has been recycling substantively identical operative reports, and swearing them to be true, for a period in excess of four years into the present \u2014 and in many cases, where the justification for such surgeries are utterly indefensible,” Johnston wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

\n\tRobert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Deer Park orthopedic spinal surgeon\u00a0accused of copying and pasting 43 virtually identical surgical reports over a four-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2953,8015,9,24,63,19184,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-84728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-health","tag-nassau","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-qs","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}