{"id":481900,"date":"2026-02-21T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481900\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:16:14","slug":"chicago-surgeon-who-oversaw-heart-operation-in-alaska-where-patient-died-could-now-lose-illinois-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481900\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago surgeon who oversaw heart operation in Alaska where patient died could now lose Illinois license"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his medical license temporarily suspended in Illinois since 2023 following the death of a heart patient in Alaska, a Chicago surgeon is facing a disciplinary proceeding next month that could help determine whether he will ever practice medicine here again.<\/p>\n

Once licensed in multiple states, Dr. Cosmin Dobrescu was issued a \u201cphysician temporary permit\u201d in Alaska in September 2022 so he could serve in a \u201clocum tenens\u201d role \u2014 essentially working as a cardiothoracic surgeon on an as-needed basis at Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, Dobrescu operated on a 73-year-old man in poor health \u201cto replace a stenotic aortic valve and revascularize the coronary arteries,\u201d according to public records that say a \u201ccascade of problems developed during the surgery\u201d and the patient ended up \u201cdying on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other doctors subsequently filed a complaint against Dobrescu, alleging they witnessed \u201cunsafe care\u201d during the 13-hour operation and that \u201che was a threat to the health and welfare of the public,\u201d according to a February 2023 affidavit from an investigator for Alaska\u2019s professional regulatory agency.<\/p>\n

The affidavit \u201csupported\u201d a request by the agency to suspend Dobrescu\u2019s license, which Alaska\u2019s medical board acted on days later, concluding he \u201cposes a clear and immediate danger to the public health and safety if he continues to practice medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within days, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the arm of state government that regulates doctors in Illinois, temporarily suspended his Illinois license based on Alaska\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Illinois law allows regulators to \u201crevoke, suspend, place on probation, reprimand, refuse to issue or renew, or take any other disciplinary or non-disciplinary action\u201d on the basis of \u201cadverse action taken by another state or jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Alaska revoked his medical license, and New York followed suit.<\/p>\n

Pointing to those decisions, Illinois regulators filed a new complaint calling for Dobrescu\u2019s license to be \u201csuspended, revoked, or otherwise disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n

An administrative trial was recently set for March 31 after which a judge will issue findings and a disciplinary recommendation to the Illinois State Medical Board, whose members are appointed by the governor.<\/p>\n

The medical board can adopt the conclusions or come to its own. Either way, the matter lands with a top administrator at the state\u2019s financial and professional regulation department for a final decision.<\/p>\n

Regulators don\u2019t need to prove the allegations against Dobrescu, only that another jurisdiction took \u201cadverse action\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the complaint filed by Illinois regulators against Dr. Cosmin Dobrescu.<\/p>\n

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation<\/p>\n

A graduate of Northwestern University and raised in Munster, Indiana, Dobrescu has portrayed the central allegations against him in Alaska as \u201cfalse,\u201d saying the investigator\u2019s affidavit was rife with misinformation and laid the mistakes of others on him.<\/p>\n

One of the complaining doctors alleged that Dobrescu \u201cused a nonstandard strategy of transecting the aorta entirely to gain access to the aortic valve, which led to significant bleeding that Dr. Dobrescu was unable to remedy,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

When Dobrescu \u201cwas confronted with the severe bleeding from his suture lines,\u201d he persisted \u201cin a failing strategy of adding stitches… and refused to perform hypothermic circulatory arrest despite repeated recommendations to do so,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

The complaining doctor said that \u201cin efforts to repair the bleeding that Dr. Dobrescu had caused, Dr. Dobrescu inadvertently perforated the pulmonary artery,\u201d the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Dobrescu has, in turn, pointed blame for the outcome of the surgery on one of the complaining doctors, an anesthesiologist, who Dobrescu alleged \u201cdid not replace blood products correctly\u201d as the patient bled out, records show.<\/p>\n

The anesthesiologist has insisted he acted properly, and an administrative law judge in Alaska concluded in 2025 that \u201cthe evidence is too ambiguous to make a clear finding on whether there were departures from the standard of care in the final administration of blood products,\u201d records show.<\/p>\n

The judge also seemed to find no major fault in how Dobrescu performed the surgery, writing: \u201cFundamentally, the demonstrated problem with this surgery is not its execution, but instead that it probably should not have been occurring in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge hammered Dobrescu for forging ahead with an operation not deemed urgent.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the findings of an administrative law judge in Alaska on Dr. Cosmin Dobrescu.<\/p>\n

Dobrescu\u2019s \u201crecommendation on December 5 to go to surgery on December 7 overlooked important risk factors\u201d \u2014 including \u201cpoor\u201d diabetes control in the patient \u2014 \u201cas did his downstream failure to reconsider up to the hour of surgery,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision-making process fell below the standard of care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge wrote that the patient\u2019s death \u201cwas substantially related to the substandard pre-operative risk evaluation,\u201d and that after \u201closing a patient in this manner, the licensee\u201d \u2014 Dobrescu \u2014 \u201cexhibited deeply irresponsible behavior by failing to provide an operative report.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobrescu said he was \u201cput in an impossible position\u201d because his lawyer advised not to immediately release that report due to concerns it would be used to help prosecute him for negligent homicide, though a criminal case never materialized.<\/p>\n

An autopsy could have provided more clarity over the man\u2019s death, but for reasons still unclear one wasn\u2019t conducted initially and wasn\u2019t possible later because the patient had been cremated, records show.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s ruling also found regulators had \u201cproven\u201d that Dobrescu \u201cobtained licensure in Alaska by fraud\u201d by failing to reveal on his paperwork that he \u201cwas under active investigation in Virginia\u201d administratively \u201cfor incompetence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobrescu argued that a consultant he\u2019d hired to complete the application advised that the Virginia investigation \u2014 which examined his personal and professional conduct in a number of states \u2014 didn\u2019t need to be disclosed.<\/p>\n

The Alaska patient\u2019s daughter testified at Alaska\u2019s administrative hearing that she was there when her father was wheeled into surgery, records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hugged him, and I kissed him, and I told him to do good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he said, \u2018Don\u2019t tell me. Tell them to do good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his medical license temporarily suspended in Illinois since 2023 following the death of a heart patient in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-481900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}