The doctor who performed weight-loss surgery on once-bloated Jets coach Rex Ryan faces a courtroom grilling today over his role in the firing of an assistant who blabbed about another patient’s post-op death.
Dr. George Fielding is slated to testify at a Manhattan federal court trial over Dr. Neelu Pal’s claim that she was illegally canned from NYU’s School of Medicine in 2006 for blowing the whistle on Fielding’s “cavalier” treatment of patients after finishing their operations.
Pal’s suit alleges that sloppy post-op care by Fielding and Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding, his wife and fellow surgeon, led to the 2006 death of Rhonda Freiberg, whose estate later won a $973,000 malpractice settlement.
Pal’s lawyer, Jason Solotaroff, said he expects the non-jury trial “will show that Dr. Pal had legitimate concerns about the safety of the patients and when she expressed those concerns, Drs. Fielding and Ren got her fired.”