By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

THE U.S. Attorney’s Office, which represents the federal government in a medical malpractice case against a Navy doctor, opposed the plaintiff’s request to get a copy of medical files of other patients to be used as evidence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mikel W. Schwab filed a partial opposition to Steven Levin’s motion for postponement of trial and opposed the opening of a discovery period that will require the operation reports of Dr. Frank Bishop.
Levin sued Bishop in February 2005, two years after the eye doctor conducted surgery on the plaintiff at the Guam Navy Hospital.
Bishop also sued the United States with battery and negligent medical malpractice, claiming that he developed postoperative corneal edema, a known complication of cataract surgery.
The patient, who was 54 years old during the surgery, is asking for $4.5 million in actual damages and exemplary damages.
He stated in his complaint that he was forced into surgery against his will and that the surgery fell below the standard of care.
He also claimed that a student was present at the surgery and the motivation for the surgery was to serve as a demonstration to the student.
Schwab argued that plaintiff’s request to obtain a copy of Bishop’s operation report would violate the privacy rights of other patients and the report would have no relevance to the well documented consent in his case.
The government attorney insisted that the student questioned was not a student but a perioptic nurse and explained that Guam’s U.S. Naval Hospital has never had a student program.
To disprove the claim of the plaintiff that he attempted to withdraw his consent during the surgery, the government attorney submitted a copy of the informed consent signed by Levin on March 12, 2003.