DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A Dover-Foxcroft surgeon has been barred from practicing medicine in Maine after several of her patients at Mayo Regional Hospital suffered major complications.
Ruth O’Mahony’s employment at the hospital was terminated in October 2011. During a 10-day period in July of that year, five of her patients had major complications as a result of her treatment, according to a May 30 consent agreement.
O’Mahony told the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine that she was under tremendous stress at the time because of frequent on-call responsibilities, a recent medical diagnosis and the death of a close relative.
She previously was disciplined by the New Hampshire medical licensing board after her privileges at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua were suspended because of patient safety concerns.
For the first year O’Mahony worked at Mayo, her patient charts were reviewed and some of her operations were supervised, according to the agreement. No concerns about her competence arose and she worked at the hospital for another 2½ years without incident, she told the board.
O’Mahony was licensed in Maine in 2008. She since has moved to another state to pursue a nonclinical position in health care and where her husband is more likely to find work in his field.
By signing the consent agreement, O’Mahony conceded that the board had enough evidence to conclude that her conduct amounted to incompetence.
She still has a Maine medical license, but the board made it inactive, preventing her from practicing in the state.
your better off out at Doc. Shermans!!
Fired in NH come to Maine We will take you great job MAINE go GOV GO GOV
Just curious…did you read the article or just decided that it was an opportunity to dig at the Governor?
From the article – “O’Mahony was licensed in Maine in 2008”
That would be two years BEFORE the current Governor was elected to office.
what does the governor have to do with this>??Next thing you will be blaiming Bush.. get with the program junko9
She was licensed in Maine in 2008. LePage was elected in 2010. This obviously goes in the ‘Blame George Bush’ column, not ‘Blame Governor LePage.’
HAHAHA! You FAIL!
Just asking,, What does the government have to do with this piece? Does the government hire the doctors? I may sound stupid but I just don’t understand this statement!!
Hahaha ! My goodness is he even still alive ? I remember bringing my lab there and he gave him the wrong vaccination ! Just picked up a needle that was sitting there !
he s like the eg Bunny still kicking LOL
He’s doing a lot of volunteer work now. He works with the kids in the middle school once a week or so.
If you can’t handle the pot, get out of the kitchen. Don’t put unknown people at risk.
If you cant handle the pot ? LOL, maybe that was it.
If a surgeon is under stress due to their personal or professional problems—why would they operate on an innocent person who has their own problems they are entrusting him/her with.
She got off easy—causes major complications then keeps the license and leaves the state. Big punishment they gave her.
Yeap, just another horror story out of Mayo.
Lord have mercy if you are ever stricken in that area.
Sorry to hear the Doctor has been going through hard times.
I hope she can get the rest she needs.
Medicine can be extremely stressful.
Care and concern may be the prescription for healing,
rather than derision ,criticism and snide remarks.
Best to her.
And her farmer husband.
I am quite upset by the actions of Mayo Regional , I am one of her victoms. 2 failed hernia opperations she preformed on me . she did my colonoskipe now I wonder if she knew what she was looking at.. Mayo needs a wake up call.. The more I think about it the madder I get.
If it was me I d call Joe
Someone died due to a medication mixup, a patient was assaulted, a nurse stealing drugs… makes you wonder what the final insult will be.
Actually, it was the employee who was assaulted, and if you think medication mixups and drug thefts only happen at Mayo then you are living in a bubble!
That was a huge blunder, though.
Yes, it absolutely was a huge blunder, but Mayo chose to tell us about that blunder, while many hospitals do not.
Mayo did not tell me my sergan was not compitant now did they????
No hospital will tell you that your doctor is incompetent. When they discover incompetence, they will then remove the doctor, not tell the patient. Again, that is the same everywhere. People should choose their doctors carefully, not just let someone perform procedures simply because he or she says they can do it. Unfortunately, there are MANY incompetent physicians at MANY hospitals, and we’ll never know about them. That is why patients need to ask lots of questions and get opinions from others. Don’t be complacent about your care!
Mayo ‘chose’ to tell us about it?? Do you think that they really had a choice?? There was no hiding that incident. It wasn’t a ‘medication mix up’….someone completely screwed up and caused the death of a patient. Well I do feel sorry for the person who made this mistake, nothing will ever bring back they man who lost his life that day. If Mayo did not report this you can be that it would have come out and that would have looked worse for them in the long run.
All hospitals are supposed to report sentinel events to the appropriate state agency. They do not have to report to the public.
Yes, Mayo did “choose” to tell us about it. Believe me, that same kind of incident happens more than anyone wants to admit or think about, and we don’t learn about it because the hospital doesn’t choose to report it to the public. You would be hard pressed to find a hospital anywhere that has not had an incident like that one.
Big surprise there at Mayo!!! Maybe a “few” others will finally get “recgonized” for their inabilities to perform as Doctors there!
My family has had nothing but good luck at Mayo. We’ve had horrible luck at EMMC. Everybody there seems mean and nasty.
Just last week a family member went to Mayo after a serious accident. It took over 4 hours for them to do an x-ray, an ultrasound and nothing for treatment. They sent him home with antibiotics and told him if the wound gets infected they might remove the material. I have issues with Mayo so I took him to EMMC. Within 2 hours the material was removed, he was stapled up, and sent home. The original wound site was infected, but they did wonderful work and the incision site is healed and infection free. I could tell you at least a dozen more horror stories I was told after this most recent interaction with the local hospital. Completely inappropriate.
I had to take a family member to EMMC this past week after inadequate care at Mayo. He spent over 4 hours in Mayo’s ER due to a work related accident. They left a piece of metal in his leg right next to tendons and his major artery. They had to call EMMC to find out how to do the ultrasound/x-ray to locate the metal and then decided to leave it in there. He was sent home with antibiotics and told that if it got infected it would be easier to operate and remove it. WHAT??? I took him the next day to EMMC. Within 2 hours they had removed the piece of metal, stapled him up and he was on his way. They could not believe Mayo chose to leave that in there, especially with the risk involved. One doctor/nurse after another was shocked to hear the reason he was there. The original wound was infected, even after ‘care’ at Mayo but the incision to remove the metal is healed and looks much better than the open sore Mayo sent him home with. This is only one story of over a dozen horror stories I’ve heard of , experienced myself, or watched a loved one suffer through in the ‘care’ of this hospital. Even scarier is that this particular doctor operated on my husband just last year….
i have goodluck too with all the staff at mayo hospital,and Dover Foxcroft Family Medecine, but youre right EMMC is very unfriendly and rude,i went to dr mahoney but left to go to another surgeon.Keep the good job
You should go to St Joseph’s ED for care in Bangor-smaller hospital,better nursing care…
Sounds like she could of used a couple more years in Medical School. I’m sure back then Univeristy of North Florida knew she wasn’t ready to graduate.
that’s why no one goes to Mayo, unless they have to, i’d rather travel to Bangor or Pittsfield for much better care. Mayo is only good if you need stitches!
Pittsfield??? Are you kidding me. There is no scarier “hospital”. One of their doctors is a former Mayo doctor who overdosed the guy last year and it killed him. Stay away from that scary place!
She took my gallbladder out 2 years ago. I’m still alive. No complications. I liked her and she seemed to know what she was doing.
My brother was one of her patience’s last July. She took out his gallbladder, 21 days later he was dead due to “complications”. We will now do some investigating. I know that is is too late for him and he won’t be brought back, but we might have the satisfaction she won’t practice anywhere ever again.
Just curious, was she accredited by the Bouncy house commission?
I think the complaints against this surgeon have yet to come out in full.
Maybe she can’t make it as a doctor in Southern Maine or New Hampshire you could send her to Northern Maine like Fort Kent where all the other unfit Doctors are.. I knew a girl (My cousin) who had a ingrown hair in her pubic area that got infected. (She shaved regularly) she was treated for genital warts.. The treatment wasn’t working, it made things worse. So she went to another doctor in Presque Isle where she had a minor surgery where they lanced it and removed a hair that was about 4 inches long and a pocket of puss.. This left a hole about an inch round she is fine now but she never had genital warts, oh and when the wound healed and the swelling went down the hole disappeared.. This almost caused a divorce between her and her newlywed husband.. What saved their marriage is he didn’t have anything. This is what prompted her to seek another doctor and that’s when they found it was just an infected ingrown hair.. This story i heard from my aunt, so many details she didn’t share with me that day as were were dissing Northern Maine doctors, probably cause they were a little too personal..
Gross story. And you didn’t even hold the mayo.
no wonder more people in the area go to the local vet service for treatment instead of mayo.
Why did Mayo hire a “doctor” who had already been suspended from a NH hospital after concerns about patient safety? I’d say Mayo’s actions amounted to incompetence, too…again!
Kind of like Sebasticook Valley Hospital hiring the doctor that overdosed a man last year, who died. Some of these small hospital are scary places, and have no accountability to anyone.
I think hospitals should have to publish the backgrounds of physicians they knowingly recruited with major blemishes on their records, blemishes that translate to a higher likelihood of hurting other patients. To have lost her right to practice medicine in New Hampshire is a HUGE red flag–it takes a monumental issue to achieve that status. And if any hospital takes that kind of doctor on, that should be part of informed consent to treatment. How many patients would consent to having surgery or other care from a doctor who lost his or her license in another state?! If Mayo hired one such doctor, how many others do they have working there who may not be able to abide by their oath, the most important edict of practicing medicine, to “First, do no harm”?!
And the GOP calls for tort reform with this going on ? If there was ever a reason for the insurance company’s to start paying more attention to their customer / subscriber’s, instead of their bottom line, this is it.
This has nothing to do with the GOP, tort reform or insurance companies.
Time for that doctor to get another profession.
Shes not the only one that should be barred. There still alot of those butchers out there all they want to do is cut.
This is the type of information that needs to get out there for the safety of the public. I have heard and experienced more than one scary story taking place at Mayo.
Boy I am glad I didn’t choose her to operate on me.I do know of a friend that did though and ended up having a punctured colon.Almost died because of her.Mayo should open their eyes and start hiring more compatant drs and surgeons. Don’t understand whyMayo would hire a surgeon that was already fired from another hospitlal.Wake up Mayo