Hicksville man says doctor gave him 'death sentence'

BY PATRICK WHITTLE | patrick.whittle@newsday.com

November 15, 2007

Raymond Bookstaver sought Dr. Harvey Finkelstein's help to ease the pain in his aching back. Bookstaver left, he says, with a disease that he could have for the rest of his life.

Bookstaver, 49, a former mechanic from Hicksville, identified himself as one of at least two people the state says contracted hepatitis C from Finkelstein. He later sued Finkelstein, claiming the doctor gave him the disease during an epidural treatment in July 2004.

Read more on the Nassau Hepatitis and syringe scare.

"You never expect to come out of that office with a death sentence," Bookstaver said. "And it could be."

In a statement Wednesday, Finkelstein said the state investigated him and found no misconduct and did not discipline him. The doctor said he has since "enhanced his infection control practices" and continues to practice medicine.

Bookstaver is one of as many as 200 million people in the world who lives with hepatitis C, a viral disease of the liver. About a quarter of sufferers will face life-threatening symptoms, and most people have it for life, though some can be cured.

The father of two, whose only income is from disability checks and worker's compensation from the back injury, added that it makes him "aggravated that this man is allowed to practice medicine, with a slap on the wrist. Who's to say he hasn't done this before?"

Bookstaver, who had worked for United Parcel Service, said his weight dropped from 260 to 200 pounds in a year after he contracted the disease. He said he threw up two, sometimes three times a day. He would sleep for 10 hours, wake up for three, and find himself too tired to stand.

Today, he is doing a little better, he said, thanks to a steady diet of drugs and painful biopsies in which a doctor inserts a needle into his liver.

But he cannot go out to eat with his wife because he never knows when the disease will flare up and he will become sick. Family vacations are out of the question, Bookstaver said.

Fear of infecting other family members is constant. Bookstaver puts a rubber band around his drinking glasses so his children will know not to drink from that glass.

"It's affected all of us. The kids, when they come up to you and say 'Is daddy dying?' how do you respond to that?" said his wife, Lori.

Hepatitis can be spread within a household, but this doesn't happen often, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If the disease is spread within a household, it is most likely because of direct exposure to the blood of an infected household member, the CDC says.

Other Finkelstein patients fear Bookstaver's fate. A 53-year-old Suffolk resident, who declined to be named, said he was shocked when he received a letter several days ago telling him he should be tested for Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and HIV.

"My family doesn't even know about it. I'm a little nervous," he said.

Bookstaver's attorney, Jeffrey Kimmel of Woodbury, said he is seeking "fair and reasonable compensation" and medical costs for his client. Kimmel criticized the state Department of Health for acting slowly after Bookstaver was diagnosed.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said yesterday his office first advised patients to be treated for hepatitis C in May 2005, immediately after becoming aware of the two cases related to the doctor.

Bookstaver said the doctor should be punished.

"He gets a slap on the wrist," Bookstaver said, "and I get this for life."