Ex-employee sues Penn Highlands, two doctors
Melanie White claims she nearly died after being sold illegal weight-loss drugs.
Penn Highlands Mon Valley and two of its physicians have been sued by a former staff member who claims she was sold weight-loss drugs in the hospital that led to a long list of serious medical problems.
On Monday, Melanie White sued Mon Valley Hospital, Penn Highlands Mon Valley, Penn Highlands Health Care as well as physicians Dr. Liana Bittner and Dr. Sundeep Ekbote alleging medical malpractice – professional negligence, direct negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, battery, assault and whistleblower retaliation.
Her husband John, also a plaintiff in the case, is suing the hospital and health care system for loss of consortium.
The couple, represented by attorneys Mark A. Grace of Cohen & Grace LLC and Steven Toprani, is seeking a jury trial.
In a lengthy 38-page suit, counsel for the couple explain Melanie White’s job, her working relationship with the aforementioned physicians, how she came into possession of the weight-loss drug and complications she suffered from its use.
According to the suit, Melanie White was an emergency technician at Penn Highlands Mon Valley and worked with Bittner and Ekbote.
Bittner is a certified a gastrointestinal practitioner and Ekbote is certified as an emergency medicine specialist, the regional chief medical officer for the southwestern region and the director of emergency medicine at Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital, according to the health care system.
According to the suit, Bittner approached Melanie White and other nurses working in the emergency department in the fall of 2023 and offered them various prescription substances for cosmetic purposes such as perpetual “tans,” weight loss and energy supplement.
Specifically, Bittner is accused of offering Melanie White a generic form of the prescription drug Mounjaro to lose weight.
Mounjaro is a brand name of the drug Tirzepatide, a prescription medication used for the treatment of Type 2 adult-onset diabetes, and is used, in some instances without FDA approval, as a weight loss accelerant, the suit states.
Grace and Toprani claim “the weight loss use has been criticized by the medical community as being potentially dangerous. This powerful and potentially dangerous drug could cause severe medical problems if not properly administered or monitored. Such severe problems include, but are not limited to, gastroparesis, gastroenteritis, intestinal obstruction/blockage, and bowel injury.”
‘The scheme’
Allegedly, the Tirzepatide given to Melanie White was obtained from a “Chinese generic pharmaceutical laboratory” and it is “well known that many of these laboratories produce dangerous, unreliable, generic pharmaceuticals such as fentanyl, which have resulted in serious injuries and deaths.”
According to the suit, Bittner told Melanie White that she would monitor the administration of the weightloss substance but did not ask for her medical history or patient information.
It also claims Bittner did not perform any standard health assessment that doctors who prescribe similar drugs routinely do.
According to the suit, Bittner provided Melanie White with Tirzepatide in a brown paper or plastic grocery bag, in a clear unmarked/ unlabeled vial containing a white powdery substance.
Melanie White had also at times been supplied with needles and syringes, alcohol wipes and compound ingredients and solutions, along with a single-page typed instruction sheet for mixing and injecting the substance, the lawsuit states.
According to the suit, Melanie White paid Bittner for the substance in cash, allegedly meeting in the hospital’s storage rooms, closets, the employee parking lot or empty patient evaluation beds/rooms to make the exchange.
It alleges that Bittner “did not follow established patient protocols, did not provide prudent medical care and callously and willfully disregarded state and federal law and hospital policies when treating patients, such as Melanie White, in the hospital.
Hospital ramifications
According to the suit, Mon Valley Hospital administrators were informed that Bittner was selling the drugs to numerous employees inside the hospital and that Mon Valley Hospital took no action to effectively stop Bittner’s method of treatment of these numerous patients, and therefore implicitly ratified Bittner’s treatment activity.
Ekbote was the supervising and responsible physician with direct oversight over Bittner and failed to take meaningful action to stop the activities after he became informed, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit claims Ekbote “merely verbally admonished Dr. Bittner, telling her not to sell and administer drugs at the hospital again.”
“Rather than take immediate corrective action and report Dr. Bittner to appropriate oversight and law enforcement agencies, hospital administrators (including the supervising physician Dr. Ekbote) with an affirmative duty to prevent continued harm to patients, instead swept the matter under the rug by simply verbally admonishing Dr. Bittner,” the suit states.
It also claims Mon Valley Hospital and Penn Highland Health System “took no corrective action and left the dangerous scheme unabated, thereby ratifying the activity of Dr. Bittner” and that despite being told to stop dealing drugs at the hospital, Bittner continued to supply her patients/customers with Tirzepatide and syringes without restriction.
According to the suit, the hospital took no action until Bittner’s “activity resulted in the near death of one of her patients – Melanie White.”
Medical emergency
After Melanie White took the drug for months without medical management, she claims it took a toll on her health.
On July 6, 2024 Melanie White went to the emergency room at Mon Valley Hospital because of “excruciating abdominal pain” and she reported that she had vomited more than 10 times that day. She was admitted for observation and testing.
On July 7, 2024, Melanie White was examined by Dr. Hany Mesha, an internist, and consulted with the nephrology team for acute kidney injury and consulted with a surgery team for suspected cholecystitis and she was moved to the intensive care unit.
Mesha later learned that she had been using Mounjaro for months for weight loss, and it was determined she would need aggressive surgical treatment.
An attending physician “noted that Melanie White had been taking a compounded formulation of Mounjaro sold by a local emergency room physician (Dr. Bittner)” and that the “overall clinical situation is suggestive of overdose of compounded formulation of Mounjaro.”
While hospitalized, Melanie White developed sepsis with shock and required vasopressors to treat her hypertension. She experienced acute respiratory failure and was intubated.
She had emergency surgery July 8, 2024, that revealed she had a “gangrenous and necrotic colon” and a follow-up survey was scheduled for the following day.
Melanie White experienced other problems, as renal failure progressed despite aggressive volume resuscitation which required Hemodialysis to be initiated post-op.
Another surgery on July 9, 2024 created a ileostomy and placed a gastrostomy tube.
At that point, an infectious disease team was consulted to manage treatment.
On July 12, her breathing tube was removed but further workup revealed bilateral effusions requiring a thoracentesis. She became anemic and required a blood transfusion on July 13, 2024.
She was temporarily transitioned to tube feeding from July 15 to July 19.
She remained in critical care until July 18, and required dialysis and aggressive wound treatment.
On July 20, Melanie White was moved to an inpatient rehab unit where she remained until July 30, 2024, when she transferred to an impatient medical unit to have a catheter placed for dialysis and other continued treatments.
She was discharged July 31 and went home, where she received home health care and claims she is still recovering through medical care and therapy from her near-fatal injuries.
Allegations
Melanie White contends Bittner’s actions are an “incident” as defined in Section 301 of the Medical Care Availability Reduction of Error Act and the harm she experienced is defined as a “serious event” per the MCARE Act.
The suit claims the hospital did not conduct an investigation of the “serious event” or when it first learned of Bittner’s conduct and failed to follow any of the Statutory Patient Safety provisions of the MCARE Act.
It also claims that if Ekbote had properly investigated or taken corrective action against Bittner that the “serious event” that resulted in harm to Melanie White may not have happened.
The lawsuit also says Mon Valley Hospital never reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which is a violation of the MCARE Act and that the hospital, along with Ekbote, failed to report the incident to the Patient Safety Committee.
It says additionally the hospital failed to notify the Pennsylvania Medical Licensing Board. Failure to report a “serious event” is required by the MCARE Act and a violation of the Health Care Facilities Act.
Melanie White said she communicated to the PMLB regarding the incident and “serious event” and reached out to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state police, who launched investigations that later resulted in retaliation against her at work.
“Upon information and belief, Mon Valley Hospital learned that Melanie White communicated with some or all of the aforementioned entities about this incident, and it thereafter took an adverse employment action against Melanie White,” the lawsuit states. “Rather than conduct a proper, or any meaningful investigation of Dr. Bittner’s misconduct and negligence, Mon Valley Hospital took adverse employment/ disciplinary action against Melanie White — the victim — by formally reprimanding her with a letter of reprimand to her permanent employment file for her supposedly violating the Penn Highlands’ Code of Conduct. It also threatened her with termination of employment for any such similar conduct that occurs in the future.”
Bittner was terminated from her job at the hospital “long after” the serious injuries Melanie White experienced, it adds.
Melanie White is claiming 41 different damages, ranging from her medical ailments to her mental health, ongoing side effects from her medical procedures, to wages lost and mental distress.
She is suing Bittner, Mon Valley Hospital, Penn Highlands Mon Valley and Penn Highlands Health care for medical malpractice – professional negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, battery, assault and whistleblower retaliation.
She is suing Ekbote, along with Mon Valley Hospital, Penn Highlands Mon Valley and Penn Highlands, for direct negligence, intentional infliction of emotion distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Additionally, the hospital and health care system are being sued for an alleged violation of UTPCPL.
Her husband, John White, is suing all parties except Ekbote with loss of consortium.
The complaint was served Monday to Penn Highlands Mon Valley and other plaintiffs.
A spokesperson for Penn Highlands Mon Valley said Penn Highlands Healthcare does not comment on matters that concern pending litigation.
