The Lufkin DaVita Bleach Murder Trial: Is There a DaVita Conspiracy?

By Peter Laird, MD

Throughout the course of this trial, Ryan Deaton has repeated alleged that Kimberly Saenz is a spagegoat for what has gone wrong at this Lufkin DaVita unit and in addition that DaVita has tampered with evidence and hindered the police investigation. Certainly, DaVita did admit to opening the sharps containers prior to calling the police which does bring into question evidence tampering from their own admissions. When we also consider the eight hour delay before calling the police, the eighteen day delay before police were allegedly allowed to speak to DaVita employees after DaVita had conducted it's own internal investigation which the judge did not allow into evidence, then there are many aspects of this case that lend itself to conspiracy theories.

In addition, the carbon "ghost tanks" without proper documentation on why DaVita changed them, the allegation that one of the supervisors would not go down alone, and the janitor's statements also not allowed into testimony that she threw away so many bags of shredded documents the day the police were called that she could not shut the garbage bin all points to a possible DaVita conspiracy to cover-up the real causes of these events. However the most direct evidence that there may have been a cover-up came from the extensive and complex work by Dr. Jonathan Neidigh from Loma Linda University where his research led him to the astounding conclusion that the bleach traces found in some of the bloodlines had to be placed there after the machine was stopped:

Witness says clinic was seeking scapegoat

Spending most of the afternoon on the stand, California-based biochemist Dr. Jonathan Neidigh testified he believes patient lines tested positive for chlorine because it was put there after the fact. Because of the rate at which blood flows through the lines, Neidigh said he believes the blood would have washed away traces of chlorine — more proof DaVita officials planted evidence, according to Deaton.

I don't believe that there will ever be any "smoking gun" that confirms a direct conspiracy at DaVita. At present it is impossible to know whether individual actions either by omissions or commissions may be responsible for these events. It is clear, that DaVita is guilty of one thing, that of not avoiding the appearance of evil as the Bible commands those that follow God's Holy Word.

I Thessalonians 5:22   Abstain from all appearance of evil. 

DaVita, despite all of its high paid lawyers who have haunted this investigation since the beginning and all of its P.R. efforts, still in the end analysis has not avoided all appearances of evil in my opinion. The trial itself takes on a new perspective following the connections of the  the CDC and the Hamner Institute which is also in close partnership with the University of North Carolina (here and here) which on the surface is perfectly reasonable as the N.C. research triangle is one of the most highly technical research centers in the nation. However, understanding that a prominent DaVita board member is also the president of the UNC medical school does not sit well with many that are aware of this "open secret" and how inappropriate those associations appear in a case where the Hamner Institute and the CDC play such a central role for the prosecution in a case where DaVita may be culpable for the events at this unit.

In the final analysis, the issue of whether there is or isn't a DaVita conspiracy in my opinion is irrelevant to the facts of the case that show clear evidence of the defendant's innocence as we have seen reported to date in the news. The distraction of the various alleged DaVita "appearances of evil" will probably not be the most important evidence for the jury to consider nor is there any evidence to connect the different elements to any viable conspiracy theory.

There appears to be a complete lack of evidence for bleach infusion outside of the research test, 3-chlorotyrosine, and that remains the most important evidence for the jury to consider. 3-chlorotyrosine could have been increased from the contaminated water with high levels of chlorine that should have been removed by properly functioning carbon filters.

I believe that if the jury returns a not guilty verdict, the testimony of the expert medical witnesses for the defense will be the final arbiter of justice in this case. However, no matter the outcome of this case, DaVita in my opinion has greatly tarnished its already tainted image from the other legal problems that the company is plagued with. Avoiding all appearance of evil may be something that DaVita considers as it moves forward as this case draws to a close. Abandoning reuse would be a great first step in that direction in my opinion as a public gesture of good will.

Comments

[LL]

Hi Dr. Laird, I wanted to say thank you for your great blog/website!!! I really like this article you wrote about this situation. Do you think that this nurse will ever see justice in her favor? Seems to me that her lawyers were not that agressive? I'm a nurse and used to be in the dialysis sector and feel she got the "Shaft".

LL

[Peter Laird, MD]

Dear LL, the defendant has an appellate lawyer and I have yet to hear when they will submit their appeal which obviously is an uphill battle. We will all have to wait and see how this plays out in the next year or so.