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Top doctor: Murtha review to be released soon

The Navy’s top medical officer said Tuesday the “comprehensive investigation” into the death of Rep. John Murtha is complete and is being briefed to Murtha’s family, Navy leadership and Congress.

Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, the service’s surgeon general, told Navy Times that he does not have an exact date, but expects a public announcement to come “probably this month.”

Murtha, a 77-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat, died Feb. 8. The next day, his close friend and fellow congressman Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa., told Navy Times that an infection resulting from an inadvertent cut of Murtha’s intestine during laparoscopic gallbladder surgery led to his death. The surgery was done Jan. 28 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. After two days at home, Murtha was taken to Virginia Medical Center in Arlington, Va. He died there from what Virginia Medical Center called “major complications from surgery” at the first hospital.

An “in-depth standardized quality assurance review” of the care Murtha received was immediately launched, Navy spokesman Cmdr. Danny Hernandez said in February. Such a review is required when a patient dies at the facility or if there is an adverse event during that care. The review is a multi-level process that includes: a mortality and morbidity conference; quality assurance investigation by an uninvolved subject matter expert; review by multi-disciplinary patient safety committee; and consultations with Navy medicine and outside experts as required.

Although recovery issues are not uncommon following gallbladder surgery, serious complications occur in fewer than 1 in 1,000 cases, according to the American College of Surgeons.