A grand jury in Colorado has indicted a doctor who was allegedly paying more attention to the “music bingo” game he and his co-workers were playing than to his dying patient during a routine cataract surgery.
Anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Urban, 68, is facing a manslaughter charge in the death of 56-year-old Bart Writer, according to local NBC affiliate KUSA. The incident occurred on Feb. 3, 2023, when Writer went into the InSight Surgery Center in Lone Tree, a suburb of Denver, for a cataract surgery.
The surgeon in charge, Dr. C. Starck Johnson, had known the patient for several years and was scheduled to perform alongside anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Urban. The short procedure was supposed to take about 10 minutes. There were alarms in place to alert medical staff about Writer’s vitals going askew, but those alarms were reportedly shut off so staff could hear the music coming from Urban’s phone, which played a “music bingo” game…