Sunhee Kim — a clinical assistant professor of surgery who joined Stanford School of Medicine in 2025 — is under investigation by Massachusetts’ Board of Registration in Medicine (BORIM) for medical malpractice related to the death of Daniel Janco, a thoracic patient under her care as a resident at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston in 2022.
Kim allegedly attempted to insert a chest tube in the wrong side of Janco’s body using a scalpel. Witnesses told The Daily that Kim attempted this procedure without receiving her patient’s consent, communicating with other medical staff in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), calling her attending physician or applying an anesthetic. The procedure caused a cardiac arrest and Janco’s consequent death at the age of 73, according to an external medical report ordered by the Janco family’s lawyer.
Garry Ruben, Chief of the Section of Vascular Surgery at Holy Cross, conducted the report through a review of signed affidavits from Donna Janco, Daniel Janco’s wife, Mariah Black, an ICU nurse who was present and Stephen Wood, a nurse practitioner and the Director of Advanced Practice Providers in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, who was present. The report also reviewed medical records relating to the incident…