Dr. Paul Harnetty, a former Georgia doctor recently convicted of sexually assaulting patients, came off as “bizarre, arrogant and cocky” during a deposition taken years ago, said a Macon attorney who filed a lawsuit against the doctor in 2010.
“He thought a lot of himself,” said Kathy McArthur, who represented a patient of Harnetty’s in a medical malpractice case.
The malpractice case concluded with a confidential settlement, she said.
Harnetty, an ob-gyn who worked in Warner Robins, left Georgia and started practicing in Wyoming in 2012.
At the Wyoming trial, six patients testified that the doctor touched them improperly during exams. The jury found Harnetty guilty of assaulting two patients. He was acquitted on six other charges.
The doctor is awaiting sentencing.
While the trial focused on what happened once Harnetty went to Wyoming, the criminal investigation found that the doctor had faced allegations in Georgia, but was never publicly disciplined by Georgia's medical board. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined the doctor's Georgia history in an extensive story published Sunday.
The malpractice case involved a young patient of the ob-gyn who saw the doctor for pelvic pain. The patient was 17 when Harnetty performed a surgical procedure on her. After the surgery, the patient’s mother repeatedly called the doctor, worried that pain, swelling and vomiting meant something had gone wrong.
But according to the lawsuit, the doctor brushed off the concerns. When she eventually went to the emergency room, it was discovered that her bowel had been perforated during the surgery and she was in grave condition, the suit alleged.
An expert in the case said the procedure wasn’t even necessary.
“What concerned me most was how badly he had harmed a 17-year-old patient,” McArthur said. “He was very uncaring, particularly for an ob-gyn.”
McArthur described the doctor as “flippant and not remorseful” even though the patient “had been at death’s door because of his actions.”
The patient spent weeks in the hospital and suffered long-term damage. Her medical bills were over $1 million, according to the lawsuit. The hospital and two emergency room doctors were also named as defendants.
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