Surgical team working on a patient in operating theater (iStock)
DETROIT – Victims are calling for a long prison sentence for a Detroit-area doctor who performed poor or unnecessary spinal surgeries in California and Michigan.
A judge heard tearful pleas from former patients Monday in Detroit federal court. Some of Dr. Aria Sabit's victims entered court with canes. One woman was in a wheelchair.
Sabit pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud. He admits hurting patients and cheating insurers with his work. One of his victims is Rick Porterfield, who was an executive at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, where Sabit was on staff.
Porterfield says, "Every move I make hurts." He says he had to retire because of complications from Sabit's surgery.
Sabit moved to Michigan in 2011. Angela Martin says her daughter was a victim of a "butchery job."
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