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Wheels are in motion for a 100-mile bike 

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NORTHLAND OUTDOORS, PAGE D6 

Duluth News Tribune 

Sunday, May 29, 2011 

duluthnewstribune.com More than 140,000 readers every Sunday $1.50 

DNT INVESTIGATION | THE CASE OF DR. KONASIEWICZ 

‘Outstanding care and skill’ 

—St. Luke’s hospital 

‘Unprofessional conduct’ 

Despite praise and 

high pay, former Duluth 

doctor amassed record 

of allegations and a 

state reprimand 

BRANDON STAHL AND 

MARK STODGHILL 

bstahl@duluthnews.com; 

mstodghill@duluthnews.com 

KONASIEWICZ 

More in 

this series 

Monday: The 

federal database 

that tracks 

malpractice 

cases and disciplinary 

actions 

against doctors 

isn’t accomplishing 

what it 

was designed to 

do, according to 

a News Tribune 

analysis. 

Tuesday: By the 

time Stefan 

Konasiewicz 

was sanctioned 

in Minnesota, he 

already had 

moved out of 

state, where 

he may be 

sanction-free. 

Neurosurgeon Stefan 

Konasiewicz practiced 

medicine in Duluth for 

most of the past decade. He 

became one of the highestpaid 

physicians at St. 

Luke’s hospital, which 

praised him for his “outstanding 

care and skill.” 

He also racked up nine 

malpractice suits and a 

sanction from the Minnesota 

Board of Medical 

Practice for “unethical and 

unprofessional conduct.” 

When he moved from 

Duluth about three years 

ago, Konasiewicz left behind 

two dead patients, one 

woman paralyzed from the 

neck down and six others 

who say his treatment 

caused them serious physical 

harm. 

His former employer, St. 

Luke’s hospital, was aware 

of the harm Konasiewicz 

was alleged to have caused 

and yet continued to let 

him practice, according to 

records obtained and interviews 

conducted by the 

News Tribune. 

In fact, St. Luke’s continued 

to increase 

Konasiewicz’s salary even 

as malpractice cases were 

filed against him. In 2005, 

See Doctor, Page A6 

—Minnesota Board of Medical Practice 

Fred Baumgardner holds a photo of his wife, Dianne. Dianne Baumgardner died two 

weeks after surgery performed by former St. Luke’s neurosurgeon Stefan Konasiewicz. 

Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com 

Twisters: 

Still deadly 

after all 

these years 

Why have advancements in 

science and technology been 

powerless to reduce tornadoes’ 

fatal and destructive effects? 

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID 

Associated Press 

WASHINGTON —Storm science 

has greatly improved tornado warnings 

in recent years. But if that’s led 

anyone into a sense of security, that 

feeling has taken a beating in recent 

weeks. 

Super Outbreak 2011, on April 25-28, 

killed more than 300 people in the 

South and Midwest. Less than a month 

later, a devastating tornado took more 

than 100 lives around Joplin, Mo. 

This despite warnings of as much as 

20 minutes, thanks to improved 

weather radar installed across the 

country in the 1990s. Before that, tornado 

warnings often weren’t issued 

until a twister was sighted on the 

ground. 

Scientists see a variety of factors 

that helped make this year’s twisters 

deadlier —from La Nina to public 

complacency, from global warming to 

urban sprawl. 

See Tornadoes, Page B6 

(back page of second section) 

FIGHT OF HER YOUNG LIFE 

12-year-old Megan Wegge faces a cancer so rare that her 

case is known nationwide. But doctors say the ‘strong, 

sweet girl’ from Moose Lake has the faith to beat it. 

JOHN LUNDY 

jlundy@duluthnews.com 

When Megan Wegge twice donated 

her long, blond hair to 

“Locks of Love” last year, she 

didn’t know that when she was 

12 she would lose all of her own 

hair to the effects of chemotherapy. 

When she laid the groundwork 

for her own business, 

“Chocolate for Children,” to 

raise money for pediatric cancer 

research, Megan didn’t 

know she would be diagnosed 

with a rare form of cancer herself. 

When Megan was playing in 

the state tournament with her 

Moose Lake U12B hockey team 

in March, she had no idea that 

by the end of May she and her 

mom would be temporary residents 

of Bloomington, Ind., 

preparing for a form of radiation 

treatment that’s available 

in only nine places in the country. 

Megan, mom Jodi, dad Dan, 

older sister Lindsey and her 

triplet brother and sister 

Nicholas and Brooke moved to 

Moose Lake less than five years 

ago from Arlington, Minn. Before 

that, they lived in Cummings, 

N.D., where they were 

close friends of Jim and Denise 

Murphy and their son, Johnny. 

When Johnny lost his battle 

with cancer in 2005 at age 11, it 

had a profound effect on the 

Wegge children, especially 

Megan. 

See Megan, Page B4 

(in the second section) 

Just weeks after Megan Wegge 

played in the state U12 girls 

hockey tournament, doctors 

found a malignant tumor in her 

liver. Courtesy of Wegge family 

A “No Trespassing” sign and a Teddy 

bear warn off looters from the remains of 

a tornado victim’s home in Joplin, Mo., 

where at least 126 people were killed in 

a tornado last Sunday. 

T. Rob Brown / Joplin (Mo.) Globe 

Weather 

Today: Partly 

sunny and dry 

High: 69 Low: 49 

Tomorrow: Chance 

of rain 


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Contents 

Classifieds E 

Lotteries A2 

Obituaries C4-7 

Opinion B1-3 

Outdoors D4-6 

Scrapbook F 

Sports D1-3 

TV listings F8 

R001126397-0501

Page A6 

27148-1 

Duluth News Tribune | Sunday, May 29, 2011 

duluthnewstribune.com 

THE CASE OF 

DR. KONASIEWICZ (CONT.) 

Doctor 

Continued from Page A1 

Konasiewicz was the hospital’s 

top-paid physician, 

earning $1.3 million. At the 

end of 2008, Konasiewicz 

was listed on the hospital’s 

financial reports as its second 

highest-paid physician, 

earning $1.6 million a year. 

Multiple sources also 

show that between 2005 and 

2008, St. Luke’s and 

Konasiewicz settled five malpractice 

suits totaling at 

least $3.2 million. He still has 

three cases open. In total, the 

News Tribune found 11 cases 

alleging Konasiewicz 

harmed patients. 

Six doctors who have 

worked at St. Luke’s told the 

News Tribune that they had 

been gravely concerned 

about Konasiewicz’s ability 

and competence. 

One of those doctors, St. 

Luke’s neurosurgeon 

William Himango, now retired, 

said he had brought 

his concerns about 

Konasiewicz to hospital administration. 

“The problems confronting 

this physician had 

— not only by me, but by 

others — been brought to 

the attention of the administration 

prior to some of 

these incidents,” Himango 

told the News Tribune last 

fall shortly after the state 

Board of Medical Practice 

reprimanded Konasiewicz. 

Dr. David McKee, a neurologist 

with Northland 

Neurology and Myology, 

said that he first brought his 

concerns about 

Konasiewicz’s competence 

to the St. Luke’s administration 

about a decade ago. 

“The scope of the problem 

was evident from an 

early date,’’ McKee said. “Information 

provided to the 

administration by physicians 

and nurses was not 

well-received.” 

When asked how 

Konasiewicz’s situation differed 

from the normal medical 

complications that 

doctors deal with, McKee 

said: “I think what’s different 

is just the rate of complications 

and complications in 

cases where one would expect 

a low probability of 

complications.’’ 

Konasiewicz and his attorney 

declined to comment 

for this article. 

In a statement, St. Luke’s 

said: “We reject the premise 

that Dr. Konasiewicz did not 

provide excellent neurosurgical 

care during his time at 

St. Luke’s. To the contrary: 

Dr. Konasiewicz performed 

thousands of difficult and 

life-saving surgeries on 

thousands of patients 

throughout our region. 

Many people are alive and 

walking today because of the 

outstanding care and skill of 

Dr. Konasiewicz.” 

The entire statement appears 

on the following page 

and is online at 

duluthnewstribune.com. 

‘ST. LUKE’S BELIEVED IN ME’ 

Stefan Joseph 

Konasiewicz, 48, grew up in 

Montreal, where he graduated 

at the top of his class in 

chemical engineering at 

McGill University, according 

to an article in the 

March 1999 Duluthian. He 

entered medical school at 

Queens University in 

Kingston, Ontario, graduating 

in 1989 and going on to 

win numerous awards, including 

the 1994 General Motors 

Trauma Research 

Award from the American 

College of Surgeons. 

He first visited Duluth — 

with doubts about staying — 

during a major snowstorm 

in the winter of 1997. But, he 

told the magazine, “St. 

Luke’s believed in me. I 

liked where they seemed to 

be headed.” And his practice, 

he said, was “to bring 

neurosurgery into the 21st 

Century in this community, 

to be able to treat people in 

the most contemporary and 

compassionate way.” 

The first allegation that 

he harmed a patient came a 

year later, when he operated 

on Leora Froelich at St. 

Luke’s. Froelich claimed 

Konasiewicz ruptured her 

aorta during a spinal surgery 

and sued him in 2002. 

A jury ruled in favor of 

Konasiewicz. Yet in that 

case, another St. Luke’s neurosurgeon, 

Robert Donley, 

testified against 

Konasiewicz, according to 


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Duluth News Tribune | Sunday, May 29, 2011 

Page A7 

DNT INVESTIGATION | THE CASE OF DR. KONASIEWICZ (CONT.) 

Malpractice lawsuits highly technical, expensive 

BRANDON STAHL 

bstahl@duluthnews.com 

Measured by malpractice 

suits alleging physical damage, 

Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz 

stands in a category by himself 

in St. Louis County District 

Court. Since 2002, the 

former St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

has been sued for malpractice 

nine times. 

A News Tribune search 

of court records found more 

than 100 malpractice cases 

filed in St. Louis County 

since 2002. 

Only one other Duluth 

doctor, John “Jed” Downs, 

has been sued more times — 

by 21 women — in what became 

one class-action suit 

alleging that he inappropriately 

touched the women 

during examinations. 

Four malpractice suits 

were filed against gastroenterologist 

Javier De La 

Garza related to patient allegations 

that he had touched 

them inappropriately. 

Only one doctor besides 

Konasiewicz, Dean Weber, a 

plastic surgeon, faced more 

than two malpractice suits 

in which medical damage to 

a patient is alleged. Weber 

was sued three times. 

Being sued for malpractice, 

or even settling a malpractice 

suit, doesn’t mean 

the doctor or hospital is 

guilty or that they are admitting 

a mistake or wrongdoing. 

In court, a settled 

malpractice case is ruled 

“dismissed.” 

In a statement released 

Friday, St. Luke’s defended 

the number of malpractice 

suits filed against 

Konasiewicz: 

“Dr. Konasiewicz’s litigation 

history over his career 

is not worse than the average 

of other neurosurgeons’ 

experience in the region or 

in the country. While Dr. 

Konasiewicz has, like most 

neurosurgeons, been sued 

on occasion, he has never received 

a litigation judgment 

against him. In fact, in the 

only case against Dr. 

Konasiewicz that has gone 

to trial, the jury found that 

he did not commit malpractice 

and acted within the 

standard for neurosurgeons.” 

The full statement appears 

below and online at 


Medical malpractice lawsuits 

are difficult to file in 

Minnesota, let alone win, 

and they’re not approached 

lightly, according to several 

state malpractice attorneys. 

Under a state law passed 

in the 1970s to prevent frivolous 

lawsuits, before a case 

can be brought it must be reviewed 

by an independent 

medical expert who specializes 

in the same field of the 

physician accused of wrongdoing. 

That expert then has 

to sign a detailed affidavit 

saying that not only did negligent 

care occur, but the 

care resulted in harm. The 

cost to get an expert and to 

obtain medical records can 

be thousands of dollars. 

“A lot of law firms stay 

away from these cases because 

it involves a lot of 

time and expense before you 

even know if there’s a case,” 

said Paul Schweiger, a Duluth 

attorney who specializes 

in malpractice cases. 

“We have to make, frankly, 

an economic decision: Are 

we going to even incur the 

expense of an expert review?” 

Schweiger has worked on 

cases against Dr. 

Konasiewicz but declined to 

speak about them. 

The expert review can 

later be challenged by defense 

attorneys if a case is 

brought, making it crucial 

that the expert is qualified, 

said Patrick Stoneking, who 

works on malpractice cases 

in Minneapolis. If a judge 

finds the expert isn’t qualified, 

the case can be thrown 

out. 

“So there’s a very high 

bar on an expert’s qualifications,” 

Stoneking said. “It 

makes people think twice before 

bringing a case.” 

If a case is filed, it can 

take years and thousands of 

dollars in expenses before it 

is settled or goes to trial. 

And often the clients filing 

suit don’t have money to pay 

for those expenses, meaning 

the firms take the risk of 

footing the bill. 

Kathleen Flynn Peterson, 

a registered nurse and attorney 

in Minneapolis who specializes 

in medical 

malpractice, said most 

physicians are loathe to settle 

because their names 

would appear in the National 

Practitioner Data 

Bank, a record of all malpractice 

cases filed in the 

country since 1991. While 

most of that data isn’t open 

to the public, it is available 

to hospitals and health-care 

providers. 

If cases go to trial, about 

88 percent of cases that result 

in a verdict are in favor 

of physicians and healthcare 

providers, according to 

a 2009 study conducted by 

the Physicians Insurers Association 

of America. 

“There is a very strong 

bias that has been proven by 

social science research that 

shows individuals hold 

physicians and health-care 

providers in high regard,” 

Peterson said, “and as a result, 

to overcome that bias 

and get a jury to really believe 

there was negligence 

… is difficult.” 

Doctor 


Excerpts from Minnesota Board of Medical Practice stipulation and order, Sept. 11, 2010 

records obtained by the 

News Tribune. It was the 

first time Donley had provided 

testimony against a 

fellow neurosurgeon, according 

to his deposition. 

Donley, who was treating 

Froelich at the time that he 

testified, was critical of the 

time it took for Konasiewicz 

to recognize the damage 

caused to Froelich. He also 

criticized Konasiewicz for 

operating on another patient 

within minutes of putting 

Froelich in a post-anesthesia 

recovery room. 

“I think that you would 

want to know what is going 

on with that patient before 

you move on to the next patient,’’ 

Donley said in his 

deposition. 

In 2001, Ellen Abare of 

Duluth said she was a 

fourth-year student at the 

University of Minnesota 

Medical School Duluth 

when she went to Dr. 

Konasiewicz to relieve pain 

in her right forearm due to 

carpal tunnel syndrome. She 

alleged he took out a piece of 

a nerve in her right wrist, 

causing the loss of ability to 

use her arm for several 

years. She was forced to 

drop out of school. 

Ten years later, she said 

her right hand is numb and 

unusable. She’s been on disability 

since the surgery, 

and in recent years has to 

take narcotic medications 

for a severe pain that developed 

in her arm. 

She sued Konasiewicz 

and the hospital and settled 

for about $85,000, records 

show. 

After being told of his 

other malpractice cases, 

Abare said she didn’t understand 

why Konasiewicz was 

still allowed to practice. 

“I try not to think back. 

It’s just horrific,” she said. 

“It’s taken away my life.” 

In the fall of 2003, David 

Tekautz of Duluth went to 

Konasiewicz with a history 

of chronic back problems 

and developing numbness in 

his right thigh. Konasiewicz 

recommended an epidural 

steroid injection, but he injected 

the wrong type of dye, 

causing muscle spasms that 

resulted in the fracture of 

Tekautz’s second, third and 

fourth lumbar vertebrae. 

Tekautz’s case was one of 

four that the Minnesota 


cited when it publicly reprimanded 

Konasiewicz in September 

2010. 

Tekautz sued 

Konasiewicz for malpractice 

and settled for about 

$300,000, records show. 

“If he had said early on, ‘I 

think you had a reaction to 

something we injected and 

we’re going to make this 

right for you,’ that would 

have been enough,’’ Tekautz 

told the News Tribune. “But 

when I asked him about how 

this happened to me, his 

tone changed. He became defensive. 

He didn’t answer 

my questions. He asked me 

if I was going to sue him. I 

was so broken in my body 

that I was just trying to 

learn what happened to me.” 

Tekautz said his life has 

never been the same. 

“I used to walk one to 

three miles on the Lakewalk 

every day of the year. Now 

I’m driving if I have to go 

two blocks. My pace is much 

slower. My gait is different. 

My spine does not have the 

strength, flexibility or stamina 

that it had before. The 

pain always hinders my life 

activities.” 

ANGER OVER DEATH 

‘NEVER’ LEAVES 

In March 2004, 56-year-old 

Dianne Baumgardner went 

to Konasiewicz for spinal 

surgery to alleviate pain 

from a herniated disc after 

being referred to him by another 

doctor. She and her 

husband of 37 years, Fred, 

had both retired and were 

looking forward to traveling, 

he said. 

They had never met 

Konasiewicz. 

“Dianne just took the doctor’s 

word for it,” Fred 

Baumgardner said. “We really 

trusted this doctor.” 

Three days after the surgery 

she was sent home, 

where her pain got progressively 

worse from an infection. 

Calls from the husband 

and wife to St. Luke’s were 

returned with “That’s normal” 

and “Be patient,” 

Baumgardner said. A few 

days later when his wife was 

getting out of the shower, 

she bent over and liquid 

gushed from her back. 

They went to the hospital 

the next day, where Baumgardner 

said Konasiewicz 

drained the fluid from his 

wife’s back with a syringe. 

“She was just screaming 

in pain,” he said. “After, he 

cleaned her up, put a large 

bandage over it, prescribed 

her more pain meds, and released 

her.” 

They would be back the 

next morning with the same 

problem. This time 

Konasiewicz asked Fred 

Baumgardner to leave the 

room as he drained the fluid 

from his wife’s back. 

“I’m sitting in the waiting 

area,” Baumgardner 

said, fighting back tears, 

“when I hear her screaming. 

I didn’t go back. I couldn’t. 

She was really screaming.” 

Both asked Konasiewicz 

why she wasn’t admitted to 

the hospital, Baumgardner 

said. 

“He said, ‘no, I’m trying 

to prevent from having to 

admit her,’ ” he said. 

They went home. That 

night Baumgardner said his 

wife was especially weak. 

She went to bed about 9 p.m., 

and died in her sleep. When 

Baumgardner said he found 

his wife on the bed, she was 

lying to the right, spittle 

coming out of her mouth. 

The Baumgardners have 

two daughters and four 

grandchildren. 

Baumgardner said he 

still struggles to cope with 

his wife’s death. 

“You are absolutely 

robbed,” he said. “Absolutely. 

Where do you go? 

What do you? Since we were 

teenagers, we were basically 

together. We were so close 

where you could read each 

other’s minds and 

thoughts.” 

“All we had was each 

other,” he added. “We were 

soul mates.” 

An autopsy revealed that 

she died due to complications 

from an infection from 

the surgery, according to 

records from the St. Louis 

County Medical Examiners 

office. Baumgardner also 

had an underlying heart disease, 

Medical Examiner 

Thomas Uncini said. 

“Having the infection put 

stress on her heart and 

played a role in her death,” 

Uncini said. 

Baumgardner said 

Konasiewicz called him 

after the autopsy. 

“He said she would have 

died anyway,” he said. 

Baumgardner said he 

went to St. Luke’s Quality 

Assurance department to 

see if something could be 

done to prevent a similar incident 

from happening in 

the future. 

“But they backpedaled on 

every question we asked,” 

he said. “I wanted them to 

accept responsibility for 

what happened. Just a little 

bit.” 

Baumgardner sued and 

won a 2006 settlement; St. 

Luke’s and Konasiewicz 

paid out $355,000, according 

to multiple sources. 

But he said the settlement 

was never about the 

money. 

“I just wanted 

(Konasiewicz) stopped,” he 

said. “There’s nothing that 

would make me or my 

daughters happier than for 

him to never do any surgeries 

on another person.” 

‘I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN’ 

Konasiewicz would continue 

practicing at St. 

Luke’s, where patients 

would continue to allege 

that he harmed them. 

In February 2005, he performed 

lumbar spinal surgery 

on 25-year-old Debbie 

Firn of Duluth, a married 

mother of two. Konasiewicz 

cut her aorta during the surgery, 

leaving about a quarter-inch-long 

hole through 

the artery, according to an 

autopsy conducted by the 

County Medical Examiner’s 

office. 

An injury like that would 

likely cause extensive bleeding 

and should be recognized, 

Uncini said. But the 

autopsy report noted that 

there was no evidence of an 

“He said it was supposed 

to be a very 

simple operation, 

no danger at all.” 

Alan Meinershagen, who 

suffered a cerebral hemorrhage 

after a brain biopsy conducted 

by Dr. Konasiewicz 

attempt to repair the hole. 

Twelve hours later she died 

of exsanguination — bleeding 

to death. 

“Either (Konasiewicz) 

didn’t see it bleeding, or he 

didn’t recognize what it 

was,” Uncini said. 

The autopsy report concluded 

that the death was accidental 

— an unusual 

ruling, according to Uncini, 

because it means the surgeon 

was operating in a 

manner inappropriate for 

the type of surgery he was 

performing. Typically, 

deaths from surgeries would 

be listed as “natural 

causes,” he said. 

“The injury caused by 

surgery resulting in death is 

not an accepted complication 

of this type of surgery,” 

Uncini said. “To my knowledge, 

we’ve never had a 

death from that ever, except 

in this case.” 

The medical examiner 

who conducted the autopsy, 

now-retired pathologist Donald 

Kundel, sent a letter to 

the state medical board reporting 

his findings. Three 

years later, Firn’s family 

would settle a lawsuit with 

Konasiewicz and St. Luke’s 

for $1.45 million, records 

show. 

In 2005, a patient who had 

previously injured his leg 

and back went to 

Konasiewicz to treat the 

pain. According to records, 

Konasiewicz injected the patient 

with a medication designed 

to numb parts of his 

right leg. The medication allegedly 

destroyed the root of 

the nerve, causing him 

numbness in his groin and 

use of his leg, injuries that 

could be permanent. 

The state medical board 

would later cite the case in 

its reprimand of him. 

In 2006, Konasiewicz performed 

a brain biopsy on 

Alan Meinershagen, who 

owned and operated a dairy 

farm north of Duluth for 

about 60 years. 

He went to St. Luke’s in 

2006 with weakness and 

numbness in his left arm 

and concerns that he had 

suffered a stroke. Dr. 

Konasiewicz performed a 

brain biopsy and, according 

to lawsuit records, caused a 

cerebral hemorrhage that 

Statement from St. Luke’s 

Patient safety is a top 

priority for St. Luke’s and 

we take quality assurance 

very seriously. St. Luke’s 

consistently meets regulatory 

requirements. We 

score high in patient safety 

and quality measurements, 

including AHRQ 

(Agency for Health Care 

Quality & Research) and 

statewide patient safety 

initiatives. 

St. Luke’s has a rigorous 

Quality Assurance 

program in place and will 

always look into any adverse 

outcome involving a 

physician or provider rendering 

care in our facilities. 

St. Luke’s 

continuously engages in 

peer review processes to 

ensure that patients and 

their loved ones are cared 

for to the best of our ability. 

We are prohibited by 

Minnesota state law from 

disclosing more information 

about those peer reviews, 

but what we can say 

is that they are routinely 

done and actions are taken 

as necessary. 

We reject the premise 

that Dr. Konasiewicz did 

not provide excellent neurosurgical 

care during his 

time at St. Luke’s. To the 

contrary: Dr. Konasiewicz 

performed thousands of 

difficult and life-saving 

surgeries on thousands of 

patients throughout our 

region. Many people are 

alive and walking today 

because of the outstanding 

care and skill of Dr. 

Konasiewicz. 

Neurosurgery is one of 

the most complex and 

high-risk specialties in the 

practice of medicine and 

requires extraordinary 

led to seizures, severe cerebral 

dysfunction and brain 

injuries. Meinershagen, now 

88, said he’ll never walk 

again and that the surgery 

“ruined my life.” 

“He said it was supposed 

to be a very simple operation, 

no danger at all,” Meinershagen 

said. 

Meinershagen, whose 

case is scheduled to go to 

trial in August, has lived in 

a nursing home since the 

surgery, where he struggles 

with basic tasks like eating 

or turning on the television. 

“I wish I would have 

known about him,” he said. 

In July 2007, while performing 

neck surgery on 39- 

year-old Lorena LeBeau, 

Konasiewicz ordered an 

anesthesiologist to apply 

manual traction and placed 

a template into the surgical 

site. That area during the 

surgery is supposed to remain 

still to prevent any 

damage to the nerves. But 

records noted a “sudden 

jerk” during the procedure 

and movement of the cervical 

vertebrae. The patient 

was later diagnosed with 

“persistent cervical quadriplegia” 

— paralysis from the 

neck down. 

Konasiewicz would later 

appear before the Minnesota 

Board of Medical Practice’s 

complaint review committee 

and admit to movement of 

the patient’s spinal column 

during the procedure. 

The LeBeaus filed a lawsuit 

against Konasiewicz 

and St. Luke’s in 2008, claiming 

the hospital “negligently 

and carelessly hired, retained 

and supervised Dr. 

training. It is a specialty 

fraught with unavoidable 

risk of complications. Adverse 

outcomes do happen 

on occasion and they are 

not necessarily the result 

of negligence or recklessness 

by the physician. Patients 

are carefully 

explained these risks in 

advance of the surgery or 

procedure and they must 

consent to undertake the 

risk. 

Dr. Konasiewicz’s litigation 

history over his career 

is not worse than the 

average of other neurosurgeons’ 

experience in the 

region or in the country. 

While Dr. Konasiewicz 

has, like most neurosurgeons, 

been sued on occasion, 

he has never received 

a litigation judgment 

against him. In fact, in the 

only case against Dr. 

Konasiewicz that has gone 

to trial, the jury found that 

he did not commit malpractice 

and acted within 

the standard for neurosurgeons. 

Our hearts, of course, 

go out to Dr. Konasiewicz’s 

patients and families that 

have experienced a complication 

in their condition 

while at St. Luke’s. We understand 

the pain and loss 

those experiences cause to 

the individuals involved. 

For them, notions of statistics 

and risk are of little 

consolation as they deal 

with the reality of their situation. 

We feel deep compassion 

for these patients 

and families, but we also 

know that neither St. 

Luke’s nor Dr. 

Konasiewicz caused these 

outcomes as a result of 

negligent or reckless care. 

Konasiewicz.” 

The case would be settled 

in 2008 for more than $1 million. 

The LeBeaus declined 

comment, citing a confidentiality 

clause they signed as 

part of the settlement. 

In December 2005, St. 

Luke’s, jointly with 

Konasiewicz, had taken out 

a special state malpractice 

insurance policy worth up to 

$3 million. That policy can 

only be granted to parties 

who are “unable to obtain 

insurance through ordinary 

methods,” according to the 

group that granted the policy, 

the Minnesota Joint Underwriting 

Association. 

“If the Minnesota Board 

of Medical Practice says a 

doctor can practice medicine 

but they can’t get insurance, 

then we have to do 

something about the innocent 

victims harmed by malpractice,” 

said Beth Devine 

Chopp, head of the state underwriting 

association. 

The LeBeau payment 

came from the MJUA policy. 

St. Luke’s then sued the 

Underwriting Association, 

claiming the policy should 

have paid more. 

Though a judge threw out 

the lawsuit, an exhibit in the 

case showed the hospital 

warned the Underwriting 

Association that three more 

claims could be coming 

against Konasiewicz for allegedly 

harming patents between 

2006 and 2008. 

In addition to Meinershagen, 

Konasiewicz still has 

two open lawsuits filed 

against him in St. Louis 

County.


Monday, May 30, 2011 

duluthnewstribune.com More than 90,000 readers every weekday 75¢ 

Iron Range veterans 

project turns into 

monumental 

task 

DAY TWO | DNT INVESTIGATION 

Databank doesn’t 

stop docs from 

skipping states 

A committee 

trying to bring a 

sculpture to honor 

Northland vets 

hatches a plan to 

keep Oklahoma 

foundry going 

JOHN LUNDY 


VIRGINIA — The monument 

will be spectacular. 

Cast in bronze, weighing 

between 8 and 9 tons, it 

will be bigger than life, 

measuring 15 feet by 27 

feet at its farthest points. 

Its message will be stirring. 

Military personnel 

from every branch of the 

service and every 20th 

century war the United 

States fought in will be depicted 

honoring a fallen 

comrade under the protection 

of an eagle whose 

feathers merge into the 

fabric of a U.S. flag. 

Zim artist Gareth Andrews’ 

creation, “Shoulder 

to Shoulder: Even the 

Fallen Stand Tall,” will be 

the centerpiece of Iron 

Range Veterans Memorial 

park, set next to Virginia 

Lake in downtown Virginia. 

But it’s in pieces now, 

at a struggling art foundry 

in Norman, Okla., which 

is working three-day 

weeks because of a lack of 

orders. 

For Andrews and the 

members of a committee 

that formed a dozen years 

ago to develop the park, 

the foundry’s problem is 

their problem. 

“We really can’t afford 

to lose this foundry,” Andrews 

said during an interview 

last week at the 

Servicemen’s Club in Virginia. 

So they’ve hatched a 

plan to give Crucible 

Foundry the work it needs 

to ramp back up to fiveday 

weeks. 

See Veterans, Page A4 

A model of the planned bronze sculpture “Shoulder to Shoulder: Even the Fallen Stand Tall” 

is on display in the Virginia Servicemen’s Club. The actual monument will stand 15 feet tall, 

stretch 27 feet wide and be 12 feet front to back. It will include larger-than-life-size 

representations of servicemen and women from the five major wars fought by the U.S. 

during the 20th century. Photos by Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com 

Sculptor Gareth Andrew uses a scale model to talk about the planned “Shoulder to 

Shoulder: Even the Fallen Stand Tall” monument. On the monument’s back, the eagle’s 

feathers change to a flag’s stripes. 

BRANDON STAHL AND MARK STODGHILL 



In the last two decades, 282 doctors licensed to practice 

in Minnesota have settled malpractice cases that accuse 

them of causing their patients serious injuries, including 

quadriplegia, brain damage and death. 

Of those doctors, 22 have been sued 

more than once for those cases. Among 

them is former St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

Stefan Konasiewicz, who has settled lawsuits 

accusing him of causing two patients’ 

deaths and causing another to be 

paralyzed from the neck down. 

Who are the other doctors, and where 

KONASIEWICZ 

More in 

this series 

Sunday: 

Neurosurgeon 

Stefan 

Konasiewicz, 

one of the 

highest-paid 


Luke’s hospital, 

continued practicing 

despite 

several malpractice 

suits 

and a sanction 

from the Minnesota 

Board of 

Medical Practice 

for “unethical 

and unprofessional 

conduct.” 

Tuesday: By the 

time Stefan 

Konasiewicz 

was sanctioned 

in Minnesota, he 

already had 

moved out of 

state, where 

he may be 

sanction-free. 

do they practice? 

That’s largely unknown, because the 

National Practitioner Data Bank, the 

federal database that tracks malpractice 

cases, doesn’t make public the doctors’ 

names or where they practice. 

The database was created in 1990 not 

only to collect malpractice information, 

but also to compile disciplinary actions 

taken against doctors by hospitals and 

state and federal medical boards. Lawmakers 

were concerned that doctors 

sanctioned in one jurisdiction were 

“state hopping” — moving to another 

state to avoid scrutiny. 

But in trying to prevent that, the National 

Practitioner Data Bank has 

largely failed. 

At least 5,200 doctors have been disciplined 

in one state for providing substandard 

care, only to move to another 

state, where they’re again cited, a News 

Tribune analysis shows. This is despite 

the full database that includes physicians’ 

names being available to all medical 

boards and hospitals. 

Of the 32,167 doctors disciplined by 

state and federal medical boards and 

hospitals, more than 740 have had at 

least 10 disciplinary actions taken 

against them — including 13 doctors 

who are licensed in Minnesota. 

Dozens of the doctors with multiple 

disciplinary actions taken against them 

have also settled multimillion-dollar 

malpractice cases in which they’re 

alleged to have seriously disabled or 

killed their patients, according to a 

News Tribune analysis of the data bank. 

CASES MISSING 

The number of doctors who have 

been disciplined or who have settled 

malpractice suits in the U.S. is actually 

far higher than the database indicates, 

because the database is missing thousands 

of records. 

See Medical, Page A6 

Energy companies look for 

power way, way up in the sky 

JAY LINDSAY 


BOSTON —The world’s 

strongest winds race high in 

the sky, but that doesn’t 

mean they’re out of reach as 

a potentially potent energy 

source. 

Flying, swooping and 

floating turbines are being 

developed to turn high-altitude 

winds into electricity. 

The challenges are huge, 

but the potential is immense. 

Scientists estimate the energy 

in the jet streams is 100 

times the amount of power 

used worldwide annually. 

Cristina Archer, an atmospheric 

scientist at the 

California State University in 

Chico, said there’s “not 

a doubt anymore” that 

high-altitude winds will be 

tapped for power. 

“This can be done. It can 

work,” she said. 

The question is, when? 

Some companies project 

their technology will hit the 

market by the middle of the 

decade, but Fort Felker at the 

National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory said the industry 

is 10 years away from making 

a meaningful contribution to 

the nation’s electricity demands. 

High-altitude wind power 

is similar to ground wind in 

the 1970s —facing questions 

but soon to prove its viability, 

said PJ Shepard of 

Oroville, Calif.-based Sky 

WindPower, which is developing 

a “flying electric generator.” 

“It’s kind of like the adjustment 

folks had to make 

when the Wright brothers 

started flying airplanes,” she 

said. 

The lure of high-altitude 

wind is simple: Wind speed 

generally increases with its 

height above the ground as 

surface friction diminishes. 

Each time wind speed doubles, 

the amount of energy it 

theoretically holds multiplies 

by eight times. 

The world’s most powerful 

winds circulate in the jet 

Flight team engineers Kenneth Jensen (from left), Damon Vander Lind and Matthew Peddie 

prepare on May 24 for the first crosswind test of their 20kW Wing 7 airborne wind turbine 

prototype in Alameda, Calif. Several companies are pursuing designs that can capture power 

from some of the most powerful winds on Earth, blowing thousands of feet above the world’s 

tallest turbines. Photo by Andrea Dunlap of Makani Power / Associated Press 

streams, which are found 

four to 10 miles off the ground 

and carry winds that regularly 

break 100 mph. 

High-altitude wind advocates 

say their smaller, lightweight 

turbines will be far 

cheaper to build and deploy 

than windmills with huge 

blades and towers that must 

be drilled into land or the sea 

floor. 

Those savings would 

mean inexpensive energy. 

With wide-scale use, advocates 

see a range of prices, 

from something comparable 

to land wind’s current 9 or 

10 cents per kilowatt hour 

down to an astonishingly low 

2 cents per kilowatt hour. 

As the turbines eventually 

aim higher, advocates say 

there are plenty of remote 

and offshore no-fly areas 

where they won’t interfere 

with aircraft and have minimal 

interaction with people. 

See Wind, Page A4 


(218) 723-5252 

or (800) 456-8080 

News tips 

(218) 723-5300 

Contents 

Classifieds C5-D8 

Business B 

Games B6 

Obituaries B5 

Opinion A7 

Sports C 

TV listings B8 

Weather A8 

Weather 

Today: Cloudy, 

storms possible 


Tomorrow: Partly 

sunny, rain possible 


Brothers in arms headed for Kuwait, Iraq 

Northland brothers 

follow lifelong dream of 

fighting war together 

LOUISE ERNEWEIN 

For the News Tribune 

When Phillip and Chris 

Anderson were young boys 

growing up in Duluth, they 

talked about fighting in a 

war together. 

This weekend, the two 

brothers left the Northland 

to do just that. 

On Sunday, Phillip 

Anderson, 25, departed on 

a bus with the Hibbing unit 

of the Minnesota National 

Guard’s 1st Squadron, 

94th Cavalry. 

His younger brother, 

Chris, 23, traveled on another 

bus, with the Cloquet 

unit of the same squadron. 

Their destination was Fort 

McCoy, Wis., where they 

will spend the next four to 

six weeks training intensively 

for their deployment. 

In less than two months, 

the brothers will be serving 

alongside one another in 

Kuwait and Iraq under Operation 

New Dawn, performing 

convoy security 

operations in support of U.S. 

forces in the area. 

“Everybody is my 

brother when you are in the 

military,” said Chris, who is 

a full-time law enforcement 

student at Fond du Lac 

Tribal and Community 

College. “But when you have 

somebody who grew up with 

you in the same family and 

can talk with you about your 

little nieces and nephews, it 

makes life that much better, 

given the situation that you 

are in.” 

The brothers joined the 

Minnesota National Guard 

six years ago while they 

were students at Duluth 

East High School. 

See Brothers, Page A6

Page A6 

Duluth News Tribune | Monday, May 30, 2011 


Medical 


A 2005 story by the 

Washington Post reported 

that 54 percent of hospitals 

have never reported a disciplinary 

action or malpractice 

case to the data bank. 

Cynthia Grubbs, acting 

director for the data bank, 

told the News Tribune that 

number is still true. 

“Hospitals only must report 

specific actions,” she 

said. “It needs to reach the 

criteria of a ‘reportable 

event,’ and hospitals generally 

will try to remediate or 

work with their practitioners 

before it reaches a level 

of reportable action.” 

While federal laws require 

hospitals and insurance 

providers to report 

settlements, no fine or 

penalty has ever been levied 

for failing to report, said 

Grubbs, whose agency, the 

Federal Department of 

Health and Human Services, 

oversees the database. 

One of the most costly 

lawsuits settled by St. 

Luke’s hospital and 

Konasiewicz, for example, 

isn’t listed in the database. 


settled with Duluth resident 

Lorena LeBeau after a lawsuit 

she and her husband 

filed in 2007, claiming a 

surgical error caused by 

Konasiewicz left her a 

quadriplegic. 

That case settled for more 

than $1 million, a settlement 

revealed through court 

records when St. Luke’s 

sued the insurance provider 

that covered Konasiewicz 

and the hospital. But the 

LeBeau case is not in the 

national data bank. 

Konasiewicz does have 

four other malpractice cases 

listed in the database, including 

two suits alleging 

his treatment led to patient 

deaths. Only nine other doctors 

in Minnesota have that 

many cases involving a 

death. 

When contacted about 

the findings, Konasiewicz 

referred a reporter to his attorney, 

St. Paul-based Mark 

Solheim, who did not respond 

to questions. 

St. Luke’s hospital issued 

a statement, reading, in 

part: “Dr. Konasiewicz’s 

litigation history over his 

career is not worse than the 

average of other neurosurgeons’ 

experience in the 

region or in the country. 

While Dr. Konasiewicz has, 

like most neurosurgeons, 

been sued on occasion, he 

has never received a litigation 

judgment against him. 

In fact, in the only case 

against Dr. Konasiewicz that 

has gone to trial, the jury 

found that he did not commit 

malpractice and acted 

within the standard for 

neurosurgeons.” 

The full statement can be 

found in Sunday’s edition of 

the News Tribune or online 

at duluthnewstribune.com. 

DEBATE OVER PRIVACY 

Even though the database 

removes the names of doctors 

and hospitals and is 

missing some records, it still 

has proven to be a powerful 

tool for researchers to track 

problem doctors and the actions 

taken against them. 

The nonprofit watchdog 

group Public Citizen, for 

example, used the database 

to find thousands of cases in 

which state medical boards 

failed to discipline physicians 

despite their own hospitals 

taking actions against 

them. 

“Even without the names 

of the hospitals or the doctors, 

there’s useful information,” 

said Dr. Sydney Wolfe, 

a founder and director of the 

Health Research Group for 

Public Citizen. “Just imagine 

what would happen if 

you could actually look up 

the doctors by name.” 

Which is why Public 

Citizen and other watchdog 

groups continue to lobby 

to make the full database 

public, as Wolfe said was 

the initial plan when it was 

first proposed. 

But lobbyists for the 

American Medical Association 

stepped in, Wolfe said, 

and convinced Congress to 

redact crucial parts of the 

data. 

The AMA says the data is 

flawed and incomplete and 

therefore inappropriate to 

make fully available to the 

public. 

“We’ve always supported 

patients having access to 

reliable information about 

physicians as a means of 

improving patient safety 

and protecting patients from 

preventable harm caused by 

incompetent or unethical 

health-care practitioners,” 

said Cecil Wilson, an internist 

in Winter Park, Fla., 

Malpractice and doctor 

discipline in Minnesota 

The number of malpractice cases filed against doctors 

licensed in Minnesota since 1991 that have settled for 

severe injuries and death, and the average settlement 

amount: 

Average 

Outcome Number settlement amount 

Death 161 $395,201 

Quadriplegic, brain damage or lifelong care 32 $1,804,844 

Major permanent injury 66 $965,758 

Significant permanent injury 81 $520,741 

Topreasons listed for adverse actions reported 

since 1991 against doctors licensed in Minnesota: 

Reason for action 

and president of the AMA. 

“The important part of that 

statement is: reliable information. 

The problem with 

the NPBD is that it is seriously 

flawed, is an inaccurate 

system.” 

Wilson said the best 

source for patients to find 

out whether their doctor has 

been disciplined is to look at 

a state medical board’s 

records. 

But Lisa McGiffert, the 

campaign manager of the 

Consumers Union’s Safe Patient 

Project, which advocates 

for more physician 

accountability, said medical 

board information is often 

difficult to obtain and doesn’t 

contain crucial records, 

such as malpractice cases. 

“If I’m checking out a 

Total citations 

Reason not listed 3,601 

Alcohol or substance abuse 699 

Failure to comply with licensing board order 304 

License action by federal, state or local licensing authority 269 

Criminal conviction 249 

Unprofessional conduct 219 

Substandard or inadequate care 176 

Failure to maintain records, or provide information 168 

Diversion of controlled substance 129 

Practicing without avalid license 122 

Most frequent licensing actions taken 

against doctors in Minnesota, since 1991: 

Action taken 

Total actions 

Suspension of license 1,760 

Probation of license 1,061 

Complete or partial reinstatement of license 1,181 

Reprimand, censure or voluntary surrender of license 944 

Other licensure action 689 

Voluntary surrender of license 536 

Fine or monetary penalty 378 

Limitation or restriction on license or practice 320 

Revocation of license 253 

Reduction of previous licensure action 91 

Source: National Practitioner Data Bank 

NEWS TRIBUNE GRAPHICS 

doctor in Minnesota who 

came from another state, the 

only resource I have to is 

check that state’s medical 

board records,” she said. 

“And that can be very difficult 

to do.” 

A centralized database 

would give patients more information 

about their doctors, 

McGiffert argued. 

To make the data public 

would require an act of 

Congress. 

“And so far, no one’s willing 

to do that,” Wolfe said. 

“There don’t seem to be any 

champions, at least that we 

can detect.” 

News Tribune director of information 

technology Michelle 

VanDell contributed to the data 

analysis for this report. 

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Brothers 


Although this is Chris’ 

first deployment, Phillip, a 

combat truck driver, served 

in Iraq in 2006-07, and has 

been drawing on that experience 

to help his brother 

prepare for the reality of 

war. 

“He has been asking 

some questions, and I tell 

him the best I can,” said 

Phillip, who is a mechanic 

at the Firestone store on 

Miller Trunk Highway in 

Duluth. “But I’m not a very 

good advice giver — every 

experience is different.” 

He recalled missing the 

outdoors, hunting, fishing, 

four-wheeling and snowmobiling 

on his first deployment. 

The 1st Squadron, 94th 

Cavalry is scheduled to return 

to Duluth next spring. 

That means a year apart 

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their Duluth Heights home 

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“We have been anticipating 

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World’s top lake researchers meet in Duluth PAGE C1 


Tuesday, May 31, 2011 


DAY THREE | DNT INVESTIGATION 

In Texas, surgeon 

Konasiewicz may 

be sanction-free 

Korean War veteran Robert Pearson (right) returns the salutes of Mike Hoffman, John Marshall and Durbin Keeney (from the 

left) after receiving an American flag before Monday’s Memorial Day parade in West Duluth. Pearson was this year’s honored 

veteran, in part because he spends a lot of time volunteering for other veterans. Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com 

Duluth veteran honored 

for years of quiet service 

LISA BAUMANN 

lbaumann@duluthnews.com 

As a teen, Duluthian Robert Pearson 

was gung-ho about joining the 

military. It was 1950, Pearson was 

fresh out of high school, and the 

Korean War was just beginning. 

He enlisted in the Marine Reserves 

and was one of 227 men who 

made up B Company. They were 

called for active duty that summer. 

“My parents weren’t too happy,” 

he recalled. “But there was nothing 

they could do.” 

Although Pearson’s goal was to 

get to Korea while on active duty between 

August 1950 and March 1952, 

his wish was never granted. 

“Every time I asked to go to Korea, 

they gave me another (service) stripe 

and said no,” he said. “One thing 

about the service; you never know 

what’s going to happen.” 

Pearson was this year’s honored 

veteran during Duluth’s Memorial 

Day Parade. And he is deserving of 

the honor even if he didn’t leave the 

country during his time of service, 

said John Marshall of Northland Veterans 

Services. 

“He is a notable veteran, and he 

volunteers so much of his time for 

other veterans,” Marshall said. “He’s 

contributed a lot to this community 

and should be recognized.” 

Today, at age 78, Pearson has lost 

JANA HOLLINGSWORTH 

jhollingsworth@duluthnews.com 


(218) 723-5252 

or (800) 456-8080 

News tips 

(218) 723-5300 

Contents 

Classifieds D1-3 

Comics C6 

Games C5 

Lotteries A2 

Obituaries C4 

Opinion A5 

Sports B1-3 

TV listings D4 

Robert Pearson stands beside his 

mother, Florence Pearson, in this 1950 

family photo taken the day before he 

was sent to boot camp. 

Duluth school officials are 

concerned about potential cut to 

state integration money, Page A4 

Weather 

Today: Windy, 

thunderstorms 


Tomorrow: 

Partly cloudy 


LAURAN NEERGAARD 


WASHINGTON —A 

growing shortage of medications 

for a host of illnesses 

—from cancer to cystic fibrosis 

to cardiac arrest — 

has hospitals scrambling for 

substitutes to avoid patient 

harm, and sometimes even 

delaying treatment. 

“It’s just a matter of time 

now before we call for a 

drug that we need to save a 

patient’s life, and we find 

a vocal cord and struggles with 

asthma, emphysema and chronic 

bronchitis. It’s likely all those conditions 

were brought on by being sent 

to work at a military base in 

Barstow, Calif., which was near an 

active nuclear test site. 

“He was exposed to atomic blasts, 

so he’s known as an ‘atomic veteran,’” 

Marshall said. 

Despite his ailments, Pearson has 

been a force behind veterans’ 

causes 

and local 

community organizations 

such as the Duluth and Hermantown 

chambers of 

commerce and the Du- 

luth Civil 

Defense Auxiliary Police. 

When the finances of a local VFW 

were in question several 

years ago, 

Pearson was asked to help because of 

his experience as a retired banking 

vice president, 

Marshall 

said. 

“He and few other people are re- 

sponsible for saving the organiza- 

tion,” Marshall 

said. “Otherwise, 

we’d not 

have a VFW.” 

Pearson also served as chairman of 

B Company’s 50th reunion committee, 

which led him to perhaps his most 

recognized project 

— the Korean Vet- 

erans Memorial 

on the Lakewalk. 

He did everything from the initial 

sketch of 

the memorial 

to creating a 

nonprofit 

group to raise money. 

“It was paid for by private money, 

and we still had money left for maintenance,” 

Pearson said proudly. “The 

B Company vets and local businesses 

made it happen.” 

Pearson volunteers with the Duluth 

Combined Honor Guard, which 

performs military honors at the funerals 

of veterans, among other duties. 

“I’ve been kind of backing off 

other things,” he said. “But I’ll do 

anything to help anybody.” 

MORE SCENES FROM THE PARADE ON PAGE A4 AND ONLINE AT DULUTHNEWSTRIBUNE.COM 

The gap in achievement between 

white students and students 

of color is one of the Duluth school 

district’s biggest obstacles to making 

adequate yearly progress 

under federal No Child Left Behind 

guidelines. 

New efforts rolled out last year 

were aimed at narrowing that 

achievement gap. Two of those efforts 

involved hiring integration 

specialists and data coaches. 

Standardized test scores measuring 

student performance won’t 

be released until later this summer. 

But, after a year of seeing the 

Duluth district’s new efforts in action, 

administrators and the specialists 

hired to work with at-risk 

students say there’s at least anecdotal 

evidence that the programs 

have started to make a difference. 

Integration specialists work 

with students defined by test 

scores as being at risk of failure, 

and with their families. Data 

coaches work with teachers to analyze 

test data and figure out how to 

use it to guide classroom instruction 

and help kids who need it. 

“This is hard … roll-up-your 

sleeves, behind-the-scenes work 

that will in time get us results,” 

Tawnyea Lake, director of assessment, 

evaluation and performance, 

said of the data coaches at a 

recent School Board meeting. 

“We’re finding some really exciting 

things happening.” 

INTEGRATION SPECIALISTS 

The roughly $700,000 that covers 

the cost of the 11 integration 

specialists comes from state integration 

money diverted last year 

out there isn’t any,” said Dr. 

Eric Lavonas of the American 

College of Emergency 

Physicians. 

The problem of scarce 

supplies or even completely 

unavailable medications 

isn’t a new one, but it’s getting 

markedly worse. The 

number listed in short supply 

has tripled over the past 

five years, to a record 211 

medications last year. While 

some of those have been resolved, 

another 89 drug 

shortages have occurred in 

BRANDON STAHL AND MARK STODGHILL 

bstahl@duluthnews.com, mstodghill@duluthnews.com 

Citing four cases in which former St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

Stefan Konasiewicz was alleged to have harmed 

patients, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice disciplined 

Konasiewicz in September 2010. 

With that discipline came several remedies designed 

to protect patients. He was ordered to 

have a preapproved supervising physician 

specializing in neurological surgery 

observe at least five of his 

surgeries per quarter, and to have that 

physician submit quarterly reports to 

the board regarding Konasiewicz’s 

overall work. He also was ordered to 

KONASIEWICZ 

More in 

this series 

Sunday: 

Neurosurgeon 

Stefan 

Konasiewicz, 

one of the 

highest-paid 


Luke’s hospital, 

continued practicing 

despite 

several malpractice 

suits 

and a sanction 

from the Minnesota 

Board of 

Medical Practice 

for “unethical 

and unprofessional 

conduct.” 

Monday: The 

federal database 

that tracks 

malpractice 

cases doesn’t 

make public the 

doctors’ names 

or where they 

practice. 

meet quarterly with a designated board 

member and review his progress. 

But Konasiewicz doesn’t have to 

comply with Minnesota’s sanctions in 

order to keep practicing medicine. 

By the time he was sanctioned in 

Minnesota, he had already moved to 

Corpus Christi, Texas, where he is 

listed as a practicing surgeon with the 

South Texas Brain and Spine Institute 

and has privileges at four Texas hospitals, 

according to his information on 

the state medical board’s website. 

If a doctor relocates to Texas, that 

state’s medical board typically adopts 

the disciplinary actions and sanctions 

imposed by a previous state, said Leigh 

Hopper, a spokeswoman for the Texas 

Medical Board. 

However, she said, as far as Texas is 

concerned, Konasiewicz has a clear 

medical license with no restrictions. 

“And I don’t know why that is,” she 

said. 

POSSIBLE THAT ‘BOARD DOESN’T KNOW’ 

The Texas Medical Board’s online 

site lists the disciplinary action taken 

against him in Minnesota, “requiring 

mentoring of cases and reporting to the 

(Minnesota) board.” 

But Minnesota has no obligation or 

authority to require Konasiewicz to follow 

the discipline order, said Ruth Martinez, 

the complaint review unit 

supervisor for the Minnesota medical 

board. 

The Texas site also has a space listing 

“investigations by (the Texas Medical 

Board) of Medical Malpractice,” 

saying that under state law, the board 

is required to review information related 

to a physician against whom three or more malpractice 

claims have been reported in a five-year period. 

The site lists no record of an investigation or actions 

taken against Konasiewicz. 

But Konasiewicz settled five malpractice cases in 

St. Louis County District Court for a total of at least 

$3.2 million from 2005 to 2009, according to multiple 

sources reviewed by the News Tribune. 

Konasiewicz was alleged to have been responsible for 

two patients’ deaths in those cases. 

Specialists say programs for at-risk students are working 

from magnet schools, plus staff development 

money. 

The specialists started with 

more than 500 kids. They lost 180 

throughout the year because some 

dropped out, some had parents 

who didn’t give permission to 

work with them, and some parents 

couldn’t be reached. 

“It’s a pretty transient population,” 

said Ron Hagland, head of 

the education equity office, which 

oversees the specialists. Another 

220 kids were identified as needing 

specialists during the second semester 

and they will be worked 

into caseloads for next year. 

More patients experience shortage of medications 

the first three months of this 

year, according to the University 

of Utah’s Drug Information 

Service. It tracks 

shortages for the American 

Society of Health-System 

Pharmacists. 

The vast majority involve 

injectable medications 

used mostly by medical centers 

—in emergency rooms, 

ICUs and cancer wards. Particular 

shortages can last for 

weeks or for many months, 

and there aren’t always 

good alternatives. Nor is it 


The specialists have seen success 

with programs that teach parents 

how to navigate the school 

system, get kids to school and 

mentor families. 

Some parents leave for work before 

school starts and get home 

after it’s over, said specialist Nate 

Smith. Some had no idea their 

child was skipping school, and specialists 

were able to inform them. 

They’ve worked to open communication 

with parents and build 

trust. They’ve also worked hard to 

get kids to school, with methods 

such as providing bus passes. 

See Schools, Page A4 

just a U.S. problem, as other 

countries report some of the 

same supply disruptions. 

It’s frightening for families. 

At Miami Children’s 

Hospital, doctors had to 

postpone for a month the 

last round of chemotherapy 

for 14-year-old Caroline Pallidine, 

because of a monthslong 

nationwide shortage of 

cytarabine, a drug considered 

key to curing a type of 

leukemia. 

See Drugs, Page A4

Page A4 

TP 

Duluth News Tribune | Tuesday, May 31, 2011 


State budget 

could cut school 

integration funds 

An overcast —but dry — 

Memorial Day parade 

Members of Northland Vietnam Veterans (above) 

march in Monday’s Memorial Day parade in West 

Duluth. Heavy rain seen in the morning stopped in 

time for the parade, which started at 12:30 p.m. At 

right: Nadia Mattson, 7, of Duluth, waves an American 

flag while watching the parade. See more photos online 

at duluthnewstribune.com. 

Photos by Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com 



Duluth school district officials have been concerned this 

year about a potential cut to integration money that comes 

from the state. 

The money, about $1.8 million, pays for integration 

specialists and other achievement gap initiatives. The 

Republican budget vetoed last week by Democratic Gov. 

Mark Dayton eliminated about half the integration 

money Duluth receives each year of the biennium. 

“The governor has been adamant he’s not going to 

allow the Legislature to touch (integration) funding for 

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth,” said Ron Soberg, the 

district’s lobbyist. 

Those three cities are considered first-class cities 

based on population, and they receive integration funds 

because of it, but other cities now receive the same type 

of funding. The bill would have made cuts to integration 

money only for first-class cities, Soberg said. 

“The governor vetoed it, but they have to come to a 

solution in a special session,” he said, to avoid a July 1 

government shutdown. “There is going to have to be a 

final bill that will also include this issue. The shortfall 

will have to be taken care of.” 

If Duluth’s integration money is cut in half, the Office 

of Education Equity, which oversees it, will prioritize 

its programs, said Ron Hagland, its director. 

Those include community liaisons, teaching staff, integration 

activities and specialized achievement programming. 

The integration specialists, whose cost takes 

up half the budget, will be the highest priority to keep, 

Hagland said. That means that everything else is in danger 

of being cut. 

The School Board needs to find a way to weave integration 

costs into the general operating fund so the programs 

aren’t reliant in money that can be pulled by an 

outside source, Hagland said. 

Doctor 


Konasiewicz received his 

license from the Texas Medical 

Board in 1997 and is required 

to renew it every two 

years, Hopper said. She said 

the board is supposed to review 

a doctor’s malpractice 

and disciplinary action 

when it renews a license, 

but she couldn’t say if that 

happened with Konasiewicz. 

“It’s actually possible 

that the board doesn’t know 

about all the medical malpractice 

cases in another 

state,” she said. 

All state medical boards 

have full access to the National 


Bank, which lists malpractice 

cases and disciplinary 

actions taken against doctors. 

But Hopper said that 

because the Data Bank 

charges for queries, it would 

cost the state of Texas too 

much — she estimated 

$160,000 a year — to check 

on every doctor licensed in 

the state. 

“We might query it as 

part of an investigation, but 

it won’t be a source to start 

an investigation,” Hopper 

said. 

The ultimate responsibility 

of disclosing malpractice 

cases is on the doctor, Hopper 

said. 

“If the doctor doesn’t 

want to tell us and is not 

truthful when he renews his 

license, then we’re not going 

to find out about it, either,” 

she said. 

‘NOBODY’S RESPONSIBILITY’ 

Konasiewicz’ case isn’t 

unusual, said George Annas, 

a professor of health law and 

bioethics at Boston University, 

and a former member 

of his state’s medical board. 

Many states often don’t 

check a physician’s background 

when they renew his 

or her license, Annas said. 

“The (license) renewal is 

just paying money; it’s not a 

big deal,” he said. “I don’t 

think there’s any excuse not 

to check.” 

He said state medical 

boards are often understaffed 

and do a poor job of 

communicating with other 

boards. 

“The problem is, nobody 

feels he (Konasiewicz) is 

their responsibility, and so 

he becomes nobody’s responsibility,” 

he said. “And 

at the very least they say, 

well, if people are curious 

they can go to (medical 

board’s) website. Nobody 

goes on the website to look 

at their doctor. You don’t 

shop for a neurosurgeon 

that way.” 

Annas said the last line of 

defense to protect patients is 

by a hospital restricting 

privileges of a disciplined 

doctor. Administrators for 

two of the hospitals where 

Konasiewicz is listed to have 

privileges in Texas, Doctors 

Regional Hospital and 

Driscoll Children’s Hospital, 

did not return calls seeking 

comment. 

A spokeswoman for 

Christus Spohn Health System, 

which operates two 

hospitals where 

Konasiewicz has privileges, 

said in a statement that hospitals 

are “aware of all the 

details of Dr. Konasiewicz’ 

situation.” 

“We have a very thorough 

and detailed credentialing 

process which all of 

our physicians go through 

at both their initial appointment 

and at their reappointment,” 

the statement said. 

Sanctions still might be 

coming in Texas. 

Former Konasiewicz patient 

David Tekautz of Duluth 

received a letter in 

December from a senior investigator 

with the Texas 

Medical Board stating that 

the board there is conducting 

an evaluation regarding 

one of its licensees relating 

to neurosurgery performed 

on Tekautz. He was asked to 

provide copies of his medical 

records. Tekautz, who 

received a settlement from 


hospital in a medical malpractice 

case, said he has cooperated 

with the 

investigation but doesn’t 

know its current status. 

Tekautz’s case was one of 

four that the Minnesota 


cited when it publicly reprimanded 

Konasiewicz. 

“They (a Texas Medical 

Board investigator) told me 

a month and a half ago that 

it takes a while to go 

through the process,’’ 

Tekautz said. “But they 

have two doctors reviewing 

the records on him and, depending 

on what they decide, 

they will call him in or 

not call him in.” 

Hopper said she couldn’t 

comment on whether her 

state is investigating 

Konasiewicz. 

Schools 


“I’ve picked kids up who 

have slept in or missed the 

school bus,” said Smith, 

who works with 41 students 

at eight schools. 

Some specialists, 

Hagland said, have waited 

outside homes for hours to 

try to talk with parents. 

“Parents are experiencing 

some real stressors: 

legal problems and health 

issues,” he said. “There’s a 

degree of trust between parents 

and integration specialists. 

Knowing someone 

is specifically there for 

their child and is an ongoing 

resource for them has 

allayed a lot of anxiety.” 

Some problems this year 

have been logistical, Smith 

said, with specialists 

stretched thin with caseloads 

and too much travel 

time in the geographically 

long district. The program 

requires that one family 

have the same specialist, so 

specialists must travel to 

various schools to see each 

student in the family. 

Within schools, there 

has been confusion from 

teachers about the roles 

and responsibilities of specialists, 

Hagland said. 

“The role of district mentors 

for a population having 

achievement difficulties is 

brand-new across the country, 

not just in Duluth,” he 

said, and it’s a big change 

for the district to pay attention 

to families of students. 

The roles of teachers, integration 

specialists and 

data coaches sometimes 

overlap, he said, and adjustments 

have been hard for 

some. Team-building work 

might help staff deal with 

issues as they arise, he said. 

DATA COACHES 

One challenge the district 

dealt with this year 

was some teachers’ perception 

that the data coaches 

were taking away money 

that could be used to pay for 

classroom teachers. 

The positions of the 16 

data coaches, whose hours 

add up to the equivalent of 

nine full-time employees, 

are paid for through Title I 

and Title II programs. Part 

of that money is designated 

for staff development mandated 

by the state to improve 

adequate yearly 

progress. The money for 

those positions can’t be 

used to hire regular classroom 

teachers. 

Cyndi Venberg is a halftime 

data coach and a halftime 

reading specialist at 

Lowell Elementary. One of 

the most successful parts of 

her job this year, the former 

fourth-grade teacher 

said, was having time to 

plan for and hold meetings 

with teachers for staff development 

and analysis. 

Before this new venture, 

“it was difficult to set aside 

time,” she said. 

Now, they have monthly 

meetings to talk about how 

kids are doing throughout the 

grade level, so teachers know 

more than just what’s happening 

in their classroom. 

“We’ve looked at children 

who are at the “does 

not meet” (standards) level. 

We saw those children moving 

up,” Venberg said. 

“Those who aren’t moving, 

we’re paying attention to 

those students. I really believe 

that over time, we’re 

going to be able to lower the 

number of students who do 

not meet or partially meet 

our standards in both reading 

and math and other 

areas.” 

Nettleton/Grant Principal 

Stephanie Heilig said 

her part-time data coach 

has been a “gift” to the 

building by working with 

teachers and even going 

into classrooms to coach 

them on ways to help students. 

“It’s absolutely invaluable 

to the schools,” Heilig 

said. “Test-score bumps is 

our goal. We’re not where 

we want to be, but we’re 

getting closer. There has 

never been any mention 

that this is not money wellspent 

at Nettleton.” 

Communication between 

grade levels is improved 

because coaches are 

going into classrooms, 

which is unusual, said Tim 

White, a Central/Denfeld 

math teacher who is a parttime 

data coach. 

“I didn’t want to interfere 

with someone’s math 

class — and I certainly didn’t 

want someone interfering 

with mine — but we’re communicating 

between departments 

better,” he said 

at the School Board meeting. 

“I would be disappointed 

and very surprised if you 

see a dip (in scores),” White 

said. “I think you’ll see improvement 

this year, and 

it’s partly because of this 

program.” 

Drugs 


“There’s always a fear, if 

she’s going so long without 

chemo, is there a chance this 

cancer’s going to come back?” 

said her mother, Marta Pallidine, 

who said she’ll be nervous 

until Caroline finishes 

her final treatments scheduled 

for this week. 

“In this day and age, we 

really shouldn’t be having 

this kind of problem and 

putting our children’s lives 

at risk,” she said. 

There are lots of causes, 

from recalls of contaminated 

vials, to trouble importing 

raw ingredients, to spikes in 

demand, to factories that 

temporarily shut down for 

quality upgrades. 

Some experts pointedly 

note that pricier brandname 

drugs seldom are in 

short supply. The Food and 



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Drug Administration said 

the overarching problem is 

that fewer and fewer manufacturers 

produce these 

older, cheaper generic 

drugs, especially the harderto-make 

injectable ones. So 

if one company has trouble 

—or decides to quit making 

a particular drug —there 

are few others able to ramp 

up their own production to 

fill the gap, Valerie Jensen, 

who heads FDA’s shortage 

office, said. 

The shortage that has 

made the most headlines is a 

sedative used on death row. 

But on the health-care front, 

shortages are wide-ranging, 

including: 

Thiotepa, used with 

bone marrow transplants. 

A whole list of electrolytes, 

injectable nutrients 

crucial for certain premature 

infants and tube-feeding 

of the critically ill. 

Norepinephrine injections 

for septic shock. 

A cystic fibrosis drug 

named acetylcysteine. 

Injections used in the 

ER for certain types of cardiac 

arrest. 

Certain versions of pills 

for ADHD, attention deficit 

hyperactivity disorder. 

Some leuprolide hormone 

injections used in fertility 

treatment. 

No one is tracking patient 

harm. But last fall, the 

nonprofit Institute for Safe 

Medication Practices said it 

had two reports of people 

who died from the wrong 

dose of a substitute 

painkiller during a morphine 

shortage. 

“Every pharmacist in 

every hospital across the 

country is working to make 

sure those things don’t happen, 

but shortages create the 

perfect storm for a medication 

error to happen,” said 

University of Utah pharmacist 

Erin Fox, who oversees 

the shortage-tracking program. 

What can be done? 

The FDA has taken an 

unusual step, asking some 

foreign companies to temporarily 

ship to the U.S. 

their own versions of some 

scarce drugs that aren’t normally 

sold here. That eased 

shortages of propofol, a key 

anesthesia drug, and the 

transplant drug thiotepa. 

Affected companies say 

they’re working hard to 

eliminate backlogs. For instance, 

Hospira Inc., the 

largest maker of those injectable 

drugs, said it is increasing 

production 

capacity and working with 

FDA “to address shortage 

situations as quickly as possible 

and to help prevent recurrence.” 

But the Generic Pharmaceutical 

Association said 

some shortages are beyond 

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industry control, such as 

FDA inspections or stockpiling 

that can exacerbate a 

shortage. 

“Drug shortages of any 

kind are a complex problem 

that require broad-based solutions 

from all stakeholders,” 

the trade group 

Pharmaceutical Research 

and Manufacturers of America 

said. 

Lawmakers are getting involved. 

Sen. Herb Kohl, D- 

Wis., is urging the Federal 

Trade Commission to consider 

if any pending drug-company 

mergers would create or 

exacerbate shortages. 

Also, pending legislation 

would require manufacturers 

to give FDA advance notice 

of problems such as 

manufacturing delays that 

might trigger a shortage. 

The FDA cannot force a 

company to make a drug, 

but was able to prevent 38 

close calls from turning into 

shortages last year by speeding 

approval of manufacturing 

changes or urging 

competing companies to get 

ready to meet a shortfall. 

“No patient’s life should 

have to be at risk when 

there is a drug somewhere” 

that could be used, said Sen. 

Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., 

who introduced the bill. 

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duluthnewstribune.com More than 140,000 readers every Sunday $1.50 

$198 

IN COUPONS 

INSIDE 


As St. Luke’s reaped millions, 

surgeon racked up complaints 

3 

days to default 

Net profit or loss for St. Luke’s 

INMILLIONS OF DOLLARS 

$8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

-2 

-4 

-6 

-8 

-10 

’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 

Number of surgical admissions 

6,000 

5,000 

4,000 

3,000 

’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 

Malpractice expenses 

$2,000,000 

1,500,000 

1,000,000 

500,000 

0 

’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 

ANALYSIS 

Crisis 

shows 

D.C.’s 

deep 

flaws 

SOURCE: Hospital Annual Reports, collected by the Minnesota Department of Health 

Editor’s note 

In September 2010, 

the Minnesota Board of 

Medical Practice publicly 

reprimanded former 

St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

Stefan Konasiewicz 

(right) for “unethical and 

unprofessional conduct,” 

citing four cases 

that resulted in injury, quadriplegia 

or death. 

Based on that action, the News 

Tribune launched an investigation 

into the history of Konasiewicz’s 

practice in Duluth. A News Tribune 

series May 29-31 described 

Konasiewicz’s rise to become St. 

Luke’s hospital’s highest-paid physician 

even as he was sued nine times 

for malpractice. Allegations of harm 

by former patients or their families 

were confirmed through searches of 

databases, public records and 

patient-volunteered medical files. 

Today’s report focuses on the efforts 

of Konasiewicz’s former colleagues 

to warn the St. Luke’s 

administration about his practice, 

and the hospital’s response. 

As St. Luke’s kept a surgeon connected to numerous 

complaints, his practice helped the hospital turn a profit 

BRANDON STAHL AND 




Despite numerous malpractice 

suits and warnings from 

their own doctors and staff 

that Stefan Konasiewicz 

posed a risk to patients, St. 

Luke’s hospital continued to allow 

the neurosurgeon to practice. 

One possible reason: 

Konasiewicz, who worked at St. 

Luke’s from 1997 to 2008, produced 

significant revenues for the hospital 

by performing more neurosurgeries 

than his peers in Duluth. 

And during Konasiewicz’s time at 

St. Luke’s, the hospital went from 

the red to the black, financial 

records obtained by the News Tribune 

show. 

“The assumption from many people 

was that St. Luke’s didn’t deal 

with him because he was bringing in 

so much revenue,” said Suzanne 

Canfield, a retired surgical technician 

who worked in St. Luke’s neurosurgery 

department. “Many 

physicians and anesthesiologists 

had concerns about him right from 

the beginning. 

“But what bothered me was that 

administration didn’t address 

them,” she said. “At least, nothing 

ever changed.” 

Peter Goldschmidt, an orthopedic 

surgeon who shared patients with 

Konasiewicz as part of St. Luke’s 

trauma team, said he saw so many 

complications and adverse outcomes 

from his colleague that in the 

early 2000s he brought his concerns 

directly to St. Luke’s senior administration. 

People he addressed, he said, 

included CEO and President John 

Strange, Vice President of Clinics 

Sandra Barkley and Chief Nursing 

Officer JoAnn Hoag. He said he also 

spoke about Konasiewicz with the 

then-chair of St. Luke’s board, Wells 

McGiffert. 

“I thought something had to be 

done because of the unacceptably 

high complication rate,” said Goldschmidt, 

who has worked in Duluth 

since 1994 with Orthopedic Associates, 

an independent practice that 

works with St. Luke’s. “Nothing 

See Surgeon, Page A2 


Coming 

Monday 

The News Tribune 

interviewed 29 

former patients of 

Stefan Konasiewicz. 

We describe the experiences 

of four of 

them. 

B EN FELLER 


WASHINGTON —There 

is no changing how Washington 

works. It doesn’t. 

Even if a bitterly divided 

Congress and President 

Obama avoid a U.S. debt default 

by striking a lastsecond 

deal, as all sides expect, 

plenty of damage has 

been done. 

People are 

disgusted. 

Confidence 

in the political 

system 

has eroded. 

Nothing else 

is getting 

done in 

Washington. 

Desperate 

talks toward 

compromise 

go late into 

evening, 

Page A7 

The markets are spooked. 

The global reputation of the 

United States has slipped. 

And the real kicker? This 

whole wrenching effort to 

shrink the debt may actually 

increase the debt. 

Any emergency deal may 

not be broad enough to prevent 

the major credit rating 

agencies from downgrading 

the United States as a rocksolid 

investment. That, in 

turn, could increase the cost 

of borrowing for the government 

(hence more interest 

and debt), not to mention for 

everyone else. 

See Washington, Page A7 

Novel set in Superior’s wartime shipyards 

C ANDACE RENALLS 

crenalls@duluthnews.com 

It was when Ellen Baker was 

curator for the Richard I. 

Bong Heritage Center about 

eight years ago that she first 

learned about the massive 

shipbuilding that went on in 

Superior during World War II. 

As she researched life on 

the homefront, she learned 

about the Butler, Globe and 

other Twin Ports shipyards. 

At their height in 1944, 10,000 

workers built hundreds of 

ocean-going vessels for the war effort. 

With a shortage of male labor, the 

BAKER: Her 

tenure as Bong 

center curator 

inspired novel 

about war 

effort 

shipyards resorted to hiring 

women for traditionally male 

jobs, including welding. Proving 

themselves capable, more 

women were hired. A lot of 

them. 

Looking at the old pictures, 

Baker became fascinated. 

“Seeing the women in their 

welding clothing and helmets, 

it’s kind of an iconic image of 

women at work during World 

War II,” Baker said. “And it 

happened in the city where I 

was living.” 

See Novel, Page A6 

Women welders 

at the Walter 

Butler shipyards 

in Superior 

gathered 

for a group 

photo in the 

mid-1940s. It’s 

the setting of a 

new novel by 

Ellen Baker of 

Duluth. 

Courtesy of 

Richard I. Bong 

Veterans Historical 

Center. 

Index 

Games . . . . . . .F2 

Lotteries . . . . .A3 

Obituaries . . .C4-6 

Opinion . . . .B1-3 

Outdoors . . .D4-6 

Scrapbook . . . . .F 

Shipping Traffic C3 

Sports . . . . .D1-3 

TV listings . . . .F8 

Weather 

Today: A pleasant 

summer Sunday 


Tomorrow: Cloudy, 

chance of a storm 


R001138916-0731

Page A2 

Duluth News Tribune | Sunday, July 31, 2011 


Surgeon 


seemed to change in 

(Konasiewicz’s practice). 

And I never received any follow-up.” 

In an interview on Friday, 

Strange, who has been 

CEO of St. Luke’s since 1996, 

said the responsibility for 

taking any action against 

Konasiewicz lay with St. 

Luke’s doctors. 

Strange said concerns 

that are brought to him or 

other administrators about 

any doctor are taken to the 

hospital’s medical executive 

committee, which is composed 

mostly of physicians 

and has the ability to discipline 

doctors or restrict 

their privileges. Strange 

said he is on the committee 

but does not have a vote. 

“I’m not a physician,” 

Strange said. “Some of that 

stuff is so technical. I’m not 

in a position to make a judgment 

on whether or not 

something was good care.” 

But doctors on the medical 

committee said that 

Strange had the ultimate authority 

over their decisions. 

“As far as I was concerned, 

all employment decisions 

were made at the 

direction of the administration,” 

said Joel Zamzow, an 

orthopedic surgeon who has 

practiced in Duluth since 

1994 and was on St. Luke’s 

medical executive committee 

from 2004 to 2010. 

“We were aware of Dr. K., 

and the administration was 

fully aware of the problems 

that Dr. K. made,” Zamzow 

said. “The way it was dealt 

with was to allow the physician 

to continue to practice. 

What the administration 

tried to do was to see if he 

could be monitored or get 

more education. Personally, 

I don’t think that’s very effective, 

and it turned out not 

to be.” 

Zamzow, who works at 

Orthopedic Associates, said 

he resigned from the committee 

and as section chief of 

St. Luke’s orthopedics department 

“over concerns I 

had and my frustration with 

administration regarding 

concerns over quality.” 

NUMBER OF SURGERIES 

QUESTIONED 

By the time Konasiewicz 

left St. Luke’s in 2008, the 

hospital had recorded three 

straight years in the black, 

with $4.3 million in profits. 

That’s a far cry from 1997, 

the year Konasiewicz was 

hired and when the hospital 

was in financial trouble. It 

was going through at least 

its second year in the red 

and on its way to a third, 

with combined losses of 

$7.7 million by the end of 

1998. 

To make matters worse, 

the hospital lost one of its 

biggest money-making departments: 

neurosurgery. 

An agreement to share those 

services with its rival, 

SMDC, had dissolved in the 

mid-1990s. All of the neurosurgeons 

went to SMDC. 

But one doctor, William 

Himango, told the News 

Tribune that he returned to 

St. Luke’s to set up a neurosurgery 

department. Shortly 

after, the hospital hired 

Konasiewicz to work with 

Himango. 

Konasiewicz was paid 

based on the number of procedures 

he performed, and 

he quickly became the 

busiest neurosurgeon in the 

city, several current and former 

Duluth surgeons told 

the News Tribune. 

Numerous patients of 

Konasiewicz’s described 

him as diagnosing a problem 

in five minutes or less 

and then recommending 

major spinal surgery — 

sometimes the day after his 

diagnosis. Many patients 

said they were never 

warned about potential complications 

from the surgeries. 

If true, that would be 

highly unusual, said Dr. 

Robert Donley, a neurosurgeon 

who worked at St. 

Luke’s while employed at 

SMDC. 

He said most candidates 

for neurosurgical care are 

counseled for at least an 

hour, and surgery is rarely 

scheduled immediately unless 

a problem reaches critical 

stages. 

“In five minutes, you 

can’t tell what’s going on,” 

he said. “And if I see a patient 

on an elective basis, it’s 

very unusual to get them 

into surgery right away, unless 

they’re in dire straits.” 

Canfield said she and 

other staff and physicians 

became concerned that 

Konasiewicz was operating 

on almost every patient who 

came in for a consultation 

and performing unnecessary 

surgeries. 

“These are elective surgeries,” 

said Canfield, who 

worked at St. Luke’s from 

1975 to 2006. “It would seem 

like almost everyone who 

saw him had a surgery of 

some kind.” 

Dr. David McKee, a neurologist 

with Northland 


said he believed that 

Konasiewicz was performing 

unnecessary surgeries. 

McKee often shared patients 

with Konasiewicz, and 

he said he looked at their 

records before and after a 

surgery. 

“I saw many cases where 

there were no objective findings 

on imaging studies or 

physical exams that would 

justify surgical treatment,” 

McKee said. “When there’s 

nothing significant going on 

neurologically, you can’t justify 

doing spinal surgery. 

These patients would get to 

me months and years later, 

and I would be scratching 

my head wondering how 

surgery could have been justified.” 

Konasiewicz did not return 

repeated calls seeking 

comment. 

St. Luke’s issued a statement 

about Konasiewicz in 

May when the News Tribune 

wrote a series of stories 

about his troubled history in 

Duluth. Neurosurgery, the 

hospital’s statement said, “is 

a specialty fraught with unavoidable 

risk of complications. 

Adverse outcomes do 

happen on occasion and 

they are not necessarily the 

result of negligence or recklessness 

by the physician.” 

‘ALARMING’ RATE OF ERRORS 

Donley told the News 

Tribune that Konasiewicz’s 

problems were known to St. 

Luke’s because, on several 

occasions, complications 

from Konasiewicz’s surgeries 

had to be dealt with by 

neurosurgeons at SMDC. 

“The history of malpractice 

litigation against Dr. 

Konasiewicz, as reported in 

the newspaper articles, is 

very disturbing,” Donley 

said. “It suggests, contrary 

to St. Luke’s statements, an 

alarming and totally unacceptable 

rate of neurosurgical 

errors.” 

For Konasiewicz, more 

lawsuits would follow. By 

2005, he and St. Luke’s 

would be sued four times, including 

for two cases in 

which his work was alleged 

to have led to the death of 

his patients. 

Around that time, SMDC 

began questioning 

Konasiewicz’s patient care, 

said Jim Callahan, the former 

chief of neurosurgery at 

SMDC. 

Konasiewicz had privileges 

to operate at St. Mary’s 

Medical Center, Callahan 

said. But due to concerns 

about malpractice claims 

against Konasiewicz, Callahan 

said his hospital needed 

the St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

to answer questions about 

the claims before his privileges 

would be continued. 

Instead of answering 

those questions, 

Konasiewicz chose to withdraw 

his privileges at St. 

Mary’s, said Callahan, who 

is now practicing with a 

brain and spine clinic in Indianapolis. 

NEUROSURGERY 

PROVED PROFITABLE 

By the beginning of 2005, 

St. Luke’s had turned the 

corner financially. The hospital 

had experienced five 

straight years in the black, 

netting a combined $32 million. 

At the same time, the 

number of surgeries the hospital 

performed increased 

164 percent — despite having 

about the same number 

of physicians on staff and no 

increase in the number of 

hospital beds. 

Neurology admissions accounted 

for almost 25 percent 

of the hospital’s 5,780 

surgical admissions in 2004. 

For a neurosurgery department 

to bring big dollars 

to a hospital isn’t 

unusual. Merritt Hawkins, 

the largest physician search 

and recruiting firm in the 

country, surveyed 3,000 hospital 

chief executive and financial 

officers and in 2009 

found that an average neurosurgeon 

generated an average 

of $2.8 million in direct 

net revenue for a hospital — 

higher than surgeons in any 

other field. 

Federal Medicare billing 

data shows that St. Luke’s, 

like nearly all hospitals, 

bills specialty surgeries and 

procedures at far higher 

rates than for general surgeries. 

In 2010, for example, 

St. Luke’s billed an average 

of $37,757 for a spinal fusion, 

while a procedure to repair 

a hernia saw an average bill 

of $6,050. 

“It comes down to how 

our current medical system 

is designed,” said Travis 

Singleton, senior vice president 

of Merritt Hawkins, 

which counts St. Luke’s as a 

client. “We value procedures 

and specialty surgeries over 

general medicine, because 

that brings more revenue to 

a hospital.” 

The money that neurosurgeons 

generate for other 

departments in a hospital — 

X-rays, nursing, physical 

therapy and prescription 

drug reimbursements — can 

be staggering, Singleton 

said. 

“If a hospital loses a general 

medicine physician, 

that’s not a big deal,” Singleton 

said. “But if they were to 

lose a neurosurgeon, that’d 

be, holy cow, stop the 

presses.” 

Several current and former 

staff members at St. 

Luke’s told the News Tribune 

that Konasiewicz would 

brag about how much revenue 

he generated for the 

hospital. 

And St. Luke’s generously 

compensated 

Konasiewicz. 

The national average 

salary for neurosurgeons of 

$571,000 is higher than for 

any other medical specialty, 

according to the Merritt 

Hawkins survey. But the 

money Konasiewicz made 

was even higher. In 2005, 

eight years after he started 

working there, Konasiewicz 

was St. Luke’s hospital’s 

highest-paid physician, 

earning $1.3 million. 

“That would be tied to his 

production and what he did 

for patients,” St. Luke’s CEO 

Strange said about 

Konasiewicz’s salary. 

MORE HARM ALLEGED 

Allegations that 

Konasiewicz was harming 

patients continued, costing 

St. Luke’s money and increasing 

the hospital’s 

spending on malpractice 

claims. In 2000, the hospital 

paid only $200,000 on those 

claims. But in 2008, when 

Konasiewicz left the hospital, 

St. Luke’s spent $1.5 million 

on malpractice 

expenses. 

A sizeable portion of that 

is likely due to Konasiewicz, 

who, by the time he left, had 

more malpractice cases filed 

against him than any other 

doctor at St. Luke’s. Between 

2005 and 2008, the hospital 

settled malpractice 

cases filed against 

Konasiewicz for at least 

$3.2 million, records show. 

By 2005, no private insurance 

company would cover 

Konasiewicz, records show. 

He and St. Luke’s were 

forced to take out a special 

insurance policy with the 

state of Minnesota worth up 

to $3 million. That policy 

paid out at least $1 million to 

Duluth’s Lorena LeBeau 

after she sued Konasiewicz 

and St. Luke’s following a 

surgery in July 2007 in 

which her spine was so severely 

damaged that she became 

a quadriplegic. 

Donley said taking out 

that special insurance policy 

with the state is uncommon 

for physicians, even specialty 

surgeons, where surgeries 

carry greater risks for 

patients. Prior to the News 

Tribune’s reporting, he said, 

he had never heard of a 

physician taking out an insurance 

policy with the 

state. 

“Granted, even very competent 

physicians can make 

mistakes, but those mistakes 

are few and very far apart,” 

he said. “While neurosurgery 

inherently poses serious 

risks to patients, it 

should never be viewed as 

having the extraordinary 

risks suggested in the articles. 

The risks suggested by 

Dr. Konasiewicz’s record are 

completely unacceptable 

within any medical setting. 

“A conventional insurer’s 

refusal to insure Dr. 

Konasiewicz is a very clear 

indication that hospital and 

surgical privileges should 

have been immediately terminated,” 

Donley added. 

Konasiewicz and St. 

Luke’s still have three open 

malpractice claims that are 

pending in court, including 

one scheduled to go to trial 

on Tuesday. 

Seven doctors who have 

worked at or with St. Luke’s 

told the News Tribune that 

they were seriously concerned 

about Konasiewicz’s 

ability and competence. 

Some said they brought 

their concerns to hospital 

administrators, including to 

CEO Strange, but were rebuffed. 

“In health care, the peer 

review process is extremely 

confidential and subject to 

law, so there may be things 

going on … that people won’t 

know about,” Strange said. 

McKee, the neurologist 

with Northland Neurology 

and Myology who often 

shared patients with 

Konasiewicz, said that he 

first brought his concerns 

about Konasiewicz’ competence 

to the St. Luke’s administration 

about a decade 

ago. 

“The scope of the problem 

was evident from an 

early date,” McKee said. “Information 

provided to the 

administration by physicians 

and nurses was not 

well-received.” 

With Konasiewicz allowed 

to practice, Canfield 

said the atmosphere in the 

hospital surrounding him 

“was alarming.” 

“We all wondered what 

he was going to do,” she 

said. 

NO PEER REVIEW 

Hospitals can become too 

concerned about profits and 

as a result might keep doctors 

who harm patients on 

staff when they shouldn’t, 

said Dr. Gordon Schiff, associate 

director for the Bostonbased 

Center for Patient 

Safety and Research. Schiff 

is also an associate professor 

of medicine at Harvard University. 

“Money is driving decisions 

in health care,” Schiff 

said. 

Rather than punishing 

problem doctors, he said, 

hospitals often work with 

them by setting up peer review 

committees to examine 

medical mistakes and see 

what actions to take to prevent 

future injuries. 

“Getting rid of a doctor 

may not be the safe thing to 

do,” Schiff said. “A hospital 

can get rid of a bad doctor, 

but they’ll go somewhere 

else and would continue to 

harm patients. That’s not 

dealing with what’s causing 

the bad outcomes.” 

But Canfield said St. 

Luke’s didn’t have a formal 

peer review program for its 

neurosurgeries. 

Himango said a peer review 

program for all neurosurgeons 

in the city was 

ended in 2000 by SMDC. 

“I was in support of a 

peer review among all neurosurgeons 

in our community,” 

Himango said. “But it 

wasn’t happening because 

SMDC wasn’t taking part in 

that.” 

SMDC spokeswoman 

Kim Kaiser said that when 

the neurosurgeons went 

their separate ways, SMDC 

made the decision to do its 

own internal peer review. 

ADMINISTRATION RESPONSIBLE? 

To Diane Pinakiewicz, 

vice president of the National 

Patient Safety Foundation, 

formal peer review 

programs are crucial in 

helping to reduce doctor errors. 

“There is no excuse, 

under any circumstance, for 

the leadership of any organization 

to accept performance 

by a clinician that is 

endangering patients,” she 

said. “Both the hospital 

board and administration 

are responsible for the 

health and safety of their patients, 

and they are accountable 

for it.” 

Former SMDC neurosurgeon 

Donley said he believed 

the St. Luke’s administration 

should be held responsible 

for any harm 

Konasiewicz caused. 

“Administrators have a 

critical role to play. Ultimately, 

they set the standards 

of practice and control 

the conditions under which 

medical care is rendered,” 

he said. “When it surfaces 

that there has been prolonged 

substandard care by 

a physician, they have to be 

accountable. They should respond 

to public inquiries because 

the public has a right 

to know what occurred, why 

and what will be done to prevent 

it.” 

In its statement in May, 

St. Luke’s said: “We reject 

the premise that Dr. 

Konasiewicz did not provide 

excellent neurosurgical care 

during his time at St. Luke’s. 

To the contrary: Dr. 

Konasiewicz performed 

thousands of difficult and 

life-saving surgeries on 

thousands of patients 

throughout our region. 

Many people are alive and 

walking today because of the 

outstanding care and skill of 

Dr. Konasiewicz.” 

When asked if the hospital 

still stands behind that 

statement, Strange replied, 

“You know I can’t back off of 

that.” 

Outdoors 

with 

Sam Cook 

Click on “Blogs” at 


House investigates 

policies on fake 

military electronics 

MICHELLE M. STEIN 

Medill News Service 

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers 

from both parties 

are challenging the Department 

of Homeland Security 

over policies that they 

say impede efforts to stop 

imports of counterfeit electronics 

used in military devices. 

The electronic chips, 

which act like the brain for 

many electronic devices, 

are one of the most counterfeited 

parts in the Pentagon’s 

supply chain, 

according to a Commerce 

Department report last 

year. That leaves the military 

technology that depends 

on them at a great 

risk of failure, which experts 

say has huge national 

security implications. 

“It’s very clear that 

there are significant numbers 

of (counterfeit) semiconductors 

that are 

making it through to military 

supply chains,” said 

Brian Toohey, the president 

of the Semiconductor 

Industry Association, a 

lobbying group. “The implications 

(of) that, from a 

reliability perspective, 

from a failure perspective, 

are very serious.” 

Failing parts aren’t the 

only national security concern 

with counterfeit 

chips, experts say. 

“The focus is not as 

much on quality as it is on 

espionage,” said Bill Chu, 

the department chair of 

software and information 

systems at the University 

of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

“People are really worried 

about it, particularly 

in national security. People 

are really worried 

about building critical systems 

with off-the-shelf 

parts,” especially when the 

parts are built overseas. 

At a hearing before a 

subcommittee of the House 

Homeland Security Committee 

earlier this month, 

Toohey testified that policies 

of the Treasury Department 

and U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection 

are handcuffing 

manufacturers that want 

to help identify counterfeit 

products. Until 2008, companies 

received complete 

photographs of suspected 

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counterfeits to help identify 

them, but now the 

agencies are sending only 

redacted — partially 

blacked-out — photos, 

which the manufacturers 

say aren’t of any use, 

Toohey said. 

After the testimony, 

Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, 

and John Dingell, D-Mich., 

and the House Homeland 

Security Committee wrote 

separately to Homeland Security 

Secretary Janet 

Napolitano and Treasury 

Secretary Timothy Geithner 

asking them to explain 

Customs and Border Protection 

policies on combating 

counterfeits. The 

customs agency is part of 

the Homeland Security Department. 

“During this hearing it 

was brought to our attention 

that Customs and Border 

Protection employs a 

policy that seems to impair 

the government and private 

sector efforts to combat 

intellectual property 

theft,” Dingell and Barton’s 

letter said. 

The committee asked 

the departments to answer 

its letter — which requested 

a legal analysis 

and rationale behind the 

Treasury Department’s interpretation 

of the Trade 

Secrets Act regarding the 

redacted photographs — by 

July 27, but it has yet to receive 

responses. 

The Homeland Security 

Department replied to the 

two congressmen’s letter 

but said only that its policies 

hadn’t changed since 

2000. 

“At no point has CBP altered 

its official position 

on the type or degree of information 

it is authorized 

to disclose with respect to 

intellectual property enforcement,” 

read the response 

by Customs and 

Border Protection Commissioner 

Alan D. Bersin. 

Toohey countered that 

it was possible that the policy 

wasn’t implemented 

until 2008. 

The Treasury Department 

didn’t respond to 

Medill’s requests for comment. 

Officials: CIA Pakistan 

boss leaves due to illness 


ASPEN, Colo. —U.S. 

and Pakistani officials say 

the CIA station chief who 

ran operations in Pakistan 

during the raid that killed 

Osama bin Laden is leaving 

his post due to illness. 

His departure was first 

reported by ABC News. 

The man cannot be named 

because he is undercover. 

The station chief guided 

operations through a troubled 

time in U.S.-Pakistani 

relations. 

Documents released by 

WikiLeaks showed Pakistani 

officials backing CIA 

drone strikes in their territory 

against al-Qaeda, 

while CIA contractor Raymond 

Davis’ killing of two 

Pakistani men he said 

were trying to rob him 

frayed relations. Then 

came the May 2 raid on bin 

Laden’s compound. 

American officials say 

the outgoing chief clashed 

with Ambassador 

Cameron Munter, who objected 

to CIA drone strikes 

during diplomatic negotiations. 

Officials spoke 

anonymously to discuss 

personnel matters. 

AUDIT 

® 

CIRCULATION

National Night Out 

Why the annual event 

is more than just a 

neighorhood block party 

Local gatherings, Page A6 

Made in the Northland 

Duluth company 

provides the tart in 

our favorite sweets 

Business Monday 


Monday, August 1, 2011 


NEWS TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION | THE CASE OF DR. KONASIEWICZ 

DEBT 

DEAL 

Agreement struck on spending cuts, 

but still must pass Congress 

Carl Mack of Hibbing talks about his poor quality of life. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with Brown-Sequard Syndrome, 

a paralysis of a side of the body caused by a cutting of the spinal cord, according to his medical records. A former patient 

of neurosurgeon Stefan Konasiewicz, Mack currently is a patient at Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center. 


Ailing patients speak out 

B RANDON STAHL 


Since reporting in 

May that former 


Stefan 

Konasiewicz settled 

five malpractice cases 

for $3.2 million — including 

two that accused 

him of 

contributing to his patients’ 

deaths — the 

News Tribune has been 

contacted by 13 more 

patients of 

Konasiewicz wanting 

to tell their stories. 

The total number of 

patients or family 

members of deceased 

patients the News Tribune 

has interviewed 

has now reached 29. 

Those patients all were 

treated by Konasiewicz 

while he practiced at 

St. Luke’s between 1997 

and 2008. Here, we profile 

four of those patients. 

BRAD CRISTILLY 

At age 37, Brad 

Cristilly said, his life 

was only getting better. 

He was climbing the 

ladder at Minnesota 

Power, rising to electrical 

operations coordinator 

and earning 

more than $60,000 a 

year. He and his wife 

were expecting their 

fifth child and had 

bought land in Poplar 

to build a new home. 

Ten years later, he 

is unable to work, a 

victim of chronic pain 

in his back and hips 

that he said feels like 

someone has taken a 

searing-hot poker to 

his body. 

See Patients, Page A4 

Gail Anthony shows the piece of metal that was screwed into 

her neck by Konasiewicz but later removed by another surgeon. 

Derek Montgomery / For the News Tribune 

Brad Cristilly of Poplar has been on disability since back surgery 

conducted by Konasiewicz more than 10 years ago. His 

wife, Lorna, is at left. Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com 

DAVID ESPO 


WASHINGTON —Ending 

a perilous stalemate, 

President Obama and congressional 

leaders announced 

an agreement 

Sunday night on emergency 

legislation to avert 

the nation’s first-ever financial 

default. 

The dramatic resolution 

lifted a cloud that had 

threatened the still-fragile 

economic recovery at 

home —and it instantly 

powered a rise in financial 

markets overseas. 

The agreement would 

slice at least $2.4 trillion 

from federal spending 

over a decade — a steep 

price for many Democrats, 

too little for many Republicans. 

The Treasury’s authority 

to borrow would be 

extended beyond the 2012 

elections, a key objective 

for Obama, though the 

president had to give up 

his insistence on raising 

taxes on wealthy Americans 

to reduce deficits. 

The deal, with scant 

time remaining before 

Tuesday’s debt-limit deadline 

for paying government 

bills, “will allow us 

to avoid default and end 

the crisis that Washington 

imposed on the rest of 

America,” the president 

said in an announcement 

at the White House. 

Default “would have 

had a devastating effect on 

our economy,” he said. 

House Speaker John 

Boehner telephoned 

Obama at mid-evening to 

say the agreement had 

been struck, then immediately 

began pitching the 

deal to his fractious rank 

and file. 

“It isn’t the greatest 

deal in the world, but it 

shows how much we’ve 

See Deal, Page A3 

2 

days to default 

The agreement 

at a glance 

Immediately increase 

the debt limit by $400 billion, 

with Obama permitted 

to order another $500 

billion increase this fall unless 

both House and Senate 

override him by 

veto-proof margins. 

Cut more than $900 billion 

over 10 years from the 

day-to-day operating 

budgets of Cabinet agencies. 

Create a 12-person, 

House-Senate committee 

evenly divided between 

the political parties; 

charged with producing up 

to $1.5 trillion more in 

deficit cuts over 10 years. 

Require both House and 

Senate to vote on a balanced 

budget amendment. 

Establish “program integrity” 

initiatives aimed at 

stemming abuses in benefits 

programs such as Social 

Security. 

Increase funding for Pell 

Grants for low-income college 

students by $17 billion 

over 2012-13, 

financed by curbs in student 

loan subsidies. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Maritime officers approach work stoppage 

PETER PASSI 

ppassi@duluthnews.com 

The 1,004-foot American 

Spirit sat uncharacteristically 

still, anchored off the Duluth 

shore this past weekend as the 

crew tensely waited for events to 

unfold. 

A collective bargaining agreement 

between the laker’s owner, 

American Steamship Co., and 

the American Maritime Officers 

was to expire at midnight Sunday, 

setting up a possible work 

stoppage. 

“If the contract expires without 

a successor agreement or extension 

in place, the licensed 

deck and engineering officers 

and stewards represented by 

AMO will go on strike,” said 

Matt Burke, a publication editor 

for the union, which represents 

about 140 deck and engine officers 

at American Steamship, 

which operates 17 vessels on the 

Great Lakes, including six 

1,000-footers. 

When reached at company 

headquarters in Williamsville, 

N.Y., Sunday afternoon, David 

Foster, president of American 

Steamship, declined to discuss 

the situation. “We’re probably a 

little ahead of ourselves right 

now. I should be in a better position 

to talk in a couple days or 

so.” 

Foster also shunned questions 

about the decision Friday 

to transfer taconite pellets from 

the American Spirit to the 

Edwin H. Gott, a member of the 

Great Lakes Fleet. He said, however, 

that only a portion of the 

laker’s load had been shifted. 

The American Spirit has remained 

at anchor outside of Duluth 

since that time. 

AMO National President Tom 

Bethel said American Steamship 

has assembled about 30 deck and 

engine officers with the help of a 

See Shipping, Page A3 


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or (800) 456-8080 

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Tomorrow: Rain 

early, then cloudy 


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R001134197-0704

Page A4 

Duluth News Tribune | Monday, August 1, 2011 


Patients 


Everything from walking 

to using the bathroom to 

being intimate with his wife, 

he said, “is extremely 

painful.” 

He no longer has feeling 

in his left foot, has difficulty 

walking and often falls. He 

said he expects to be on narcotic 

painkillers the rest of 

his life just to tolerate the 

pain. 

In April 2001, Cristilly 

said he was exercising at the 

gym when he ruptured a 

disc in his lower back that 

pressed on his back. He was 

referred to Dr. Stefan 

Konasiewicz. 

After the surgery, 

Cristilly said, his pain increased 

and became unbearable. 

The pain and 

numbness in his back 

spread to his left side and 

down to his foot, causing atrophy. 

He went to another neurosurgeon, 

Richard Freeman 

who, according to 

Cristilly’s medical records, 

said his back pain was from 

nerve root damage that occurred 

during surgery by 

Konasiewicz . 

It was an injury, Freeman 

wrote, that has also 

caused Cristilly’s intense 

pain and weakness in his 

left side, and it “cannot be 

repaired.” 

Two years ago Cristilly 

went to a specialist at the 

Mayo Clinic to see if anything 

could be done to repair 

the damage, but he said he 

was told by the doctor there 

that wasn’t an option. 

“He said he didn’t want to 

do surgery because he would 

probably just make it 

worse,” he said. “I get so 

angry when I think about 

everything that’s happened 

to me.” 

Cristilly is on disability, 

a loss of about 40 percent of 

his former income, and he 

and his wife are struggling 

to keep their home. 

Wendy Massino talks about her experiences with Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz as her husband, Joe, listens. A post-operative MRI report said Massino’s spinal cord 

was nicked and was leaking fluid. Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com 

Carl Mack of Hibbing, a patient at Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center, tells about his poor quality of life. Doctors at the 

Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with Brown-Sequard Syndrome, a paralysis of a side of the body due to a cutting of the spinal cord, 

according to his medical records. Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com 

GAIL ANTHONY 

Gail Anthony’s pain 

started in her arm and 

spread. An accident from 

her high school days as a 

gymnast and a few minor 

car accidents had her going 

to various chiropractors and 

doctors to manage the pain. 

One chiropractor said the 

pain probably was the result 

of neck problems. 

In 2003 a co-worker, citing 

a positive experience 

with Konasiewicz, recommended 

she see him. 

Konasiewicz recommended 

a spinal fusion, and 

he did the surgery the week 

after the diagnosis. 

“After the surgery, he 

said everything was fine,” 

said Anthony, of Grand 

Rapids. “Post-op, he told me 

it was fusing and everything 

looked good.” 

But Anthony said her 

pain persisted. In 2004, she 

said, she went back to 

Konasiewicz, but was told 

there was nothing wrong 

and “everything looked 

good.” 

“I told him, ‘Something’s 

just not right,’ ” she said. 

He recommended an 

epidural, an injection of 

anesthesia into the spine, to 

relieve the pain. The pain 

was eased, but by 2006 it was 

so severe that she was having 

uncontrollable tremors. 

She went back to 

Konasiewicz, who sent her 

to get another epidural. 

The doctor who gave her 

the injection, Hal Heyer, 

also performed an MRI and 

gave Anthony grim news: 

One of her discs was ruptured 

and her vertebrae had 

not fused. 

Anthony went to a doctor 

at Abbott Northwestern of 

Minneapolis, where her 

problem was repaired. But 

she said she still experiences 

pain that she’s been told will 

never go away. She can also 

barely turn her head and 

has difficulty driving. 

WENDY MASSINO 

Wendy Massino of Grand 

Marais says she doesn’t 

know why her right leg 

started hurting about 2001. 

She can’t remember an injury 

that caused the pain, 

which became so severe that 

she couldn’t stand up without 

feeling it shoot down her 

leg. Then it reversed, and 

she couldn’t sit down without 

feeling the pain. 

She was referred to 

Konasiewicz who, after reviewing 

an MRI, diagnosed 

Massino as having a herniated 

disc. He scheduled surgery 

the next day. 

“His response was, ‘Don’t 

“Just the look 

Iwanted.” 

Ourdesigners come to your home to 

coordinate your windowfashion with 

aroom’s furnishings. Your total 

satisfaction is important to us. 


“I get so angry 

when I think about 

everything that’s 

happened to me.” 

Brad Cristilly 

worry, I can fix this,’ ” said 

Massino, now 56. 

But eight days after the 

surgery, the former nurse 

said, the pain in her leg had 

become worse, and now 

there was intense pain in 

her back. 

Several weeks later, an 

MRI revealed that a bone 

used to repair her spine had 

dislodged and shifted, requiring 

another surgery, her 

records show. 

A month after her first 

surgery, Massino again was 

in the operating room with 

Konasiewicz. When she 

woke up from the surgery, 

she said, she was in “agonizing” 

pain. 

“It was unbearable,” she 

said. “They gave me something 

to calm me down but 

said I had to lay on my back 

for the next 24 hours.” 

A post-operative MRI report 

said Massino’s spinal 

cord was nicked and was 

leaking fluid. 

Massino said she called 

Konasiewicz’s office and 

said she wouldn’t be returning 

to him as a patient, and 

sent a letter to St. Luke’s administration 

explaining 

what had happened. She 

said she received no response 

from the hospital. 

Narcotic painkillers 

allow Massino to work; she 

and her husband manage a 

motel. But she said she’s 

been told by her doctors that 

she’ll eventually be permanently 

disabled and probably 

will lose the use of her 

legs. 

The pain, even with the 

medications, is still difficult 

to deal with, she said. 

“I fight it every day,” she 

said. “I’ve lived through constant 

back pain. … I think 

the worst part of this is that 

I have to live with this back 

pain that I never had before 

surgery.” 

CARL MACK 

In 1999, Carl Mack and 

his wife, Rhonda, 49, moved 

to Hibbing so Carl could pursue 

training to work in the 

mining industry. A year 

later, Mack, who had been 

athletic throughout his life, 

said he began to notice 

something was wrong as he 

played basketball. His arms 

weren’t strong enough to get 

the ball to the hoop. 

He was referred to 

Konasiewicz, who told him 

he needed spinal surgery to 

repair a disc in his neck. 

Two days later, Mack underwent 

the surgery. 

A month later, Mack said, 

he was recovering. He could 

walk and drive again. He 

was planning to finish his 

training for the mines. But 

at his next appointment, 

Konasiewicz delivered some 

bad news: After looking at X- 

rays, the doctor said the 

screws and plate used to fuse 

Mack’s neck vertebrae from 

the front were coming apart. 

They needed to be taken out 

and put in the back of his 

neck. 

A few days later Mack 

was back in surgery to have 

the plate removed, and five 

days after that he had another 

plate put in. 

After the third operation, 

Mack said he woke up in the 

Intensive Care Unit. Confused, 

he tried to get up and 

go to the bathroom, but his 

R001139166-0801 

legs didn’t work and he fell 

on his face. 

Mack was sent home 

from the ICU two days later. 

After two more days, he 

said, his blood pressure skyrocketed 

and he blacked out. 

He was rushed to the Hibbing 

hospital and transferred 

back to St. Luke’s. 

“I was real bad,” Mack 

said. “I couldn’t walk. I 

couldn’t do anything.” 

Mack would later learn 

that he was paralyzed on the 

right side of his body and 

had trouble speaking and 

had severe pain requiring 

numerous medications. 

About three years after the 

surgeries, Mack said he and 

his wife went to the Mayo 

Clinic to determine what 

was wrong with him and 

learn whether anything 

could be done. 

Doctors there diagnosed 

him with Brown-Sequard 

Syndrome, a paralysis of a 

side of the body due to a cutting 

of the spinal cord, according 

to his medical 

records. The pain could be 

managed with medications, 

but the condition was untreatable. 

“When I see my wife out 

there shoveling snow and 

cutting grass, it hurts me so 

bad,” he said. “I have never 

been a person that’s been depressed. 

Things go through 

my mind that I’m just a burden 

on my family. I think 

sometimes they would be 

better off if I wasn’t around 

and I wouldn’t be a burden 

on them. 

“I do know that my 

youngest son is embarrassed 

of me, because kids talk,” he 

said. “He can’t explain himself 

and say, ‘That’s my dad, 

and my dad’s hurt.’ ” … 

When there’s father-son 

functions, he’ll say, ‘Well, 

why can’t Mom do it? Why 

can’t Mom go with me?’ ” 

“I know he’s embarrassed,” 

he said. “But I can’t 

blame him. He’s just a kid.” 

Mack doesn’t know what 

his future holds. At Essentia 

Health St. Mary’s Medical 

Center, he said, doctors have 

diagnosed him with a rare 

neuromuscular disorder 

that weakens the muscles of 

his body. He depends on his 

wife for even basic tasks like 

adjusting his pillow. He said 

he takes 42 pills a day to 

treat his ailments, and his 

memory is beginning to 

fade. 

Since 1949 

Gail Anthony of Grand Rapids describes the spinal fusion 

Konasiewicz performed in 2003. Anthony still experiences pain 

that other doctors have told her will never go away. 

Derek Montgomery / For the News Tribune 

130 W. First Street •Duluth, MN •727-5054 

R001139097-0801

Brainerd man who claims to be professional boxer 

charged with assault, Page B5 

Local News 


Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011 

B 

VINYL SIDING 

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808 East Second Street • Duluth, Minnesota 55805 

218-723-8451 800-801-8451 f: 218-723-8249 

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R001138643-0727 

WINDOWS 

Eh? 

Eh (a) interj. 1. A sound 

expressing surprise or 

inquiry. 2. A column of 

offbeat tidbits and news 

you can use. 

Look for local 

connection on 

‘Modern Family’ 

A young man with Duluth 

connections will be on 

the season premiere 

tonight of the TV show 

that won the Emmy for 

Outstanding Comedy 

Series. 

Matthew Gumley, son of 

a Duluth East graduate 

with plenty of family still 

here in town, plays a visiting 

New Yorker at a dude 

ranch in tonight’s episode 

of “Modern Family,” 

which airs at 8 p.m. on 

WDIO (Channel 10 on the 

rabbit ears, 13 on cable). 

His aunt Anne Kolar 

Hansen got to watch the 

filming last month in 

Wyoming. 

“Your readers won’t 

have to look very hard for 

him,” Kolar Hansen tells 

us. “He is in four or five 

fabulous scenes and is one 

of only two guest stars in 

the entire show with 

speaking parts.” 

Gumley is the grandson 

of Avalon Kolar Vollmer of 

Duluth and the son of 

Teresa Kolar Gumley of 

West Palm Beach, Fla., 

formerly of Duluth. 

Sign up for 

missing child alerts 

Carlton County Sheriff 

Kelly Lake says her department 

has signed up for 

the national “A Child Is 

Missing” alert program, 

and now you can sign up to 

receive those alerts. 

The department can use 

the free program to 

quickly alert residents in a 

specific area about missing 

children, missing elderly 

people or others who 

could be in danger. 

The program automatically 

calls listed phone 

numbers in the area requested 

by law enforcement. 

Mobile numbers and 

other unlisted numbers 

can be added. To enter 

your number, visit 

www.achildismissing.org. 

Shipmates choose 

Duluth for reunion 

If you run into a bunch 

of Navy retirees this week 

in the Duluth area you’ve 

probably stumbled on the 

annual reunion of the U.S. 

Navy Passumpsic AO 107. 

The group landed in 

Duluth because shipmate 

Duane Wilbur lived here. 

Wilbur, who served on the 

ship in 1952, offered to organize 

a reunion, but he 

passed away last year before 

he could host it. His 

fellow shipmates picked up 

the slack and will host the 

reunion in his place. 

The men and their families 

are staying at the 

Suites Hotel in Canal Park, 

said substitute host John 

Gorrilla of Presque Isle, 

Wis. 

The USS Passumpsic, a 

Navy refueling ship, entered 

service in 1946 and 

served its final missions in 

the Mideast during Desert 

Storm in 1991. 

Yes, they know the 

slip bridge is stuck 

Repairs to the Minnesota 

Slip Bridge in Canal Park 

will get under way today, according 

to the city of Duluth. 

They’re not sure how 

long it will take to repair the 

bridge, which is stuck in the 

upright position. 

We welcome your submissions 

and suggestions. Drop 

us a line at Eh?, Duluth News 

Tribune newsroom, 424 W. 

First St., Duluth, MN 55802, 

or news@duluthnews.com. 

Board adds school staff to serve student influx 



The Duluth school district 

is adding nearly eight 

more certified teacher and 

staff positions. 

Using the rest of $1 million 

in unexpected state 

money — more than half 

was used for about six 

teachers earlier this month 

— the equivalent of 7.8 fulltime 

employees will be 

spread throughout the district. 

Three of those positions 

are deans of students 

Jeff Rossiter, with Duluth Superior Erection, carefully places new bricks into the middle of Superior Street near 

Fourth Avenue West on Monday to replace and repair broken and missing bricks in that stretch. 

Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com 

Brick repairs under way 

on downtown Duluth streets 

PETER PASSI 


Crews have been hard 

at work in Duluth, replacing 

damaged bricks on Superior 

Street this week. 

Today, the work will advance 

to the 200 block of 

West Superior Street, temporarily 

displacing onstreet 

parking there. 

Brick repairs between 

Second and Fourth avenues 

west are estimated 

to cost about $150,000. 

“That’s the core part of 

our downtown, and it sees 

a lot of traffic,” said Kristi 

Stokes, president of 

Duluth’s Greater Downtown 

Council, observing 

Jimmy Bellamy 

Where my ’Dogs at? These 

days, they’re everywhere. 

The University of Minnesota 

Duluth Bulldogs are 

on shirts. Hats. Car windows. 

Even cupcakes. (My 

favorite is chocolate, with 

gold frosting.) 

It wasn’t always this 

way, though. 

As a child growing up in 

Duluth, the only thing I 

knew UMD for was a 

hockey team that never won 

quite as many games as 

I’d hoped. 

“I remember 15 years 

ago, when if you only looked 

in the crowd and not on the 

ice, you wouldn’t know 

what teams were playing 

for Denfeld and East high 

schools and Woodland Middle 

School. The hiring of 

those three was approved 

Tuesday night by the 

Duluth School Board. 

Superintendent I.V. Foster 

said he had held off on 

using all of the money before 

school started because 

he wanted to make sure the 

need was there before 

adding teacher hours and 

staff. Because of high class 

sizes, they saw the need, he 

said. 

that it was a logical place 

to begin repairs. 

She said the work has 

caused some headaches 

for people accustomed to 

parking at the front door 

of downtown businesses, 

but Stokes noted that 

disruption will be shortlived. 

The project is 

expected to wrap up in 

about 1½ weeks. 

In the interim, many 

downtown businesses 

have purchased discounted 

parking vouchers 

they can use to let 

customers park for free in 

nearby ramps. 

The bricks that are 

now being replaced were 

based on what fans were 

wearing,” UMD sports information 

director Bob 

Nygaard said. “Apparel or 

sporting your school colors 

is the most visible sign of 

school pride. Nothing is a 

bigger marketer tool than 

getting your image out 

there on everything 

from stuffed mascots to 

notebooks.” 

The past decade-plus has 

brought expansion — I can’t 

remember a day during my 

time there as a student that 

something wasn’t under 

construction — and with it, 

a grip load of students. 

Sure, new facilities have 

made UMD a more desirable 

institution, but I never 

saw anyone wearing a 

T-shirt with the Swenson 

Science Building on it. It 

wasn’t until the school’s recent 

athletic success that it 

got something that all the 

fundraising, top-notch 

courses and ever-rising 

tuition costs could never 

“Will there be further 

recommendations?” he said. 

“Possibly. But those will be 

based on the limited resources 

we have available.” 

Board member Gary 

Glass said he would like to 

see equity in teacher placement, 

ensuring they are 

spread throughout schools. 

Foster said it wasn’t as simple 

as that, because some 

schools have bigger class 

sizes than others. 

“They had extremely 

high numbers at the high 

installed in the 1980s, and 

City Engineer Cindy 

Voigt said: “When bricks 

get close to 30 years old, 

they can start to wear 

out.” 

In particular, hightraffic 

areas that have 

been subjected to heavy 

loads on Superior Street 

are showing their age, 

with bricks cracking and 

the road bed sagging. 

Repair crews remove 

damaged brick and then 

inspect the condition of 

the concrete base below. 

This base is patched or 

replaced, as necessary. 

Then, bituminous mastic 

is spread over the 

buy — swagger. 

It began in 2008, when 

the Bulldogs went undefeated 

in football and won 

the National Collegiate Athletic 

Association Division II 

championship for the first 

time in school history. 

I didn’t attend a football 

game in my four years at 

UMD, but I couldn’t have 

been happier than I was 

jumping in front of my TV 

with my maroon Bulldogs 

T-shirt on that day. 

“Part of the reason I 

came here was they were already 

coming off a national 

championship,” said Chase 

Vogler, a junior from the 

Twin Cities area. 

He’s now the Bulldogs’ 

starting quarterback and 

held that position last year 

when they again won an 

NCAA title — in an unbeaten 

season. 

In 2009, the UMD men’s 

hockey team made a remarkable 

playoff run highlighted 

by becoming the 

first No. 5 seed to win the 

Western Collegiate Hockey 

schools, in excess of 40,” 

Foster said. “We had to 

reduce there.” 

Marcus Jahn, a student 

representative on the board, 

said the No. 1 concern for 

students at his high school, 

East, is class sizes. 

“Some are reasonable, 

and some are a bit ridiculous,” 

he said. “In calculus, I 

had to stand in the back of 

the room. There weren’t 

enough desks for everyone.” 

Some students weren’t 

able to get into the classes 

concrete. Bricks are 

placed into this heated 

mastic. And finally, sand 

is used to fill any voids in 

the brickwork, with 

compactors shaking the 

materials into place. 

Stokes welcomes the 

recent repairs to brickwork, 

but she said more 

work remains to be done. 

“We know there are 

other areas that also need 

work, and we’ve brought 

some of those to the city’s 

attention,” she said. 

“We’ve enjoyed a good 

partnership with good 

cooperation, and I’m sure 

we will be seeing more of 

that in the future.” 

Association Final Five and 

a final-seconds comeback in 

an NCAA regional game. 

I almost tore my Bulldogs 

T-shirt off Hulk Hogan 

style after watching Evan 

Oberg’s tying goal with 

0.8 seconds left in the third 

and Mike Connolly’s overtime 

winner in that game 

against Princeton. 

The volleyball and 

women’s hockey teams had 

impressive seasons, too, 

bookended by the women’s 

hockey team’s NCAA Division 

I titles in 2008 and 2010 

— cementing the respect 

they earned in 2001, 2002 

and 2003. 

Then in April came the 

icing on those gold-frosted 

cupcakes: The Bulldogs won 

their first NCAA Division I 

men’s hockey championship 

— in overtime, 

nonetheless — in their 

home state. And I witnessed 

it from my third-row seat 

along with my younger 

brother, Josh, and thousands 

of fans in Bulldogs 

gear. 

they wanted to take, he said. 

Foster said he had concerns 

about class sizes at a 

number of schools in the 

district. 

“I don’t like seeing class 

sizes above 30, but we have 

limited resources to address 

that,” he said. “We have to 

make critical decisions.” 

The additional $1 million 

comes from increased enrollment 

and an increase to 

the amount received per 

pupil. 

St. Luke’s 

sues News 

Tribune over 

surgeon story 

News Tribune staff 

St. Luke’s hospital and its 

CEO, John Strange, have 

initiated a suit against the 

Duluth News Tribune, accusing 

the newspaper of 

defamation in its reporting 

about neurosurgeon Stefan 

Konasiewicz. Also named in 

the lawsuit are investigations 

editor Brandon Stahl 

and reporter Mark Stodghill. 

Konasiewicz was on staff 

at St. Luke’s hospital from 

1997 until 2008. He currently 

practices neurosurgery in 

Corpus Christi, Texas. 

While at St. Luke’s, 


were sued at least nine times 

for malpractice. St. Luke’s 

and Konasiewicz settled six 

malpractice suits for a total 

of at least $3.2 million, 

records show. Two suits involved 

patients who died 

and one was by a woman 

who was left a quadriplegic. 

In 2010, the Minnesota 


sanctioned Konasiewicz for 

“unethical and unprofessional 

conduct.” 

St. Luke’s issued a statement 

this week that said, in 

part: “This defamation lawsuit 

was brought because 

our patients, dedicated staff 

and community deserve to 

know the truth and not be 

misled and misinformed by 

these false reports.” 

In its defamation complaint, 

St. Luke’s said the 

News Tribune’s coverage 

was false and defamatory, 

including the July 31 article 

headlined “As Duluth hospital 

reaped millions, surgeon 

racked up complaints.” 

The July 31 article quoted 

sources who said St. Luke’s 

hospital administration was 

aware of the harm 

Konasiewicz was alleged to 

have caused and yet continued 

to let him practice. 

The hospital’s complaint 

also said the News Tribune 

misled sources, published 

See Lawsuit, Page B2 

Bulldogs’ winning ways prompt more fans to wear their pride 

All this happening on national 

TV suddenly made 

UMD a “sexy” school. 

In the past year, I can’t 

walk downtown or fill up at 

the Spur or buy ant killer at 

Marshall’s Hardware without 

seeing people decked 

out in Bulldogs clothing. 

And it’s not my imagination. 

As of the end of May, 

UMD had sold a quartermillion 

dollars in NCAA 

championship-related apparel 

in 2011, Nygaard said. 

“People like to come in 

and get their championship 

stuff as well as other stuff 

and support their team,” 

said Caroleen Zylka, who 

works at UMD Stores. 

Not to mention the explosion 

of another Bulldogembossed 

item — the championship 

ring. 

Can’t buy that. 

JIMMY BELLAMY is the multimedia 

editor at the News Tribune. 

Contact him at (218) 

723-5390 or jbellamy@ 

duluthnews.com.

Page B2 

Duluth News Tribune | Wednesday, September 21, 2011 


More rain dampens Pagami Creek fire 




Congdon Park Elementary 

School’s main entrance 

would move to the back and 

its ice rinks would move 

across the street in site designs 

approved Tuesday by 

the Duluth School Board. 

While not the final working 

drawings, the designs 

show that the main entrance 

will be appended to what is 

now the back of the building. 

A parking lot will supplant 

the ice rinks and 

soccer field and the rinks 

will be relocated across 

Greysolon Place, where 

there are now houses. 

Board members Ann 

Wasson and Tom Kasper 

wanted to make sure that 

site users still would be able 

to make changes to the 

plans, if they were approved. 

Member Art Johnston 

thought a vote was premature 

until the district knew 

that the state would approve 

the addition of $15.4 million 

A steady rain much of 

Tuesday helped firefighters 

make continued progress 

against the Pagami Creek 

fire in the Superior National 

Forest. 

About a half-inch of rain 

fell Tuesday in Ely, according 

to National Weather 

Service data, and firefighters 

continued to expand 

their control of the fire’s 

outer edge. 

Through Tuesday, about 

30 percent of the fire was 

considered contained. 

More than 700 people, 

City employees raise money 

for vets to go on Honor Flight 


Duluth city employees 

recently collected enough 

in donations to send two 

military veterans on Honor 

Flight Northland’s Oct. 4 

trip to Washington, D.C. 

Honor Flight board 

members will thank the 

employees and receive a 

check for more than 

$1,200 from Mayor Don 

Ness at an 11 a.m. event 

today at City Hall. 

The nonprofit Honor 

Flight Northland takes veterans 

living in Northeastern 

Minnesota and 

Northwestern Wisconsin to 

Washington to tour the 

World War II, Women’s, 

Korean and Vietnam memorials. 

Ninety-eight veterans 

are scheduled for the October 

flight, the group’s second. 

The group’s first flight 

happened on May 14 and 

brought 103 veterans to 

D.C. A third flight is 

planned for May 2012. Each 

flight costs about $90,000. 

The veterans pay nothing 

for the trips. First priority 

is given to World War 

II veterans and veterans 

from later wars who are 

terminally ill. 

“We are almost full of 

veterans already” for the 

May flight, Honor Flight 

Northland board member 

Durbin M. Keeney said. 

“We can’t slow down, we 

have to keep going because 

our goal is to make sure 

that every one of these veterans 

get an opportunity to 

see that memorial.” 

For more information 

on Honor Flight Northland, 

go to honorflightnorthland.org. 

Donations may be 

made online or mailed to 

Honor Flight Northland, 

Attn: Don Monaco, 4535 

Airport Approach Road, 

Duluth, MN 55811. 

to the Red Plan, approved by 

the board in June. 

District property and risk 

manager Kerry Leider said 

several aircraft and heavy 

equipment continued to battle 

the blaze officials says is 

just 94,000 acres in size. The 

fire, which started with a 

lightning strike Aug. 18, has 

grown very little since Sept. 

12. Home and cabin owners 

have been allowed to return, 

site users would have the 

chance to help finalize plans, 

and only the general concept 

is what was being sought for 

although some roads north 

of Minnesota Highway 1 and 

Lake County Highway 7 remain 

closed. 

Most Boundary Waters 

Canoe Area Wilderness 

entry points are open, except 

for those that lead into the 

fire area. 

GRANDMA’S BRAG BOOK 

Hunter is looking mighty fine in his new straw hat. His 

parents are Steve and Carmen Willis of Superior. 

Grandparents are Bob and Mariannn Ross and Shirley 

Charles, all of Superior, and the late Richard McDonald, 

June Charles and Gary Willis. Great-grandmothers are 

Virginia McDonald of Duluth and Marcie Willis Johnson 

of Superior. 

School Board approves site plan for Congdon Park 

Congdon Park Drive 

Ice rink 

(200’ x85’) 

Parking 

(75 spaces) 

Parent loading and unloading 

Play area 

Ice rink 

(65’ x100’) 

Bus access 

Greysolon Place 

Playground 

Main 

entrance 

Lawsuit 

Continued from Page B1 

Warming house 

and Zamboni 

garage 

statements it knew were 

false and quoted doctors 

who have a financial motive 

to harm St. Luke’s, including 

doctors at competitors 

Orthopedic Associates and 

Northland Neurology and 

Myology. 

St. Luke’s seeks at least 

$50,000 and a full retraction 

of the stories. 

News Tribune Publisher 

Ken Browall said in a 

statement: “The stories 

portrayed what is unquestionably 

a matter of public 

Congdon 

Park School 

Bus loading and unloading 

East Superior Street 

Service 

entrance 

New additions 

New 

gymnasium 

New 

kindergraten 

room 


approval. The schematic 

designs were approved 5-2, 

with Johnston and Gary 

Glass opposing the measure. 

Committee to be named to consider eastern middle school name 



A naming committee for 

Duluth’s new eastern middle 

school will be recommended 

to the School Board in October. 

Superintendent I.V. Foster 

and School Board Chairwoman 

Judy Seliga-Punyko 

will make the choices for the 

committee. Several people 

spoke during the public 

comment period during a 

Tuesday meeting in favor of 

naming it for well-known 

Duluth educators Ruth 

Myers and Marge Wilkins. 

UMD educator Susana 

Pelayo said she met Myers 

when she first immigrated 

to Duluth as a student from 

Mexico in 1984. 

Minn. veterans affairs official stepping down 


ST. PAUL —Atop official 

of Minnesota’s Department 

of Veterans 

Affairs is stepping down 

next month. 

Gilbert Acevedo was 

brought in four years ago 

after patient-care 

problems at the stateowned 

Minneapolis Veterans 

Home. 

Acevedo’s last day will 

be Oct. 11. A department 

spokeswoman said he’s 

leaving to pursue a job in 

the private sector. 

Acevedo was picked in 

October 2007 to be executive 

director of the Minnesota 

Veterans Homes 

Board, in charge of overseeing 

the Minneapolis home 

and four other state facilities. 

A month after Acevedo 

was hired, then-Gov. Tim 

Pawlenty dissolved the veterans 

homes board and 

transferred authority over 

the homes to the department. 

Acevedo became a 

deputy commissioner. 

“She had an open heart to 

help any student,” Pelayo 

said. “She became a mentor 

… and a second mother. 

What a great honor to name 

the school after two wonderful 

women who contributed 

so much to this community.” 

UMD educator Paula 

Pedersen said naming the 

school after the pair would 

31st Avenue E. (Hawthorne Road) 

help students learn about 

the history of black and 

American Indian women 

that is so often left out of 

instruction. 

Myers was an American 

Indian and Wilkins was 

black, and both contributed 

immensely to education in 

Duluth, speakers said. Several 

other names are also 

being considered. 

safety and concern. We look 

forward to proceeding to 

court and the dismissal of 

this unwarranted complaint.” 

Eh? 

Online? 

Bits of news with 

a bit of an attitude 



Mora man faces 

sex abuse charges 



A 43-year-old Mora man 

turned himself in to authorities 

and admitted 

he had 

sex with a 

13-year-old 

girl. 

Albert 

George 

GOERDT 

Public invited to share ideas 

on Hermantown’s future 


Goerdt 

made his 

first appearance 

in St. Louis 

County District Court on 

Tuesday. He is charged 

with six counts of firstdegree 

criminal sexual 

conduct. 

According to the criminal 

complaint, Goerdt went 

to the Kanabec County 

Sheriff’s Office front 

window in Mora on 

July 25 saying he wanted to 

turn himself in. 

Advance Hermantown 

is hosting a public open 

house to ask community 

members what they want 

the future of Hermantown 

to be. 

The open house runs 

from 5-7 p.m. Monday at 

the Hermantown City/ 

Government Building, 

5105 Maple Grove Road. 

Advance Hermantown 

is a new effort by a group of 

community members who 

Goerdt told a deputy 

that about three years ago 

while his wife was hospitalized 

with injuries received 

in a car accident, he drank 

a bottle of Jack Daniels 

whiskey with the 13-yearold. 

He said he became 

extremely intoxicated and 

had sex with her. 

Goerdt told the deputy 

that he decided to tell the 

truth because it had “been 

eating him up since the day 

it happened.” 

An Indiana State detective 

interviewed the girl 

the next day in Indiana. 

She said Goerdt had sexually 

abused her on multiple 

occasions. She said on one 

occasion he offered her alcohol 

and marijuana and 

then forced her to have sex 

with him. 

Goerdt is free without 

bail. His next court appearance 

is Oct. 12. 

want to shape the city’s 

future. Based on a Bemidji 

program, the idea is to create 

a group of community 

stewards — people committed 

to the city’s future and 

who are willing to build 

coalitions. 

The effort began last 

spring. Since then, several 

small group meetings with 

stakeholders have taken 

place. A community 

perception survey is being 

distributed. 

The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public to 

help identify the man in this surveillance photo. He is 

considered a burglary suspect. 

Carlton County Sheriff’s Office releases 

surveillance photos of burglary suspect 


The Carlton County 

Sheriff’s Office is asking 

for the public’s help in 

finding a man suspected of 

burglarizing Carlton 

County businesses. 

The Sheriff’s Office released 

three images of the 

man caught on tape at one 

of the businesses where he 

was suspected of tampering 

with a vending machine. 

The man appears to be a 

white male, about 6 feet 

tall, with a slender build. 

He may be driving a darkcolored 

extended cab compact 

Chevrolet or GMC 

truck. 

If you have any information 

on the suspect, call 

(218) 384-3236. 

Any mishaps occur 

during your wedding? 

Arlene 

Coco’s 

Prairie 

Kitchen 

Talk food with 

one of Duluth’s 

top chefs 

arlenecocosprairiekitchen.areavoices.com 

130 W. First Street 

Duluth, MN 

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Save $25 to $300 

per unit on select 

windowfashions. 

Nowthrough 

December 12, 2011 

Share your wedding disaster with us. 

Deadline: Wednesday, September 21. 

Send your submissions to scrapbook@duluthnews.com 

or to Scrapbook, DNT,424 W. First St., Duluth MN 55802. 

Be suretoinclude your name, city of residence 

and phone number. 

Subscribe to the Duluth News Tribune. Call 218-723-5252

LIFE IN A WILDFIRE SPIKE CAMP PAGE D1 

$75 

IN COUPONS 

INSIDE 


Sunday, September 25, 2011 

duluthnewstribune.com More than 90,000 readers every weekday $1.50 

In response 

In a request by News 

Tribune Investigations 

Editor Brandon Stahl to 

St. Luke’s hospital for 

comment about the articles 

in the series, “The Case of 

Dr. Konasiewicz,” on this 

page and on Page B4, 

St. Luke’s provided the 

following response: 

Statement of St. Luke’s 

September 23, 2011 

The questions you ask 

pertain to the subject matter 

of the defamation lawsuit 

St. Luke’s filed against you, 

Mark Stodghill and the 

Duluth News Tribune on 

September 19, 2011. It is inappropriate 

for St. Luke’s to 

provide you with additional 

information relating directly 

to this subject matter outside 

of the court supervised discovery 

process. Accordingly, 

please direct future 

inquiries relating to the 

subject matter of St. Luke’s 

lawsuit against you, Mark 

Stodghill and the Duluth 

News Tribune through your 

legal counsel to ours, 

Pat Tierney. 


Deputy medical examiner 

raised flag about surgeon 

KONASIEWICZ 

BRANDON STAHL 


A deputy St. Louis County medical 

examiner was so concerned 

about the patient care provided by 

neurosurgeon Stefan 

Konasiewicz 

that he requested 

an investigation to 

determine “if Dr. 

Konasiewicz is incompetent 

or reckless.” 

Dr. Donald Kundel 

wrote to the 

Minnesota Board 

of Medical Practice in 2008, detailing 

cases of alleged patient harm 

caused by Konasiewicz, who was 

then a neurosurgeon at St. Luke’s 

hospital. In the letter, the medical 

examiner told the board that more 

cases probably would be found if 

Newspaper goes to court 

for release of letter 

Text of the letter, Page B4 

there was an investigation. 

“Based on hospital corridor conversation 

by physicians, it is likely 

these three cases are the tip of an 

iceberg,” Kundel wrote. 

More than two years after Kundel’s 

letter, in 2010, the medical 

board disciplined Konasiewicz for 

“unprofessional and unethical conduct.” 

By then, Konasiewicz had 

left St. Luke’s and Minnesota. 

OUTCOMES ‘COMPLETELY OUT OF THE 

RANGE OF WHAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED’ 

Kundel’s letter detailed his first 

investigation into a Konasiewicz 

case, prompted by the 2005 death of 

25-year-old Debbie Firn of Duluth, 

whose aorta Konasiewicz punctured 

during spinal surgery. Less 

than 12 hours later, she bled to 

death. 

An autopsy conducted by Kundel 

discovered the puncture, he said. 

Kundel wrote that in 41 years of 

hospital practice, 32 years of involvement 

with the St. Louis County Medical 

Examiner’s Office and more 

than 5,000 autopsies, he had never 

encountered a death like Firn’s. 

“I had not previously known of a 

serious injury to vital, previously intact 

organs that were not part of the 

intended operative field or involved 

by a disease process,” he wrote. 

In an interview with the News 

Tribune, Kundel said he interviewed 

Konasiewicz and other 

medical staff involved with the operation, 

as well as the hospital’s administration, 

including St. Luke’s 

Former St. Louis County Deputy Medical 

Examiner Donald W. Kundel 

wrote a letter to the Minnesota Board 

of Medical Practice in 2008, requesting 

an investigation into the medical 

practice of Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz. 

Steve Kuchera / 

skuchera@duluthnews.com 

CEO and President John Strange 

and Dr. Gary Peterson, the hospital’s 

medical director. 

Kundel said the operating room 

staff and Konasiewicz told him that 

no one knew Firn’s aorta had been 

punctured during the surgery. 

See Surgeon, Page B4 

RUST BELT RESURGENCE | A VIEW OF DULUTH FROM AFAR 

Duluth shares struggles of 

other Midwest industrial towns 

BOWDEYA TWEH 

The Times of Northwest Indiana 

DULUTH — While people 

may continue to fall 

in love with its pretty 

shoreline, Mayor Don 

Ness believes jobs are 

going to keep Duluth afloat and 

one day lift the city’s population. 

Like a large vessel trying to 

change its course, the city is 

slowly moving away from heavy 

industry and shipping to support 

new opportunities in tourism, 

health care and light manufacturing. 

Many residents welcome the 

shift and see an opportunity to enhance 

support for 

Tourism 

bolsters 

economy, 

Page A6 

creative enterprises. 

Now comes the 

hard part: How can 

you increase job opportunities 

or the 

population in a city 

that hasn’t seen 

growth in more than half a 

decade? Residents, business leaders 

and city officials say it starts 

with building collaborations. 

“For 70 years, our community 

hasn’t been in the mindset of 

growth,” Ness said. “It was managing 

the closing of the steel plant 

and manufacturing.” 

LIFE IN THE NORTHLAND 

Lake Superior, the northernmost 

Great Lake, has helped define 

Duluth as a world-class 

manufacturing and shipping hub. 

It also now serves as a primary 

tourism driver within Northeastern 

Minnesota and the central 

reason why residents say the area 

is beautiful. 

Then there’s the “(expletive) 

cold,” said Charlie Stauduhar, 

owner of Spirit Lake Marina & 

RV Park, describing the weather 

in winter and other seasons. 

Duluth lost less than 1 percent 

of its population in the past 

decade and has 86,265 residents, 

according to 2010 census figures. 

That figure is slightly larger than 

Hammond and Gary, which are 

Northwest Indiana’s largest cities 

and had population declines over 

the same period of 3 percent and 

22 percent, respectively. 

See Duluth, Page A6 

Two people sit on a bench overlooking Lake Superior in Duluth’s Enger Park recently. City leaders are working to 

help industry and tourism thrive. Photos by John Luke / The Times of Northwest Indiana 

People walk in Canal Park recently. Residential and commercial development 

has replaced what was once an industrial area on Duluth's lakefront. 

The area has become a tourist destination. 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

In August, reporter Bowdeya Tweh 

and photographer John Luke of the 

Times of Northwest Indiana visited 

the Northland as part of a series examining 

how smaller Great Lakes 

cities are dealing with the declines in 

steel, auto and other industrial 

economies. Tweh also visited Flint, 

Mich., and Akron, Ohio., with the 

goal of identifying best practices in 

community revitalization and economic 

development that could be 

replicated in the Indiana cities of 

Gary and Hammond. This installment 

looks at growth in the Twin Ports. 

 

Online extra 

The entire series 

and a 

photo gallery may be found at 


Is Hope 

the bear 

dead? 

JOHN LUNDY 


The bear whose birth in a den 

near Ely was an Internet sensation 

two winters ago is missing 

and feared dead. 

Hope the bear hasn’t been seen 

since Wednesday night, said Lynn 

Rogers, biologist for the North 

American Bear Center of Ely. Circumstances 

lead him to believe 

the 2-year-old female was shot and 

killed by a hunter. The bear had 

traveled all summer with its 

mother, Lily, and Faith, a cub 

born to Lily last winter. 

They had been drawn to bait 

placed in their territory, and then 

Hope vanished, Rogers said. 

“It’s just too much of a coincidence 

that when this hunter set 

up his bait and Lily began visiting 

that at that moment, Hope disappeared,” 

he said. 

Hope wasn’t wearing a radio 

collar that would identify her as a 

bear used in research, Rogers 

said. Biologists had put radio collars 

on the bear four times, and 

she had managed to remove it 

each time. 

Rogers knows the hunter who 

put out the bait, and the hunter 

knows about the research bears, 

Rogers said. “We’ve e-mailed back 

and forth, but he just avoids answering 

the question whether or 

not he, or someone in his party, 

shot Hope.” 

He declined to name the 

hunter. 

Rogers has asked the Minnesota 

Department of Natural Resources 

to notify him of any 

young female bears registered by 

hunters in the area, but he doesn’t 

expect to hear back from them 

until Monday. 

The bear center has received 

several reports of bears being 

spotted over the past several days. 

Each one was checked out and 

turned out not to be Hope. 

Lily had two cubs last winter, 

but one of the cubs died in April. 

See Bear, Page B4 

HOW TO REACH US 

News tips: (218) 723-5300 

Home delivery: (218) 723-5252 

(800) 456-8080 

CONTENTS 

Games ....................F2 

Lotteries..................A2 

Milestones...........F6-7 

Obituaries............D4-5 

Opinion................B1-3 

Outdoors .............C6-8 

Shipping Traffic.......A2 

Sports.......................C 

Travel .....................C5 

TV listings ...............F8 

Weather..................B6 

Today 

Partly sunny 


Tomorrow 

Partly cloudy 


R001141857-0821

Page B4 

Duluth News Tribune | Sunday, September 25, 2011 


February 15, 2008 


Judge says releasing letter 

was ‘in the public interest’ 

BRANDON STAHL 


A St. Louis County deputy medical 

examiner’s letter to the state medical 

board requesting an investigation into 

Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz was released 

only after a judge granted a petition by 

the News Tribune to make the information 

public. 

The News Tribune requested the 

letter from the St. Louis County Attorney’s 

office, which had refused to release 

it, saying that correspondence 

sent to the Minnesota Board of Medical 

Practice is private under state law. 

However, a provision in Minnesota’s 

statutes on medical examiner 

data allows for a judge to release what 

is considered private data if it’s determined 

to be “in the public interest.” 

The newspaper argued that releasing 

the letter would be in the public interest 

because of the harm Konasiewicz 

was alleged to have caused. 

At a hearing before Judge Eric 

Hylden, assistant St. Louis County Attorney 

Kimberly Maki argued that any 

data and records sent to the medical 

board should be private, even copies of 

those records kept by her office or by 

Dr. Donald Kundel, who was deputy 

medical examiner when the letter was 

sent in 2008. 

The News Tribune’s attorney, Mark 

Anfinson, argued that providing data 

to the medical board shouldn’t automatically 

make any copy of it private. 

In his ruling released on Sept. 9, 

Hylden agreed. 

“A party cannot make a document 

confidential simply by sending the 

original to a licensing agency,” he 

wrote. 

“The court will apply … the public 

interest standard to the letter as a 

whole and find that disclosure is in the 

public interest.” 

Anfinson, who has practiced media 

law for more than 25 years, said this is 

the first time he’s aware of that data 

was released through successful use of 

the provision in the medical examiner’s 

statute. 

“I think a lot of the reason this succeeded 

was the paper demonstrated 

through prior reporting how important 

this issue is to the community,” 

he said. “I’m convinced the judge saw 

this is as a piece of that issue.” 

Mr. Rob Leach 

Executive Director 

Minnesota Board of Medical Practice 

University Park Plaza 

2829 University Avenue SE, Suite 300 

Minneapolis, MN 55414-3246 

Dear Mr. Leach: 

I am requesting an investigation into the medical practice 

of Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz. 

On February 2, 2005, I performed an autopsy of (name 

redacted) a 25-year-old lady who suffered a perforated 

aorta during disk surgery at L3-4 level. 

I have subsequently learned that Dr. Konasiewicz had 

previously perforated the abdominal aorta of another patient 

during disk surgery. This lady’s life was saved by 

prompt repair of the aortic defect by Dr. Brian Meyers. 

Dr. Konasiewicz has, in addition, recently damaged the 

spinal cord during an operation on the cervical vertebra 

which has caused paralysis of all four extremities. The 

identity of this lady can be obtained by interview of Dr. 

Mary Boylan (Chief of Surgery, St. Luke’s Hospital, at time 

of this injury), or from Dr. James Callahan who consulted 

on this case. 

In 41 years of hospital practice, 32 years of involvement 

in the St. Louis County Medical Examiner system, and in 

performing over 5,000 autopsies, I had not previously 

known of serious injury to vital, previously intact organs 

that were not part of the intended operative field or involved 

by a disease process. 

I believe investigation is necessary to determine if Dr. 

Konasiewicz is incompetent or reckless. 

Based on hospital corridor conversations by physicians, 

it is likely that these three cases are the tip of an iceberg. I 

am able to identify for you a number of physicians who 

have treated operative complications following surgery by 

Dr. Konasiewicz and who should be able to evaluate his 

surgical judgment and technique. 

Surgeon 


While Kundel said it was an 

injury that Konasiewicz 

should have been aware of 

because of the bleeding it 

would have caused, he said 

the operating room staff told 

him they saw no excess 

bleeding from the puncture. 

“The people in the operating 

room said there was 

nothing unusual about the 

procedure,” he said. 

St. Luke’s administration 

assured Kundel during his 

investigation “that we were 

monitoring Konasiewicz 

and everything he did would 

be watched closely,” Kundel 

told the News Tribune. 

Before Firn’s death, Kundel 

said that he knew concerns 

about Konasiewicz’s 

competence had been raised 

by other St. Luke’s doctors 

for several years, but that St. 

Luke’s response satisfied 

him the situation was being 

handled properly. 

“Bad mistakes do happen,” 

Kundel said. 

Kundel said concerns 

about Konasiewicz’s care 

were brought to his attention 

again in July 2007, after 

Konasiewicz performed 

neck surgery on 39-year-old 

Lorena LeBeau of Duluth. 

LeBeau’s spinal cord, which 

was supposed to remain still 

during the surgery, jerked 

during the procedure. 

LeBeau was diagnosed 

with “persistent cervical 

quadriplegia” — paralysis 

from the neck down — after 

the surgery. 

Kundel said when he was 

told about the case, he saw it 

as another instance in 

which the surgeon injured 

an organ not in the site of 

the operation. 

“It was an outcome that 

was completely out of the 

range of what was to be expected,” 

Kundel said. 

KUNDEL: OTHER PHYSICIANS KNEW 

Kundel’s letter described 

another incident of 

Konasiewicz puncturing a 

woman’s aorta during spinal 

surgery. “This lady’s life 

was saved by prompt repair 

of the aortic defect by (St. 

Luke’s surgeon) Dr. Brian 

Meyers,” Kundel wrote. 

Kundel told the medical 

board that he knew of other 

St. Luke’s physicians who 

would speak about 

Konasiewicz’s care. 

“I am able to identify for 

you a number of physicians 

who have treated operative 

complications following surgery 

by Dr. Konasiewicz and 

who should be able to evaluate 

his surgical judgment 

and technique,” he wrote. 

Numerous physicians 

and hospital staff members 

who have worked for and 

with St. Luke’s have told the 

News Tribune that they 

brought concerns about 

Konasiewicz to the hospital’s 

administrators, including 

to CEO Strange. 

If St. Luke’s did suspend 

Konasiewicz for two weeks 

or more, it would have to report 

that action to the National 


Bank. An analysis by the 

News Tribune of the Data 

Bank shows that no action 

taken by the hospital 

against Konasiewicz was 

ever recorded. 

The neurosurgeon indicated 

on his Minnesota medical 

license renewal 

applications each year from 

2005 to 2008 that he had not 

been notified “of any investigations 

by any state medical 

board, medical society, or 

any hospital of any complaints 

against you relative 

to the practice of medicine.” 

Konasiewicz has declined 

repeated requests for comment 

to the News Tribune. 

Kundel said that after he 

sent his letter, the Minnesota 


Practice contacted St. 

Luke’s. Kundel said he was 

told that Konasiewicz was 

sent for training by the hospital 

and, upon his return, 

Konasiewicz had limited 

privileges at St. Luke’s and 

left the hospital shortly 

after. 

By September 2008, 

Konasiewicz was listed as a 

practicing physician with 

the South Texas Brain and 

Spine Institute in Corpus 

Christi. 


Luke’s have been sued for 

malpractice at least nine 

times. The News Tribune 

has found that six of those 

cases were settled for at 

least $3.2 million. Firn’s case 

was settled for about 

$1.5 million. LeBeau’s case 

settled for more than $1 million. 

Two of those cases 

went to trial, where 

Konasiewicz was found not 

negligent. One case is still 

pending. 

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Bear 


Still, three generations remained, 

and that had been 

the source of a potential resource 

bonanza, Rogers 

said. 

“There was so much that 

we were looking forward to 

learning from this family,” 

he said. “This was the first 

mixed-age litter that’s ever 

been really studied, and just 

about everything that we 

Black Bear researcher 

Lynn Rogers of Ely 

uses food to lure Hope 

the bear cub out of a 

cedar tree in May 

2010. Hope had been 

separated from her 

mother, Lily, for several 

days but was 

later reunited. File / 

News Tribune 

saw turned out opposite 

from what most people 

would predict.” 

He was especially looking 

forward to see how the bears 

would behave next spring 

during the time of “family 

breakup,” Rogers said. 

Drought conditions in far 

northern Minnesota made 

bait particularly attractive 

to bears during this hunting 

season, Rogers said. 

“They went to the bait, 

and Hope disappeared.” 

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Earth-friendly design 

drives Red Cliff 

band’s new casino 

on South Shore B1 


Monday, September 26, 2011 


Caution: Sidewalk fight ahead 

City’s ‘complete streets’ policy comes up against Glenwood 

homeowners’ preferences on pavement’s placement 

PETER PASSI 


A sidewalk scrape will 

take center stage at the 

Duluth City Council 

tonight. 

The discussion will 

focus on the best design 

for six blocks of walkway 

stretching west of Snively 

Road on Glenwood Street. 

While the project is relatively 

small in the grand 

scheme of city road improvements, 

it has stirred 

debate about how Duluth 

should approach the design 

of its pedestrian 

transportation network 

and who should call the 

shots. 

Irene Thomson, 89, has 

lived her entire life in the 

same Morley Heights 

neighborhood and said 

she sees no need for a sidewalk 

in front of her home 

on upper Glenwood Street. 

But if one must be installed, 

Thomson believes 

it should be kept tight to 

the curb on the south side 

of the road. She’s one of 

about 25 homeowners to 

sign a petition in support 

of this plan. 

“I hope we, the people, 

have some say here,” 

Thomson said, adding 

such a design offers the 

least costly and least obtrusive 

solution. 

But building the sidewalk 

hard up against the 

side of the road with no intervening 

green space or 

boulevard would obligate 

city crews to keep the 

walkway clear of snow 

and ice, said Kelly Fleissner, 

maintenance operation 

manager. Such 

sidewalks add to the city’s 

workload and operating 

expenses at a time when 

its budget already is 

strained. 

See Sidewalk, back page 

Knife Lake Concrete employees Cody Garmaker (left) and Mike Drabant, both of Mora, Minn., 

pour concrete while building sidewalks at 36th Avenue East in Duluth on Friday afternoon. 

Sidewalks and the role of neighborhoods in determining their design will be a point of discussion 

tonight when the Duluth City Council reconsiders improvements to upper Glenwood 

Street. Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com 

RUST BELT RESURGENCE | ASSETS RUN DEEP 

Miners, workers strike gold in thriving iron industry 

DNT INVESTIGATION | 

THE CASE OF DR. KONASIEWICZ 

Some of 

Konasiewicz’s 

Texas patients 

claim harm 

BRANDON STAHL 


In April, Dr. Stefan 

Konasiewicz performed a 

neck fusion on Monica 

Roberts of Corpus Christi, 

Texas. Another Corpus 

Christi resident, Linda 

Cavazos, said Konasiewicz 

performed spinal surgery on 

her father, Juan, on Jan. 27 

at one of the city’s hospitals. 

Roberts and Cavazos are 

two of the 11 people the 

News Tribune has spoken 

with who live in the Corpus 

Christi area where the former 


now practices and who 

allege they or their loved 

ones experienced negative 

outcomes after being treated 

by him. 

In total, the News Tribune 

has identified 82 patients 

or family members of 

In response 

Konasiewicz’s patients. Of 

those, at least nine have 

filed malpractice lawsuits 

against Konasiewicz and St. 

Luke’s hospital. The neurosurgeon 

Some former St. 

Luke’s patients 

praise Dr. 

Konasiewicz’s 

work, back page 

and the 

hospital 

have settled 

six of 

those 

suits for 

at least 

$3.2 million. 

Two 

of the lawsuits went to 

juries, both resulting in 

not-negligent verdicts. Citing 

four cases, including one 

in which a patient died, 

Konasiewicz was also disciplined 

by the Minnesota 


for “unprofessional and unethical 

conduct.” 

See Texas, back page 

In a request by News Tribune Investigations Editor 

Brandon Stahl to St. Luke’s hospital for comment 

about the articles in the series, “The Case of Dr. 

Konasiewicz,” on this page and on Page A6, St. Luke’s 

provided the following response: 

Statement of St. Luke’s 

September 23, 2011 

The questions you ask pertain to the subject matter 

of the defamation lawsuit St. Luke’s filed against you, 

Mark Stodghill and the Duluth News Tribune on 

September 19, 2011. It is inappropriate for St. Luke’s 

to provide you with additional information relating 

directly to this subject matter outside of the court 

supervised discovery process. Accordingly, please 

direct future inquiries relating to the subject matter of 

St. Luke’s lawsuit against you, Mark Stodghill and the 

Duluth News Tribune through your legal counsel to 

ours, Pat Tierney. 

BOWDEYA TWEH 

The Times of Northwest Indiana 

DULUTH — Minerals and metallurgical 

engineer Don Fosnacht said having an 

“ungodly vast” array of natural resources 

is a good situation. 

Being able to capture those resources 

through a viable business enterprise is even 

better. 

Companies in Northeastern Minnesota and 

workers on the Iron Range have been able to 

capture a resource that Northwest Indiana’s 

steel industry has depended on for more than a 

century. Fosnacht, who is with the Natural Resources 

Research Institute at the University of 

Minnesota Duluth, said new technological developments 

and recovery of other resources 

could keep the area humming for years to come. 

“As far as running out of iron resources, in 

the near term, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” 

said Fosnacht, a Chicago native who 

worked for Inland Steel for more than 20 years. 

“You probably have 100 years of resources that 

could be used.” 


News tips: (218) 723-5300 

Home delivery: (218) 723-5252 

(800) 456-8080 

See Mining, Page A4 

CONTENTS 

Business...................B 

Classified..................D 

Comics ...................D6 

ArcelorMittal’s Minorca Iron mine in Virginia mines and processes iron 

ore and taconite. John Luke / The Times of Northwest Indiana 

EDITOR’S NOTE: In August, reporter Bowdeya Tweh and photographer 

John Luke of the Times of Northwest Indiana visited the Northland as 

part of a series examining how smaller Great Lakes cities are dealing 

with the declines in steel, auto and other industrial economies. Tweh 

also visited Flint, Mich., and Akron, Ohio., with the goal of identifying 

best practices in community revitalization and economic development 

that could be replicated in the Indiana cities of Gary and Hammond. 

This installment looks at the Iron Range and the mining industry. 

Games....................D5 

Lotteries..................A2 

Obituaries ...............B5 

Opinion ...................A5 

pledge@www.duluthtransit.com 


Sports.......................C 

TV listings ...............C6 

Weather..................B6 

Today 

Partly sunny 


Tomorrow 

Partly cloudy 


Give your car arest on Tuesdays and win prizes! 

Pledge to ride the bus just once to qualify! 

Take the Greater Minnesota 

Commuter Challenge 

and give your car abreak on 

Tuesdays or any day aweek! 

Pledge to ride the bus, car-pool or 

bike to work just once and you'll 

qualify for valuable prize drawings 

courtesy of Mn/DOT. Sign up for the 

Greater Minnesota Commuter 

Challenge by taking the pledge at 

www.duluthtransit.com! 

The upside of economic 

worries: Lower gas prices 

JONATHAN FAHEY 


NEW YORK —Soaring 

gasoline prices are in the 

rearview mirror. For the 

first time in months, retail 

gasoline prices have fallen 

below $3 a gallon in places, 

including parts of Michigan, 

Missouri and Texas. And the 

relief is likely to spread 

thanks to a sharp decline in 

crude-oil prices. 

The national average for 

regular unleaded gasoline is 

$3.51 per gallon, down from 

a high of $3.98 in early May. 

Last week’s plunge in oil 

prices could push the 

average to $3.25 per gallon 

by November, analysts say. 

Economist Philip Verleger 

equates it to “a stimulus 

program for consumers,” 

leaving them more money 

for clothes, dinners out and 

movies. Over a year, a 

50 cents-per-gallon drop in 

gasoline prices would add 

roughly $70 billion to the 

U.S. economy. 

See Gas, Page A4 

Take the Commuter Challenge Pledge and win prizes! 

R001134197-0704

Page A6 

Duluth News Tribune | Monday, September 26, 2011 



Some patients say Dr. Konasiewicz helped them 

KONASIEWICZ 

BRANDON STAHL 


In a statement to the News 

Tribune about the care Dr. Stefan 

Konasiewicz provided to 

his patients, St. Luke’s hospital 

said: “Dr. Konasiewicz performed 

thousands of difficult 

and life-saving surgeries on 

thousands of patients throughout 

our region. Many people 

are alive and walking today because 

of the outstanding care 

and skill of Dr. Konasiewicz.” 

Among those patients is former 

News Tribune sports editor 

Irv Mossberger, who 

praised Konasiewicz for identifying 

a blocked carotid artery 

and repairing it during a surgery 

in 2003. Since then, the 67- 

year-old said he has had no 

complications from the surgery. 

“He saved my life,” Mossberger 

said. 

Another patient, 50-year-old 

Anita Ettinger of Duluth, had 

two surgeries by Konasiewicz 

in 2001 and 2002 to repair ruptured 

cervical discs. She said 

that two weeks after the second 

surgery she didn’t have any 

pain and she hasn’t had any 

significant back pain since. 

“I’m walking because of that 

man,” Ettinger said. 

One success story of 

Konasiewicz’s was featured in 

a Discovery Health Channel 

show. 

In August 2005, Meredith 

Estes was beginning her freshman 

year at the University of 

Minnesota Duluth when she 

began to get cold-like symptoms. 

A few days later, her 

symptoms had escalated to 

chills, dizziness and confusion. 

She began throwing up and 

had difficulty hearing. A few 

days later, her memory began 

to fail. After being admitted to 

St. Luke’s, she would eventually 

be diagnosed with 

Lemierre’s syndrome, which 

caused an abscess to grow in 

her brain. 

Konasiewicz performed two 

surgeries on Estes, including a 

craniotomy to relieve the 

swelling and remove the brain 

abscess, which required removing 

a piece of her skull. 

Estes graduated from UMD 

with a degree in accounting in 

2010 and is now working for the 

Minnesota Department of Revenue. 

She’s also studying to become 

a certified public 

accountant. 

Her mother, Kristie Estes, 

credits Konasiewicz for saving 

her daughter’s life. 

“I don’t know if she would 

be alive today,” she said. “Her 

condition was worsening 

pretty rapidly.” 

Texas 


Since 1990, Konasiewicz 

is one of five neurosurgeons 

in Minnesota disciplined by 

the state’s board of medical 

practice, and only the second 

neurosurgeon to be disciplined 

in Minnesota as a 

result of charges prompted 

by allegations of harming 

patients. 

Citing Minnesota’s action, 

the state of Wisconsin 

also restricted 

Konasiewicz’s license. 

“HAD WE KNOWN” 

Other Corpus Christi residents 

said they wished they 

had known about 

Konasiewicz’s past. 

Barbara Carlyon said in 

mid-July that Konasiewicz 

performed brain surgery on 

her sister, Wanda McCarty. 

After the surgery, Carlyon 

said, McCarty went into a 

coma for eight days, and 

then died. 

Carlyon said she didn’t 

know about Konasiewicz’s 

malpractice claims in Minnesota 

and that he had been 

disciplined by the state’s 

board of medical practice 

until a Corpus Christi TV 

station did a news report on 

him. 

“Had we known about 

that, it would not have been 

him doing the surgery,” Carlyon 

said. 

Konasiewicz, who 

worked at St. Luke’s from 

1997 to 2008, has practiced at 

the South Texas Brain and 

Spine Institute in Corpus 

Christi since at least September 

2008, when his clinic 

took out an ad in the county 

medical society’s newsletter 

welcoming Konasiewicz. 

Konasiewicz has declined 

repeated requests for comment 

to the News Tribune. 

Roxanna Perez Stevens, an 

attorney representing the 

South Texas Brain and 

Spine Institute, praised 

Konasiewicz in a statement 

for being a “caring and competent 

neurosurgeon who 

provides excellent care.” 

“There are many people 

alive today who live a better 

life because of the medical 

care and treatment that Dr. 

Konasiewicz has provided to 

them. The South Texas 

Brain and Spine Center 

takes its patients’ healthcare 

very seriously and continues 

to provide its patients 

with the utmost quality and 

highest standards in healthcare 

using the most effective 

and modern technologies 

available.” 



disciplined Konasiewicz for 

what was deemed “unprofessional 

and unethical conduct,” 

and ordered him to 

have some of his surgeries 

supervised by another neurosurgeon 

to continue to 

practice in the state. 

However, the Texas Medical 

Board has taken no such 

action against him, meaning 

his license is not restricted 

and he does not need to have 

his work supervised. 

Some of Konasiewicz’s 

patients in Texas whom the 

News Tribune has spoken 

with said they are considering 

taking legal action 

against Konasiewicz. Three 

attorneys in the Corpus 

Christi area said they’ve 

been contacted by patients 

asking about filing malpractice 

suits against 

Konasiewicz. 

ATTORNEYS RARELY TAKE CASES 

But in Texas, filing malpractice 

suits is rare. A 

study in the Journal of the 

American College of Surgeons 

found that since 2003, 

the year major tort reform 

laws were approved by voters 

and signed into law by 

Gov. Rick Perry, malpractice 

suits dropped 80 percent. 

Linda Cavazos of Corpus Christi, Texas, holds a photograph of her father, Juan Cavazos. 

Linda Cavazos is one of 11 people in Texas the News Tribune has spoken with who say they or 

their loved ones experienced negative outcomes after being treated by Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz. 

Todd Yates for the News Tribune 

“It has become virtually 

impossible for most patients 

harmed by dangerous doctors 

to access the legal 

process and hold the physicians 

accountable,” said N. 

Alex Winslow, executive director 

of Texas Watch, a citizen 

advocacy organization. 

“Without a doubt, patients 

who are being harmed have 

little, if any, legal recourse 

at all.” 

The tort reforms capped 

the amount of money a 

litigant can receive on noneconomic 

damages against a 

doctor at $250,000, which 

some Texas attorneys said 

make it cost-prohibitive to 

bring a case. 

“I hate to put it in terms 

of money,” said Abraham 

Moss, a Corpus Christi 

attorney who has worked 

malpractice cases for 

35 years, “but the caps 

take the incentive away 

to pursue cases that are 

inherently expensive.” 

Other obstacles reduce 

the number of lawsuits, such 

as requiring an expert’s report 

on medical records 

within 120 days of filing suit. 

Often, said Moss, those 

reports are written to a 

medical standard but not a 

legal standard, which causes 

the cases to get dropped. If 

that happens, the doctor can 

request a judge to require 

the litigant to pay for the 

doctor’s legal fees. 

“Doctors here don’t have 

to worry all that much about 

getting sued,” said Moss, 

who added that he has been 

contacted about filing a suit 

against Konasiewicz. 

Moss said that of the 30 to 

40 malpractice cases he reviews 

in a month, “I might 

take one.” 

With the dearth of malpractice 

suits, doctors have 

flocked to Texas. Since 2003, 

more than 11,000 doctors 

have moved to the state to 

practice, according to 

records kept by the Texas 

Medical Board. 

“It’s open season, and 

there are many bad doctors 

coming here because they 

feel like they can get away 

with it,” said Tom Rhodes, a 

malpractice attorney in San 

Antonio. 

While supporters of tort 

reform acknowledge that 

some of those physicians 

coming to Texas may be doctors 

trying to hide from malpractice 

suits in other states, 

they say the reforms also 

have proved beneficial to patients 

by bringing in more 

specialists to the state and 

lowering liability costs for 

doctors and hospitals. 

“And the money saved in 

liability costs has been put 

back into expanded service 

for Texans,” said George 

Christian, the general counsel 

for the Texas Civil Justice 

League, an advocate for 

tort reforms. 

Though Christian acknowledged 

the reforms 

have probably brought more 

bad doctors to the state, he 

said it should be up to the 

Texas Medical Board to police 

those doctors. When the 

reforms were passed, the 

board’s budget and staffing 

were increased so that it 

could have greater oversight 

over the state’s physicians. 

“It’s their responsibility 

to find these people, yank 

their licenses and get them 

out of here,” Christian said. 

There’s evidence to suggest 

they’re doing just that. 

An analysis by the News 

Tribune shows that from 

2003 to 2010, the disciplinary 

actions taken by the Texas 

Medical Board have increased 

93 percent, while the 

number of licenses the 

board has issued increased 

40 percent. 

But Winslow of Texas 

Watch counters that his 

state’s medical board isn’t 

doing enough when it disciplines 

bad doctors. 

“The board sometimes 

doesn’t have the legal authority, 

the wherewithal, the 

funding or in some cases the 

desire to go after doctors,” 

he said, noting that no action 

has been taken against 

Konasiewicz in Texas, despite 

discipline in Minnesota 

and Wisconsin. 

And if patients are 

harmed by a doctor, Tom 

Rhodes, a malpractice attorney 

in San Antonio, said, the 

actions taken by the Texas 

board can’t help victims. 

“There’s no recompense 

for these people,” Rhodes 

said. “Our system shouldn’t 

be designed to allow people 

to get rich, but to get back 

what’s been taken from 

them. And that’s not happening.” 

Sidewalk 


“When you have a boulevard, 

you have a place to store snow 

from city plows, and you also have 

a place to plant boulevard trees 

that lots of people like,” he said. 

A boulevard design also shifts 

the burden for clearing a sidewalk 

to the abutting property owner. 

Laura Johnson, who has lived 

nearly 20 years in her Glenwood 

Street home, said she and her 

neighbors weren’t fans of a sidewalk 

but were willing to accept a 

street-side design in the spirit of 

compromise. 

Initially, the council passed a 

resolution agreeing to adopt residents’ 

preferred sidewalk design 

against the recommendations of 

city administration on Aug. 29. 

But Councilor Jeff Anderson has 

asked that the matter be reconsidered 

at tonight’s City Council 

meeting, as he has had a change of 

heart since supporting the change. 

“I realized after the fact that I 

had screwed up,” Anderson said. 

“I now recognize the importance of 

boulevards. It’s a design that’s better 

for neighborhoods and for public 

safety because it keeps people 

further from the flow of traffic.” 

Anderson said that he realized 

his vote was inconsistent with his 

support for the “complete streets 

policy” unanimously adopted by the 

City Council a few years ago. 

Councilor Tony Cuneo, who has 

been a strong and vocal advocate 

for “complete streets,” explained: 

“One of the things the council 

asked the administration to do is 

to improve planning so the city’s 

transportation network works better 

for all users.” 

He said that means considering 

the needs not just of motorists, but 

also of people who walk, use 

wheelchairs and ride bikes. 

First District Councilor Todd 

Fedora said he’s disappointed that 

the council is reconsidering its decision 

to abide by his constituents’ 

wishes on Glenwood. 

“We need to take residents’ 

wishes into consideration and try 

to find compromise,” he said. 

Otherwise, Fedora suggested 

the city’s planning meetings with 

residents would serve little purpose. 

“If we’re going to have neighborhood 

meetings with no opportunity 

for meaningful public input, 

what’s the use of having neighborhood 

meetings?” he asked. 

But David Montgomery, chief 

administrative officer for the city 

of Duluth, contends city staff members 

have repeatedly modified 

street designs to address the concerns 

of residents on other parts of 

Glenwood Street, Anderson Road 

and Ivanhoe Street. 

“It’s a process where we’re 

never going to satisfy everyone,” 

he said. 

The city must strike a balance, 

according to Cuneo, who said: 

“There has to be weight given to 

the fact that our transportation 

network is designed for every citizen 

of Duluth. It needs to work for 

everyone. And it needs to work not 

just for current residents but for 

the next generation.” 

Anderson said the city needs to 

balance a variety of important interests 

and can’t build a cohesive 

transportation network on a blockby-block 

basis, taking its lead entirely 

from residents. He said 

that’s why abutting property owners 

pay only a portion of the cost of 

road improvements through assessments. 

Still, Johnson said she is disheartened 

by the renewed push for 

a boulevard sidewalk in her neighborhood. 

“They’re trying to shove something 

down our throats that we 

don’t want,” she said, suggesting 

the cost of the road improvements 

proposed by her neighborhood 

would be significantly less costly. 

ABOVE: Chad Gardner of Mora, 

Minn., uses a finish jointer to create 

expansion joints in fresh concrete 

while building sidewalks at 36th 

Avenue East in Duluth on Friday. 

LEFT: Knife Lake Concrete employees 

Cody Garmaker (left) and Mike 

Drabant, both of Mora, level out 

freshly poured concrete at 36th Avenue 

East on Friday. Sidewalks and 

the role of neighborhoods in determining 

their design will be a point of 

discussion tonight when the Duluth 

City Council reconsiders improvements 

to upper Glenwood Street. 

Photos by Clint Austin / 

caustin@duluthnews.com

Cromwell murder suspects appear in court B1 


Saturday, October 1, 2011 



CONTENTS 

News tips: (218) 723-5300 Classified ............C5-8 

Home delivery: (218) 723-5252 Comics ...................B7 

(800) 456-8080 Games ....................B6 

HELP! 

The Beauitiful Flowering Shrubs, Roses, Flowering Crabs &Shade Trees at 

R001632095-1001 

Now 18 months old, 

little Audrey’s going strong 

‘Common’ cold 

a big concern 

for toddler who 

weighed just 

12 oz. at birth 

JOHN LUNDY 


Audrey Diehl is what 

every parent would wish for 

in an 18-month-old. 

“She’s a healthy, happy 

toddler — walking, starting 

to talk, getting into everything,” 

said her mom, Crystal 

Diehl. 

Quite a contrast to Audrey 

when she was born on 

March 22, 2010, at 25 weeks, 

weighing 12 ounces. She is 

the smallest baby ever to 

survive in the Neonatal Intensive 

Care Unit at Essentia 

Health St. Mary’s 

Medical Center. 

Audrey, profiled in a June 

2010 story in the News Tribune, 

made it through her 

first winter — a precarious 

time for prematurely born 

babies because of the risk of 

a cold-like illness. She got 

help from an expensive therapeutic 

medication. But she 

got that only after her parents, 

Marshall and Crystal 

Diehl, fought their insurance 

company, which originally 

turned them down. 

THE RISK 

Even among prematurely 

born babies, Audrey was 

tiny. In fact, she is listed on 

the University of Iowa’s 

Tiniest Babies Registry, a 

worldwide list of babies to 

survive after being born at a 

weight of less than 400 

grams (14.1 ounces). Only 

one other Minnesota birth is 

in the registry, a girl born in 

Minneapolis in 2002. 

It put her, like all prematurely 

born babies, at risk. 

“With premature babies, 

they have such a weakened 

immune system,” said Pam 

McArthur, a registered 

nurse for 23 years in the 

NICU. “A regular newborn 

has only what they get from 

their mother for their immune 

system, so when 

you’re talking about a premature 

baby, you’re talking 

about a baby that doesn’t 

even have what they would 

normally have gotten from 

their mother. ” 

One of the risks is RSV 

— respiratory syncytial 

virus. You might have had 

RSV last winter. You told 

people you had a bad cold. 

DEREK KRAVITZ 


See Audrey, Page A6 

WASHINGTON —Mortgage 

rates have skated near record lows 

for weeks. But now it can finally be 

said: Long-term rates in the United 

States have never been lower. 

This week, the average rate on a 

30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.01 

percent, mortgage buyer Freddie 

Mac said in its weekly report. 

That’s the lowest since it began 

keeping records in 1971. 

TOP: Audrey Diehl plays on the slide in her backyard Wednesday in Duluth. Audrey, now 18 

months old, weighed just 12 ounces when she was born (above, compared in size to a dollar 

bill); she’s the smallest baby ever to survive at Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center. 

Photo by Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com (top); photo courtesy of the Diehl family (above) 

Alocally owned family business for over 59 years 

Lotteries..................A2 

Markets ..................A2 

Obituaries ...............B5 

Opinion ...................A7 

For months, Freddie had 

pointed to data from the National 

Bureau of Economic Research 

showing that rates were lower in 

the early 1950s, when long-term 

mortgages typically lasted just 20 

or 25 years. 

But Freddie says that’s no 

longer true: Today’s average 30- 

year rate is even lower than the average 

20- or 25-year rate was in the 

1950s. 

The NBER’s data show that between 

July 1950 and February 1951, 

long-term rates averaged 4.08 percent. 

Today’s average 30-year rate 

is 4.01 percent. Both are higher 

once you include the extra fees 

most buyers pay. Those fees are 

called points; one point equals 

1 percent of a loan amount. 

If you include fees and points 

comparable to today’s low rates, the 

1950-51 average would be 4.33 percent, 

Freddie Mac said Friday. 

Today’s average on the 30-year, with 


Sports .................C1-4 

TV listings ...............B8 

Weather ..................A8 

Today 

Sunny, pleasant 


Konasiewicz 

resigns from 

Texas practice 


Dr. Stefan Konasiewicz, the former 

Duluth neurosurgeon who was disciplined 

by the Minnesota Board of Medical 

Practice in 2010, has resigned from 

his practice in Texas, Corpus Christi television 

station KRIS-TV reported Friday. 

Three days after the News Tribune 

published a story headlined “Some of 

Konasiewicz’s Texas patients claim 

harm” and KRIS ran a similar report, 

the South Texas Brain and Spine Center 

removed the doctor’s name from its 

building. 

Two current patients also contacted 

the TV station’s newsroom saying that 

Konasiewicz had abruptly resigned, 

Steven Romo of KRIS reported. Romo 

said South Texas Brain and Spine Center 

office manager Mary Jane Covarrubiaz 

confirmed Friday afternoon that 

Konasiewicz had resigned but did not 

say when his employment ended. 

Covarrubiaz told Romo that 

Konasiewicz is relocating, but indicated 

that he had not yet shared his moving 

plans with the center. 

“As soon as I know where he’s going, 

we will announce it in the paper,” Covarrubiaz 

said. 

Most local schools 

fail to meet math, 

reading standards 



Eight of 10 area school 

districts, including Duluth, 

failed to meet standards 

under the federal No Child 

Left Behind law. 

Released Friday, the annual 

adequate yearly 

progress report card came 

even as the Minnesota Department 

of Education is 

working to free itself from 

the law’s controversial 

mandates. The Obama administration 

last week outlined 

guidelines and a 

timeline for states to do that 

through a waiver process. 

The Duluth school district 

failed to meet AYP standards 

as a whole for the sixth 

year in a row. Only two of 

the 13 Duluth district schools 

open last year — Lakewood 

and Lester Park elementary 

schools — met AYP. 

extra fees factored in, is 4.17 percent. 

The average on a 15-year fixed 

mortgage, a popular refinancing option, 

also ticked down to 3.28 percent 

this week. Economists say that’s the 

lowest rate ever for that loan. 

Mortgage rates tend to track the 

yield on the 10-year Treasury note, 

which has risen this week to 

around 2 percent. A week ago, it 

touched 1.74 percent —the lowest 

level since the Federal Reserve 

Bank of St. Louis started keeping 

Tomorrow 

More sun, warmer 



Failure to meet the passfail 

standard was more common 

than not among area 

districts. Even some that 

made AYP last year — including 

Duluth Edison Charter 

Schools, Wrenshall and 

Harbor City International — 

failed this year. Only Cloquet 

and Esko school districts 

met state standards for reading 

and math proficiency. 

To make AYP, all subgroups 

of students in the 

district must be deemed 

proficient in math and reading, 

measured by their performance 

on the MCA II 

test. Graduation, participation 

and attendance also are 

taken into account. Failure 

by any group of students on 

either test means failure for 

the entire school and district, 

and benchmarks and 

penalties rise each year. 

Rates on 15-, 30-year fixed mortgages now are the lowest on record 

daily records in 1962. As recently as 

July, the 10-year exceeded 3 percent. 

Rates on mortgages could fall 

further after the Federal Reserve 

announced last week that it would 

take further action to try to lower 

long-term rates. 

Still, low rates have so far done 

little to boost home sales or refinancing. 

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KONASIEWICZ: 

Former St. Luke’s 

neurosurgeon 

“As soon 

as I know 

where 

he’s 

going, 

we will 

announce 

it.” 

Mary Jane 

Covarrubiaz, 

office manager, 

South Texas 

Brain and 

Spine Center 

See Schools, Page A5


Duluth News Tribune | Saturday, October 1, 2011 

Page A5 

Surgeon 


Calls to McKibben, 

Woolsey and Villarreal, the 

law firm representing the 

medical center, were not returned 

Friday afternoon, 

Romo said. 


Luke’s hospital in Duluth, 

where the neurosurgeon 

practiced from 1997 to 2008, 

have been sued for malpractice 

at least nine times. One 

case involved a woman who 

died soon after surgery by 

Konasiewicz, and another 

was a woman who was left a 

quadriplegic after surgery. 

The News Tribune has 

found that six of those cases 

were settled for at least 

$3.2 million. 

Deputy St. Louis County 

Medical Examiner Dr. Donald 

Kundel was so concerned 

about the patient 

Schools 


Targets for a new, 

tougher math test were recalibrated 

by the state last 

spring after test scores 

plummeted. Even more 

schools might have failed if 

the targets hadn’t been 

changed. 

One-size-fits-all mandates 

and labeling schools as “failures” 

is a flawed way to address 

the unique challenges 

of some schools, said Minnesota 

Education Commissioner 

Brenda Cassellius. 

“We know that many of 

our schools are being labeled 

on what we consider to 

be a failed system,” she said. 

Under current federal 

law, all students must be proficient 

in both reading and 

math by 2014. The state had 

applied for a waiver this 

summer, and it will resubmit 

its application under the 

new process, Cassellius said. 

Until the state receives a 

waiver, districts must follow 

sanctions under the current 

No Child Left Behind law. 

A waiver would free 

states from the 2014 deadline 

and allow more flexibility in 

how they measure student 

achievement. 

That’s good news to 

Tawnyea Lake, director of 

assessment, evaluation and 

performance for the Duluth 

district. 

Duluth’s data shows a few 

instances in which a group 

of students kept the whole 

school from passing. At 

Homecroft, which made AYP 

in 2010, low-income students 

didn’t meet reading proficiency 

standards this year, 

so the whole school failed to 

make AYP. The same happened 

at Congdon Park, 

where special education students 

as a group didn’t meet 

reading standards, and at 

East, where low-income students 

didn’t meet AYP for 

math. 

Some schools saw widespread 

failure among their 

students. No groups of students 

at Morgan Park Middle 

School met reading 

standards. At Central/ 

Denfeld, all groups but one 

failed to reach the “proficient” 

level in both reading 

and math. 

One school failed because 

it was one student short of 

meeting standards, Lake 

said. 

“A lot is at stake based on 

one test score,” she said. “If 

any one of those (four AYP 

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not meeting standards 

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benchmarks) is nicked, the 

school is not making AYP.” 

Duluth supports developing 

better systems to prepare 

students for college or 

the work force, focusing on 

the improvements that 

occur, not the failures, Lake 

said. Nettleton Elementary 

remains on the failure list 

but had a double-digit increase 

in reading and math 

scores. 

“We should be excited 

about that and celebrating 

it,” she said. 

Duluth did meet graduation, 

participation and attendance 

targets. Graduation 

rates were 90 percent, a 

7 percentage point increase 

from last year, when it didn’t 

meet the target. 

Esko schools have made 

AYP every year of the nearly 

10-year-old law. But Superintendent 

Aaron Fischer, who 

credits focus, good discussion 

and teaching aligned 

with state standards, doesn’t 

think Esko’s teachers are 

working any harder than 

those at other schools. 

“It’s great for Esko, but 

the reality is, there is good 

education happening all 

over Northeastern Minnesota,” 

he said. “We’re all 

Custom Step 

• Free 

estimates. 

• The practical solution 

in permanent concrete. 

1900 CTY.RD. 1•WRENSHALL, MN. 55797 

This year 

Last year 

Duluth school district No No 

Central/Denfeld High School No No 

East High School No Yes 

Morgan Park Middle School No No 

Woodland Middle School No No 

Stowe Elementary No Yes 

Laura MacArthur Elementary No No 

Lincoln/Piedmont Elementary No Yes 

Lowell Elementary No No 

Nettleton/Grant Elementary No No 

Homecroft Elementary No Yes 

Congdon Park Elementary No No 

Lakewood Elementary Yes Yes 

Lester Park Elementary Yes Yes 

Other area districts 

care provided by 

Konasiewicz that he wrote a 

letter to the Minnesota 

Board of Medical Practice in 

2008 requesting an investigation 

to determine “if Dr. 

Konasiewicz is incompetent 




disciplined Konasiewicz for 

what it deemed as “unprofessional 

and unethical conduct,” 

and ordered him to 

have some of his surgeries 

supervised by another neurosurgeon 

to continue to 

practice in the state. 

However, the Texas Medical 

Board has taken no such 

action, meaning his license 

is not restricted and he does 

not need to have his work supervised 

in Texas. 

Corpus Christi resident 

Linda Cavazos is one of 11 

people the News Tribune 

has spoken with who allege 

they or their loved ones experienced 

negative outcomes 

after being treated in 

Texas by Konasiewicz. On 

Friday, she expressed relief 

at news of the neurosurgeon’s 

resignation. 

“This is good news,” she 

said. 

Shawn Raiter, an attorney 

who is representing 

Konasiewicz in a current 

malpractice case, told the 

News Tribune on Friday he 

is not aware of any resignation 

in Texas. He said he has 

spoken recently with his 

client but doesn’t know of 

any change in his practice in 

Corpus Christi. Raiter was 

in court in Duluth on Thursday 

arguing against a new 

trial for a Proctor-area 

farmer whose negligence 

claim against Konasiewicz 

was rejected by a Washington 

County District Court 

jury this summer. 

Before news of 

Konasiewicz’s resignation 

Carlton No No 

Cloquet Yes Yes 

Duluth Edison Charter Schools No Yes 

Esko Yes Yes 

Harbor City International School No Yes 

Hermantown No No 

Lake Superior school district No Yes 

Proctor No No 

Wrenshall No Yes 


in this together, for the work 

force of this area. I don’t believe 

those are all failing districts. 

It could be us 

tomorrow.” 

Some districts in the area 

are in various stages of AYP 

sanctions. Only those 

schools that receive Title I 

money from the state must 

take corrective action for 

sanctions. Carrying the 

corrective-action label are 

Proctor, with its two elementary 

schools not meeting 

standards, and Duluth. That 

means they must set aside 

some Title I money for an 

improvement plan and to 

tutor at-risk kids in the 

THYROID? 

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schools that qualify. If families 

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Call our office for more information on how our patient 

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715-395-0928 

Dr. Jim Hoeffling 

Twin Ports Chiropractic 

on Friday, an attorney representing 

the South Texas 

Brain and Spine Institute 

praised Konasiewicz in a 

statement for being a “caring 

and competent neurosurgeon 

who provides 

excellent care.” 

“There are many people 

alive today who live a better 

life because of the medical 

care and treatment that Dr. 

Konasiewicz has provided to 

them,” attorney Roxanna 

Perez Stevens said in a prepared 

statement in August. 

“The South Texas Brain and 

Spine Center takes its patients’ 

healthcare very seriously 

and continues to 

provide its patients with the 

utmost quality and highest 

standards in healthcare 

using the most effective and 

modern technologies 

available.” 

A St. Luke’s spokeswoman 

did not return a call 

for comment on Friday. 

Nearly half 

of Minnesota 

schools fell short 

Duluth-area school districts 

that failed to make the 

grade under the federal No 

Child Left Behind law in 

2011 were among nearly 

half of Minnesota schools 

that fell short, the Minnesota 

Department of Education reported 

Friday. 

The department reported 

that 1,056, or 47 percent, of 

Minnesota’s 2,255 schools 

failed to make adequate 

yearly progress on the Minnesota 

Comprehensive Assessments 

toward the law’s 

goal of having all students 

proficient in reading and 

math by 2014. That’s about 

the same percentage as 

2010. 

Fifty-four percent of high 

schools, 66 percent of middle 

schools and 45 percent 

of elementary schools didn’t 

make the progress expected 

in the law. There were 286 

schools on the failure list in 

2011 that weren’t on it in 

2010. Likewise, the test 

scores of 272 schools improved 

enough from 2010 to 

come off the list. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Online 

The list of schools is available 

on the Minnesota Department 

of Education’s 

website, http://education. 

state.mn.us/ 

1310 Belknap St 

Superior,WI54880 

715-395-0928 

Dr_Hoeffling@yahoo.com 

R001632526 

Outdoors 

with 

Sam 

Cook 

Click on “Blogs” at duluthnewstribune.com 

R001631936-1001 

Second typhoon in a 

week hits Philippines 

OLIVER TEVES 


Haunted Ship Opens Friday,October 7! 

For Dates &Times visit: 

We buy used 

car batteries and more 

MANILA, Philippines — 

The second typhoon in a 

week battered the rainsoaked 

northern Philippines 

today, adding misery 

to thousands of people, 

some of whom still perched 

on rooftops while several 

other Asian nations also 

reeled from flooding. 

Typhoon Nalgae 

slammed ashore midmorning 

today south of northeastern 

Palanan Bay in Isabela 

province with sustained 

winds of 100 miles per hour 

and gusts of 121 mph. 

It was making path 

across the saturated Luzon 

Island similar to the one 

taken by Typhoon Nesat, 

which earlier in the week 

killed at least 50 people, left 

31 missing and thousands 

stranded and sent huge 

waves that breached a seawall 

in Manila Bay. Nesat 

also pummeled southern 

China and was downgraded 

to a tropical storm just before 

churning into northern 

Vietnam on Friday 

afternoon, where flood 

warnings were issued and 

20,000 people evacuated. 

In the Philippines, 

nearly 400,000 people hunkered 

down in evacuation 

centers and in homes of relatives 

and friends along the 

new typhoon’s path. The 

storm brought heavy rainfall 

of about an inch an 

hour within its 340-mile diameter, 

which put most of 

the northern provinces, including 

the capital, on alert. 

“The ground is still supersaturated 

and it cannot 

absorb more water,” said 

Graciano Yumul, the Philippines’ 

weather bureau chief. 

“This will just flow down to 

rivers and towns, and there 

is a big possibility that landslides, 

flash flooding and 

flooding could occur.” 

He urged residents still 

refusing to leave their 

homes despite the floods to 

evacuate because the water 

was going to rise in the 

coming hours as Typhoon 

Nalgae dumped more rain. 

At least five towns in the 

rice-growing province of Bulacan 

and Pampanga, north 

of Manila, remained submerged 

three days after Typhoon 

Nesat had moved on. 

“We have nowhere to 

go,” Celenia Espino of 

Calumpit township said 

from her home, which was 

filled with knee-deep 

murky water. “We have no 

means of transportation 

out of here.” 

She was one of the thousands 

who sought shelter 

on rooftops with no food, 

water and electricity, while 

a procession of other residents 

waded in chest-deep 

water down main roads to 

reach dry land. 

UN seeks designs for 

memorial honoring 

victims of slavery 


UNITED NATIONS — 

The United Nations 

launched an international 

design competition Friday 

for a permanent memorial 

to victims of slavery and the 

trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

The memorial will be 

constructed at U.N. headquarters 

in New York and 

the competition is open to 

all artists. The theme of the 

project is “Acknowledging 

the Tragedy, Considering 

the Legacy; Lest We 

Forget,” and designs must 

be submitted by Dec. 19. 

The U.N. General Assembly 

has endorsed the memorial, 

and the U.N. 

Educational, Scientific and 

Cultural Organization, a 

Permanent Memorial Committee, 

and Caribbean and 

African nations are overseeing 

the project. 

“The issue of slavery and 

the trans-Atlantic slave trade 

stands out still today as a 

crime against humanity, one 

of the first manifestations of 

man’s inhumanity to man,” 

Jamaica’s U.N. Ambassador 

Raymond Wolfe, chair of the 

Memorial Committee, told a 

news conference launching 

the competition. 

The aim, he said, is to 

have “one of the worst 

chapters in human history 

... finally being acknowledged 

and honored here at 

the United Nations.” 

Wolfe expressed hope 

that the monument would 

be a place for reflection, education 

“and sober 

thought.” 

He added: “And that 

monument must be a symbol, 

a strong symbol, to say 

never again.” 

Wolfe appealed to governments 

and corporate 

donors to contribute generously 

to reach the goal of 

$4.5 million to construct the 

memorial. UNESCO indicated 

that about $1 million 

has been contributed so far. 

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and Run 

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State-bound Lumberjacks 

CEC boys soccer wins section title in overtime; 

Esko-Carlton girls also qualify SPORTS,C1 


Friday, October 21, 2011 


LIBYA | MOAMMAR GADHAFI KILLED 

Winter 

forecast: 

More brrr 

than usual 

Revolutionary fighters celebrate Thursday after the capture of Sirte, Libya, and the capture and death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Sirte, 

Gadhafi’s hometown, was the last major bastion of resistance two months after the dictator’s regime fell. David Sperry / Associated Press 

Pulled from drainage pipe, 

Gadhafi’s life came to an end 

As Libyans celebrate, circumstances 

of dictator’s death remain murky 

O SAMA AL FITORY 

AND HANNAH ALLAM 

McClatchy Newspapers 

SIRTE, Libya — Former Libyan 

leader Moammar Gadhafi asked his 

captors twice, “What do you want 

from me?” as they swarmed around 

him Thursday, according to video 

shot at the scene by a Libyan journalist. 

By early afternoon, he was dead, 

but how he died remained in dispute. 

In one version, recounted by a reporter 

for the Arabic-language satellite 

channel Al Arabiya, Gadhafi was 

shot moments after his capture by an 

18-year-old revolutionary fighter who 

was hailed as a hero by his comrades. 

In the other, told by officials of 

Libya’s interim government in 

Tripoli, Gadhafi died on the way to a 

hospital for treatment of wounds he 

suffered when the convoy he was riding 

in was hit by a NATO airstrike. 

Either way, Gadhafi’s death after 

revolutionary fighters found him 

hiding in a drainage pipe in his 

hometown of Sirte was an ignominious 

end for an over-the-top ruler 

who gained worldwide notoriety 

with his flamboyant personal tastes 

and calculating geopolitical games. 

See Libya, Page A6 

Libyan revolutionary fighters inspect a drainage pipe where, they 

said, Moammar Gadhafi was found wounded earlier Thursday 

near Sirte. Gadhafi was killed soon after being taken into custody; 

how he died was unclear. David Sperry / Associated Press 

JOHN MYERS 

jmyers@duluthnews.com 

The nation’s top forecasters are predicting 

a colder-than-normal winter 

across the Northland. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration released a 2011-12 

winter outlook Thursday that calls for a 

better-than-average chance that conditions 

will be colder than normal across 

much of the northern U.S. — from the 

Pacific Northwest across the Northland 

and through the Great Lakes — from December 

through February. 

Minnesota, Wisconsin and North 

Dakota are in the bull’s-eye of the area 

with the highest chance of 

colder-than-normal 

weather. 

 

Online 

extra 

Find a link to 

more winter 

outlook 

information 

from the 

National 

Weather 

Service at 

duluthnews 

tribune.com. 

That could be a brisk 

slap for the Northland, 

which has seen temperatures 

well above normal 

since July, including a whopping 

8 degrees warmer than 

the average temperature so 

far in October. 

The NOAA forecast also 

calls for increased odds for 

a snowier winter across 

northern states, especially 

in the northern Rockies 

but also stretching across 

the Dakotas into Minnesota, 

Wisconsin and 

Michigan. 

That would be good 

news for drought-stricken 

Northeastern Minnesota — lakes and 

rivers are unusually low — but bad news 

for the Dakotas, which already have high 

lake, river and groundwater levels and 

where more snow could mean more 

flooding next spring. 

Much of the middle of the nation is 

expected to see close to a normal winter, 

while Texas and the southern plains are 

predicted to continue in a hot, dry pattern, 

continuing the worst one-year 

drought in recorded history in that area. 

“The evolving La Niña will shape this 

winter,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director 

of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. 

“There is a wild card, though. The 

erratic Arctic Oscillation can generate 

See Winter, Page A5 

New East High School spurs new parking headaches 



Increased traffic on slippery 

hills in winter and streets lined 

with cars are just two of the problems 

residents outside the parking 

permit zone around the new East 

High School worry about. 

Designating a zone where only 

residents can park on the street 

and increasing parking next to the 

school at 40th Avenue East and Superior 

Street did little to alleviate a 

glut of students who are parking 

up the hill on residential streets. 

“When they put in the residential 

parking permit zone, it just 

transferred the problems further 

north,” said Greg Fischer, a North 

40th Avenue East resident. And because 

of the hilly makeup of the 

area and its history of accidents in 


(218) 723-5252 

or (800) 456-8080 

News tips 

(218) 723-5300 

Contents 

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D 

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D5 

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A4 

C 

C6 

Parking meeting 

The city and the Duluth school district 

will hold a public meeting at 

6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium 

of East High School, 301 N. 

40th Ave. E., to discuss school-area 

parking issues and options. The 

meeting was requested by the Duluth 

City Council. 

Weather 

Today: Mostly 

sunny, a bit warmer 


Tomorrow: 

Mostly sunny 


winter, he’s certain “it’s going to 

be mayhem,” he said. 

The city and the Duluth school 

district have scheduled a meeting for 

Tuesday at East to talk to residents 

about parking issues and options. 

A residential permit parking 

zone extends four blocks up 40th 

Avenue East. Where it ends, students 

park —both farther up the 

avenue and along Gladstone 

Street. It’s the area that has seen 

the most overflow, with 40 to 50 

extra cars there each day, said 

Steven Goman, senior engineering 

specialist for the city. It’s along a 

bus route, and residents worry 

about young children walking between 

cars to board school buses, 

and driveways being partly 

blocked. 

Possible answers to the problem 

from the city side, Goman said, include 

increasing the size of the 

permit zone to include that neighborhood, 

or opening up a couple of 

areas in the permit zone that 

aren’t in front of homes, which 

would give room for about 25 cars. 

Cars, some driven by East High School students, are parked along Gladstone 

Street six blocks above East High School on Thursday. Tight space in the 

parking lots at the school has led some students to park along streets just 

beyond the permit parking zone. Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com 

St. Luke’s investigates doctors who spoke to the DNT 

BRANDON STAHL 


St. Luke’s hospital is investigating 

three Duluth doctors 

to determine if they 

violated the hospital’s bylaws 

by speaking to the News 

Tribune for an Aug. 1 story 

critical of one of its former 

neurosurgeons. 

Doctors Peter Goldschmidt, 

David McKee and 

Joel Zamzow were sent a letter 

dated Oct. 18 informing 

them of the investigation to 

See Parking, Page A3 

determine whether they violated 

a hospital bylaw that 

“prohibits conduct disruptive 

to Hospital operations, 

including inappropriate access 

to or disclosure of confidential 

information and an 

unjustified refusal to follow 

Hospital rules, policies 

and/or procedures.” 

The doctors, who have 

privileges to practice at St. 

Luke’s and are listed on the 

hospital’s physician directory 

on its website, were 

given several dates to appear 

before a St. Luke’s investigative 

committee by the end of 

October. The letter cited hospital 

bylaws stating the doctors 

are not allowed to have 

an attorney present, provide 

evidence or present witnesses 

when they appear before 

the committee. 

In the Aug. 1 story, “As Duluth 

hospital reaped millions, 

surgeon racked up 

complaints,” Goldschmidt, 

an orthopedic surgeon who 

practices at Orthopedic Associates, 

and McKee, a neurologist 

who practices at Northland 


both were quoted as being 

critical of the care provided 

by former St. Luke’s neurosurgeon 

Stefan Konasiewicz, 

who practiced at the hospital 

from 1997 to 2008. In 2010, 

Konasiewicz was disciplined 

for “unethical and unprofessional 

conduct” by the Minnesota 


Practice. 

See Doctors, Page A3


Duluth News Tribune | Friday, October 21, 2011 

Page A3 

Feds call 

for more 

health-care 

cooperation 

NOAM N. LEVEY 

Tribune Washington Bureau 

WASHINGTON — The 

Obama administration 

moved Thursday to salvage 

a much-touted initiative in 

the new health-care law 

aimed at controlling costs, 

revising regulations to encourage 

doctors, clinics and 

hospitals to take greater responsibility 

for improving 

patients’ care. 

The new rules will reward 

health-care providers 

who form partnerships to reduce 

the cost of caring for 

Americans on Medicare 

while also boosting quality, 

two goals of the sweeping 

overhaul the president 

signed last year. 

These partnerships — 

known as Accountable Care 

Organizations, or ACOs — 

have been touted by many 

experts as one of the most 

promising remedies for the 

poor outcomes and high 

costs that bedevil the American 

health-care system. 

Proponents believe the 

partnerships could ultimately 

save taxpayers billions 

of dollars by better 

coordinating patients’ care 

and replacing the current 

fragmented system in which 

patients often bounce between 

doctors and hospitals 

with little communication. 

“ACOs ... can represent a 

very big step forward in 

helping to transform 

Medicare, Medicaid and the 

Children’s Health Insurance 

Programs so they can help 

assure high quality, seamless 

and less costly health 

care,” said Dr. Donald 

Berwick, who oversees the 

programs for the federal 

government and directed 

work on the new rules. 

The model outlined by the 

Obama administration would 

require participating groups 

of doctors, clinics and hospitals 

to take responsibility for 

managing the care of at least 

5,000 Medicare patients. 

Medical providers that reduce 

the cost of caring for 

these patients while also ensuring 

high quality could 

share any savings with the 

Medicare program. 

Spurred in part by the 

new health-care law, private 

insurers, hospitals and doctors 

already are exploring 

these kinds of shared savings 

partnerships in the private 

sector. 

But the Obama administration 

wrestled with how to 

entice providers to join the 

Medicare ACO program. 

The administration’s first 

proposal in March was criticized 

as too demanding. 

The new rules released 

Thursday ease many requirements, 

which drew praise. 

“There certainly have 

been some significant and 

noteworthy changes,” said 

George Roman, senior 

health policy director at the 

American Medical Group 

Association, which represents 

physician groups. 

Roman called the initial proposal 

in March “God-awful.” 

Initially, between 50 and 

270 ACOs may sign up for 

the program and save the 

Medicare program about 

$470 million over four years, 

according to estimates from 

independent government 

actuaries. 

That is slightly less than 

previously estimated savings, 

which reflects looser rules. 

The Obama administration 

reduced the number of 

quality measurements that 

providers will have to report 

from 65 to 33 and eased a requirement 

for using electronic 

medical records. 

In response to criticism 

from hospitals and others, the 

Obama administration also 

loosened proposed rules that 

would have subjected ACOs to 

more stringent antitrust reviews 

to prevent hospitals 

and doctors from forming monopolies 

in their markets and 

driving up prices. 

But the looser standards 

announced Thursday drew a 

frosty response from insurance 

companies and employer 

groups. 

“It is essential that ACOs 

not exert such undue market 

power that they could dictate 

higher prices to health 

care purchasers and consumers 

or restrict access to 

health-care providers for 

Medicare beneficiaries,” 

said James A. Klein, president 

of the American Benefits 

Council, which 

represents employers that 

provide health benefits. 

R001641662-1021 

Doctors 


Parking 


The News Tribune quoted both 

Goldschmidt and McKee as saying 

that they brought their concerns 

about Konasiewicz to St. Luke’s administrators. 

In the article, hospital CEO John 

Strange was quoted as saying that 

the responsibility to deal with doctors 

lies with the hospital’s medical 

executive committee, which is composed 

of its own physicians. 

McKee said he will go before the 

St. Luke’s investigative committee 

today. 

“It’s disturbing to me that those 

who were in a position to do something 

about (Konasiewicz) are investigating 

the physicians who 

raised concerns,” McKee said. 

Goldschmidt declined to comment 

for this article; Zamzow could 

not be reached for comment. 

When asked for comment on the 

investigations, St. Luke’s responded 

in a statement: “As we have previously 

stated, St. Luke’s Medical 

Staff has an ongoing peer review 

process as part of our Quality Improvement 

Program. Federal and 

state laws require this peer review 

process be confidential. We are prohibited 

by state and federal law 

from discussing peer review matters. 

For this reason, we are unable 

to confirm or deny or comment 

about the existence of any peer review 

investigations.” 

St. Luke’s and Strange have filed 

Gladstone Street resident 

Sharon Dawson wants the 

permit zone increased. 

She’s not sure why her 

neighborhood wasn’t included 

in the first place, she 

said, because of its proximity 

to the school. And while 

the students she’s spoken to 

in front of her home have 

been respectful, “when the 

snow comes we won’t be 

able to drive up and down 

our street,” she said. 

Dawson also has noticed 

students driving other students 

to their cars so they 

don’t have to walk the five to 

six blocks to and from 

school. That increases traffic 

in the area, she said. 

The school has parking 

lots for both students and 

staff, and the student lot is 

for 250 permit-holders. The 

staff lot across 40th Avenue 

East was recently completed, 

giving more room to 

student parkers in the lot 

next to the school. Construction 

workers still take some 

of the spots. 

The Duluth Congregational 

Church on Superior 

Street also rents 20 spots to 

the school, and a few more 

will be added next week, 

said Assistant Principal 

Nathan Glockle. A permit 

for the lot next to the 

school is $45 per semester 

and the church lot permit 

is $25. The lots are full and 

the waiting list is long, 

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Glockle said. 

“We’re monitoring the 

lots on a daily basis and 

adding permits as we go,” 

he said, noting that sometimes 

the lots look emptier 

because of the different 

start times of some students. 

Nearly 30 spots will 

be added next year when 

the football field is complete. 

Students are more 

than willing to pay for permits 

because they take 

“zero-hour” classes before 

school, or have after-school 

jobs and activities they 

need to get to, he said, and 

walking several blocks eats 

up valuable time. 

“I’ve had reports of students 

parking way down on 

London Road and walking 

a lawsuit against the News Tribune 

and the reporters who wrote the 

Aug. 1 article about Konasiewicz. In 

their suit, the hospital and its CEO 

claim that the statements made by 

Goldschmidt, McKee and Zamzow 

were false. St. Luke’s and Strange 

also allege that the three doctors 

should have communicated concerns 

about Konasiewicz in writing, 

and that had they done so they 

would have “been prohibited by 

state peer review law from discussing 

the complaint with (the 

News Tribune).” 

However, as long as the doctors 

didn’t discuss any specific patient 

information with the News Tribune, 

they did not violate the state’s peer 

review laws, according to Chris 

Messerly, a Twin Cities attorney 

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who has been involved in malpractice 

cases for more than 25 years. 

“If there is a general alarm 

sounded by health-care providers 

that a physician is hurting people 

and is a bad doctor, there’s nothing 

in Minnesota’s peer review statute 

that would prevent someone from 

sounding an alarm on that, or even 

critiquing a hospital on how they 

credential doctors,” he said. 

Messerly said hospitals often 

seek to silence physicians who 

speak out about poor practices. 

“I don’t know what St. Luke’s intent 

is,” he said. “It seems to me 

that a hospital would want to 

thank physicians for being open 

and honest.” 

up,” he said. “It’s definitely 

a problem.” 

Many students don’t 

want permits because they 

don’t drive every day or 

have infrequent use of a 

parent’s car. That’s why the 

district is thinking about installing 

meters in the parking 

lots, said Kerry Leider, 

property and risk manager 

for the district. 

“But there are some students 

who, regardless of 

how much it costs, are going 

to walk a mile to save it,” he 

said. 

Duluth City Councilor 

Todd Fedora asked for the 

parking meeting. He has received 

several calls about 

congestion, speeding vehicles 

and parking at Washington 

Square Park before 

two-hour parking restrictions 

were begun. 

Long before the school 

was finished, residents said 

parking was going to be a 

problem, Fedora said. 

“There were denials 

there was going to be a problem, 

and reality tells us it is 

a problem,” he said. 

But with students going 

from three high schools to 

two last year and boundaries 

expanding, students’ 

need for cars has grown. 

“I have a fair amount of 

sympathy for these young 

kids,” he said. “It’s a tough 

dilemma.” 

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 


SCHLIENZ REQUESTED MEDICAL 

CARE DAY BEFORE DYING 


AND JOHN MYERS 

jhollingsworth@duluthnews.com; 

jmyers@duluthnews.com 

Accused Cook County 

Courthouse gunman Daniel 

Schlienz died Tuesday morning 

in a Duluth hospital after 

being taken there Monday 

night for treatment of what 

the St. Louis County Sheriff’s 

Department described as “flulike 

symptoms.” 

Schlienz, who was in a 

highly supervised area of the 

St. Louis County jail in Duluth, 

initially put in a request 

to be seen the night of Dec. 25 

after complaining of illness, 

but was not given immediate 

medical attention, Sheriff 

Ross Litman told the News 

Tribune. 

“Given the hour of the day 

and the holiday, medical staff 

were not in the facility,” Litman 

said. “When they arrived 

on the morning of the 26th, he 

was seen and treated for flulike 

symptoms,” he said, which 

were nausea, vomiting and 

body aches. 

When his condition worsened 

on Monday, Schlienz, 42, 

was taken to Essentia Health 

St. Mary’s Medical Center by 

Gold Cross ambulance about 

7:45 p.m., and he died about 

8 a.m. Tuesday, with family 

members present, according to 

the sheriff’s office. 

Dave Hoops, master brewer at Fitger’s Brewhouse, pours a Starfire Pale Ale from the brass and copper beer tower at the Tycoons Zenith Alehouse 

bar. The beer tap handles are oilers from trains and other old machinery. The Brewhouse brewery will expand to supply the beer for Tycoons. 

Photos by Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com 

TASTE OF THE PAST 

New pub and restaurant opening Saturday pays 

homage to city’s 19th-century establishment 

CANDACE RENALLS 

crenalls@duluthnews.com 

Online 

extras 

A photo gallery 

and video show- 

ing the renovated and restored 

interior of the restaurant are at 


The faux painting 

gives the walls and 

tall ceilings an 

aged look. New 

wainscoting matches 

the old. The oldfashioned 

bar resembles 

bank teller windows 

of a century ago. 

And the handmade 

brass and copper beer 

dispenser looks like 

gleaming 19th-century 

machinery complete 

with handles topped 

with old oilers. 

Those are some of 

the details that have 

gone into converting 

the historic Old Duluth 

City Hall at 132 E. Superior 

St. into Tycoons 

Zenith Alehouse, a new 

restaurant and pub that 

salutes the city’s founding 

fathers and honors 

the building’s history. 

To that end, the saying 

along the top of the 

bar, “Nanos gigantium 

humeris insidentes” is 

Latin for “Standing on 

the shoulders of giants.” 

But much of it — 

like the old stock certificates 

that line the walls 

of the first floor men’s 

room and the walk-in 

vault that can be used 

for dining — is done 

with tongue-in-cheek 

fun. 

See Opening, Page A6 

See Schlienz, Page A3 

SCHLIENZ: Alleged 

gunman in 

courthouse 

shooting died 

Tuesday; cause of 

death remains 

undetermined 

pending additional 

tests 

Brothers Brad and Tim Nelson describe how they worked to create a “1910 

wealthy tycoons” atmosphere in the new restaurant. More décor, including 

old pictures and antiques, will be added over time. Tim Nelson owns the 

restaurant with business partner Rod Raymond; Brad Nelson handles marketing. 

The bathroom 

walls at 

Tycoons are 

wallpapered in 

old stock 

certificates that 

are now worthless. 

Rochester 

senator 

picked as 

‘fresh start’ 

DON DAVIS 

State Capitol Bureau 

SENJEM: After long 

day of meetings, 

state GOP names 

Rochester senator 

its majority leader 

KOCH: Resigned as 

majority leader 

and was found to 

have engaged in 

“inappropriate 

relationship” with 

a staffer 

ROSEVILLE, Minn. — 

Minnesota Senate Republicans 

promised a fresh start 

Tuesday night, putting behind 

a scandal and spending 

11 hours picking Sen. Dave 

Senjem as their new leader. 

The senators also elected 

a new slate of assistant leaders 

during their closed-door 

meeting. 

“No more 

looking 

backward,” 

the 

Rochester 

Republican 

said when 

he was introduced 

as 

the majority 

leader. 

Senjem 

returns to 

the chief Republican 

post after a 

year as an 

assistant 

leader. Before 

that, as 

minority 

leader he 

helped orchestrate 

the first 

GOP Senate 

majority in 

38 years. 

Tuesday’s 

election 

was forced when Sen. 

Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, resigned 

from the job on Dec. 

15, while keeping her Senate 

seat, saying it was time to 

move on to something new. 

The next day, four senators 

revealed allegations that 

Koch and a male Senate employee 

engaged in what they 

described as “an inappropriate 

relationship.” 

Senjem led Senate Republicans 

as minority leader 

four years before Koch took 

over a year ago. 

“This is a fresh start, this 

is a new day for us,” said 

Sen. Ted Lillie of Lake 

Elmo, one of four newly 

elected assistant majority 

leaders. 

The caucus also elected 

Sens. Roger Chamberlain of 

Lino Lakes, Paul Gazelka of 

Brainerd, and Claire Robling 

of Jordan as assistant 

Senate majority leaders. 

Senjem will pick two more 

assistants, including a 

deputy leader, in the next 

week. 

The new slate of leaders 

came after existing assistant 

leaders and acting Majority 

Leader Geoff Michel of 

Edina resigned their posts 

Tuesday. 

“Sen. Senjem is a great 

collaborator,” Robling said. 

Democratic Gov. Mark 

Dayton, out of state to attend 

a son’s wedding, issued 

a statement: “I have placed a 

telephone call to Sen. David 

Senjem to congratulate him 

on his election as the Senate’s 

new majority leader. I 

look forward to a constructive 

working relationship 

with him on behalf of the 

people of Minnesota.” 

Senjem, a former 

Rochester City Council 

member and Mayo Clinic official, 

first was elected senator 

in 2003. In the past year, 

he was chairman of the 

committee that deals with 

See Senjem, Page A6 


(218) 723-5252 

or (800) 456-8080 

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Contents 

Classifieds D 

Comics C7 

Games C6 

Lotteries A2 

Obituaries C4-5 

Opinion A7 

Sports B 

TV listings D5 

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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...? | DR. STEFAN KONASIEWICZ 

Neurosurgeon’s current practice uncertain 

BRANDON STAHL 


For inauspicious 

reasons, Dr. Stefan 

Konasiewicz may be 

one of the best-known 

doctors to have ever 

worked in Duluth. 

But where he’s practicing 

now —if at all — 

is anybody’s guess. Not 

even the state licensing 

agencies that are supposed 

to keep tabs on 

physicians know exactly 

where 

Konasiewicz is. 

The former St. 

Luke’s neurosurgeon 

worked at the South 

Texas Brain and Spine 

Center in Corpus 

Christi since February 

2009 before resigning 

sometime around October. 

His name was 

taken off the building, 

and staff members tell 

patients that he’s no 

longer there. 

“I asked where he 

was,” said Joe Griffin, a 

patient of 

Konasiewicz’s in Corpus 

Christi who now 

sees another doctor at 

the South Texas Brain 

and Spine Center, “and 

they said that’s a private 

matter.” 

In October, the 

clinic’s office manager 

told Steven Romo of 

Corpus Christi’s KRIS- 

TV that Konasiewicz 

had resigned. However, 

both the American 

Medical Association 

and the Texas Medical 


KONASIEWICZ: 

Neurosurgeon has 

not updated Texas 

Medical Board


Thanks to weight-loss program, 

Coloradans can win (cash) by losing 

P. SOLOMON BANDA 


DENVER — Insurance 

company Kaiser Permanente 

Colorado is offering 

cash to Coloradans to lose 

weight and keep it off. 

Companies have been 

making similar offers to 

their employees for years as 

a way to reduce obesity in 

the workplace and lower 

health costs, but Kaiser is 

taking it one step further 

and making the offer to any 

adult in Colorado. 

It’s one of the first programs 

in the nation to make 

such an offer to all adults. 

Schlienz 


Participants in the 

“Weigh and Win” program 

earn anywhere from $15 to 

$150 every three months to 

lose weight and keep it off. 

Twelve kiosks with scales 

and a video camera to 

record progress are located 

in medical facilities, recreation 

centers, libraries and 

even a furniture store 

throughout the state. 

The insurer is spending 

$500,000 to help jump-start 

the program, which it hopes 

will eventually be funded by 

the cities and other healthcare 

groups that it’s working 

with. 

Kaiser hopes to expand 

If Schlienz’s condition on 

Dec. 25 had appeared to be 

more severe, he would have 

been brought to an emergency 

room, or the jail’s oncall 

physician would have 

been brought in, Litman 

said. 

Schlienz’s father, Gary 

Schlienz, said he was called 

at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning 

by someone from the hospital 

and was told to come 

there because “your son is 

dying,” Gary Schlienz told 

the News Tribune. 

“He was already gone 

when we got there. They had 

him on life support,” he 

said. “It was such a shock … 

He did not look like he was 

supposed to look. He was not 

Dan.” 

The St. Louis County 

Medical Examiner’s Office 

conducted an autopsy Tuesday 

and ruled the cause and 

manner of death as “undetermined” 

pending additional 

lab tests, which could 

take several weeks to complete. 

Foul play is not suspected, 

Litman said. 

There were no signs of 

any injury from someone 

else or self-inflicted. The investigation 

is pointing toward 

a physiological or 

medical condition and not a 

traumatic cause of death, 

Litman said. 

“But we just don’t know 

that for sure until we see the 

autopsy results. It didn’t appear 

to be any outside influence. 

It appeared he became 

sick and got worse very 

quickly,” Litman said. 

Schlienz’s death remains 

under investigation by the 

St. Louis County Sheriff’s 

office. 

Litman said he was not 

aware of any medical condition 

that Schlienz had before 

Monday. 

Schlienz did not appear to 

be sick before the courthouse 

shooting on Dec. 15, 

said John Lillie, Schlienz’s 

defense attorney in the criminal 

sexual conduct case that 

was tried in the Cook 

County courthouse that day. 

“I didn’t notice any kind 

of coughing or wheezing or 

anything like that. Maybe a 

runny nose or a cold, but 

certainly nothing serious 

that stuck out during the 

trial,’’ Lillie said. 

Palmer Berglund, who is 

married to Schlienz’s 

mother, Ginger Berglund, 

said Schlienz was “coughing 

terribly” Monday. 

“He was very sick yesterday 

afternoon,” Berglund 

said on Tuesday. 

Ginger Berglund declined 

to comment Tuesday. 

Litman said only two inmates 

in his nine years as 

sheriff had died of a medical 

condition in a hospital, 

and only one other died of a 

medical condition while incarcerated 

at the Haines 

Road jail since it opened in 

1995. 

“Given the number of 

bookings we do every year, 

the thousands of inmates, 

it’s a remarkable testament 

to the professionalism of the 

staff,” Litman said. “They 

pay attention to the condition 

of inmates and look out 

for their well-being regardless 

of who they are.” 

Litman noted that 

Schlienz had been taken to 

the Cook County Hospital in 

Grand Marais after the Dec. 

15 courthouse shooting and 

was not treated for anything 

serious at that time. 

Cook County Sheriff 

Mark Falk declined to comment 

on Schlienz’s death 

Tuesday morning. 

Lillie, who intervened to 

help victims of the shooting 

after having defended 

Schlienz in the earlier court 

case, said the death adds 

more sorrow to an already 

traumatic series of events. 

“I feel terrible for his parents 

who already had so 

much sorrow to deal with 

and now have to deal with 

this,” Lillie said. “Whether 

this brings closure to the 

victims, I don’t know. Maybe 

it will make it worse. It’s just 

a bad situation all around.” 

Schlienz was being held 

in the Duluth jail pending 

$2 million in bail for the Dec. 

15 courthouse shooting of 

two people in Grand Marais. 

Schlienz was charged 

Dec. 19 in state district court 

in Duluth with two counts of 

attempted first-degree premeditated 

murder for the 

courthouse shootings of 

Cook County Attorney Tim 

Scannell, 45, and Grand 

Marais resident Gregory 

Thompson, 53. The charges 

could have brought sentences 

of between three and 

20 years under state guidelines 

if Schlienz had been 

found guilty. 

Schlienz’s next court appearance 

had been scheduled 

for Jan. 10. Schlienz 

also had been charged with 

assault in the fourth degree 

for attacking Cook County 

bailiff Gary Radloff, possession 

of a weapon by a felon 

and obstructing arrest. 

The investigation into the 

courthouse shooting is still 

open, said Doug Neville, 

spokesman for the Minnesota 

Department of Public 

Safety. 

“We’re not going to treat 

it any differently. The BCA 

is still going to complete the 

investigation,” he said. 

“They are still going to complete 

a report and submit it 

to the attorney general as 

they would have had 

(Schlienz) not passed away.” 

Schlienz, of Grand 

Marais, had just been found 

guilty on several counts 

from a five-year-old criminal 

sexual conduct case when 

the shooting occurred about 

4:15 p.m. Dec. 15. He had 

Duluth News Tribune | Wednesday, December 28, 2011 

Weigh and Win by adding 10 

kiosks next year as part of 

its community outreach programs. 

“Weight loss is as effective 

as mammograms, colon 

cancer screenings or blood 

pressure control when you 

speak about the amount of 

dollars you spend for the life 

years you gain from the program,” 

said Dr. Eric France, 

who’s in charge of developing 

the program at the insurer. 

About 8,900 Coloradans 

have signed up since the program 

began in April. The average 

weight loss has been 

about 12 pounds. 

been released on continued 

bail after the jury verdict 

was announced, officials 

said, because he was not expected 

to be sentenced to incarceration. 

According to the criminal 

complaint, Schlienz met 

briefly after the verdict with 

his mother and his attorney 

in a small room outside the 

courtroom. He told officers 

that he had earlier gone to 

his truck where he retrieved 

a .25-caliber handgun before 

re-entering the courthouse 

for the verdict. He walked toward 

County Attorney Scannell’s 

office, where 

Thompson, a witness in the 

trial, was just leaving 

The complaint said 

Schlienz shot Thompson in 

the leg, entered the office 

and shot Scannell in the 

chest, left the office to shoot 

Thompson again in the knee 

area, then re-entered the office, 

where he shot Scannell 

in the pelvis and in the leg. 

It took four people several 

minutes to subdue Schlienz. 

Law enforcement officials 

also used a Taser on 

Schlienz several times before 

he was handcuffed and 

forced into a squad car outside 

the courthouse. 

Both Thompson and 

Scannell left the hospital 

within a few days. 

According to the complaint, 

Schlienz later told officers 

in a statement that he 

meant only to confront Scannell 

about the case, but when 

he heard Thompson thank 

Scannell for prosecuting, he 

decided to shoot both men. 

According to the complaint, 

Schlienz told officers that he 

had a plan to shoot but not 

kill Scannell if he was found 

guilty. 

Schlienz’s girlfriend said 

Schlienz told her he had “a 

plan’’ if he was found guilty, 

the complaint said. 

Schlienz is a former 

boxer who in 2006 entered an 

Alford plea on charges that 

he sexually assaulted two 15- 

year-old girls and one 17- 

year-old girl. In 2007, he 

moved to withdraw the plea, 

a motion that was initially 

denied by the sentencing 

court. The Court of Appeals 

in January ruled that his 

plea withdrawal should have 

been accepted and reversed 

his conviction, which paved 

the way for the trial. 

Daniel Schlienz’s father 

has said he had no warnings 

that his son might harm others. 

“I apologize to everybody 

for this and I wish to God it 

hadn’t happened,’’ Gary 

Schlienz said on the night of 

the shooting. 

On Tuesday, Schlienz said 

the death of his son was 

“traumatic.” 

“I thought the other part 

was bad. This is really bad,” 

he said. “I’ll never see him 

again. It’s really tough.” 

Surgeon 


Board still list Konasiewicz 

as practicing there. 

The Texas Medical 

Board requires physicians 

to update their address 

within 30 days of moving to 

a new practice location. 

Board spokeswoman Leigh 

Hopper said Konasiewicz 

hasn’t updated his address 

with them since 2009. 

She did not say if 

Konasiewicz was in compliance 

with Texas regulations. 

“If we receive a complaint 

that his information 

is out of date, we can look 

into it,” Hopper said in an 

e-mail to the News Tribune. 

“Other ways it might surface 

would be if the [Texas 

Medical Board] tries to 

reach him and cannot, or 

when he renews his license. 

He doesn’t have to renew 

his license until 2013. I will 

pass along the info you 

shared with the appropriate 

department.” 

Konasiewicz also is 

listed with the Texas Medical 

Board as having practicing 

privileges at three 

Corpus Christi hospitals. 

Representative for all of the 

hospitals said Konasiewicz 

is no longer practicing at 

them. 

Katie Kaiser, a spokeswoman 

for the largest hospital 

system in Corpus 

Christi, Christus Spohn, 

said Konasiewicz resigned 

his privileges there on Sept. 

20. 

“He voluntarily left,” 

Kaiser said. “People I asked 

weren’t even sure he was 

still in Texas.” 

Spokesmen for the other 

two hospitals, Driscoll 

Children’s Hospital and 

Doctor’s Regional, said 

Konasiewicz still has privileges 

at the facilities, but 

is not seeing patients at either 

hospital. 

Konasiewicz did not respond 

to requests for comment 

by phone and in 

writing from the News 

Tribune. However, his attorney, 

Shawn Raiter, acknowledged 

that 

Konasiewicz did resign 

from the South Texas 


and from Christus Spohn. 

“It was his own business 

and personal reasons,” 

Raiter said, 

declining to offer any further 

information on the 

resignations. 

Raiter said 

Konasiewicz continues to 

practice in Corpus Christi 

and will maintain his 

privileges at the two other 

hospitals in the city. He 

said Konasiewicz also will 

update his business address 

with the Texas Medical 

Board and will list his 

home address in Corpus 

Christi. 

“But he’s going to get 

some kind of a clinic or an 

office of some sort,” Raiter 

said. 

Konasiewicz’s resignation 

from the South Texas 


came on the heels of several 

News Tribune stories 

reporting problems 

Konasiewicz had while at 

St. Luke’s, where he practiced 

from 1997 to 2008. 

During his time there, 

Konasiewicz was sued for 

malpractice more than any 

other physician in St. Louis 

County, including for allegations 

that he was responsible 

for two patient deaths 

and injuring another patient’s 

spine so severely 

that she lost the use of 

arms and legs. He would 

settle those claims for at 

least $3.2 million. By 2005, 

private insurers considered 

him such a high risk that 

they wouldn’t cover him, 

and instead Konasiewicz 

was forced to get malpractice 

insurance through a 

special fund set up through 

the state of Minnesota. 

The News Tribune also 

reported that in 2008 the St. 

Louis County medical examiner 

Dr. Don Kundel became 

so concerned about 

the patient care provided 

by Konasiewicz that he requested 

the Minnesota 


to investigate Konasiewicz 

to determine if he was “incompetent 


A few months after Kundel 

wrote that letter, 

Konasiewicz went to Texas. 

This facility serves children 16 months to 12 years old. 

Hours are 8:30 am to 8:00 pm Monday thru Thursday 

8:30 am to 10:00 pm Friday 

10:00 am to 10:00 pm Saturday 

Page A3 

In late 2010, he was disciplined 

for unethical and unprofessional 

conduct by the 

Minnesota Board of Medical 

Practice. 

On Oct. 24, Konasiewicz 

registered two corporations 

with the Texas Secretary of 

State, Kona Management 

and Skona Management, 

but did not provide a list of 

the services the corporations 

would offer. 

The corporations listed 

one director, Konasiewicz, 

and were listed with business 

addresses in McAllen, 

Texas, which is about two 

and a half hours away from 

Corpus Christi and about 

12 miles from the Mexican 

border. 

That address was actually 

that of Konasiewicz’s 

accountant, Luis Castilleja, 

who told the News Tribune 

he was asked to form the 

corporations by 

Konasiewicz. 

Konasiewicz created the 

corporations in part to 

begin practicing on his 

own, Raiter said. 

“But they also relate to 

pre-existing investments or 

business operations,” 

Raiter said. “I have no idea 

what that is, but 

(Konasiewicz) said it’s for 

my own personal investments, 

property, business, 

consulting kind of stuff.” 

“But certainly he said at 

least one of them would be 

used for his own personal 

private practice,” he said. 

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Festive Atmosphere 

at 

Great Prices! 

Lunch Specials, Too! 

Azteca’s 

M E X I C A N G R I L L 

218-722-1038 

On Mt. Shadow Drive in the Village Square Mall 

Azteca’s 

M E X I C A N G R I L L 

1/2 

Open 

8:30 am til 10 pm 

Fridays! 

and it’sonly 

$5 per hour on 

Friday! 

Buy One Meal get the 2nd 

OFF! 

Behind Minnesota Locksmith • www.childrenstaynplay.com 

33 1/2 West Central Entrance • Duluth • 218-722-8299 

R001644943-1217 

Fulfill your dreams? 

Further your 

career? 

Spring semester 

starts January 9! 

CRAZY! 

Call us at 218.733.7601 

Acttoday! 

www.lsc.edu

DuluthNewsTribune

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