Texas Medical Board disciplines Lubbock cardiologist - KCBD

Dr. Juan Kurdi, an interventional cardiologist in Lubbock, is accused of failing to catch a thin guidewire left inside a patient after heart surgery. A chest CT taken immediately after the procedure showed the wire was there. But according to an agreed order signed this month, Kurdi relied on a radiologist's written report rather than reviewing the images himself, and the wire went unaddressed for a full year.

The patient eventually ended up in intensive care with septic shock from a urinary issue, and that's when the retained wire was discovered. The Texas Medical Board's agreed order lays out the sequence and makes clear Kurdi's failure to personally check the post-procedure imaging was central to the board's findings.

For Lubbock patients, this case raises real questions about a cardiologist who has now drawn serious scrutiny from two different regulatory bodies. The federal drug prescribing settlement topped one million dollars, and this latest action adds a patient safety allegation to that record.