Monday, Oct. 27, 2003 | 11 a.m.
Longtime Las Vegas neurosurgeon Dr. Lonnie Hammargren goes about his museum-like home in southeast Las Vegas, whistling happy tunes.
You'd never know he was at risk of being fined up to $250,000 or serving 10 years in prison if it is determined he invaded illusionist Roy Horn's privacy. Hammargren made comments to the media on Oct. 15 about the type of life-saving surgery the magician, who is not his patient, recently underwent.
Hammargren says he has other things to concern himself with: his own patients, who come first; his annual Nevada Day ice cream social at his home Saturday; his early November trip to Belize to talk shop with doctors in the Central American country that has no neurosurgeons.
He says no news is good news from the University Medical Center, which is expected to release a report soon on the findings of its internal investigation into whether Hammargren, the state's former lieutenant governor, violated the hospital's procedures.
The recently revised privacy portion of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which went into effect in April, limits the release of a patient's medical information.
Violations of the law range from civil fines of $100 per violation, up to $25,000 per year. Criminal penalties can range from $50,000 and one year in prison to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison.
The most serious penalties are for offenses "committed with the intent to sell, transfer or use protected health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm," according to the website of the federal Health and Human Services office, which enforces HIPPA.
"I'm not saying I didn't do anything wrong," said Hammargren, dressed in a blue space agency jump suit, as he worked last Friday, preparing his sprawling, memorabilia-filled home and yard at Flamingo and Sandhill roads for his ice cream social, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. About 1,000 people are expected.
"Even if in theory I didn't do anything wrong, I still have apologized to Siegfried (Fischbacher, Roy's longtime partner in the act Siegfried & Roy) and their manager Bernie Yuman in a letter I sent to them on Oct. 16," he said.
The letter reads: "I apologize for any statements made. The University Medical Center should not be blamed."
Hammargren, 65, said when he spoke to the news media he "was only trying to help." He said he was trying to correct what he felt was an injustice to Horn, the hospital and to his profession.
"All I did was respond to misinformation that was printed in national newspapers about the surgery -- misinformation that gave a very degrading description," Hammargren said, noting he was not a consulting physician in Horn's case.
"What I did I thought was for the good of Roy Horn and for the good of UMC."
Horn was critically injured when a white tiger attacked him during the Oct. 3 show at the Mirage. Horn, 59, remains in critical condition at UMC, where he suffered a stroke and underwent surgery to remove pressure on his brain.
Hammargren did not have to see or know the details about Horn's operation to know what was done to him. He said that based on the way the surgery was described in the original story he read it could only have been one particular procedure -- an operation he has performed several times.
Hammargren told reporters the operation involves a surgeon cutting away a piece of the skull and putting it in the patient's abdomen so the bone tissue can continue to live.
Hammargren questions the motivation for a potential investigation into what he said, especially when others went on national television immediately after Horn was injured and gave inaccurate medical information about Horn's injuries.
"It (HIPPA) is a political issue as much as a medical issue," said Hammargren, who in addition to being a nationally renowned neurosurgeon is a longtime local politician.
Hammargren was referring to policies that were created by bureaucrats when Congress failed to pass a National Medical Privacy Law as part of HIPPA. That left the privacy rules up to Health and Human Services, which through its Office of Civil Rights investigates complaints.
Thomas E. Jeffry Jr., a Los Angeles-based medical attorney, said anyone can file a HIPPA complaint, which triggers a Health and Human Services "inquiry." If the response to the inquiry is not satisfactory, an investigation can be launched, he said.
Jeffry also said Health and Human Services can launch an inquiry without a complaint.
Craig Palosky, spokesman for Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., said the agency cannot discuss individual complaints, nor confirm whether complaints have been filed against Hammargren or anyone else.
Health and Human Services officials say there have been nearly 2,400 complaints filed nationwide since the law went into effect, with nearly 350 of them in the western region that includes California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.
UMC spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger said the hospital's probe, as ordered by its chief of staff, is to determine if something more than prior knowledge enabled Hammargren to give his opinion on what happened during Horn's surgery.
Jeffry, too, said from the details Hammargren gave to the media he questions whether Hammargren was relying on just his knowledge about such procedures.
"If he was just summarizing based on what he read in the newspapers that's one thing, but if he got information through his relationship with one of the treating physicians or from a medical record, that's a different story," Jeffry said.
"Physicians understand that they have ethical and legal obligations regarding what they say about patients. This (HIPPA) is not a new concept."
Jeffry says that while UMC's probe undoubtedly is being done in part "to cover themselves," the hospital is required under HIPPA to set policies and procedures. One of those is to control who is relaying information.
"If they (UMC) feel there was a flagrant violation of their policies, they have to take action," Jeffry said.
MGM MIRAGE has criticized Hammargren for giving out details of the surgery. The resort company's spokesman Alan Feldman said Hammargren had been in the hospital on several occasions. But Feldman also said that Hammargren was not a consultant for Roy's medical care.
Horn's neurosurgeon, Dr. Derek Duke, could not be reached for comment. Duke has given just one statement at a news conference with Feldman and Yuman. The statement included an update of Horn's condition said the positive prognosis for survival.
While Hammargren willingly discussed his situation about his Horn comments Friday, he seemed much more eager to talk about his ice cream social and Nevada history as he took a Sun reporter and photographer through his wildly decorated home, which includes a miniature Hoover Dam and signs from Las Vegas resorts of the past.
"My home is my hobby, and it is all about Nevada's history," Hammargren said between fielding questions about the UMC probe.
His home and back yard feature a space shuttle, a towering cutout of Vegas Vic, marble pillars from the Golden Nugget and a Plexiglas handrail from late pianist Liberace's home that now adorns one of Hammargren's winding staircases.
"I guess Nevada Day (Friday) is considered more of a Northern Nevada holiday because a lot of people in Southern Nevada are so new to the state they don't know the tradition," Hammargren said, noting he wants to see that change.
"I'm working on having a Nevada Day Parade on Fremont Street next year. I just didn't have the time to organize it this year."
Hammargren said he also is working on a book about many of his famous patients including boxers he has operated on and daredevil Evel Knievel, who in 1968 crashed his motorcycle while leaping over the Caesars Palace fountains.
Potential medical procedure descriptions in such a book could raise a slew of new questions about potential HIPPA violations.
"Evel Knievel is writing the preface for the book, so I think that will serve as his implied consent," Hammargren said. "Much of what I will be writing about already has been in a public forum."
That Hammargren gives the impression he is not overly concerned about the UMC probe and HIPPA issue does not surprise a close friend.
"The world could be crashing down around him and Lonnie would go on whistling and doing what he normally does," said friend Bob McCaffery, who has worked with Hammargren to preserve history on late reclusive billionaire casino mogul and developer Howard Hughes.
"What I think needs to be remembered is that Lonnie Hammargren has saved hundreds of people's lives. He is a great guy."
The ice cream social is open to the public. The address of the home that is clearly visible from Sandhill and Flamingo roads because of the tall historic fixtures in the yard is 4318 Ridgecrest Drive on the southwest corner of Flamingo and Sandhill. The neighborhood is accessible from Rosecrest Circle off Sandhill.
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