A doctor’s decadeslong trail of injured women

Plus: What is Eric Adams doing with his hands? [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [One doctor’s decadeslong trail of injured women, babies began in New York]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ⛅ Partly cloudy and breezy, with highs in the mid 60s. In 1991, an OB-GYN named Dr. Thomas J. Byrne was stripped of his New York medical license after health department officials determined he was an "imminent danger" to patients. But over the ensuing decades, Byrne continued to practice as a licensed physician in New Mexico, Texas and again in New York, all while being named as a defendant in additional malpractice cases. About 25 years later, Amy Lam, a 34-year-old journalist who’d recently moved to New York from Hong Kong, was living in an apartment in West Harlem and expecting her second child. Lam planned to give birth at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Downtown Manhattan but she had instead given birth at home, unexpectedly. When EMS arrived they noted in their records that Lam was "alert and oriented." But paramedics also suggested they take her to a hospital because her placenta had not been expelled during birth. They took her to Harlem Hospital which was closer. After doctors removed her placenta, Lam’s blood pressure started to drop. What followed was a cascade of medical procedures before Lam ultimately died, including more than 20 blood transfusions, and at least five physicians treating her over the course of about 10 hours. One of those physicians was Byrne. Read more in [the first installment of "Imminent Danger,"]( a five-part investigative series examining Byrne’s career — and what it says about how doctors are vetted before being allowed to see patients. 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