Episode 4 of If the Walls Could Talk Podcast™: “Dr. Andrew Cubria: An Immediate Danger” brings the FBI’s investigation of Edgewater Hospital to the hospital’s cardiac cath lab. Hundreds of patients were ending up in the hands Cardiologist Andrew Cubria — but why?

So many people were having invasive heart procedures by Dr. Cubria that it triggered an audit. The results revealed that Dr. Cubria was performing an inordinate amount of invasive procedures — like angioplasties and cardiac catheterizations — simply to ring up patients’ medical bills. Nurses said they saw Dr. Cubria strongarm patients into having these procedures — even though that put many patients in harm’s way. Was it greed, Cubria’s need for money or ghosts from his past that caused him to do this? His former colleagues weigh in.

Things went from bad to worse when the FBI identified two patients who died as a result of Dr. Cubria’s unscrupulous actions.  Even more galling: Dr. Cubria attempted to destroy the video evidence. You’ll hear from the hospital’s Risk Manager who went hunting for this evidence the day when one patient died. She’ll share what she believes Dr. Cubria actually did with those records and what happened when she reported that to management. Years before there was “Dr. Death“, there was Dr. Andrew Cubria.

It’s a tragic story of an immigrant success story gone wrong. Edgewater Hospital was the place where Dr. Cubria dreamed of working — he grew up just a block away. After graduating from medical school and becoming the youngest Board Certified Cardiologist in Illinois, Cubria fulfilled that dream and joined the medical staff in 1979…but things quickly became a nightmare.

Another Cardiologist entered the FBI’s radar: Dr. Sriram (who went by “Dr. Kris”) claimed to treat an inordinate amount of patients — including 32 that were actually dead. Some years, he claimed to work 365 days…even during a blizzard that crippled Chicago. Hear the superhuman feats of Dr. Sriram and why the feds labeled him “a mortal threat”.

You’ll never believe what happened when the good doctors and nurses spoke up against the bad docs. Wait until you hear how management responded.

Buried among all these investigations into Edgewater, Dr. Cubria and other crooked doctors, the hospital managed to purchase another hospital! In 1999, it acquired Grant Hospital — another struggling medical facility located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. 

Episode 4: “Dr. Andrew Cubria: An Immediate Danger” is a snapshot into the disgusting and egregious healthcare fraud that happened at Chicago’s Edgewater Hospital during the 1990s. 

If the Walls Could Talk Podcast™

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Hear more about Dr. Cubria and how he came to the United States in the 1960s as part of a covert program called Operation Peter Pan. We’ll discuss why the program came about and how the US managed to pull it off.

During their investigation, the FBI interviewed dozens of Edgewater Hospital employees. Find out what went through their heads when they received a phone call that said: “This is the FBI calling. We’d like to talk with you about Edgewater Hospital.”  You’ll hear why one person said, “What took so long?” and from another who actually hung up on them. 

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