Local News in Brief : Probation in Baby’s Death
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Dr. Harold Kapen, 60, a Rancho Palos Verdes anesthesiologist, was placed on two years unsupervised probation on condition that he not practice medicine after pleading no contest to charges that his negligence in the operating room during emergency surgery killed a 7-week-old Stockton baby in April, 1985.
The action angered the infant’s mother, but San Joaquin County Deputy Dist. Atty. William J. Murray Jr. said the plea bargain was made because authorities may not have been able to prove that Kapen’s negligence was criminal. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Nels B. Fransen, who placed Kapen on probation, agreed.
Kapen has not practiced in California since his medical license was suspended in December, 1986, when state medical regulators learned that he was involved in two other patient deaths. Murray said the State Board of Medical Quality Assurance is moving to permanently revoke Kapen’s license.
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