American Notes the Navy

In most coronary-bypass surgery, veins taken from a patient's leg must be deftly sewn to one or more of the heart's arteries, some no thicker than a straw. Last week a nine-member court-martial jury found that Commander Donal Billig, a Navy doctor and former chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital, had "wrongfully" performed that delicate operation. The result: two retired servicemen, Lieut. Colonel John Kas and Petty Officer Joe Estep, died in 1984 after Billig operated on them.

Billig, 55, had been fired from two previous jobs and had not performed open-chest surgery in nearly six years before entering the Navy in 1982. He was found guilty on two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and on a lesser charge of negligent homicide in the case of retired Major William Frank Grubb, who died in 1984 after Billig performed bypass surgery on him. In addition, he was found guilty on 18 counts of dereliction of duty. Throughout his seven- week trial, the jury, which included three medical doctors and a nurse, took meticulous notes. Said one officer who sat through all the proceedings: "They weighed the evidence carefully." Billig faces as much as 11 1/2 years in prison and dismissal from the service.