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06/09/08
Accusations have flown against Hayne regarding his rather convenient listing of the cause of death on death certificates. Apparently, his medical examinations can be influenced by sudden influxes of money — or so the allegations say. In particular, the causes of death he reports tend to favor plaintiffs, who then make lots of money off of doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. Prosecutors also tend to get causes of death that enable them to put people in jail that perhaps shouldn't be.
This has caused some heartache, of course, among the members of the defendant's bar. If a death is listed as accidental rather than a consequence of natural causes, life insurance policies usually pay more. And Hayne has had a history of changing the cause of death on death certificates.
Take the case of Thomas Harrell, who had a heart attack and died during a visit to the doctor's office. He also had lung cancer and heart disease, so he was in pretty poor shape. Harrell hit his head on the way down when he died, so a CAT scan was run to see if his head injury helped cause the death. It didn't, and the cause of death was listed as "congestive heart failure" due to "coronary heart disease."
That's when Dr. Hayne came along, and suddenly, a few weeks later, a second death certificate was filed listing the cause of death as "closed head trauma." Funny thing, though: despite Hayne's affidavit stating there was "no question" the head trauma killed Harrell, Hayne never actually examined the body. The change was based on the observations of the county coroner alone, a man with no medical training.
The case eventually ended up in the Mississippi Supreme Court, with the court ruling that the local court should open up an investigation. Turns out the county coroner gets his training from Hayne, as do most of the coroners.
The allegation is that millions of dollars have been defrauded as the result of Hayne's unique brand of deciding causes of death. Seems like he has a nice niche! One presumes that someday there will be investigations. Until then, if you are a defense lawyer in Mississippi, make sure you get a good doctor's opinion for yourself.
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