Luis Hospital ordered to reinstate St. Croix surgeon with back pay

Justice has finally come for Dr. Albert Titus, the St. Croix surgeon who fought for six years to prove he was wrongfully terminated and publicly slandered by jealous colleagues at Luis Hospital.

V.I. Superior Court Judge Michael Dunston wrote in a scathing 24-page opinion that hospital officials’ actions were so egregious, Titus is entitled to reinstatement — and a full six years’ worth of back pay.

“The hospital has failed to present any documentary evidence to this court to substantiate any allegations against Dr. Titus justifying his termination,” the judge wrote.

Dunston also ordered the Luis Hospital governing board to “void the false and unqualified report to the National Practitioner Data Bank,” which has kept Titus from finding employment as a surgeon anywhere in the country.

“I was 49 when this happened and I’m now 56. The prime years of my career were lost,” Titus said in a recent interview. “I lost everything. I lost my family, I lost my home, I had to move back in with my mom. It’s been a complete disaster.”

Titus credited his perseverance in the case.

“I’m sure this kind of stuff has happened to other physicians in the past, I’ve heard stories like that. But no one’s ever stuck it through,” he said of pursuing court action to its conclusion. “This is why we barely have any physicians here — they get away with it.”

Dunston ordered that Titus be reinstated by April 15.

His attorney, Gordon Rhea, said that Titus is anxious to get back to work.

“I am pleased to report that the since the issuance of Judge Dunston’s Order, the hospital has responded in a positive and cooperative manner and is taking the steps necessary to bring Dr. Titus back on staff and to restore his license and good standing in the medical community,” Rhea said.

Luis Hospital’s legal counsel, Chivonne Thomas, did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily News.

Rhea said he’s “relieved and gratified” by Dunston’s opinion, which clearly states that “the hospital acted in a spiteful manner in flagrant disregard of the law and its own procedures.”

“In wrongfully discharging Dr. Titus and smearing his reputation with no basis in fact, the hospital not only damaged a talented professional, but it deprived the Virgin Islands of the essential services of a dedicated and knowledgeable native son,” Rhea said.

The week he was fired in November 2013, Titus said he’d found cancer in three people without insurance, and was preparing to perform their surgeries for free.

“All three of them died with the cancer, never having had the surgery,” Titus said. “This is the impact this action had on this community that nobody knows about.”

Born and raised on St. Croix, Titus said his childhood dream was to be a surgeon, and he graduated from the University of Miami before doing eight years of research and medical school, six years of residency with a year of pediatric surgery, and spent 10 years practicing in Florida.

Titus became the youngest chief of surgery ever at the 500-bed Holmes Regional Medical Center before returning home to St. Croix in April 2010 to work as Chief of both Surgery and Emergency Medicine at Luis.

Titus said he built a busy private practice, started an air ambulance company, and “turned the surgical services around” at Luis. He stated that he went out of his way to provide St. Croix residents with the best medical care possible, offering colonoscopy screenings on Saturday so patients didn’t have to take time off work, and ordering new equipment for advanced procedures.

Titus also did extra community service in his limited free time, such as installing $7,000 worth of new furniture in the Luis waiting room, and sponsoring a table for 10 at a University of the Virgin Islands fundraiser so at-risk students selected from local schools could hear an inspirational speech by Dr. Ben Carson, long before he was pegged as HUD secretary under President Donald Trump.

“No other physician did anything like that, and because of that some of them started talking about me,” Titus said. “I’m just trying to contribute to my community and do something helpful, and that drew ire.”

A year after his termination, Luis officials conducted a “fair hearing,” that upheld Titus’s firing, according to Dunston’s opinion.

But Dunston wrote that the hearing officer, Judge Darryl Dean Donohue, was so horrified by the panel’s blatant violation of its own rules of procedure, he “felt compelled to meet with the panel afterwards and wrote a letter expressing his negative impression of what had transpired.”

For years, Titus said he struggled with the slow pace of the legal system, but remained determined to clear his name.

“I knew that what they did was wrong. I knew it. It was clear as day what had happened,” Titus said. “All of a sudden my career was over and I never had a chance to speak.”

For two years after he was fired “I stayed at home, I went through a depression,” and “I’ve cried many nights over this stuff because I took so much pride in the reputation I established in my community.”

Other attorneys were of little help, and it wasn’t until Rhea took on the case that Titus said he began to see real progress. Unable to work as a surgeon, Titus started experimenting with all-natural ice cream recipes and founded Sorbetiere Creamery while he waited for his day in court.

While the years of heartbreak and financial ruin can never be undone, Titus said he’s relieved to at least have his reputation restored. He can now begin regaining his surgical skills under proctorship by colleagues — and is still pursuing claims against 18 individuals involved in his firing.

“I’m just happy now that the truth is out, the truth is in black and white from Judge Dunston,” Titus said.