By Felice Freyer
Rhode Island has reprimanded and placed on 5-year probation two physicians who failed to identify serious problems that led to two patients' deaths.
In 2008, Dr. Rita S. Kurl, 58, a Providence internist, improperly inserted a stomach tube in an 89-year-old woman and then consulted the wrong x-ray when checking to see if the tube was in place, according to the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. Leaking food caused an abdominal infection that killed her 13 days later.
The board also ruled that Dr. Joseph P. Turner, an East Greenwich internist, should not have discharged a 56-year-old patient who came to the emergency room in severe pain a week after gall-bladder surgery in 2009. The patient died of an abdominal infection.