Doctor’s Orders | 3. Dirty and Scummy

Summary

Summary of "Doctor's Orders | Episode 3: Dirty and Scummy" from The Binge Cases

---

Introduction

In the third episode of The Binge Cases series titled "Doctor's Orders," hosted by Ben Adair under Sony Music Entertainment, listeners are plunged deeper into a complex web of medical fraud and malpractice intertwined with true crime. This episode sheds light on the intricate case surrounding Dr. Munir Ueda, an enigmatic orthopedic surgeon accused of orchestrating one of California’s largest health insurance scams, while indirectly connecting to the 2008 murder of Juliana Redding.

---

Background: Frontline Medical Associates and Dr. Munir Ueda

In 2004, Dr. Munir Ueda and chiropractor Paul Turley founded Frontline Medical Associates, a network of medical clinics spread across Southern California. Although initially appearing as a legitimate medical practice, Frontline primarily served workers' compensation cases, catering to manual laborers who often faced language barriers. By 2005, concerns about the legitimacy of Dr. Ueda’s practices began to surface, leading to an investigation by the California Medical Board. The Board accused Ueda of delegating surgeries to physician assistants without proper supervision—a violation of medical regulations.

Notable Quote:

"Frontline's patients were mostly workers comp cases, and so many of those were injuries from manual labor... Normally, it's illegal for a PA to perform surgery without a doctor present." — Ben Adair [02:50]

---

Case of Jenny Malone

Jenny Malone, a 42-year-old working mother from Northridge, California, became one of Frontline Medical's patients in 2008. After experiencing back pain and a previous wrist injury, Jenny sought treatment through her employer's workers' compensation system. She was referred to Frontline Medical Clinic, which did not resemble her regular doctor's office, raising initial red flags.

During her consultation, Dr. Ueda convinced her that her back pain was connected to shoulder issues, necessitating surgery. Despite Jenny's skepticism about the need for surgery, especially concerning the location of the pain, she trusted Dr. Ueda’s expertise and proceeded with the operation.

However, the surgery left Jenny in excruciating pain, leading her to return to Frontline Medical for further treatment. It was during this visit that she encountered Peter Nelson, a physician assistant who attempted to remove stitches from her shoulder—only to discover that gauze had been left inside her arm. Jenny’s outrage was palpable:

Notable Quote:

"This is wrong. What you did to me is just absolutely wrong." — Jenny Malone [06:32]

Faced with malpractice and unaddressed pain, Jenny attempted to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Ueda. Initially optimistic, her case was abruptly dropped on the day of deposition, leaving her without recourse and significantly impacting her ability to work and care for her family.

Notable Quote:

"The lawsuit was dropped. There’s nothing... Because the truth is this man has no money. There’s nothing that we can do to go after him." — Jenny Malone [32:26]

---

Case of Kim Pope

Parallel to Jenny’s ordeal, Kim Pope, a nurse who sustained a rotator cuff tear in 2009, became another victim of Frontline Medical’s dubious practices. Like Jenny, Kim was directed to Frontline’s Indio, California clinic, where she encountered a disorganized and unsanitary environment. Despite her medical background, Kim was coerced into surgery without proper consultation or transparency.

Post-surgery, Kim faced relentless pain and an onslaught of unsolicited medications, ultimately leading to severe depression and a suicide attempt. Her struggle highlights the human cost of the fraudulent medical practices orchestrated by Dr. Ueda.

Notable Quote:

"I was a nurse, and in 2009, I injured my shoulder... what happened to her was a nightmare that she does not like to relive." — Ben Adair [14:10]

---

Investigation and Legal Proceedings

As investigations into Dr. Ueda’s operations advanced, connections to the Juliana Redding murder began to surface. Lance Lamont, a journalist with a background in recruiting insurance claims professionals, uncovered extensive fraud and malpractice tied to Ueda. Her investigative work revealed a sophisticated scheme involving unnecessary surgeries, fake patients, and fraudulent insurance claims amounting to over $150 million.

In 2015, following years of covert investigations, two grand jury indictments surfaced, unveiling Dr. Ueda as the mastermind behind the criminal enterprise. This led to multiple arrests, including that of Kelly Sue Park and physician assistant Peter Nelson. However, Dr. Ueda remained at large, raising persistent questions about his whereabouts.

Notable Quote:

"A decade after the first red flags against Munir,... new indictments were announced." — Ben Adair [35:07]

---

Aftermath and Personal Impact

Both Jenny Malone and Kim Pope faced profound personal and professional upheaval due to the fraudulent medical practices. Jenny lost her job and struggled to provide for her children, while Kim's ordeal led her to the brink of suicide. Despite surviving their harrowing experiences, both women endured long-term physical and emotional scars.

Jenny eventually ceased pursuing legal action, choosing instead to move forward with her life, albeit with lingering physical limitations. Kim, with the support of friends and family, overcame her darkest moments and returned to her career in nursing after undergoing additional surgeries to correct the damage inflicted by the initial malpractice.

Notable Quote:

"I needed three additional surgeries to reverse the damage done by the first one... and I'm a practicing nurse again." — Kim Pope [26:06]

---

Conclusion and Pending Questions

The episode concludes with the revelation that despite multiple arrests, Dr. Munir Ueda remains unidentified and free, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the victims and the broader community affected by his actions. The unresolved question, "Where is Dr. Ueda?" sets the stage for the next episode, promising further exploration into the depths of his criminal endeavors.

Notable Quote:

"The biggest question in the case where is Dr. Ueda?" — Ben Adair [36:20]

---

Looking Ahead

As The Binge Cases continues to unravel the intricate layers of this true crime saga, listeners are left anticipating the next installment, "Wheel of Fortune," which promises to delve deeper into the enigmatic figure of Dr. Ueda and the far-reaching implications of his actions.

---

End of Summary

Transcript

[Chris Hemsworth]

Want to live better?

[Ben Adair]

We got a lot of work to do. Join Chris Hemsworth in National Geographic's new.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Disney original series, Limitless Live Better Now.

[Ben Adair]

I'm diving headfirst into cutting edge science to uncover three powerful secrets to living better right now. The growth that occurs through any challenging experience is really what we see.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Chris Hemsworth stars in Limitless Live Better Now.

[Ben Adair]

Now streaming on Disney and Hulu. It's showtime. Listen to all episodes of Doctor's Orders ad free right now by subscribing to the binge. Visit the Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access. Wherever you listen the binge feed your true crime obsession.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I was at a trade show for work and I fell down and I needed to let my boss know that I wasn't going to go into work on the following Monday.

[Ben Adair]

This is Jenny Malone in 2008. She was a 42 year old working mom with three kids living in Northridge, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. What she's about to describe happened in the months just after Juliana Redding's murder. And this is the first time she's ever spoken to a journalist about what she experienced.

[Chris Hemsworth]

So that's pretty much how the whole thing started.

[Ben Adair]

Initially, she didn't think too much about.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Wasn'T even an injury at the time.

[Ben Adair]

But she had a little back pain and her wrist was still sensitive from a previous injury.

[Chris Hemsworth]

So I just wanted to go get it checked to make sure that everything was still okay.

[Ben Adair]

So in California, if you get injured on the job, you don't go to your regular doctor. There's a whole parallel workers comp medical system. Employers pay for it. Injured employees don't Injured employees who can't work get a certain percentage of their pay while they're healing. Workers comp medicine might happen in a hospital you recognize, but most of the time the appointments and procedures are in a kind of separate medical world. Medical offices and doctors that mostly just handle workers comp patients and also different insurance companies from the ones you're probably paying premiums to. So Jenny talks to hr. She gets a list of workers comp medical offices. She's like, I don't know which one's closest.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I live in the city of Northridge and this was in San Fernando, which is not very far drive. It was called Frontline Medical Clinic. There was nothing particular that attracted me other than the closeness.

[Ben Adair]

But Frontline Medical didn't look like her regular doctor's office.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Well, I thought it was kind of dirty and scummy.

[Ben Adair]

She walks in, meets with the doctor and they jump into action.

[Chris Hemsworth]

The doctors there, after they did all of these X rays and then the MRIs, they told me that I'm going to need surgery. And I was like, oh my God, you know why? I knew that I had a pain, but I just didn't understand why I had to have a surgery. And why on earth would that surgery be on my shoulder when I was feeling pain in my back.

[Ben Adair]

But she met with the surgeon and he explained it. You know, everything in your body is connected just because you have some pain in your back that could be coming from your shoulder. And she believed him. You know, he's a doctor, he knows what he's doing. So she went ahead with the surgery, but then the pain didn't go away. Weeks later, she was back at Frontline Medical and she got a new X ray. She noticed the doctors and nurses, or those she assumed were doctors and nurses, they were whispering about her in private.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I said, what is going on? Because I had been there inside that room waiting for a long time, thinking that I'm going to get some kind of answer. And I said, what's going on? What's going on? Because they were talking real quietly and whispery, like the two of them were. One was on one side of a counter and they were kind of leaning in, talking quietly. And I was, I don't know, I just thought it was strange. When I went out there and I said, what's going on? The doctor said, you know what, we don't know exactly what is happening, but.

[Ben Adair]

They say your doctor's at a hospital right nearby. Why don't you just pop over there and he can take a quick look. They give her her X rays and some other papers. She can't drive herself so her father in law drives her over.

[Chris Hemsworth]

And I was like, oh, okay. I mean, I just wanted the pain to go away. They had me go to a back door of the hospital. I did not go in through admitting and they positioned it that the doctor's so busy rather than going through all the paperwork in the front of the hospital. Lucky me, I get to go to the side so the doctor can take a quick look at me to figure out what's going on.

[Ben Adair]

Jenny was met by a man named Peter Nelson, who's a physician assistant, you know, more than a nurse, but not a doctor and not the doctor.

[Chris Hemsworth]

And then Peter Nelson brought me back into some kind of a, like some type of a room. I don't know it was a medical room. And, and my father in law hands me the papers. I hand him the papers, and then he says, oh, no, we don't need that. We don't need that. I'm looking at your arm and I can see exactly what it is. It's just a little stitch sticking out. And then he proceeded to go and get some kind of medical equipment and one of those little pincher type things, and he's trying to pull this stitch out. And I saw the stitch that he was talking about, and I said, oh, my God, you know what? That wasn't there this morning. So I'm excited. Maybe it is a stitch, right? And so he proceeds to try and pull, pull out this stitch, but the stitch wouldn't come out. So he pulls a little bit harder and it wouldn't come out. So then he goes and he gets some more and then some more equipment. And then he has me sit down now because he thought I was just standing up. He was just going to pull the stitch, has me lay down in like a gurney type of thing, you know, and, and then he starts, he grabs the stitch and he begins to pull. And he's pulling and pulling and pulling, and I'm like, this hurts. This really hurts. I didn't have any Vicodins today. Please, this really hurts. So I'm telling him, it really, really hurts. And so he says, just be strong. Just be strong. Hang on. Just hang on. And then he keeps pulling and pulling and I'm starting to scream, and he pulls and he pulls. And then there's this bloop that pops out of my arm. And you got to imagine my shoulder is healing. It's healed up. Not, not totally, but it's starting to have a scar. And you just feel it rips through my skin. And there's this big bloop of stuff, and it's yellow and pussy. And I, I, I didn't know what it was. I'm looking at it as he's pulling, and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, and I'm like, this hurts. This hurts. For God's sakes. What is it? Is this my muscle? Is that a muscle coming out? Is that a tendon? Because it was yellow and gross and bloody. I didn't know what it was. And then after he starts pulling a little bit more, then I see this, this little square. And I, I'm looking at my shoulder, I see another. And then I just started screaming, you idiots. What the hell did you do to me? You left gauze in my Arm, you fucking idiots. Excuse my French. And that's what I was saying. And I'm screaming at the top of my lungs. I said I need to see the doctor and I need to see the doctor right frickin now. This is wrong. What you did to me is just absolutely wrong.

[Ben Adair]

The doctor overseeing Peter Nelson, the doctor who convinced Jenny to have the surgery, is the same doctor we've been talking about all along. And things are about to heat up for Dr. Munir Ueda. I'm Ben Adair from Sony Music Entertainment and Western Sound. You're listening to Doctor's Orders. This is episode three, Dirty and Scummy. Janae Malone's surgery was in August 2008, five months after the murder of Juliana Redding and years before Kelly sue park and Munir Yaweda would make national news. That timeline is relevant because while the murder investigation was happening, there was a whole other team building a case against Dr. Munir Uwayda. Lance Lamont is the journalist who runs adjustercom.net we heard her in the last episode and before she was a journalist, Lance began her career as a recruiter for medical claims professionals in Southern California in the insurance industry.

[Lance Lamont]

And the claims adjusters knew me because I had recruited many of them and found jobs for many of them. And I had my newsletter that evolved into a magazine that was all about insurance claims, workers compensation claims, automobile claims, liability claims. So these claims people knew me.

[Ben Adair]

They knew her, they read her work. So when she published the article Where's Munir? Which mostly centered around the murder case and Munir's background, and she started hearing from her readers, they said the alarm bells had been ringing about this guy for a while.

[Lance Lamont]

So that was how I got sucked into it. I went to this case through that avenue of insurance fraud. And at the same time that I was writing about insurance fraud and hearing the investigators tell me about Utah's fraud and how flagrant they were, I was also getting the scoop on the murder. So it all meshed together.

[Ben Adair]

Later, she would learn that many other insurance fraud investigators were also on the case. What did you call it?

[Lance Lamont]

The criminal organization whenever you weighed him.

[Ben Adair]

We reached out to five separate insurance investigators for this story, and most of them did not want to talk. Nevertheless, we obtained stacks of documents from various sources, including investigation docs, and we were able to piece this story together. In 2004, Munir Uwayda and Paul Turley, a chiropractor, founded a medical company called Frontline Medical Associates. For six years, it grew to include more than a dozen medical clinics across Southern California, including the one Jenny Malone walked into in 2008.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Kind of dirty and scummy.

[Ben Adair]

Frontline's patients were mostly workers comp cases, and so many of those were injuries from manual labor. Think gardeners, construction roofers, ag workers, things like that. Most of the patients did not speak fluent English. As early as 2005, the year after Frontline was founded, the California Medical Board opened an investigation into Munir that would eventually lead to his medical license being revoked. It alleged that a physician physician assistant was performing Munir surgeries without Munir in the room, sometimes not even in the building. Physician assistants have more training than nurses, but they don't usually go to medical school. So while it's normal for a physician assistant to do more advanced medical procedures under doctors direct supervision, it's illegal for a PA to perform surgery without a doctor present.

[Lance Lamont]

He didn't have the skills, he didn't have the credentials. He didn't have a license. He was not a surgeon. But he did surgeries. He did a lot of shoulder surgeries that were botched. People suffered.

[Ben Adair]

In court documents, prosecutors allege that the physician assistant, Peter Nelson, performed over 100 knee and shoulder surgeries for Munir with his consent and without his presence.

[Lance Lamont]

In many, many cases, they were unnecessary surgery.

[Ben Adair]

Frontline was just the beginning of Munir's growing medical empire. In 2007, when Juliana Redding and her friends got on that plane to Vegas, they had just found out that Munir had been lying about his age and his marriage. What they didn't know was that multiple investigations of fraud and deception were going much, much deeper. Want more true crime? Subscribe to the binge to get all episodes of Doctor's Orders ad free and get instant access to over 50 other jaw dropping true crime stories. Plus subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series on the 1st of every month ad free. Search for the binge channel on Apple Podcasts or head to getthebinge.com to subscribe today the Binge Feed your true crime obsession this episode is brought to you by Amazon.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Sometimes the most painful part of getting sick is the getting better part. Waiting on hold for an appointment, sitting in crowded waiting rooms, Standing in line at the pharmacy that's painful. Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy remove those painful parts of getting better with things like 24. 7 virtual visits and prescriptions delivered to your door thanks to Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical healthcare just got less painful.

[Kim Pope]

I counted on Workman's comp to at least vet the people that operated and took care of the people, because the more incompetent they are, the more it costs them, I would think.

[Ben Adair]

This is Kim Pope.

[Kim Pope]

And I had a work related injury, and through various unhappy ways, I ended up in the care of Dr. Yoeda and his group.

[Ben Adair]

Kim is a nurse, and in 2009, she injured her shoulder while she was grabbing for some falling medical equipment on the job. Like Jenny, she's also been very media shy over the years. What happened to her was a nightmare that she does not like to relive just for timing. This happened a year after Peter Nelson pulled inches of gauze from Ginny Malone's shoulder and a year before Kelly sue park was arrested for the murder of Juliana Redding.

[Kim Pope]

I really didn't have a choice.

[Ben Adair]

Kim had a rotator cuff tear, so she got a list of approved workers, comp doctors. And like Jenny Malone, she chose the office closest to her. This one was in Indio, California. Another frontline medical clinic.

[Kim Pope]

They were the closest, and I could get there and then get back there was just maybe three or four blocks from the hospital where I was. So it was very convenient.

[Ben Adair]

As a nurse, she knew what a medical office should look like. This wasn't it dirty?

[Kim Pope]

Dirty, dirty. Smelled like mold. Old furniture, hard. You know, those folding metal chairs. That's what the office had. Just very uncomfortable and just very dirty.

[Ben Adair]

There she met a doctor. Well, looking back, she's not totally sure that it was a doctor, but he held up an X ray and said.

[Kim Pope]

He said, well, it looks like you're gonna need surgery, so we'll just schedule that and we'll let you know. He didn't even touch my shoulder. They would have probably operated on my shoulder if I showed him my back was hurt. I don't know. They would have operated on something. I think.

[Ben Adair]

The surgeon who was going to operate on Kim was, you guessed it, Dr. Munir Ueda. And while it's normal to meet your surgeon ahead of your operation, for both Kim and Jenny, meeting this man was hard.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Well, they told me that he had a really busy schedule, and I said, well, that. Okay, but I need to meet the person that's going to do surgery on me.

[Ben Adair]

This is Jenny again. Remember, she wanted to speak with her surgeon to better understand why she needed shoulder surgery for back pain.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I chose a date, and I waited for him for about three to three and a half hours to get out of surgery just because I. Well, I felt like it was really important to meet the person. And so I just sat there waiting. And then finally he came out and he was Very, very nice and kind as you would expect a doctor to be. He explained everything to me, which I can't re explain. He used all of his medical garb and I didn't really understand it, but he kind of made me feel like he knew what he was talking about. And this connects to this and this is why this is happening. And that's why I feel the pain in the lower part of my back and not necessarily on the top of my shoulder or in the complete shoulder vicinity. So I believed him.

[Ben Adair]

But on the day of her surgery, Jenny says she still felt uneasy.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I just got the creeps in this place because of the way that they were pushing papers on me to sign. And I know that that's normal. It is, it's normal. But something just grabbed me the wrong way. And I didn't sign the arbitration agreement because I just felt like something was just weird in this hospital. Just the way that the nurses were. Yeah, I got a bad vibe and I should have just gotten up and walked away, but I didn't. And then I was in the, I guess the pre op room. There was nurses there, and I'm sitting there and they. They put my arm out, and these two nurses were just talking back and forth and back and forth. And I had already had some kind of a drowsy pill. So I'm sitting there and then they take my arm, they lay my arm out and they put my left arm out on. They have like a board that comes out for that. I guess the doctor is going to end up doing surgery on to keep your arms straight. And they put my left arm on. And I was saying, excuse me, excuse me, it's my right arm. Excuse me, it's my right arm. And finally one of the nurses turns around and says, what? And I said, no, you've got my left arm out. It's my right arm. No, honey, it's your left arm. I said, no, it's my right arm. And I'm like. I said, got some. Some kind of drug in me. I don't know what. And then she take the book that they have and she's flipping through it and she goes, oh, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. It flipped back to the prior patient and then. And then they switched it and they put it to my right arm. So my intuition was right about everything.

[Ben Adair]

Kim, on the day of her surgery, was told to arrive at 5:30am to a place called South Bay Surgical and Spine Institute.

[Kim Pope]

And I was like, number 10, I was way down there and I went up and complained several times, and they said, well, we bring people in because we don't want them to eat or drink anything, and the case get canceled.

[Ben Adair]

She says as a nurse, she knew this was not common practice.

[Kim Pope]

I said, do you have any idea what I am and anything about me? I'm a nurse. I'm working in the operating room. I would not have done that, you know, if I had have known this, I could have slept in my own bed. We could have driven down this morning. There's no apology. They tried to disguise the time that everyone was sitting there by. They would take you back and draw your blood, send you back out, and then they would take you back and ask you medical questions and allergies, and they'd take you back and send you out, take you so you would felt like you were getting stuff done, but I knew we weren't. You know, all that could have been done in 30 minutes at the most and gone on to surgery, but that's not the way they did that. I did sign the consent, but I did tell them that I would not go back to surgery until I actually met Dr. Ueda. I had not ever met him at that point. And they said, oh, well, oh, he'll definitely come see you before you go to surgery. And then it was really late in the day. I really. I couldn't guess, but it was afternoon. I mean, it was probably 3 or 4 o'. Clock.

[Ben Adair]

Dr. Yoeda never did come out, but it was late. She'd been there all day. She didn't want to have to come back.

[Kim Pope]

I think I was. I think I was the last patient. I do think I was the last patient.

[Ben Adair]

When she woke up from the operation, she said again, where's my surgeon?

[Kim Pope]

And I asked to see the doctor to see if what? You know, do I need to be checked out or anything? And they said, oh, you're fine, you're fine. And I said, okay, just let. Just get me the hell out of here were my last words in that place.

[Ben Adair]

Both Jenny and Kim would later learn that holding out to meet their surgeon was pointless. Dr. Yoeda never operated on either of them. Instead, it was the pa, Peter Nelson, the one that never went to medical school. About a week after her surgery, Kim returned to the India medical office asking for help because her pain did not subside. The office was, as she remembered, just.

[Kim Pope]

Dirty, just very dirty.

[Ben Adair]

She met with a Dr. Johnson who looked even worse than that.

[Kim Pope]

His left pocket was just about ripped six inches. You could see his underwear. He had food in his beard. Food on his white shirt.

[Ben Adair]

She said, what can I do for all this pain?

[Kim Pope]

And he looked around, and there was a pillow on the exam table there. He pointed at the pillow and he said, I could sell you that pillow for $500. And I said, I need to leave now. And I stood up and left.

[Ben Adair]

Kim complained to the workers comp office after her surgery, but it would take a long time for her to get any kind of resolution. Shortly after her surgery, the medicine started showing up.

[Kim Pope]

After the first appointment, I got this box of all these pills, pain pills, pills for nerve damage. It was just a box full of pills, and they just kept coming. I had a drawer full, and my dresser was a drawer full of medication.

[Ben Adair]

She says no doctor ever talked to her about any medications.

[Kim Pope]

I knew what they were for, but they were never prescribed to me. Talk to me about. I was supposed to take, not take, take when needed, Whatever I was supposed to do, I just put them in the drawer.

[Ben Adair]

But even those didn't help.

[Kim Pope]

There was nothing that helped the pain. Nothing. I mean, they didn't do anything for me.

[Ben Adair]

With so much pain and limited movement in her arm, Kim couldn't work. Workers comp paid her a percentage of her base pay, but she was used to hours and hours of overtime a week.

[Kim Pope]

So I was making a tremendous amount of money. And then it was suddenly cut.

[Ben Adair]

And after a year of not working at all, she lost her job.

[Kim Pope]

I mean, my parents supported me, and here I am a nurse, and my parents were supporting me. I couldn't leave. I couldn't drive home. There was no way I could drive.

[Ben Adair]

Then she lost her health insurance. It hit her really hard.

[Kim Pope]

I called my parents and told them. And I was crying, crying, really crying hard. And I went into my room. I was just really trying hard and had gotten to that point where he did that, trying to stop crying, and just opened that drawer and took pills. All I could swallow. I don't even know what I took.

[Ben Adair]

Her roommate heard her crying and got worried.

[Kim Pope]

She later told me that my. I could barely talk. My words were mumbly. She couldn't hardly tell what I was saying, so she called 911 and the hospital was right next door. They were there in a second. And last thing I heard was them saying, we don't have a blood pressure. And I thought, good. I felt good. And then I woke up. Stayed in the ER for a few hours, and then they took me by ambulance to a. Some kind of psych place, I don't know. And it was around midnight when I got there. I Can't. I can't. My mom doesn't know. My dad. No one knows.

[Ben Adair]

Kim is a suicide survivor. With the help of friends and family, she was able to get her life back together. Today she's a practicing nurse again. She needed three additional surgeries to reverse the damage done by the first one. The doctor who corrected it said the first operation never reattached your deltoid muscle, a procedure generally needed to repair rotator cuffs.

[Chris Hemsworth]

This message is sponsored by Greenlight. With school out, summer is the perfect time to teach our kids real world money skills they'll use forever. Greenlight is a debit card in the number one family finance and safety app used by millions of families, helping kids learn how to save, invest and spend wisely. Parents can send their kids money and track their spending and saving while kids build money, confidence and skills in fun ways. Start your risk free Greenlight trial [e-mail] Spotify that's greenlight.com Spotify Ford BlueCruise Hands Free highway driving takes the work out of being behind the wheel, allowing you to relax and reconnect while also staying in control. Enjoy the drive in blue cruise enabled vehicles like the F150 Explorer and Mustang Mach E available feature on equipped vehicles. Terms apply. Does not replace safe driving. See Ford.com BlueCruise for more details.

[Ben Adair]

After Peter Nelson pulled gauze from Jenny Malone's shoulder, she was livid.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I said, I need to see the doctor and I need to see the doctor right fricking now. This is wrong. What you did to me is just absolutely wrong. Then the doctor comes in a little bit later, Dr. Uweda, because we were at the hospital and those are the only times that I saw Dr. Uwayda. So he comes in and he says, I said, you guys left gauze. And he said, well, you know, sometimes things happen. And I was like, sometimes things happen. And he's like, well, you know, I mean, life isn't perfect. Sometimes things happen. And that was, that was, that was just, that was his reasoning. Sometimes things happen.

[Ben Adair]

But Jenny had two things. First, she had the bundle of X rays and papers that the clinic had given her when they sent her over to the hospital. Second, she had her father in law.

[Chris Hemsworth]

My father in law, he was a man from Italy, barely spoke the language, has no idea how to use a phone. Every time you go to visit for dinner or something, can you fix up my phone? Can you fix up my phone? So my father in law comes in and he figured out how to use the camera on his Little flip phone. And he's taking pictures, and he got a couple of good pictures of the gauze and everything. And I'm. I'm still screaming. And then finally, now, keep in mind it's not all out of my arm yet. It was about 24 inches long that came out of my arm. The first part, that really gross gloopy part, just blocked out. And I don't even know what happened to that part. But the other part is probably. You know, when you look at it, probably about 12 or 14 inches. And anyway, then immediately when it was out, the pains started to subside. It really did.

[Kim Pope]

Yeah.

[Chris Hemsworth]

I mean, it still hurt, don't get me wrong. But you could feel a difference almost immediately in how the heat that was in my body.

[Ben Adair]

They left the hospital from there.

[Chris Hemsworth]

They wanted me to come back to the clinic in a couple of days.

[Ben Adair]

They had the photos, they had the X rays, they had the paperwork. She skipped her next appointment.

[Chris Hemsworth]

So my husband spoke to a friend of a friend, and we went to a different doctor that was kind enough to see me. And that's where I learned that, my God, the way that that happened in that room was just so wrong. Because a person, even if it was a tiny piece of gauze, what a normal hospital would do is keep you for a minimum of 24 hours with a fluid IV. So it was just kind of a terrible situation. Yeah, it was terrible.

[Ben Adair]

But then she started getting phone calls. A woman calling her at first every few days, then every day. They wanted their paperwork back from Jenny. They wanted the X rays showing gauze on her shoulder. She said, that's their property. She's stealing it. The woman calling her was an associate of Munir's. Her name was Kelly Sue Park.

[Chris Hemsworth]

She was just a nasty, mean lady in the front front office. And she was. She was calling me. Just. She was calling me, threatening me that I need to get back in there. I need to get back in there immediately. That I stole their property.

[Ben Adair]

Remember, this is just a few months after Juliana Redding was killed, and she.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Was just going crazy. You are stealing property. It's our property. You need to give this back. You have this much time to give it back back. Otherwise, you will not receive another payment.

[Ben Adair]

She's talking about the workers comp. Payments she was entitled to because she wasn't working.

[Chris Hemsworth]

And that was kind of scary for me because, you know, I mean, we were. You know, I was a little younger at that time, and, you know, I've got young kids, and I needed my money. You know, I. I needed to have. Even though it wasn't a lot, it was something. And so it truly was a threat to a family. You know what I mean? And it was scary just the way that she would talk to you, you know? And she told me that she would. She said, where is your father in law? I will go meet him. And he is in Westlake doing construction. I'll go meet him. And I'm like, I don't even know where he is. Oh, so you're lying. You're lying to me. Where is your father in law? Where is the X rays? Then she got to where she was calling every hour. That's when we knew that something was really, really off. And when I did see the new doctor, he made copies of the X ray for me, so I was able to give hers back, you know, so that I could get my money. It was strange. It was just a little bit borderline scary.

[Ben Adair]

Jenny ended up filing a medical malpractice suit. She says in the beginning, her lawyer was excited.

[Chris Hemsworth]

So he called me up and he was like, oh, man, we're gonna get him, and I'm gonna figure out a way to get money. We are gonna get this guy. It was really very encouraging that something good was gonna end up happening.

[Ben Adair]

But then something strange happened.

[Chris Hemsworth]

The lawsuit was dropped. And it was funny. It was dropped on the day that Dr. Uwayda was and his team were coming to my attorney's office for the deposition. So I met him early and had everything planned. We sit down in the deposition, and he's asking all of the questions. And then we're gonna break for lunch. Okay? So we break for lunch. I walk out down in Beverly Hills. I'm looking for a quick place to eat, and I was by myself. And I don't know what everyone was doing. I just assumed that everyone was going to lunch. But when I came back from L, the attorney called me up to his office, which was upstairs, and he says, you know what, Jennifer? I just. I need to let you know there's no reason for us to continue on with this deposition. We can just be finished. There's nothing. Because the truth is this man has no money. There's nothing that we can do to go after him. And I'm just sitting there going, what happened to our conversation this morning where you are all pumped up and ready to go? Anyway, my gut feeling is that something happened while I was gone, and he made a decision that it would be in his best interest interest to go ahead and drop the case for whatever reason. Let your mind get creative.

[Ben Adair]

Jenny let the suit go. She just wanted to move on. Even though she couldn't move her shoulder freely for several years, it stopped her from returning to her job, making the income she once made, and maybe most importantly, it stopped her from playing with her little kids the way she wanted to.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Didn't get anything. Didn't get anything except for losing my job, losing a lot of money, a lot of time, and two and a half years before I could get mobility back.

[Ben Adair]

But this wouldn't be the end of it.

[Chris Hemsworth]

Well, it was probably maybe a year or two after the surgery. The medical board wanted to get involved, and I met with them. They came to my house. They were looking through. I just gave them my whole entire file. They were going through everything.

[Ben Adair]

Behind the scenes, in the shadows, investigators were working slowly, methodically, examining the many different businesses and doctors that seemed to be associated with Munir Uwayda.

[Chris Hemsworth]

And I believe it was the people from the medical board that were sharing it with the DA's office.

[Ben Adair]

But by now, Jenny's anger had turned into something else.

[Chris Hemsworth]

It was just coming out that he was up for a murder for hire. And I said, I don't want my name on the record of anything to do with this man. I'm not going to testify against him because I have little kids at that time. And I just. I thought, my God, if this, If. If this is true. Which was hard for me to believe because I thought the doctor was a nice guy, and maybe he really did just make a mistake. You know, I just thought it was so hard to believe that my doctor was up for a murder for hire. It was just the weirdest, scariest thing.

[Ben Adair]

A decade after the first red flags against Munir, seven years after Juliana Redding was murdered, and two years after Kelly sue park was acquitted for that murder, new indictments were announced. Good morning. Two grand jury indictments revealed what California prosecutors called an organized criminal enterprise with Dr. Munir Uwayda as the ringleader. He and his staff are accused of putting greed over the health of patients with allegations of conspiracy and insurance fraud spanning more than a decade. Prosecutors alleged one of the biggest health insurance scams in California history. Botched surgeries, fake patients, unneeded care, unwanted prescriptions. The size of the fraud, over $150 million, they say. Kelly sue park was again arrested, along with physician assistant Peter Nelson. A total of 15 people were indicted. One by one. Associates of Dr. Munir Uwayda pleaded not guilty this week to lying to patients, disfiguring some in botched surgeries, and cheating insurance companies out of millions. But even with these new arrests, one thing was still the same. Munir Yueda, this time named and charged, was still MIA. But the biggest question in the case where is Dr. Uwayda? Next time on Doctor's Orders. I know doctors who date models, I knew doctors who have show dogs, and I know doctors who have horses. Now I'm not sure I know a doctor who has all three, but not unusual hobbies for doctors.

[Kim Pope]

You know that with any love triangle.

[Ben Adair]

Involving two misses, it will create quite a bit of attention and then people.

[Kim Pope]

Will be talking about it.

[Ben Adair]

He was not a great person to be associated with, but we figured, you know, it was mostly about the money. But then some of the things revealed a possibly greater diabolical person than we had imagined. That's coming up on Episode four Wheel of Fortune. Unlock all episodes of Doctor's Orders ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts. All ad free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series that's all episodes all at once. No ads. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Doctor's Orders is produced by Western Sound for Sony Music Entertainment's the Binge. The executive producer and host is me, Ben Adair. The executive producer for the Binge is Jonathan Hirsch. Doctor's Orders was written and produced by Nada Salem. It was edited by Ben Adair. Laila Hassan is our fact checker. Legal review by Davis Wright Tremaine llp. Michael Rayfield is the mix engineer. Next up, Episode four, Wheel of Fortune.

[Lance Lamont]

Foreign.

[Chris Hemsworth]

This episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew. In this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations and offer an episode by episode behind the scenes breakdown of each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search FX's alien Earth. Wherever you listen to podcasts.