Dr. Farid Fata has been described as a “cancer to the medical community and accused of “medical genocide.”

DETROIT—Judge Paul Borman sentenced Dr. Farid Fata to 45 years in prison on Friday after the oncologist tearfully begged for mercy. 

Fata showed no emotion when victim impact statements were read this week in court, but today he cried urging the judge not to give him a life sentence. He wiped off tears in court. Defense attorneys say Fata has lost everything. No one has visited him in the last year and a half. 

Fata entered the courtroom wearing handcuffs. Former victims and their families filled a room in the courthouse to watch Fata’s sentencing. Outside the courthouse people held hands before Fata’s sentence was read by Borman.

According
to court testimonies, Dr. Farid Fata’s greed and disregard for human life cost
his patients more than just their lives and unnecessary suffering.

Fata, an
oncologist, pled guilty to misdiagnosing patients and making them undergo
excessive unnecessary treatments, so he could charge Medicare
for high-cost procedures. He was part of a $35 million scheme to submit false
claims to Medicare last year. According to the government, Fata victimized 553
patients. 

Federal
investigators allege that from August 2007 to July 2013 Fata’s health maintenance
organization practice billed Medicare for around $225 million, of which $109
million was for chemotherapy or other cancer treatments. Many of the treatments
were administered to people who did not have cancer.

Fata’s sentencing hearing started
Monday and continued all week at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan. On Tuesday, about 22 former patients and their families
testified, urging Borman to sentence Fata to life in prison.

The federal
government is seeking a prison sentence of 175 years, while the defense has
requested that Fata serve no more than 25 years behind bars.

Many former
patients lost their homes and were forced into bankruptcy because the unnecessary
medical treatments Fata ordered made it unbearable to work or were too costly. Those
patients and their families have forever lost their trust in the medical
community.

It was
difficult for Teddy Howard not to become emotional
while speaking to The Arab American News Tuesday at Fata’s sentencing hearing.
Howard said Fata misdiagnosed him with a disease he never had.

Howard’s health is not the only thing
Fata destroyed. Because he received chemotherapy treatments for about 18 months,
it was difficult to work and he lost his $60,000 a year job. Howard has four
children and his wife had to take on two jobs.

Some called
themselves victims of the “Fata Holocaust” and said Fata committed “medical
genocide” and was a “cancer in the medical community.”

 “The
doctor that I trusted my life with would forever change my view of medicine,”
said Patricia Hester.

Fata
diagnosed Hester with a rare form of blood cancer that she never had. Hester’s
husband went into depression and developed an alcohol problem because he felt
like he couldn’t help her.

Laura Stedtefeld, the daughter of one
of Fata’s patients, recalled the instances when Fata would run away from her at
the hospital to avoid answering questions. Fata once told Stedtefeld’s mother
to make sure she stopped calling him with questions. In court, Stedtefeld told
Fata he could no longer run away.

“Farid Fata, I hate you,” Stedtefeld
said. “You are a monster. You are evil. Clearly you are a coward because you can’t
even look at me right now. You tortured and murdered my dad. I wish you painful
days. I wish you never see your family. I wish you sleepless nights.”

In court, Fata showed no expression. He
never looked at his victims or their family members during testimonies, except a
brief glance at Stedtefeld after she called him a coward.

He was dressed in a white-collar
shirt and black jacket. At times during emotional testimonies Fata appeared to
be writing carelessly on a notepad and flipping through papers.

Many former patients thanked the FBI for
arresting Fata in 2013 and believe they would be dead if the agency hadn’t
intervened.

Steve
Skrzypczak was “diagnosed” with cancer by Fata, but never had the disease. He
said Fata seemed honest and caring. Skrzypczak said he thought Fata was his
“savior.”

“He is the best professional liar I have ever seen in my life,” Skrzypczak said.

Chris
Sneary, who was one of Fata’s patients from March 2011 to 2013, said that the
treatments he received from Fata made his job unbearable at times. After Fata
was arrested, Sneary had to find new doctors to treat his testicular cancer.

After the new team of doctors took
two weeks to read through 3,400 pages of medical records, they were very
concerned that the cancer was not treated as it should have been. The doctors
were amazed and shocked that Sneary had survived Fata’s overly gross
over-treatment of a cancer fairly easy to beat.

This included 40 full days of chemo,
14 days of hydration, three iron infusions, three blood transfusions, 24
steroid injections and 37 radiation treatments to his testicles, abdomen,
chest, and neck.

Sneary’s liver function has been
compromised due to numerous “medically unnecessary” iron infusions and the
7,000 plus oral medications.

“My heart has sustained unnecessary
abuse and wear due to going into an atrial fibrillation condition due to the
overdosing of chemo,” Sneary testified.

When Sneary
complained of pain once, Fata put his hand on his shoulder, knowing he was overdosing him and said, “You can handle this
Chris, you’re a tough guy.”

Sneary gave
the survivor speech at Dr. Fata’s cancer center for the
“National Cancer Survivors Day” event in June 2012.

“I felt pride that I was asked to do this,” he said. “I wanted to help
inspire all those who were there. I now feel I was used to portray him as a
miracle doctor.”

Sneary estimates to have lost more
than 6,000
man hours in the past 52 months. He said that Fata has destroyed any
chance of him retiring with financial security.

In court,
Sneary called Fata a “cowardly bastard” with no regard for human life.

“He is an
evil person,” Sneary said.

There is
concern that if the judge doesn’t give Fata life in prison, he could practice
medicine in another country including his native Lebanon.

Fata owned Michigan Hematology
Oncology, which had many offices in suburban Detroit. His wife, Samar Fata,
served as the chief financial officer of the business and has fled to Lebanon
with the couple’s three children.

Skrzypczak
said he remembers meeting with U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, along with other
victims, and asking whether Fata’s wife would be sentenced. He said McQuade
told him they couldn’t find anything on Fata’s wife with which to charge her.

“I don’t
know if that is true,” he said.

In court, an expert testified that
the only possible cure for MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome), a bone marrow
failure disorder, is a transplant and Fata lied to a possible candidate that he
didn’t need it. According to a witness, one healthy patient received 468
chemotherapy treatments while in Fata’s care for six years.

Another patient who didn’t even have
cancer and was prescribed a cancer drug lost all but two of his teeth.

Greg Anderson, vice president of
Corporate and Financial Investigations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said Fata undermined the doctor-patient
trust.

A relative
of one of Fata’s former patients testified that the victim purchased a gun and
tried to kill herself because of all the suffering she endured.

 “Some people here may chose to forgive him,”
one patient said, adding that he was destroyed physically,
emotionally, financially and spiritually because of Fata. “l may never, but maybe God can. The doctor’s
world is now a scary place for us

Therese Dharwadkar said her mother
died after she received 31 unnecessary treatments. For 10 months, Fata failed
to diagnose her mother’s stage 4 cancer. She said her mother’s tumor continued to grow without diagnoses.

Sue Lane’s husband, one of Fada’s former
patients, died last year.

 “My husband is gone,” Lane testified. “Our money is gone. The bills are
still here. I not only lost my husband. I lost my best friend. He went blind.
He could not hear or speak. Thanks for making my life a living hell. I had to
file bankruptcy twice. I got a foreclosure.”

The defense argued that some of the
victim impact statements could not be confirmed, as one victim impact statement
came as late as 6 p.m. Monday night.