Day or night, Marc Cohen, a major donor to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had a direct line to one of its leading oncologists. No question was too big or too small, and almost no hour was off limits for a consultation.
Cohen and his doctor, Kenneth C. Anderson, exchanged hundreds of emails and texts over two decades about Cohen's disease, multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer that is Anderson's specialty. It was no problem for the physician to pause a Sunday morning walk with his wife to weigh in on test results, respond to a 5:50 a.m. email on a Saturday to suggest medication for insomnia-inducing leg pain or jump on the phone at short notice.
So after Cohen died in 2022 of complications from Covid-19 at a hospital near his suburban Washington, D.C., home, it came as a shock to his brother when, he said, a lawyer for Dana-Farber claimed Anderson was not Cohen's doctor and never had been. Rather, he offered advice out of friendship.
As a result, Dana-Farber said it did not have any medical records of Anderson's cancer care to share with Cohen's family, records that could shed light on the treatment he received in his final days.
Cohen and his doctor, Kenneth C. Anderson, exchanged hundreds of emails and texts over two decades about Cohen's disease, multiple myeloma, a rare and incurable blood cancer that is Anderson's specialty. It was no problem for the physician to pause a Sunday morning walk with his wife to weigh in on test results, respond to a 5:50 a.m. email on a Saturday to suggest medication for insomnia-inducing leg pain or jump on the phone at short notice.
So after Cohen died in 2022 of complications from Covid-19 at a hospital near his suburban Washington, D.C., home, it came as a shock to his brother when, he said, a lawyer for Dana-Farber claimed Anderson was not Cohen's doctor and never had been. Rather, he offered advice out of friendship.
As a result, Dana-Farber said it did not have any medical records of Anderson's cancer care to share with Cohen's family, records that could shed light on the treatment he received in his final days.
After a big donor sought care from a Dana-Farber cancer doctor, things went awry
How a case involving Dana-Farber Cancer Institute illustrates the potential risks for institutions when star doctors give special off-the-books access VIPs.
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