Italian police arrest U.S. doctor on run

ROME – An American doctor on the run for five years as charges of fraud and malpractice mounted against him was arrested as he hid out on a snowy mountain in northern Italy, and stabbed himself in the neck as he was taken into custody, police said.

Mark Weinberger, 46, of Merrillville, Ind., was apprehended earlier this week on a mountain in Val Ferret, where he was living in a tent, police in the town of Aosta said Thursday.

A mountain guide tipped off authorities that he was there, said police official Guido Di Vita. Weinberger had previously rented an apartment in the area but then left without paying and was likely trying to sneak into Switzerland, Di Vita said.

Weinberger’s patients in the United States, who have been waiting for years to tell a court they believe the doctor misdiagnosed them, botched surgeries or hastily performed the wrong procedures, hoped his capture will mean their lawsuits can finally go forward.

“We want him … to look these people in the eye and explain why he did this,” said Kenneth J. Allen, who represents around 60 families accusing Weinberger of negligence.

The mystery surrounding Weinberger, who was known as the “Nose Doctor,” began more than five years ago when he disappeared while traveling with his wife in Greece. He was the subject of an international dragnet; his case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted” in August.

He had been troubled by malpractice lawsuits before the trip, his wife, Michelle Kramer, told CNN’s Larry King in August 2005. She has since filed for divorce. After he vanished, she said she learned that he had purchased diamonds before leaving, withdrew a large sum of money from his business and had taken survival gear.

He could have been anywhere. He’d built a glamorous life after opening his Indiana surgery clinic, acquiring yachts, vacation properties and private jets, she said. He was an excellent doctor, she said, but had a “narcissistic personality disorder” and needed adoration and always wanted bigger conquests.

The longer he was gone, the more patients came forward. As they told it, his clinic seemed posh, his medicine elite and convenient. He promised patients $40,000 modern sinus surgeries that should have taken up to two hours, but instead performed outdated procedures that took as little as 24 minutes, enabling him to grind patients through his surgery center as if they were on an assembly line, said attorney David Cutshaw, whose firm represents more than 100 former patients.

Federal prosecutors are working on paperwork required to request Weinberger’s extradition, said David Capp, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.