Ohio’s Top Court Revives Medical Claim Against Fugitive Surgeon

A patient can proceed with his lawsuit against a spinal surgeon who left the country after being charged with criminal fraud, even though the alleged malpractice occurred more than four years before the suit was filed, a split Ohio Supreme Court said.

The state’s top court clarified that Ohio’s four-year statute of repose didn’t cut off a suit against Abubakar Atiq Durrani that was filed after he’d absconded to his native Pakistan rather than face legal actions in state and federal courts.

Durrani allegedly performed hundreds of unnecessary spinal surgeries and bilked federal payment programs out of millions of dollars, ...