The New York Times-20080126-Death of Troubled Connecticut Surgeon Leads to Charges Against an Employee
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Death of Troubled Connecticut Surgeon Leads to Charges Against an Employee
Ian M. Rubins appeared to have it all. He was a skilled plastic surgeon who treated breast cancer patients in need of reconstructive surgery, and his surgical talents helped him achieve a pampered life, with a $2 million house here, a ski house on 10 acres in Vermont, a 39-foot boat and a plane.
But in the last few years it all unraveled, and on Wednesday, Dr. Rubins, whose drug addiction had shattered his career, died, apparently of an overdose, at the Stamford apartment of a man who worked around the family home, according to the police. The man is now charged with manslaughter, accused of providing the drugs and failing to summon help quickly.
Dr. Rubins, a 46-year-old father of three, voluntarily relinquished his medical license in November after he was caught taking painkillers intended for surgical patients at Greenwich Hospital. Since September, he had been battling legal problems stemming from a difficult divorce.
He was discovered unconscious in a rented studio on Stamford's east side on Wednesday evening in response to a 911 call, and had been pronounced dead by the time he reached Stamford Hospital, according to Lt. Sean Cooney, a police spokesman.
On Thursday morning, the Stamford police charged the studio's tenant, Leonard Bajramaj, 32, with first-degree manslaughter and presented him for arraignment in Stamford Superior Court. Facing a $750,000 bond, he remains in custody.
Mr. Bajramaj, who has a long criminal history under a variety of names in New York and Connecticut, involving narcotics and stolen property, told the police that he had met Dr. Rubins and his wife, Jodi, when he was hired to clean the pool at their home on Lake Avenue here and that he often handled chores for them.
According to Lieutenant Cooney, Mr. Bajramaj was charged because the police believe he supplied drugs to this man, and when a situation arose when he was in need of medical assistance, Mr. Bajramaj did not provide that medical assistance in a timely fashion.
On Friday, a woman answering the phone at the Rubinses' house here who said she was not Mrs. Rubins declined to comment.
Howard R. Graber, Dr. Rubins's divorce lawyer in Stamford, said on Friday, I had so many e-mails today from cancer survivors wanting to know where they could go to show their respects.
State records show that in April 2006 Dr. Rubins arrived in the operating room to perform surgery and exhibited behavior which caused the chief of surgery to suspect that respondent was under the influence of controlled substances.
Between the time of that episode and another one weeks later, in which he admitted drinking alcohol on the way to a medical facility, he was subject to disciplinary action by the state. He entered into a sweeping consent order on July 6, 2006.
The order, which was to last five years, called for twice-a-week testing of urine samples at the outset, and required Dr. Rubins to hire a doctor to review his patients' records to evaluate how he was dispensing drugs.
Last June, the state's Department of Public Health received further information about Dr. Rubins's substance abuse and suspended his license, with his consent, pending an investigation. In November, he voluntarily relinquished the license.
He was due to appear in criminal court on Thursday to respond to charges that he had violated a protective order and harassed his estranged wife, bombarding her with coarse text messages, including one that read, Start packing your undergarments for jail -- don't forget your soap.
The police said the court date may be why he had left his house in Vermont, where he had been living, and needed a place to stay in Stamford.
Previous court appearances involving the couple had been volatile. At one divorce hearing, Dr. Rubins arranged for Mr. Bajramaj to sneak his wife's truck out of the courthouse parking garage while she attended the hearing.
Mr. Graber, Dr. Rubins's lawyer, recalls his client explaining that his wife would not give him money for snow tires for his car, so he needed the truck for the drive back to Vermont.
The police declined to answer questions about Mr. Bajramaj's relationship to the couple, and the judge sealed the records on the manslaughter case after his appearance in court.
[Illustration]PHOTO: Dr. Ian M. Rubins in an undated photograph with his estranged wife, Jodi. He died on Wednesday of an apparent overdose.