About
Dr. Thomas J. Berger, became board certified as a cardiac surgeon by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in 1981 and has been involved, as an expert, in approximately 400 medical malpractice cases. His areas of expertise include cardiac surgery, cardiology, thoracic surgery, general surgery and cardiovascular surgery. Dr. Berger has particular expertise and experience in litigation involving traumatic rupture of the aorta, phrenic nerve injury with diaphragmatic paralysis, and delayed or missed diagnosis of either myocardial infarction or aortic dissection.
Even as a medical student, at Tufts University, in Boston, Dr. Berger knew he wanted to be a heart surgeon. He spent four months of his senior year in Houston, Texas, where he scrubbed with Dr. Michael DeBakey and also trained with Dr. Robert D. Leachman, cardiologist to Dr. Denton Cooley.
After medical school, Dr. Berger spent seven years in general and cardiac surgery residencies and research, with his internationally revered mentor, the late Dr. John Kirklin. Dr. Kirklin pioneered open heart surgery as the first surgeon ever to operate routinely with a heart-lung machine. Before completing his training, Dr. Berger contributed to the writing of Dr. Kirklin's widely respected textbook, Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Berger's work on this text is acknowledged in writing in its first edition.
After completing his training, Dr. Berger served his country for two years as a staff cardiac surgeon, at the Naval Regional Medical Center, in San Diego, where he was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for, “Displaying exceptional technical skill in the field of open-heart surgery.” While in the Navy, Dr. Berger also served as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California in San Diego.
In 1980, Dr. Berger started his own heart surgery program in a small town in Montana, where heart surgery had never before been done. He helped to design the operating room and ICU, from the blueprint stages; trained nurses and technicians, who had never treated heart surgery patients before; and set up “patient management programs” to assure consistency and excellence. Such standardization of care did not come into general use, as “care paths,” until decades later.
By 1990, the program Dr. Berger had started was recognized in the Wall Street Journal as being tied for the lowest mortality in the nation, for Medicare coronary bypass patients.
In 1997, Dr. Berger returned to academic medicine, as Chief of, not only cardiac surgery but all surgery, at a Duke affiliated hospital, where he held the academic appointment of Associate Consulting Professor of Surgery, with Duke University. In this position, Dr. Berger was responsible for the training of Duke residents and fellows, in cardiac surgery and other surgical sub-specialties, when they rotated through his hospital.
Due a medical problem with his vision, Dr. Berger is no longer in the active practice of cardiac surgery. He continues, however, to put his education, training and experience to good use assuring that the truth is uncovered and understood in every case in which he becomes involved. Dr. Berger has also taken a strong stand within the medical community for an ethical approach to expert witness testimony, which will not compromise the right of any injured person to legal redress.
For more information about Dr. Berger and Heart of the Matter Expertise please visit our website at heartofyourcase.com, or call our office at 786-908-2438. See for yourself why our motto is:
VERA QUARERENDA, INVENIENDA, TESTIFACANDA . . .
SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH, FINDING THE TRUTH AND TESTIFYING TO THE TRUTH