Doctor wins $5.7 million verdict against hospital chain that he said planted a gun in his car to silence him

A state appellate court has sided with a dissident doctor who claimed a Santa Ana hospital chain retaliated against him by setting him up for arrest on a gun charge. The four-judge panel from California's Fourth Appellate District upheld a jury's 2013 verdict ordering Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc., the owner of four Central County hospitals, to pay $5.7 million to Dr. Michael Fitzgibbons. "I'm greatly appreciative … that I finally received some justice," Fitzgibbons said. Fitzgibbons had protested IHHI's purchase of Western Medical Center Santa Ana, where he worked as an infectious disease specialist and served as chief of staff. He claimed its former chief, Bruce Mogel, orchestrated the gun plot and other incidents to silence him and other critics of the purchase.