[5][7] The Lifflander Report, a 1978 investigation commissioned by Speaker of the State Assembly of New York Stanley Steingut, found that 50-95% of surgeries in teaching hospitals were performed by residents under supervision, rather than by the lead surgeon.
However, patients typically do not understand and are not properly notified of the extent to which persons besides the lead surgeon will participate in the surgery.
Ghost surgeries allow surgeons to double-book operations and otherwise maximize the number of patients they accept.
[1][2][3] The Korean Society of Plastic Surgeons estimated that there were about 100,000 victims of ghost surgery in South Korea between 2008 and 2014.
[2] In 1975, William MacKay, the general sales manager of a prosthetics company, participated in the bone surgery of Franklin Mirando at the request of the lead surgeons, David Lipton and Harold Massoff.
[11][13] He stated that he was unaware of MacKay's involvement when suing and that he filed the suit because the surgery had only worsened his condition.
[13] Lipton and Massoff were indicted for allowing a non-licensed person to practice medicine and for manipulation of medical records, but charges were dropped in 1978, after the District Attorney spearheading the investigation was defeated for re-election.
[12][13] In October 2016, university student Kwon Dae-hee died from excessive bleeding after undergoing a jawline surgery partially conducted by a ghost doctor.
[1][2] The hired surgeon, who had been explicitly advertised as performing surgeries from start to finish, was carrying out operations on multiple patients at the same time.