The New York doctor who has given glowing assessments of Donald Trump’s health once paid out tens of thousands of dollars to settle a lawsuit after being accused of malpractice that led to the death of one of his patients.

Harold Bornstein agreed to pay $86,250 to the family of Janet Levin, who allegedly died after falling when she took “unhealthy amounts” of prescription drugs that Bornstein had given her unnecessarily, according to archived court papers.

Levin’s family accused Bornstein of being “negligent and grossly reckless” for prescribing her barbiturates, morphine and valium “greatly in excess of appropriate dosages” and despite the drugs not being suitable for any condition for which she was being treated.

Levin, 52, “became addicted to narcotics” and was “rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled”, according to the lawsuit, which blamed Bornstein squarely for setting in motion a series of factors “all leading to her death” from the apparent drug ingestion and fall in 1998.

Before settling the case in April 2002, Bornstein denied the allegations against him in a court filing and said that Levin was culpable for all the problems leading to her death. According to court papers, the settlement included a “non-publicity clause” preventing public discussion of the case.

Bornstein, 69, has been a licensed physician since July 1976. He has no record of misconduct charges or disciplinary action being brought against him, according to a database maintained by the New York state department of health that monitors cases dating back to 1990.

Bornstein became part of the US presidential election campaign in December last year when Trump published a doctor’s letter from him that declared the Republican nominee would be the “healthiest individual elected to the presidency”.

Last month he said the letter was written in five minutes while Trump’s limousine waited on the street outside.

He reappeared on Wednesday after conducting a physical examination of Trump. A summary report on the examination, reportedly finding Trump to be overweight, was delivered by Trump to the medic and television presenter Dr Mehmet Oz during a taping of Oz’s show. The program is scheduled to be aired on Thursday.



The 1999 lawsuit seeking damages from Bornstein was brought in the New York courts by Levin’s husband, Kenneth. It said Levin was treated by Bornstein for an unspecified condition at his Manhattan office from July 1994 until her death in January 1998.



Bornstein prescribed Levin the drugs Tuinal, morphine and Valium “in amounts that were well above therapeutic levels” and despite the fact Levin had a “history of drinking”, according to the complaint.



It said Bornstein was “seeing the patient several times a week without providing medical treatment” and failed to notice her clear signs of “habitual addiction which he created or helped to create”.



Levin began suffering from severe depression and anxiety disorder, according to the lawsuit, which indicated that she was treated for an overdose in 1997. She eventually ingested “unhealthy amounts of barbiturates” the following January that allegedly left her unstable and “precipitated her fall and death”.



An autopsy by New York authorities detected the sedatives diazepam, amobarbital and secobarbital in Levin’s blood. According to Levin’s death certificate, she was found dead at her home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The official cause and manner of her death were listed as undetermined.



Levin had been earning $67,000 a year working at the actor Dustin Hoffman’s company Punch Productions.



Kenneth Levin died earlier this year of heart disease. Before his death he was convicted of fraud for operating a “business opportunity scheme” relating to vending machines. Levin’s company falsely promised high-profit locations for buyers of their vending machines and misled buyers about how much money they could expect to make.



Bornstein did not respond to an email sent to the email address given on his official stationery. The attorney who represented Bornstein in the lawsuit, CaraMia Hart, did not respond to an email and voice message seeking comment on Wednesday.



A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 found that most doctors in the US working in high-risk specialisms are sued at least once during their career for alleged malpractice. Patients were successful in 22% of cases, according to the study, while 12% of gastroenterologists such as Bornstein received a malpractice lawsuit annually.

Records recovered from New York court archives show that Bornstein has been sued for alleged malpractice on at least two other occasions.

In 1994, a settlement was reached after patient Claire Wershil alleged that Bornstein left her with “severe and serious permanent physical, mental and psychological injuries” from unspecified treatment. Wershil has since died and attorneys involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment.

Bornstein was sued by another patient, Stanley Grant, in 1986. Grant alleged that he was left unable to work following Bornstein’s treatment, which again was not identified in the case file. The lawsuit was concluded in 1990. Its outcome could not be confirmed and Grant’s attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment.

A woman who answered the telephone at Bornstein’s office on Wednesday said: “You’ll have to refer to the campaign, thank you,” and hung up. Reached for a second time and told that the allegations did not relate to Trump’s campaign, the woman said: “There’s no wrongdoing – have a nice day,” and hung up again.

