Do no harm? Scandal-plagued doctor vacuums up $786,000 pension from public system
Topline: A neurosurgeon who once had his medical license suspended by the state of Washington’s Department of Health for being an “immediate threat to the public health and safety” of its residents is collecting one of the largest public pensions in U.S. history.
Open record requests filed by Open the Books show that Johnny Delawshaw earned a $786,780 pension last year from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. It’s the second-largest pension in Open the Books’ database from 2024, which includes all 21 states that publicize pension data. The largest pension went to former president of Oregon Health & Science University Joseph Robertson, who collected over $1 million last year.
Key facts: Delashaw began earning a pension when he left Oregon Health & Science University in 2012 after a 20-year career, but he did not retire. He briefly worked at the University of California, Irvine, and later entered the private sector, but not without controversy.
A Seattle Times investigation from 2017 found that Delashaw was appointed to lead the private Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle despite facing 49 internal complaints about alleged unprofessional behavior and poor patient care. Colleagues claimed he was performing unnecessary surgeries to bill patients more money. For example, UC Irvine’s hospital only used an invasive and expensive “clipping” procedure to treat brain aneurysms 13% of the time before Delawshaw arrived, but 62% of the time once he was employed, The Times reported.
Delashaw was also a defendant in 12 lawsuits while at Oregon Health & Science University, according to the Seattle Times. Five of them led to settlements.
The State of Washington suspended Delawshaw’s medical license in May 2017. He was reinstated in July 2018 but forbidden from working in a leadership role. The state noted that Delashaw’s “behavior negatively affected the culture of safety, ultimately replacing it with a culture of fear. This led to a compromise of team effectiveness and, as a result, an unreasonable risk of patient harm.”
Delashaw later lost a defamation lawsuit against the Seattle Times. He now works at the Hurley Neurological Center in Flint, Michigan.
Open the Books’ pension records date back to 2017. Since then, Delawshaw has earned just under $6 million in pension money. His $786,780 pension last year was higher than any retiree in New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey and other states.
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Summary: A public pension approaching $1 million is alarming for any retiree, but especially one with a past as controversial as Delashaw’s.
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