Dr. Dean Lorich, a surgeon who exposed the Clinton Foundation’s bungled 2010 disaster response in Haiti, was found dead in December 2017.
Dr. Dean Lorich was found dead in his New York City apartment in December 2017. Theories that Lorich’s death was related to him “exposing” the Clinton Foundation’s response to the 2010 disaster in Haiti don’t check out, however.
Dean Lorich, 53, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on December 10, 2017, from an apparent stab wound to the chest. Police said there was no sign of forced entry, and that his wife and daughter were out at the time. And, although no suicide note was left, the NYPD said Lorich’s death appeared to be a suicide.
Within days, however, conspiracy theories about Dean Lorich’s death surfaced on fringe websites. Lorich became known as “the doctor who exposed Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti.” It was implied that Lorich’s death could be related to his earlier affiliation with the Clinton Foundation.
That makes Dean Lorich the latest in the long-running Clinton body count conspiracy theory. The idea is that Bill and Hillary Clinton have murdered political opponents over the years, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
Did Dr. Dean Lorich Expose Clinton Foundation Corruption in Haiti?
Dr. Dean Lorich was a recognized orthopedic trauma surgeon. He operated on sports stars and celebrities, including U2’s Bono after a 2014 bike crash. Lorich also worked on a medical team that deployed to Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. That’s where his (alleged) ties to the Clinton Foundation come in.
The Clinton Foundation has been accused of mismanaging billions of dollars in relief funds for Haiti, and the overall disaster response there. Those accusations don’t check out, however. The Clinton Foundation raised $28 million for Haiti disaster relief. And the foundation claims that “every penny was deployed on the ground,” and no donations went to overhead. Hillary Clinton was, however, appointed interim chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). Haitian Parliament disbanded the commission in 2011, frustrated with slow recovery.
So, where does Dr. Dean Lorich come in? Within 24 hours of the earthquake, Lorich deployed with a team of 13 surgeons to establish a trauma center in Haiti. But things didn’t go as planned. Immediately, Haiti’s devastated infrastructure, lack of security and inadequate medical services caused problems. In a 2010 CNN editorial, Lorich wrote:
We thought our plan was a good one, but we soon learned we were incredibly naive. Disaster management in Haiti was nonexistent.
The difficulties in getting in — despite the intelligence we had from people on the ground and Dr. Helfet’s connections with Partners in Health and Bill and Hillary Clinton — only hinted at the difficulties we would have once we arrived.
That’s Lorich’s only reference to the Clinton Foundation in the op-ed. And he doesn’t blame Clinton Foundation corruption for the problems in Haiti. Rather, Lorich blames the lack of an official response. A government organization should have stepped up to take charge of the “shameful” medical response, Lorich wrote.
Connection Between Dr. Dean Lorich’s Death and the Clinton Foundation?
Given Dr. Dean Lorich’s experiences in Haiti, insinuations that his death was related to the Clinton Foundation took flight almost immediately. Websites like Your News Wire ran reports that described Lorich’s death and his so-called exposure of Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti. The insinuation was that the Clinton Foundation had Lorich killed.
Claims that Dr. Dean Lorich exposed Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti before his mysterious death cropped up in December 2017.
There are a number of problems with that conspiracy theory. First, Lorich didn’t expose Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti. Again, he raised awareness about dreadful conditions there that had largely been caused by lack of leadership by an official government agency. Lorich also voiced those views in an email to a Clinton Foundation official that was later included in the WikiLeaks email dump. Again, Lorich wasn’t critical of the Clinton Foundation in the email.
And new details about Lorich’s last days have emerged. Lorich was stripped of his admitting privileges at New York-Presbyterian Hospital days before his apparent suicide. Lorich had also been sued within the last year by a former NFL player who accused Lorich of ruining his career. There’s no way to know what could have motivated Lorich to commit suicide, but there were signs of significant professional issues at the time.
In the end, we’re calling this one truth and fiction. It’s true that Dr. Dean Lorich was found dead. But it’s false that Lorich exposed Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti, and his death has been ruled a suicide.
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
Collected on: 12/14/2017S Surgeon, Who Exposed Clinton Foundation Corruption In Haiti, Found Dead
Dr. Dean Lorich, an orthopedic surgeon who volunteered in Haiti and exposed Clinton Foundation corruption and malpractice on the island, has been found dead in New York. He was 54.
Dr. Lorich was found by his 11-year-old daughter on the bathroom floor of his tony Upper East Side apartment with a knife in his chest at around 1pm on Monday.
The knife missed the surgeon’s heart, leaving him to bleed out and be found by his daughter. Despite the fact police were called to the property regarding an “assault“, they instantly registered the death as “suicide” and closed the case.
One of the United States’ leading surgeons, Dr. Lorich was part of the relief effort sent by the U.S. to assist the relief effort led by the Clinton Foundation in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. However Dr. Lorich was disgusted by the “shameful” Clinton Foundation operation, and voiced his concerns to Hillary Clinton directly.
Unsatisfied with her response, he went public, writing an article published by CNN, accusing the Clinton Foundation of widespread corruption and malpractice in Haiti that cost the lives of thousands of children.
Billions of dollars were raised by the Clinton Foundation to help the Haitians, but the vast bulk of this money was funneled to Clinton friends and associates, according to Dr. Lorich, who described in harrowing detail what this meant for the children of Haiti.
Dr. Lorich argued that, in essence, Clinton greed left Haitian children to die painful deaths:
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“We expected many amputations. But we thought we could save limbs that were salvageable, particularly those of children. We recognized that in an underdeveloped country, a limb amputation may be a death sentence. It does not have to be so.“
“Shameful”
Considering billions of dollars had been donated to the Clinton Foundation with the express purpose of helping the Haitians, Dr Lorich and his team expected to have full support when their plane touched down.
Instead, Dr. Lorich described the situation on the ground as “shameful” and he witnessed Clinton Foundation corruption in action. The Haitians were receiving no help whatsoever.
According to Dr. Lorich, a paltry 0.6% of donations granted by international donors to the Clinton Foundation with the express purpose of directly assisting Haitians actually ended up helping citizens of Haiti. 9.6% ended up with the Haitian government. The remaining 89.8% – or $5.4 billion – was funneled to non-Haitian organizations.
Dr. Lorich’s WikiLeaks emails
Unable to perform his duties – and disgusted by the rampant corruption – Dr. Lorich sent an email to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Cheryl D. Mills to report what he had seen. The email was then forwarded to Hillary Clinton which meant it eventually found its way into WikiLeaks’ possession.
Unsatisfied with the lack of response from Hillary Clinton, Dr. Lorich went public, co-authored the CNN article that exposed the Clinton Foundation’s corruption and malpractice in Haiti:
“We found scores of patients with pus dripping out of open extremity fractures and crush injuries,” reported Dr. Lorich.
“Some wounds were already ridden with maggots.“
“About a third of these victims were children.“
“The entire hospital smelled of infected, rotting limbs and death.“
“Later on, we would judge our surgical progress by the diminishment of the stench.”
“As we got up and running and organized the patients for surgery, we told our contacts in the United States [the Clintons] what we needed.“
Unfortunately the Clinton Foundation did not provide that help, despite pocketing billions of dollars from donors with the express purpose of providing medical support to desperate Haitians.
“We left feeling as if we abandoned these patients, the country, and its people, and we feel terrible,” Dr. Lorich wrote, adding: “Our flight of critical medical equipment and personnel had been canceled.“
The father of three girls, Dr. Lorich was the associate director of the Orthopedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, as well as the Chief of the Orthopedic Trauma Service at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
