It sounds like the opening to a bad joke.

But in The News & Observer's two-day series about the neurosurgeon, Dr. Richard Greenberg of Gastonia, the punch line was anything but funny.

It came on day two, in the description of reporter Joseph Neff's conversation with Wayne Shovelin, the CEO of Gaston Memorial Hospital. That's the hospital that OK'd Greenberg to perform surgery despite his physical limitations and the stack of malpractice lawsuits that followed him from his previous practice in Arizona.

When Neff asked whether the hospital had checked Greenberg's competency, Shovelin replied:

"Get real, guy. He went through medical training. He went through medical school, residency. He's board-certified."

In other words, he's a doctor. (All bow.)

The arrogance of the statement brought me up short in reading the series. But then I realized the arrogance in that single prickly remark encapsulates everything that is wrong with this blind-in-one-eye-color-blind-in-the-other picture.

It's the arrogance that says a doctor is above reproach, even above question.

It's the arrogance that says doctors deserve special treatment (which is why drunken, drug-abusing or plain incompetent docs have kept their licenses so long, despite repeated foul-ups).

It's the arrogance that says we patients should just shut up and blindly (ouch) trust our doctors and trust our Medical Board to police them.

Blind trust, it turns out, is about as reliable as a surgeon with one eye.

The board has a great Web site (ncmedboard.org). Unfortunately, it does not list all of the actions taken against doctors, and there is no information about doctors' malpractice histories.

I'm trying to imagine what Greenberg's Gastonia patients might have thought had they seen the list of the good doctor's malpractice suit settlements.

The tally is long and includes one dead high school athlete (whom Greenberg diagnosed with psychiatric problems) and several people who left his operating table permanently paralyzed or handicapped.

Interestingly, of the 20-plus lawsuits, there isn't a runaway jury award among the lot.

Yet somehow we're supposed to believe that it's the greedy trial lawyers who are pumping up malpractice insurance rates, not the small percentage of lousy docs who account for the vast majority of suits.

Sadly, the N.C. Medical Board only began looking into Greenberg after fielding questions from reporter Neff.

So in the end, despite its proclaimed mission of protecting the public, the N.C. Medical Board once again has proved itself even more adept at protecting its members. After all, they've gone through medical training. They've gone through medical school, residency. They're board-certified. They're doctors.

Might be time for the legislature to conduct its own exam. (Turn your head and cough.)

Think they'll reform on their own?

Get real.

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