Death of Abdelhak, hospital CEO, reported

Sherif S. Abdelhak, the former CEO of what was once the largest health system in Pennsylvania - and the man blamed for its spectacular collapse in 1998 - died quietly last year in Florida.

Despite the passage of nearly two decades since the demise of the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health, Education, and Research Foundation (AHERF) - which at one point owned eight Philadelphia hospitals, including Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, and the venerable Medical College of Pennsylvania in East Falls - one of Mr. Abdelhak's sons, John, said his father still carried a burden from what happened.

"He was a loving father, but he never really recovered after that ordeal with the hospital," John Abdelhak said recently.

Mr. Abdelhak, 68, a native of Egypt, died Aug. 2, after an 18-month battle with cancer, he said.

Mr. Abdelhak's death had escaped public notice and was intentionally quiet. Neither his sons nor his current wife took out obituaries. In addition, his last name was listed as Abel on his death certificate - something his son was not aware of. His third wife, Anna, uses the last name Abel.

John Abdelhak said he returned a call to a reporter despite knowing that his father "probably wouldn't want you to write anything about him."

The bankruptcy of AHERF - which at its peak had 30,000 employees, two medical schools, and 14 hospitals stretched across two states - was at the time the largest nonprofit insolvency in U.S. history, and continues to have an impact on health care in the state.

That impact included the presence of the state's first for-profit hospitals, after Tenet Healthcare bought AHERF's Philadelphia hospitals out of bankruptcy, and the creation of the West Penn Allegheny Health System, precursor to the Allegheny Health Network. AHERF's death paved the way for UPMC's rise and hospital market dominance in the Pittsburgh area.

In a 2007 Post-Gazette story, Mr. Abdelhak made it clear AHERF's collapse still affected him as well. "I don't have a life," he said then. "They managed to destroy it 10 years ago."

The spectacular flameout of AHERF, and the blame that fell on Mr. Abdelhak, left former colleagues uncomfortable commenting on his death. Four former AHERF employees said they did not want to comment publicly about Mr. Abdelhak. None had stayed in touch with him.

In Philadelphia, AHERF bought two medical schools and eight hospitals and stretched itself too thin, something Mr. Abdelhak would not acknowledge until it was too late. The system had losses of about $1 million a day; creditors were owed nearly $1.5 billion.

After being charged with more than 1,500 counts related to AHERF's collapse, Mr. Abdelhak pleaded guilty in 2002 to a single misdemeanor of misusing charitable funds. He was sentenced to 111/2 to 23 months in jail, which he was allowed to serve in alternate housing.

He would later complain he was fired without being paid what he was due by AHERF. After he served his sentence, he divorced his second wife, Marlynn Singleton, a former TV anchor and now a physician, who at one time was AHERF's director of public relations.

Mr. Abdelhak's first wife, Mervat, also a physician, said she did not want to comment. "It just opens up a lot of old - I'd just prefer to not talk about this," she said.

After he got out of jail, Mr. Abdelhak had other business problems, including a failed venture in which he was accused of trying to buy oil illegally from Iraq or Iran, in violation of a presidential order banning such purchases from those countries. He filed for personal bankruptcy in 2004 and was ordered to pay $500,000 in back taxes.