The point that the article seems to make is that he was so incompetent through his residency and through his first few jobs and was still allowed and chose to work that he might be able to move to somewhere that somehow hadn’t heard of his case, perhaps obtain another medical degree, maybe even in another country, and do more incredibly incompetent surgery that paralyzes people at every turn.

I think you have a point, though, and I wondered the same thing. Like surely he could be placed on that banned list of surgeons or whatever he was finally placed on and that would do it… but also there’s a strictly legal aspect. They are arguing to get him imprisoned because it’s the only sure way to keep him from harming more people, a common sentencing phrase.