Haematologist Bryone Kuss dumps bid to end chemotherapy underdosing inquest

A SENIOR haematologist has withdrawn from an 11th-hour bid to shut down an inquest into the deaths of four underdosed chemotherapy patients.

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A SENIOR haematologist has withdrawn from an 11th-hour bid to shut down an inquest into the deaths of four underdosed chemotherapy patients.

Darrell Trim QC, acting for senior doctors — including Ian Lewis and Agnes Yong who were stood down from the Royal Adelaide Hospital — argued before deputy coroner Anthony Schapel that the four deaths were not reportable and he had no jurisdiction to conduct an inquest.

Flinders Medical Centre haematologist Professor Bryone Kuss on Thursday withdrew from the move.

Outside court, underdosed patient Andrew Knox thanked her for being honourable and said “it is not too late for Ian Lewis and Agnes Yong to do the same thing”.

Andrew Knox is one of several patients that was underdosed with chemotherapy at the Flinders Medical Centre between July 2014 and January 2015. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Mr Trim told the coroner the inquest was improperly constituted in February last year because no one could say the deaths of the first two patients, Chris McRae and Johanna Pinxteren, were caused by the underdosing.

Bronte Higham and Carole Bairnsfather were added after the inquest was improperly established, he said.

Mr Trim said the patients all died of acute myeloid leukaemia — the blood cancer the chemotherapy given at half its proper dose was meant to treat — and their deaths were not unusual, unexplained or unnatural, and therefore not reportable under the Coroner’s Act.

A decision on whether to go ahead won’t be made for some weeks.

Argument was delayed further because the barrister for the Crown — representing the Health Minister, which was Jack Snelling, then Peter Malinauskas and now Stephen Wade — could not say whether the Government agreed or disagreed with the attempt to shut it down.

Mr Knox said he would continue to fight for accountability over the medical mistake.

“We are now dealing with the inescapable fact that ... we were denied our best chance of survival and prolonged life,” he said.