Asthma patient ‘lab rats’ allegedly used in Sydney Health District experiment gone wrong
A secret investigation is underway, following claims asthma patients were used unwittingly as “lab rats” in an experiment at Sydney Local Health District.
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Exclusive: Asthma patients say they were used as unwitting “lab rats” in a dangerous experimental trial of lung devices run by medical staff from the besieged Sydney Local Health District.
The shocking claims include patients being “tricked” into joining the “experiment” being conducted with an overseas medical company hoping to commercialise the devices.
A secret investigation is now underway into what is claimed to be the SLHD’s “inadequate” response to its own findings that crucial information was withheld from patients in the experimental trial which left at least one patient with life changing injuries.
“It is a human research crime – an international medical scam which has been covered up by health authorities,” injured patient Robert Cockburn said.
“I was a trial recruit. I suffered life-changing respiratory and neurological injuries as a result, at one point needing hospital emergency care to revive my breathing,” he said.
The embattled SLHD is already facing a revolt by medical staff over working conditions at Concord Hospital. Staff say nothing short of a parliamentary inquiry into the management of the SLHD will do.
More than 30 patients were recruited for the experiment from Concord Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred, and the Royal North Shore Hospital which went ahead with co-operation from University of Sydney and the Woolcock Institute.
Mr Cockburn, a veteran journalist, who now has to regularly use oxygen tanks to help with his breathing, is determined to find out the truth.
After years of digging Mr Cockburn discovered that not only had he not been told the trial he was involved with was experimental, he was not told the devices were not approved for use in Australia at the time, and the overseas company that supplied them stood to profit from the experiment.
Mr Cockburn complained to the SLHD which set up a panel to review his complaints.
While the report remains buried, Mr Cockburn said he has a summary of findings which confirmed that crucial information was withheld from patients and also withheld from the Human Research Ethics Committee at Concord, which approved the experimental trial.
The Minister for Health and Medical Research at the time, Brad Hazzard, said the “ … investigation did find that certain additional information should have been included in the patient information statement … the role of an overseas company with a commercial interest supporting the trial, use of the patient data, possible complications undertaking spirometry at home and details of emergency contacts.”
So Mr Cockburn took action at the highest level making a complaint to a federal government investigative agency, the Australian Research Integrity Committe, over alleged breaches of the national code for responsible conduct of research and the alleged failures of the SLHD.
“This is about the misuse of public research money by public education and health institutions to abuse patients in public hospitals,” he said.
A spokesman for the SLHD said the investigation panel made no findings of research misconduct.
Meanwhile, Mr Cockburn is working on a soon-to-be complete documentary on his case and human research crime, interviewing a string of experts about the ethics of the experimental trial.
One of those neutral parties interviewed was Professor David Engilman from Brown University, who has been an expert witness in a string of successful cases against big pharmaceutical companies.
“Injuring someone is injuring – whether you do it with a medical product or a baseball bat, if people are harmed then I think criminal sanctions are merited,” he told the documentary.
Were you involved in the experimental trial? Do you know more? Email: natalie.obrien@news.com.au
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Originally published as Asthma patient ‘lab rats’ allegedly used in Sydney Health District experiment gone wrong
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