ENT surgeon Dr Roland von Marburg allowed to operate despite dozens of patient complaints

SURGEON Dr Roland von Marburg has been allowed to keep operating despite years of complaints from patients about his bad practise. | SPECIAL REPORT: The frequent flyer surgeon

• Dozens of complaints about surgeon over 15 years

• Medical boards fail to deregister him for more than a decade

• Angry patients demand to know why more wasn’t done

• SPECIAL REPORT: ‘How is he still out there?’

• EDITORIAL: Failed system is a sick joke

A SURGEON has been operating for 15 years despite dozens of complaints from patients including of unsuccessful surgery that made people deaf.

Dr Roland von Marburg has also been accused of performing inappropriate, unnecessary and substandard operations.

The ear, nose and throat surgeon based in Albury Wodonga has conducted thousands of operations since he started his business in the region.

Both the private and public hospitals in Albury Wodonga will not allow him to conduct surgery in their theatres.

The private hospital has suspended his accreditation pending the outcome of an investigation into his practice.

Patients Shane Newton and Rolf Kaiser were both operated on by Dr von Marburg and left with serious complications including hearing loss.

Mr Kaiser said the result was particularly distressing for him because he was already blind in one eye and had only 50 per cent sight in the other.

“I’m very upset about this,” Mr Kaiser said.

“I made a complaint to the Health Care Complaints Commission, but they were wishy washy in their response. It went nowhere.

“I’m completely blind in one eye, have 50 per cent sight in the other, I’m deaf — but I can still smell a rat.”

Shane Newton - with children Tom, 14, and Meg, 11 - has lost almost all hearing in one ear after several operations. Picture: Tony Gough

Fellow patient Mr Newton said he had been advised his hearing loss couldn’t be fixed.

Dr von Marburg defended his practice and described the series of claims presented to him as having “no substance at all”.

“They are a series of false allegations and scandalous lies and an attempt at character assassination,” he said.

“There has been a public campaign against me over political and ideological issues for over a decade and this has formed the basis of some complaints the great majority of which have been dismissed or unresolved.”

Dr von Marburg is outspoken in his opposition to abortion.

The Sunday Herald Sun has spoken to 12 surgeons from Victoria and interstate, who have all expressed concern about the frequent complaints about his work.

They are frustrated that the regulatory system has not yet taken away his right to operate.

It is believed eminent ear surgeon Dr Robert Briggs — head of otology at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital — has reviewed a dozen cases referred to him after Dr von Marburg’s surgeries.

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘How is he still out there?’

Some of those needed further surgery to fix the serious outcomes affecting patients’ ears, hearing and balance. Others were reviewed but were unable to be fixed. Some of those patients had been left with no hearing in one ear or both ears.

When approached by the Sunday Herald Sun, Dr Briggs would not comment, but referred to information already in the public domain.

Dr Briggs and another specialist from Sydney have given written statements to a NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing that there were “concerns about the surgery conducted by (Dr von Marburg) involving the ear canal, the middle ear and the mastoid and inner ear”.

“Associate Professor Briggs was critical of the listing procedures undertaken by (Dr von Marburg), the manner in which he sought to classify his procedures for charging purposes, and some clinical aspects of the procedures themselves,” the NCAT decision stated.

The tribunal reinstated some operating rights to Dr von Marburg after he appealed an interim ban on all surgery put in place by the Medical Council of NSW in March.

Dr von Marburg resigned from Albury Wodonga Health in 2012. The Sunday Herald Sun has been told his resignation was forced and followed allegations of irregular billing, which were never prosecuted.

Those allegations were that Dr von Marburg had claimed he had performed a 45-minute $500 operation, when he had only performed a 15-­minute $100 procedure. Independent surgeons were brought in to confirm the surgical instruments he used were only ­appropriate for the shorter, less expensive procedure.

The Albury Private Hospital has suspended Dr von Marburg’s right to conduct surgery at the facility, pending the outcome of further investigations by authorities.

The hospital’s chief executive, Doug McRae, said Dr von Marburg’s registration with the hospital had been suspended when NCAT restored some of his ability to conduct limited procedures in August.

When asked whether the hospital had been concerned about Dr von Marburg’s surgical practice in the year leading up to the imposition of his conditions, Mr McRae said: “I can’t comment on that.”

The earliest unsuccessful procedure of which the Sunday Herald Sun is aware was in 2000, when a father and son underwent “bat-ear” operations to pin back their ears.

The surgeon ignored the pair’s complaints of severe post-operative pain, caused from bandages being wrapped too tightly.

It killed portions of the then 12-year-old boy’s right ear and, despite attempts to rebuild it at the Royal Children’s Hospital, it could not be returned to normal shape.

The Victorian Medical Board reprimanded Dr von Marburg over the operations in 2003, citing his “unprofessional conduct of a serious nature”.

The Sunday Herald Sun has learned that when Dr von Marburg lost his position at Albury Wodonga Health, his list of 250 patients booked for surgery was reassessed and triaged by four other ENT surgeons.

It is understood that of the 170 patients who returned for reassessment, only about 85 needed surgery and fewer than half of those had the surgery for which Dr von Marburg had originally booked them.

Many surgeons have indicated to the Sunday Herald Sun they would be willing to give evidence about Dr von Marburg’s surgical practice if they were subpoenaed.

In May 2012, the NSW Medical Tribunal imposed conditions preventing Dr von Marburg from handling drugs of addiction after he admitted to self-prescribing and ­self-injecting pethidine in 2008.

The Sunday Herald Sun knows of at least five health professionals who say they were threatened with defamation for giving professional opinions that his work was deficient.

Some of Dr von Marburg’s operations with poor outcomes were due to what the Sunday Herald Sun has been told were considered by surgeons to be “incompetent” and “reckless” procedures.

They included hearing loss, brain abscesses and spinal fluid leaks.

Recently a man suffered partial face paralysis because Dr von Marburg cut the facial nerve during an operation.

“This is an easy thing to do, but should not occur with a competent surgeon,” a specialist told the Sunday Herald Sun.

Several patients say Dr Briggs recommended they lodge a complaint with the health complaints authorities in Victoria or NSW.

It is unknown how many people have gone to the multiple authorities which take complaints from patients and doctors.

Head of medical negligence at Maurice Blackburn Kathryn Booth said the allegations raised serious concerns about patient safety and warranted an inquiry by NSW and Victorian authorities.

“If the system allowed different agencies to join the dots, this may have been prevented,” she said.

“Patient safety can only improve if there is greater sharing of information nationally, as we know some doctors can move between states and territories to continue practising, even when there are restrictions placed on them in one place.”

She said the private healthcare system was particularly opaque in the way that adverse events were reported.

“There is already a law making it mandatory for any health practitioner to notify AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) if they are worried about another health professional’s performance,” Ms Booth said.

“This is meant to protect the public.

“However in reality, investigations can take a long time and doctors continue to be reluctant to report unsafe practice by colleagues.”

None of the authorities to which complaints had been directed would comment on the matter, citing privacy laws, and would only refer the Sunday Herald Sun to published decisions.

A spokeswoman for the Medical Council of NSW, Caroline Lamb, said confidentiality requirements under national laws prevented the council from disclosing the specific circumstances leading to its action in March against Dr von Marburg.

“The medical council ­opposed Dr von Marburg’s ­appeal but nonetheless respects the tribunal’s decision. Any criticism of the council and the regulatory authorities is unwarranted,” she said.

AHPRA spokeswoman ­Nicole Newton said the Medical Board of Australia had “nothing to do with decision-making about complaints about Dr von Marburg since national registration started in 2010 and the board and AHPRA were established”.

Scans of Shane Newton’s damaged ear. Picture: Dr Roland von Marburg

‘I CAN’T HEAR MY KIDS’

SHANE Newton went to medical specialist Roland von Marburg for a simple operation. He wanted to swim with his young children but first needed a hole in his eardrum mended.

It should not have been difficult. A myringoplasty is a bread and butter procedure for an ear, nose and throat surgeon. It is when a patch of tissue is grafted to repair the eardrum.

Dr von Marburg told Mr Newton the very worst that would happen to him was the hole might not mend. Mr Newton said the specialist did not warn him he might lose his hearing. But that was what eventually happened.

After the first surgery, Mr Newton had an aching ear which he figured was normal. Some months later he went swimming and noticed the hole was still there.

So Dr von Marburg suggested he return for another attempt at fixing the hole. When Mr Newton woke from surgery, part of his mastoid — a bone behind his ear — had been removed.

He had another operation after a CAT scan — this time to remove the rest of his mastoid. By the end of the series of operations, he had almost no hearing in that ear.

“Roland told me, ‘It’s all good, deafness is just part of the operation. You’ll be fine’,” Mr Newton recalled.

He decided to have his case reviewed by another specialist early this year.

He asked in April for Dr von Marburg’s rooms to forward his medical file to his new specialist.

That didn’t happen. After six months, the only document the new specialist received was a summary letter dated August 26, 2015, and one audiogram from 2012. Mr Newton’s actual file did not arrive until Thursday.

“Nothing was wrong with my hearing going into it. Now I can’t hear someone sitting next to me,” Mr Newton said.

He has been told by two specialists the last two operations were not necessary. A specialist in Melbourne has told him his hearing can’t be fixed.

“I’m 48 years old. I still can’t get my ear wet swimming with my kids — now I have trouble hearing them as well,” he said.

“But if it was my children getting operated on and having these issues, it would have been even more terrible.”

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