Sick to Death podcast: Why I’m revisiting the chilling tale of Jayant Patel after 20 years
Jayant Patel dishonestly concealed his notorious negligence with a scalpel. He had been severely disciplined for gross incompetence in the US. But his lies to Australian authorities saw him welcomed in Queensland and promoted to director of surgery in a regional public hospital where the sick and vulnerable fell into his hands.
It is the poignant story of a courageous nurse, Toni Hoffman, who became deeply worried about the death toll, despondent, and then so desperate that she risked her career to stop him.
A nurse with many years of intensive care unit experience, she would repeatedly alert hospital’s managers to deaths and injuries of patients, many of whom went to the public hospital for help. And left in body bags.
And it is an infuriating story of a severely strained public health system and its leaders, bureaucrats, politicians and their small armies of spinners and advisers. To cover up the truth, they administered heavy doses of deception to the public and journalists.
The unvarnished stories of Patel, Hoffman, and the public servants in the Queensland Health System are remarkable.
In 2005, they combined into one of the most important and powerful assignments for this journalist. The facts were so strange, we were incredulous, deeply shocked, then outraged.
In a fortnight, it will be 20 years ago to the day since former Queensland Supreme Court of Appeal judge Geoff Davies KC delivered his findings after a public inquiry that had begun in Brisbane in April, then went on the road with hearings in regional cities from Bundaberg to Townsville.
“Campaigns of concealment at the highest levels of the government were contrary to the public interest, misleading and deadly,” Davies ruled.
As for the missing surgeon, who had flown back to his mansion in Portland, Oregon, Davies found Patel was a pathological liar who performed operations beyond his competence and beyond the capacity of the hospital and its staff.
“As a result of negligence on the part of Dr Patel, 13 patients at the (hospital) died and many others suffered adverse outcomes,” Davies ruled.
Seven months earlier, before Patel became a household name, I went to Bundaberg to talk confidentially to Hoffman and other worried nurses about a toll of deaths and injuries. In her home, Hoffman said: “There were a lot of people who knew a lot and did nothing. And I think that’s part of the culture of medicine that has to change as well. The doctors protecting doctors.”
I wrote back then: “Away from the tragic accounts of those patients who died or were severely injured, the four nurses found humour. They laughed about the night his $200 Gucci shoes were stolen from theatre. They recalled his aftershave – so pungent the nurses knew where he was and how to avoid him. And his relentless flirting.
“At the end of a five-way conversation which filled a dozen pages of notes, we stood in Hoffman’s lounge room and began to say goodbye.
“It was after 10.30pm. Ming, her pint-sized Lhasa apso dog, and Sami, the Maltese terrier, were barking crazily. ‘You know, he didn’t become a bad surgeon overnight,’ said nurse Karren Jenner matter-of-factly.
“‘What do you mean?” I asked.
“‘Well, he’s in his mid-50s. He’s worked as a surgeon for about 30 years. You don’t suddenly go bad as a surgeon. He must have always been a bad surgeon. So there has to be a trail of wreckage everywhere he’s worked’.”
Jenner’s words jolted me like a sharp elbow to the face. What she had said was so fundamentally sensible and logical. It meant an examination of Patel’s US background was at least as important as his legacy in Bundaberg.
It was hard to sleep that night in a budget motel in Bundaberg. As a result of Jenner’s comments, I cut the reporting assignment short and hurried back to Brisbane to try to research Patel’s surgical history in the US. Back then, mobile phones were good for calling and texting but not online searching.
I went to my desk in the old newsroom in Bowen Hills, logged on and did a simple Google search. It brought up Patel’s shocking history of disciplinary proceedings, deaths, and payouts to their families and to those patients who survived and sued.
I telephoned Hoffman at her house in Bundaberg. She wasn’t mad. She wouldn’t be fired for blowing the whistle.
“We’ve got him,” I told her. She wept.
“Why didn’t they check?” That was one of the headlines the next day. The extraordinary revelations were the catalyst for the Commission of Inquiry that started under Tony Morris KC, and ended under Davies. They found so much that was dangerous and concealed across the health system.
Years later, Patel would face the criminal justice system. He was found guilty of manslaughter and fraud. However, the manslaughter conviction was subsequently overturned by the High Court.
Looking back now, 20 years later, it is obvious that many of the factors that led to this disaster are still with us. The many searing lessons of two decades ago must not be forgotten.
Do you know more? Contact Hedley Thomas and the team at sicktodeath@theaustralian.com.au
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This is the chilling true story of a senior surgeon with dangerous delusions about his ability.