Patient not told of surgery ban

A WOMAN who starved to death as a result of radical obesity surgery was operated on by a doctor despite his being banned two years earlier from carrying out such procedures by another Gold Coast hospital.

A WOMAN who starved to death as a result of radical obesity surgery was operated on by a doctor despite his being banned two years earlier from carrying out such procedures by another Gold Coast hospital.

The two private hospitals did not collaborate on their concerns, and a confidential audit by the Allamanda Private Hospital, which stopped Russell Broadbent from performing the operations in early 2004, was not provided to health safety and regulatory authorities.

After being stopped by Allamanda management, which refused to show Dr Broadbent its March 2004 audit on deaths and injuries among about 70 patients who had biliary pancreatic diversion (BPD) procedures, the surgeon operated at Pindara Private Hospital a few kilometres away.

Investigations by The Weekend Australian show Dr Broadbent, who denies any wrongdoing, performed a BPD in October 2005 on Rosanne Mafi, 57, a mother of three from Ipswich. She died in April last year after several months in hospital with severe malnutrition and multiple organ failure.

Her death is one of at least five being examined by investigators from Queensland health authorities along with numerous complications in surviving patients.

Associate professor John Dixon, head of Monash University's Centre of Obesity Research and Education, yesterday called for tight restrictions on the surgery he describes as dangerous and unnecessary.

Despite having been banned from performing BPD surgery at Allamanda Hospital since early 2004, Dr Broadbent, a private practice surgeon, held workshops and information meetings for prospective patients at the hospital in 2004 and 2005.

Neither Allamanda nor its staff disclosed to Mrs Mafi, her husband Joel or to other prospective patients that the hospital had decided 18 months earlier to ban the operations because of the "attendant risks". The patients were admitted to nearby Pindara Hospital for BPD surgery.

Mr Mafi said yesterday his wife died under shocking circumstances, and that he had been unaware until he read last Saturday's edition of The Weekend Australian that the surgery promoted by Dr Broadbent had been under a cloud.

"If we had been told that the Allamanda Hospital had stopped the operations, we would have said no," he said. "It would have been a warning sign to me. There was none of that information made available to us."

Michael Coglin, chief medical officer of Healthscope, a publicly listed company that bought Allamanda Hospital after Dr Broadbent's BPD surgery was stopped, said management acted appropriately in not revealing its audit to Pindara Hospital or health safety authorities.

"The correct action by a hospital and individual medical practitioners when confronted with a menace is to report to the Medical Board of Queensland," Dr Coglin said. "Based on my reading of (the audit), I would say they did not need to refer this report."

The Allamanda's audit, which remains confidential, is being examined by Queensland's Medical Board and the Health Quality and Complaints Commission. Both organisations were only alerted to the audit and the risks of BPD surgery as a result of concerns raised by Leesa MacLeod, the daughter of another deceased BPD patient.

Mark Doran, the state operations manager of Ramsay Health Care, which owns Pindara Hospital, said it had placed tight restrictions on Dr Broadbent's BPD surgery before deciding to suspend it indefinitely after the death of Mrs Mafi.

Mr Doran confirmed Pindara was unaware of the Allamandra audit report.

Dr Broadbent, who strenuously defends his judgment and competence, blames other doctors and his patients for their complications. He insists that BPD surgery is far superior to gastric banding, the most common surgery for the morbidly obese.

Asked about Mrs Mafi's death, Dr Broadbent said: "Mrs Mafi did very well for several months and then had symptoms which suggested that she was not exactly complying with the requirements of the procedure, with diet and exercise and so on.

"I knew nothing about any audit report or complaints by doctors and nurses (at Allamanda Hospital). The whole thing has been done behind my back."