Truly unique case finally in court

IT IS Day 1 of the criminal trial of Dr Jayant Patel, a man whose legacy as head surgeon at a regional hospital in Queensland will be examined, diagnosed and dissected in the Supreme Court in Brisbane for the next two months.

In the dock, slightly hunched and staring impassively at the sterile courtscape when not taking notes, sits Patel. The former Director of Surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital, about 400km north of Brisbane, has waited five years for this moment.

This is a criminal trial like no other in Australian legal history. After five years of sensational lead-up events and pre-trial publicity, which judge John Byrne was at pains to stress must be put out of the minds of the jury members, Prosecutor Ross Martin SC opened the crown case, leading the court on a journey through human anatomy and the alleged lethality of Patel.

The message from the prosecution was clear: major and dangerous operations should not have been performed by Patel, nor contemplated at a regional hospital with the intensive care unit limitations of Bundaberg. Yet the accused, the crown said, had performed these operations and he did so with criminal negligence. Deaths and grievous bodily harm were the outcomes.

But what of the inherent risks of surgery? Surgical instruments can be dangerous implements, Martin said, even in the most capable and skilful hands. He explained that while it might be thought that surgeons enjoyed a special protection because of the nature of their work, and while legal systems were reluctant to charge surgeons to avoid the vice of defensive medicine, there are some cases involving surgeons where a criminal punishment is necessary. The case of R v Patel, he intoned, is one such case.

The opening was designed to give the jury a taste of the overall crown case -- thumbnail sketches of each of the alleged offences, application of the law in relation to surgeons, and the broad shape of the case. Unusually, the proceedings in court 15 are being beamed live to Bundaberg, the scene of Patel's alleged crimes, as well as to another court in the Brisbane complex set aside for the public.

Outside, TV crews and satellite dishes broadcast the comings-and-goings of Patel, the lawyers and some of the patients, among them the indefatigable Beryl Crosby, leader of a support group for patients since 2005.