Jayant Patel is facing more than a dozen medical negligence charges in Brisbane, Australia. Among them, he is accused of removing a man’s bowels unnecessarily, allowing an elderly man to die from internal bleeding, and taking out the wrong gland in a cancer operation.
The 58 year old doctor faces life in prison if convicted.
Among the accusations, Patel is said to have caused the wrongful death of three patients, and seriously harmed two others. His alleged negligence runs the gambit, from misdiagnosing patients and using questionable surgical techniques to performing surgical procedures that have been banned in the U.S.
Prior to moving to Australia, Patel had a similar pattern of negligence in the United States. He was fined by the NY state health officials and placed on probation in 1984, for allegedly failing to examine patients prior to operating on them. The pattern continued and in 1998 he was placed on restriction by his employer, Kaiser Permanente Hospital, following 79 complaints against him. He was cited by the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners for “gross or repeated acts of negligence.”
Patel failed to disclose his previous run-ins with the law and medical boards in the U.S. to his Australian employers, who said they would never have hired him had they known of his past.
Patel’s countless victims are quoted as saying that it is a “huge relief” that the case against him is finally moving forward.
Source: msnbc
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