Nurse hid patients from surgeon dubbed 'Dr Death'

Nurses hid critically-ill patients from an over-zealous surgeon dubbed “Dr Death”, claiming he would stalk the intensive care unit searching for people to operate on, an inquiry in Brisbane was told today.

“We were seeing these patients dying every day and we couldn’t do anything,” Toni Hoffman said as she choked back tears. “We just thought, what on earth could we possibly do to stop this man.”

Hoffman was testifying before an official inquiry into how Jayant “Jay” Patel, 56, was allowed to practice medicine in Australia’s Queensland state, despite having been cited for gross negligence in the US states of Oregon and New York.

Queensland health officials have since linked Patel to the deaths of at least 67 patients during his two-year tenure at the rural Bundaberg Base Hospital, where he was hired in 2003.

The state premier, Peter Beattie, said further checks of hospital files had uncovered 20 more deaths related to the Indian-born doctor’s care.

Hoffman said the man dubbed “Dr Death” by Australian media would regularly stalk the intensive care unit looking for patients to operate on – but his high level of complications led the nurses to take drastic action.

“We’d taken to hiding patients,” Hoffman said. “We’d taken to telling patients that they should ask to be transferred to Brisbane.”

Patel left Australia in April, and his whereabouts are unknown. He has not commented on the inquiry or allegations against him, and has no legal representation at the proceedings.

During her testimony, Hoffman broke down several times as she recalled nurses’ horror at watching patients die of complications after being treated by Patel, often with allegedly unnecessary procedures.

One patient, Des Bramich, entered the hospital in July with chest injuries.

Hoffman said Patel insisted on using a procedure in which a large needle is inserted into a sac around the heart to drain excess fluid – a common complication of chest injuries.

“He’d done an ultrasound first and there was no fluid around the heart, there was no indication to do this, but he decided he was going to do it anyhow,” Hoffman told the inquiry.

The nurse attending Patel told Hoffman, who was on duty at the time, that Patel had jabbed the man's chest up to 50 times before getting the procedure right.

In documents submitted to the inquiry and obtained by The Associated Press, Hoffman said an autopsy found the sac around Bramich’s heart was ruptured and full of blood from the jabs.

He died of internal bleeding on July 28, the report said.

In another case, a female patient died on July 6 after Patel tried to insert an instrument and punctured her jugular vein.

Before coming to Australia, Patel was educated in India and completed his residency in New York, where he was first disciplined for negligence in 1984.

In 2000, Oregon medical officials restricted Patel’s licence due to “gross or repeated acts of negligence”, and he was forced to surrender his NewYork license in 2001.

The Medical Board of Queensland has alleged that Patel falsified his application to practice in Australia by removing his disciplinary history. But the board has also acknowledged failing to check his application against US records.

Patel’s case has raised questions about how foreign-trained doctors are hired in Australia, which has a shortage of medical personnel.

The inquiry is expected to last several weeks, and will include testimony from Patel’s co-workers, former patients and their relatives, and state officials.