1
00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:07,360
Speaker 1: My name is Headley Thomas.

2
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:09,960
Speaker 2: Sick to Death is based on my book of the

3
00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,680
Speaker 2: same name, and it's the true story of doctor j.

4
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,400
Speaker 2: Patel's lies and manipulation and the herculean effort it took

5
00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:22,360
Speaker 2: to finally stop him. We've used voice actors throughout this series,

6
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 2: and on occasion the real people from the story have

7
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:27,320
Speaker 2: read their words for us.

8
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,920
Speaker 1: It is brought to you by Me and the Australian.

9
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 2: Chapter forty six, Sugartown, eleven April two thousand and five.

10
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 2: It is known as a DEE or a distant engagement,

11
00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,680
Speaker 2: and depending on how well you are perceived by the

12
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,880
Speaker 2: editor to have been working, DEE can be a reward,

13
00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,560
Speaker 2: perhaps even a junket to an exotic island with A

14
00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,800
Speaker 2: most onerous task is to appear attentive as a guide

15
00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:13,039
Speaker 2: provides helpful facts for a travel story. Another kind of

16
00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,120
Speaker 2: DEE is stressful work dropping in on a community, usually

17
00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,480
Speaker 2: after a tragedy. There might be a rough car trip

18
00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:24,320
Speaker 2: over rutted roads, after a wobbly flight in a light aircraft,

19
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:27,520
Speaker 2: a scramble to interview the locals, the injured, and the

20
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 2: relatives and friends of the dead. Sometimes they want to talk,

21
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,240
Speaker 2: but the intrusion on their grief is awful. The trip

22
00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:40,760
Speaker 2: to Bunderberg shaped as something in between. Patricia Holloway, the

23
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,160
Speaker 2: Courier Male's travel organizer, had set up the Monday morning

24
00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 2: Quantus flight, the higher car and the motel accommodation for

25
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:52,200
Speaker 2: two nights. There would be interviews with the injured and bereaved,

26
00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,520
Speaker 2: but I expected they wanted to talk. I read the

27
00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,200
Speaker 2: Courier mail on the flight. The story I had filed

28
00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,440
Speaker 2: from home after the interview with Jerry Fitzgerald ran as

29
00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:06,880
Speaker 2: a page four lead. Page four was an ordinary space

30
00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:09,480
Speaker 2: in a Monday paper, but I was glad to keep

31
00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:14,119
Speaker 2: the issue alive. It had to maintain momentum. I had

32
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:17,840
Speaker 2: called Tony Hoffman after my conversation with Fitzgerald because I

33
00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,639
Speaker 2: wanted to tell her about his praise for the nurses.

34
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:25,160
Speaker 2: She was beginning to feel positive. My father had been

35
00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,640
Speaker 2: following the story with increasing interest. He emailed me shortly

36
00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,160
Speaker 2: before the flight to Bunderberg. Good to see you have

37
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:37,400
Speaker 2: started an inquiry into the activities of our man from Pakistan,

38
00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:41,640
Speaker 2: he wrote. I winced again at being reminded of my

39
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:47,160
Speaker 2: earlier mistake about Bettel's nationality. Dad read the newspapers closely.

40
00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,880
Speaker 2: He was always poised to pounce on the print media

41
00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,000
Speaker 2: or the ABC for anything that could be seen as

42
00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:58,919
Speaker 2: left wing bias. A twice decorated former Royal Australian Air

43
00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 2: Force pilot flown dangerous missions into jungles in Vietnam. He

44
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,680
Speaker 2: led squadrons in Australia and the Middle East before resigning

45
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,400
Speaker 2: to go into commercial aviation. He was my hero as

46
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,800
Speaker 2: a boy, and he remained a steadying influence. Our political

47
00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:18,920
Speaker 2: views were then poles apart, but we agreed on the

48
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,440
Speaker 2: vital importance of a free media. We also agreed on

49
00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,920
Speaker 2: the threats posed by the dishonesty and secrecy which was

50
00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,200
Speaker 2: pervading parts of the Beaty government. Dad was cranky with

51
00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,040
Speaker 2: one of my colleagues who had written a weekend article

52
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:37,400
Speaker 2: on a military helicopter accident. Dad reckoned it was, in

53
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,920
Speaker 2: his words, rubbish, with a pile of codswallop thrown in

54
00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:45,840
Speaker 2: for balance. It was an irresponsible piece and ought not

55
00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:48,800
Speaker 2: to have been published, he said. On the other hand,

56
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,560
Speaker 2: it was a fine example of how misreporting can mold opinion,

57
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 2: which leads me to my point. The truth pow always

58
00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:03,880
Speaker 2: the truth. The last time I had been to Bunderberg

59
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,600
Speaker 2: was in late June two thousand, after fire had destroyed

60
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 2: a backpacker's hostel in the nearby town of Childers. Robert Long,

61
00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,280
Speaker 2: who was an itinerant fruit packer with a grudge against

62
00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,920
Speaker 2: the hostel operators and some of its occupants, had lit

63
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 2: a match in a bin in the downstairs lounge fronting

64
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,560
Speaker 2: the main road one chilly night. When the volunteer firefighters

65
00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,880
Speaker 2: combed the ruins of the historic building after the flames

66
00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:36,359
Speaker 2: were finally extinguished, they counted fifteen bodies. The victims were young,

67
00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:42,000
Speaker 2: exuberant and hopeful travelers. Some died in their sleep, Others

68
00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:45,719
Speaker 2: who realized their peril were unable to escape the smoke

69
00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:50,440
Speaker 2: and heat because of bars on the windows. Unforgivably, the

70
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 2: fire alarm system had been turned off within minutes of

71
00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:58,680
Speaker 2: landing and shutting the engines down. We wandered around a

72
00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:03,480
Speaker 2: community in shock. The tragedy and the trespassing on the

73
00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,840
Speaker 2: grief of the sixty nine survivors and the families of

74
00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,279
Speaker 2: victims had a profound impact on me and my colleagues.

75
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,360
Speaker 2: The Courier Male's reporting team of Justine Nolan, Paula Donovan,

76
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 2: Amanda Watt and myself filed dozens of stories in the

77
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:24,680
Speaker 2: first few days. Despite his sensitivity with a camera, photographer

78
00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:29,760
Speaker 2: Anthony Wheat was abused and physically assaulted by one traumatized survivor.

79
00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,719
Speaker 2: It was a sobering reminder of the fine line we

80
00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:37,720
Speaker 2: walked between the public's need for news and an individual's

81
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,640
Speaker 2: right to privacy. Some of Bunderberg's retailers had asked the

82
00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,599
Speaker 2: survivors to come to town for free clothing, backpacks, and

83
00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,840
Speaker 2: other kit A bus was put on to ensure everyone

84
00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:55,520
Speaker 2: arrived in Bunderberg safely. After a shopping expedition in which

85
00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,320
Speaker 2: no money changed hands, the survivors and the journalists returned

86
00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:04,240
Speaker 2: to Childers. Our closest contact with the local community, our

87
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,600
Speaker 2: source for factual material about the rescuers, the police investigation,

88
00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:12,120
Speaker 2: the suspect, and even the shopping trip, came via a

89
00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:16,960
Speaker 2: woman called Kathy Heidrich and her husband Wayne. They owned

90
00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,000
Speaker 2: and put together the newspaper called The Isis Town and Country.

91
00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,760
Speaker 2: It was a weekly which was dedicated to local news.

92
00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:29,039
Speaker 2: Everyone trusted Kathy and Wayne and they were generous to

93
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,520
Speaker 2: us with their news tips. After arriving in Bunderberg on

94
00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,400
Speaker 2: eleven April two thousand and five, I called Kathy. She

95
00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,680
Speaker 2: would know about the surgeon Patel and the problems at

96
00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:44,800
Speaker 2: Bunderberg Base Hospital, I figured. We agreed to meet for

97
00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,560
Speaker 2: lunch the next day. My plan was to meet Tony

98
00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,840
Speaker 2: Hoffman after nightfall. It left me six hours to make calls,

99
00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,599
Speaker 2: visit the hospital in Bunderberg, and drive to the seaside

100
00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:00,159
Speaker 2: at Bagara to drop in on the Bold politician and

101
00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:05,279
Speaker 2: Rob Messenger, for whom my respect was growing. Although I

102
00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:09,400
Speaker 2: had told Gordon Nuttle and Jerry Fitzgerald of my Bunderberg plan,

103
00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,800
Speaker 2: it was my intention to keep a low profile while

104
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,800
Speaker 2: in town. There would be no dramatic attempts to doorstop

105
00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,880
Speaker 2: hospital managers such as Darren Keating or Peter Leck to

106
00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:26,440
Speaker 2: pose questions that they would I suspected be under strict

107
00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:32,840
Speaker 2: instructions to ignore. After parking outside a private clinic on

108
00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,800
Speaker 2: Boorbonk Street, I was struck by the provincial feel and

109
00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 2: dilapidated condition of the hospital and its grounds. There were

110
00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,960
Speaker 2: dying weeds ringing a faded concrete helipad a short walk

111
00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:50,320
Speaker 2: from a dejected main entrance. I left my notepad in

112
00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,320
Speaker 2: the higher car for all that the staff and patients

113
00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,200
Speaker 2: knew as I confidently pressed the elevator button, stopped to

114
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,720
Speaker 2: read the notices on the board, and checked out the

115
00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:04,520
Speaker 2: older wing of the hospital with its suite of executive officers,

116
00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,800
Speaker 2: far removed in every sense from where the doctors and

117
00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,080
Speaker 2: nurses improved or saved countless lives.

118
00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:12,920
Speaker 1: I was one of them.

119
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:18,520
Speaker 2: Nobody challenged me outside the intensive care unit, I appeared

120
00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,640
Speaker 2: around corridors and into wards. After about twenty minutes, I

121
00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,680
Speaker 2: left for the drive to Megara. With the renewal of

122
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:32,000
Speaker 2: its seafront esplanade, a swathe of holiday accommodation, more buildings

123
00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:35,160
Speaker 2: still coming out of the ground, and restaurants promising all

124
00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:39,120
Speaker 2: day breakfasts and bottomless cups of coffee. Baghara, on the

125
00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,880
Speaker 2: Coral Coast had become one of Queensland's newest magnets for tourists.

126
00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,240
Speaker 2: It was also where Patel had chosen to live. I

127
00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:52,559
Speaker 2: introduced myself to Rob Messenger's media adviser, me Linda Bradford,

128
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,520
Speaker 2: who told me the boss was still out of town. Bradford,

129
00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:00,480
Speaker 2: who was aged just twenty, had her hands full. A

130
00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:04,280
Speaker 2: middle aged man, perhaps a constituent, sat transfixed as she

131
00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:08,840
Speaker 2: offered advice. He seemed infinitely more interested in her than

132
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,359
Speaker 2: in the obscure problem he had brought.

133
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:12,680
Speaker 1: To the office.

134
00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,320
Speaker 2: In a news agency, I bought the Bunderberg newsmail to

135
00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:20,079
Speaker 2: check whether their reporters were still on the case. They

136
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:23,760
Speaker 2: had a story about Nuttle's backflip in establishing the review.

137
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,600
Speaker 2: I mentioned the controversy to the newsagent while passing over

138
00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,160
Speaker 2: ninety cents. I was just fishing. If she knew Pettell

139
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:35,800
Speaker 2: as a customer, she might say so. Perhaps he spent

140
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,600
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars a day on instant lottery tickets. Maybe

141
00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 2: he subscribed to Home Beautiful magazine. It was all grist

142
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:47,520
Speaker 2: for the mill. I don't know him, she said sharply.

143
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:51,760
Speaker 2: Bradford agreed to photocopy a handful of articles and a

144
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,520
Speaker 2: few written complaints from some of the people who had

145
00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:58,760
Speaker 2: been to Messenger since his stand in State Parliament. She

146
00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:03,439
Speaker 2: gave me names phone numbers. There was Ian Fleming, Beryl

147
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,960
Speaker 2: Crosby and Nelson Cox. They had all been patients of Patel,

148
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,559
Speaker 2: she explained. And there was Ian Brown. He was their

149
00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:16,960
Speaker 2: Brisbane based solicitor, a personal injury expert from Carter Capna Lawyers.

150
00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,800
Speaker 2: I knew the firm, having worked closely with one of

151
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,800
Speaker 2: their solicitors, Dudy Titsl. While reporting in two thousand and

152
00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:29,839
Speaker 2: one on property marketeering and ripoffs, Judy Titsl had been

153
00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,320
Speaker 2: targeting some of the people I was investigating and writing about.

154
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:38,120
Speaker 2: She launched legal actions to claim damages for their misleading

155
00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:42,680
Speaker 2: and deceptive conduct. By swapping intelligence, we both came out

156
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,120
Speaker 2: in front. I did not know Ian Brown, but I

157
00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:50,160
Speaker 2: figured that he would welcome the Courier Mail's interest publicity

158
00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:54,040
Speaker 2: was free advertising for his law firm two Patel clients

159
00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:57,040
Speaker 2: who had suffered or who thought they might win some money.

160
00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:02,400
Speaker 2: The usually symbiotic relationship between lawyers and journalists thrived on

161
00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:06,920
Speaker 2: these understandings. We relied on the victims for their story.

162
00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,800
Speaker 2: The lawyers relied on the victims for the money they

163
00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:13,079
Speaker 2: could bring into the firm. The victims relied on the

164
00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:17,720
Speaker 2: journalists and the lawyers to promote their case. I was

165
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,840
Speaker 2: in the car reading the local newspaper and scanning the

166
00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,520
Speaker 2: material copied by Bradford when Hoffman called my mobile phone.

167
00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,559
Speaker 2: The onus was on her to set the evening meeting up.

168
00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:32,040
Speaker 2: She offered her home and told me the address.

169
00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:35,120
Speaker 3: I think few other nurses will be coming to talk

170
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,600
Speaker 3: to you. I told them you were bringing the food.

171
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,720
Speaker 2: Earlier, I had offered to buy dinner a range of curries.

172
00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,360
Speaker 2: Hoffman said the best ones came from the Indian Curry Bazaar,

173
00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:51,760
Speaker 2: Patel's favorite restaurant and the venue for his farewell party.

174
00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,600
Speaker 2: She giggled at the delicious irony, and I agreed to

175
00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,440
Speaker 2: ring in the order. Returning to the motel, I put

176
00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:02,240
Speaker 2: in a call to the Bunderberg Base Hospital and asked

177
00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,280
Speaker 2: to speak to Keating. Although I was certain that he

178
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:07,880
Speaker 2: would not come to the phone or call me back,

179
00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,319
Speaker 2: I needed to ensure he had been given the opportunity.

180
00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,600
Speaker 2: I contacted the local Channel seven news reporter who had

181
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,520
Speaker 2: covered the visit of the Bramwich family to the local police.

182
00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:21,760
Speaker 2: She was too busy to meet me for a chat

183
00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,560
Speaker 2: about the story, and she doubted anyone from the hospital

184
00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,560
Speaker 2: would talk to me on the record. My next call

185
00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:32,160
Speaker 2: was to Mark Bramich, a quietly spoken bloke who just

186
00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:33,200
Speaker 2: missed his dad.

187
00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,760
Speaker 4: Before this, everyone including myself, bagged politicians. But if it

188
00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,760
Speaker 4: wasn't for Rob Messenger, none of this would have come about.

189
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:43,800
Speaker 4: I really think he's trying to help.

190
00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:45,200
Speaker 1: Us, he told me.

191
00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,600
Speaker 2: Brammich had witnessed the accident which pinned his father Dez

192
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,240
Speaker 2: beneath the caravan. One day in July two thousand and

193
00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,320
Speaker 2: four in the town of Agnes Water, Dees had appeared

194
00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,720
Speaker 2: to be doing well when Mark visited him in the.

195
00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:05,000
Speaker 4: Hot We went in there and he was stabilized, sitting

196
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,200
Speaker 4: up in bed and having a sip of coffee and talking.

197
00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,360
Speaker 4: No worries at all. And that was the next day.

198
00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,760
Speaker 4: He was just normal. He was thanking God that he

199
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,120
Speaker 4: had got out of the situation. I went home and

200
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,280
Speaker 4: started doing some work, and then the missus said you'd

201
00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:23,840
Speaker 4: better come back. He's taken a turn for the worse.

202
00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:28,000
Speaker 4: I got there at nighttime. He wasn't conscious. We were

203
00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:29,199
Speaker 4: up there until he died.

204
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:32,839
Speaker 2: Brammich recalled Patel, saying.

205
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,640
Speaker 5: You had better pray because he has only a ten

206
00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:36,920
Speaker 5: percent chance of surviving.

207
00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:40,560
Speaker 4: I didn't know what to think. In a way, it

208
00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:43,120
Speaker 4: was sad, but in a way it was also up front.

209
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,640
Speaker 4: It was arrogant in the way he said it. The

210
00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,920
Speaker 4: nurses were crying. I'll never forget that they could see

211
00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:50,920
Speaker 4: something wasn't right.

212
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,720
Speaker 2: After thanking Brammig for his time, I called the solicitor

213
00:13:56,800 --> 00:13:59,280
Speaker 2: ian Brown in Brisbane to clear the path for a

214
00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:03,240
Speaker 2: meeting with him his clients in Bunderberg. Brown and I

215
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,160
Speaker 2: talked about Queensland Health's decision to announce the clinical review.

216
00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,560
Speaker 2: A few days earlier, Gordon Nuttle and Steve Buckland had

217
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,520
Speaker 2: firmly told the staff of the hospital that there would

218
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:20,120
Speaker 2: be no completed report and no finalized investigation. Now a

219
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:25,240
Speaker 2: major inquiry was under way. Privately, I suspected that Nuttle

220
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,640
Speaker 2: had heeded at least some of my advice at our lunch,

221
00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,880
Speaker 2: but I did not know how much he really knew

222
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:34,560
Speaker 2: about Patel. Brown told me.

223
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:37,400
Speaker 1: It all seems very rushed.

224
00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:40,440
Speaker 6: It could be a response to the Thursday public meeting

225
00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:42,000
Speaker 6: that Beryl Crosby is driving.

226
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:43,320
Speaker 1: She's one of the patients.

227
00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:46,680
Speaker 6: In the space of two days we fielded a dozen

228
00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:50,880
Speaker 6: people interested in making claims. The hospital staff are concerned

229
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:53,400
Speaker 6: about going to the meeting because they fear the hospital

230
00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:57,200
Speaker 6: send spies. We are still worried that Queensland Health is

231
00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:58,520
Speaker 6: going to do a whitewash on this.

232
00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:03,120
Speaker 2: Brown told me that Beryl Crosby was keen to set

233
00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:04,680
Speaker 2: up a patient support group.

234
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:07,920
Speaker 1: There's nothing better than shared experiences.

235
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:12,680
Speaker 2: Cynically, I thought it was also a clever strategy adopted

236
00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:17,119
Speaker 2: by personal injury law firms. It meant as many potential

237
00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:20,560
Speaker 2: claimants as possible were brought together with a minimum of

238
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:28,160
Speaker 2: fuss and expense. The administrative head of the Bunderberg Hospital,

239
00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:32,920
Speaker 2: Peter Leck, was feeling foolish. His earlier backing of Jayon

240
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,440
Speaker 2: Patel was backfiring now after all the face it seemed

241
00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:40,440
Speaker 2: to Leck that the hierarchy was less concerned about the

242
00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,280
Speaker 2: natural justice.

243
00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:43,560
Speaker 1: He was confused.

244
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,080
Speaker 2: The report Doctor Jerry Fitzgerald had sent to Peter Leck

245
00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,440
Speaker 2: on seven April was far from a clean bill of

246
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:55,560
Speaker 2: health for the former director of Surgery, and Steve Buckland,

247
00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:58,440
Speaker 2: the Director General, had to have known it when he

248
00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:03,640
Speaker 2: visited the hospital that day. So why Peterleck wondered the

249
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:07,840
Speaker 2: angry condemnation of the staff at the time and then

250
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:12,600
Speaker 2: the weekend backflip Lex still had no idea about how

251
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,760
Speaker 2: incompetent Patel had been, nor did Leck know anything about

252
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:24,560
Speaker 2: Patel's lethal negligence. In the United States. Fitzgerald, Buckland, Darren

253
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:28,640
Speaker 2: Keating and the medical board were holding that information back.

254
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:33,760
Speaker 2: It was too damning for them all. Fitzgerald had been

255
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:36,280
Speaker 2: asked to go to Bunderberg to meet the staff on

256
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,920
Speaker 2: thirteen April and brief them on his findings, but he

257
00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,720
Speaker 2: had not been asked to tell the staff about the

258
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:49,840
Speaker 2: discovery of Pateel's United States history. Those findings were still

259
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:53,760
Speaker 2: a secret. Peter Leck thought it best for Jerry Fitzgerald

260
00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:56,680
Speaker 2: to meet first with the staff from the intensive care

261
00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 2: unit prior to a general staff meeting at either lunchtime

262
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:05,200
Speaker 2: all afternoon tea time. Leck wrote to Fitzgerald.

263
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:08,160
Speaker 7: This will allow for those staff who expressed the concerns

264
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,800
Speaker 7: to feel a little special in talking to you prior

265
00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:14,040
Speaker 7: to a wider audience. Would be grateful if you confirm

266
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:15,720
Speaker 7: that you are happy to meet with the families of

267
00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:19,000
Speaker 7: some patients before we make the offer. The ones getting

268
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,800
Speaker 7: most publicity are the Brammiches crushed by caravan case currently

269
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,919
Speaker 7: subject to coronial inquiry, and Beryl Crosby. You did not

270
00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,080
Speaker 7: review this case, but she has complained that she was

271
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:32,600
Speaker 7: wrongly diagnosed with cancer and has had lots of media attention.

272
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,919
Speaker 2: Fitzgerald replied that he was happy to meet the families

273
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:38,400
Speaker 2: if that would be helpful.

274
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:41,560
Speaker 8: We should also meet with the local press, and the

275
00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,480
Speaker 8: Minister asked that I try and give Nita Cunningham a

276
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,520
Speaker 8: briefing on the situation as well. That would need to

277
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:48,560
Speaker 8: be done discreetly.

278
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 2: Fitzgerald said, if any politician deserved a briefing from the

279
00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:58,840
Speaker 2: Chief Health Officer, it was Rob Messenger. His outspokenness in

280
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:03,000
Speaker 2: Parliament did the lead. But Messenger was from the wrong

281
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:08,919
Speaker 2: political party. Anita Cunningham, who had done nothing but spout propaganda,

282
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,720
Speaker 2: was the first political cab off the rank. That's because

283
00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:17,960
Speaker 2: she was the Labor Party's representative. Lek asked Joan Dooley

284
00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:23,080
Speaker 2: to arrange a very discreet meeting between Fitzgerald and Cunningham.

285
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:26,600
Speaker 7: Would be grateful if you could make confidential arrangements.

286
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:39,840
Speaker 2: Leck said, Chapter forty seven, The Penny Drops Evening, eleven

287
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:46,520
Speaker 2: April two thousand and five. Behind the counter at the

288
00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:51,320
Speaker 2: Indian Curry Bazaar, the restaurant's owner, Pam Samra, her fingers

289
00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:56,119
Speaker 2: and wrists dazzling with gold rings and bracelets, smiled. She

290
00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:59,360
Speaker 2: motioned me to a seat to wait for the takeaway meals.

291
00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 1: It won't be long, she said.

292
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:06,680
Speaker 2: At a table strewn with magazines and newspapers. The Bunderberg

293
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,959
Speaker 2: news mail from the previous Saturday stood out. The local

294
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,600
Speaker 2: paper had done its biggest story yet on Jon Patel.

295
00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,679
Speaker 2: Its front page declared families to sue over doctor death.

296
00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:24,960
Speaker 2: The letters page, a pot pori of opinions, included a

297
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:28,760
Speaker 2: kurt missive from Nita Cunningham, the Labor member for Bunderberg,

298
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,760
Speaker 2: who was still criticizing Rob Messenger for revealing the complaints

299
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:34,479
Speaker 2: against Patel.

300
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 9: It is not proper for a member of Parliament to

301
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,360
Speaker 9: rush in and defame a doctor before he has had

302
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 9: the benefit of natural justice, but to do it in parliament,

303
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:47,639
Speaker 9: to defame someone so badly under the cowardly protection of

304
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,800
Speaker 9: parliamentary privilege has disgusted us all since then. As a

305
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:55,640
Speaker 9: direct result of the Member for Burnett's prolonged and vicious attacks,

306
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:59,760
Speaker 9: this surgeon has left a hospital. Many sick people will

307
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 9: now having their surgery postponed or being sent to another

308
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,959
Speaker 9: hospital in Brisbane or Harvey Bay to have this work done,

309
00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,000
Speaker 9: and of course the waiting times in Bunderberg will blow out.

310
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:13,720
Speaker 9: Meanwhile the hospital has to find a replacement. It is

311
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 9: encouraging to see that my disgust that his lack of

312
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:21,440
Speaker 9: responsibility is being shared by so many health professionals throughout

313
00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:22,280
Speaker 9: our district.

314
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,199
Speaker 2: Knowing that Patel had been one of the restaurant's best customers.

315
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,520
Speaker 2: I held up the newspaper's front page to use as

316
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:34,720
Speaker 2: a pretext for a seemingly innocent query. The story about

317
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,120
Speaker 2: this surgeon at the hospital has stirred up a lot

318
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 2: of trouble. It's all over the papers, I said to

319
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 2: Pam Samra.

320
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,200
Speaker 9: He's a lovely man.

321
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 4: He used to come here all the time. He made

322
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 4: a few enemies because he was very talented.

323
00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:49,880
Speaker 9: Some of the people he worked with at the hospital

324
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:50,920
Speaker 9: became jealous.

325
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:53,120
Speaker 4: I don't believe the things they've said about him.

326
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,480
Speaker 9: I heard from others there that it's all wrong.

327
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:56,679
Speaker 4: It's terrible.

328
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:57,360
Speaker 1: He had to leave.

329
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 2: She replied to me. Tony Hoffman's directions were precise, but

330
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 2: somewhere it went bad. I was late, hopelessly lost, speeding

331
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,120
Speaker 2: crazily and throwing the higher car into violent turns as

332
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,680
Speaker 2: plastic containers of curry bumped and leaked on the front

333
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,080
Speaker 2: passenger seat, and then I almost crashed.

334
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: Near the railway line.

335
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,560
Speaker 2: Even with a map and directions, I couldn't find her street,

336
00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 2: just a few minutes from town. When I used the

337
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:33,480
Speaker 2: mobile phone to ask for help, she sounded exasperated. I

338
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,360
Speaker 2: wondered if She shared my thoughts. What sort of investigative

339
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:43,919
Speaker 2: journalist can't find a clearly marked street. Tony's small weatherboard home,

340
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 2: aglow with candles, ornate frames around, pictures of loved ones,

341
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:53,600
Speaker 2: exotic trinkets, antique furniture hangings and ornaments from the Middle

342
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 2: East and Asia, had an immediate calming effect. As nurses

343
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:04,400
Speaker 2: Karen Jenny and Karen Fox introduced themselves, Hoffman set plates

344
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 2: and cutlery around the kitchen table and opened a bottle

345
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 2: of wine. There were two other nurses there, and they

346
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,400
Speaker 2: asked to be given made up names. I'm calling them

347
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 2: Jody Gerda and Rita Black. I don't think I was

348
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 2: followed here, I told them feebly. After telling Tony what

349
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 2: Pam Samra at the Indian Curry Bazaar had said about Patel,

350
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,560
Speaker 2: I suddenly felt sick. Pam knew that Tony had telephoned

351
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 2: the order for the curries, which I had picked up

352
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 2: and paid for with a credit card bearing my full name.

353
00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 2: If the restaurant's owner read the courier mail and noticed

354
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 2: my byline, she would realize the connection, and if she

355
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 2: spoke about it to one of Patel's friends. I feared

356
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,760
Speaker 2: that hospital management would have the evidence it needed to

357
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 2: go after Hoffman, I confessed and apologized for my carelessness.

358
00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 2: I should have paid cash for the meal. Hoffman and

359
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,359
Speaker 2: her colleagues had taken a big risk in meeting me

360
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,280
Speaker 2: under a veil of secrecy. I hoped it would not

361
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 2: bring them more grief. Between mouthfuls of rogan Josh, garlic,

362
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 2: nan and chicken Tanduri, we spoke of cardiac arrest, perforations

363
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:21,640
Speaker 2: of the bow, and pass using infections. Hoffman had been

364
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,359
Speaker 2: through the charts during her shift that day to see

365
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 2: the number of Patel's patients who had suffered serious complications, infections,

366
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 2: wound breakdowns, and death since September. The exercise had made

367
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 2: her more depressed.

368
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 3: She told me, there's fourteen more. Doctor Martin Carter is

369
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 3: the one who should have stopped Patel earlier. I said

370
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,280
Speaker 3: to him that he should be ashamed of himself, that

371
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 3: he had left it all to the nurses. And he

372
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:53,720
Speaker 3: said he realized that now and should have done more.

373
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 3: The doctors cling together, they would not stand up and

374
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 3: be counted. The doctors are commenting now, well, none of

375
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 3: us are safe anymore.

376
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: You I see you.

377
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 3: You build up a special rapport with the families. You

378
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 3: become surrogate families. They trust you. You see the patients

379
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 3: at their sickest.

380
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 2: Rita Black seemed naturally more reserved than the other nurses

381
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,159
Speaker 2: Because of her quiet demeanor, Her descriptions of some of

382
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,400
Speaker 2: Patel's procedures carried a lot of force. It was very

383
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,639
Speaker 2: difficult for nursing staff to complain about the doctors, she explained,

384
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 2: adding that Petel's antics were like something out of a movie.

385
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,640
Speaker 2: Karen Jenna was more direct, still furious about the attempt

386
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 2: by Gordon Nuttle and Steve Buckland to shut down the inquiry.

387
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 2: Karen seethed over management's mishandling of a surgeon she regarded

388
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 2: as a dangerous menace.

389
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 10: Patel Blue is trumpet so hard for himself in the

390
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 10: hospital that he made it seem he was untouchable.

391
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:02,439
Speaker 2: Jody Gerda was blunt and brutally directed Patel's incompetence. She

392
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 2: had also tried to figure out what made him tick.

393
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,160
Speaker 2: Hours after Rob Messenger spoke about Patel in State Parliament,

394
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 2: Jodie Girder had watched the surgeon going around the ward

395
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 2: as if it was any other day. His blind self

396
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,960
Speaker 2: belief was abnormal Karen Fox, who had been with Hoffman

397
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:25,879
Speaker 2: when we first met at the Courier Maal's Brisbane office,

398
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 2: became upset talking about the death of des Bramich. She

399
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,640
Speaker 2: had been there for his final minutes and she heard

400
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 2: Patel's heartless comments to test and the rest of the family.

401
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 2: She had seen people die before, but never as violently

402
00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 2: as Brammich, with a surgeon standing over him, stabbing his

403
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 2: chest repeatedly with a long needle. The stories of negligence,

404
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 2: death and cover up tumbled out. A man who died

405
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 2: after Patel persuaded him to let him perform an aesophagectomy

406
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,679
Speaker 2: instead of going to Brisbane to have it done, a

407
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 2: man whose bow was perforated in surgery. On the evening

408
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 2: of Messengers' revelations in Parliament, they told how Patel's one

409
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 2: hundred percent complication rate with the insertion of catheters for

410
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 2: renal dialysis prompted the hospital to bypass him and have

411
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 2: the procedures done privately. They described Patel's obsession with performing

412
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 2: surgery even when the patients were not in his care.

413
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 2: They spoke about the lopping of gangrenous toes with no

414
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 2: pain relief. The delusional perception of his abilities, How he

415
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 2: opened his wallet to shower gifts on the staff he

416
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 2: regarded as supporters. How he would keep his patients in

417
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 2: Bunderberg even when their deteriorating conditions were life threatening. Why

418
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 2: did he keep his patients, I asked.

419
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 10: Naively, because if they went to Brisbane, the complications would

420
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 10: be obvious, said Black.

421
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 11: In the public coffee shop, he held court, comparing us

422
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 11: to the Third World and referring to our substandard equipment.

423
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: Said girder.

424
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 2: Hoffmann chimed in, he worked long hours.

425
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 3: I don't think he had a life outside. On weekends

426
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 3: when he was not on call, he would turn up

427
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 3: and in that time he would cause more mischief, telling

428
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 3: the ICUs stuff that I did not support him, and

429
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 3: asking them whose team they were on. He wanted to

430
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 3: be on every committee and every panel, and people thought

431
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 3: that because he talked a lot, he was good. Were

432
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 3: worried about what monsters he was creating. From the younger doctors.

433
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 3: There were a lot of people who knew a lot

434
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 3: and did nothing, and I think that's part of the

435
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,199
Speaker 3: culture of medicine that has to change as well. The

436
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:47,359
Speaker 3: doctors protecting doctors.

437
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 2: Away from the tragic accounts of those patients who died

438
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 2: or were severely injured. The four nurses found humor. They

439
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 2: laughed about the night his two hundred dollars Gucci shoes

440
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 2: were stolen and from theater. They recalled his after shave

441
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 2: so pungent. The nurses knew where he was and how

442
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 2: to avoid him, and they recalled his relentless flirting. At

443
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 2: the end of a five way conversation which filled a

444
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 2: dozen pages of notes, we stood in Hoffman's lounge room

445
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 2: and began to say goodbye. It was after ten thirty pm.

446
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 2: Ming her pint sized larsa Apso dog and Sammy, the

447
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 2: Maltese terrier were barking crazily. Karen Jenner said something matter

448
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 2: of factly.

449
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 10: You know, he didn't become a bad surgeon overnight.

450
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: What do you mean, I asked, Well.

451
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 10: He's in his mid fifties. He's worked as a surgeon

452
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 10: for about thirty years. You don't suddenly go bad as

453
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 10: a surgeon. He must have always been a bad surgeon,

454
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 10: so there has to be a trail of wreckage everywhere

455
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 10: he's worked.

456
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 2: Her words jolted me like a sharp elbow to the face.

457
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 2: What she had said was so fundamentally sensible and logical.

458
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: It meant an examination of Patel's US background was at

459
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 2: least as important as his legacy in Bunderberg. On the

460
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 2: drive back to the motel on Boorbong Street, I decided

461
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 2: to leave Bunderberg as soon as possible. There was a

462
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 2: new priority. I wanted to return to Brisbane to run

463
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 2: checks on Patel's employment in the United States. Karen Jenner's

464
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,200
Speaker 2: comment and the appalling horror stories kept me up most

465
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 2: of the night thinking about the possibilities Chapter forty eight,

466
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 2: Close and Personal. Twelve April two thousand and five, As

467
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 2: the earliest available flight back to Brisbane would not leave

468
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 2: until two pm, I still had time to meet some

469
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 2: patients at the home of Beryl Crosby's parents on the

470
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 2: outskirts of Bunderberg. For the second time in as many days,

471
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 2: I became hopelessly lost and arrived late. Crosby radiated genuine

472
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 2: warmth and friendliness.

473
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: She led me around the house.

474
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 2: To a backyard sitting area where Nelson Cox, an elderly

475
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 2: man who had once been a handy boxer, sat with

476
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 2: his doting wife Harriet, and Ian Fleming, a former police officer.

477
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 2: Of everyone there Crosby's father, who had never laid eyes

478
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 2: on Patel, booked the most unwell. He had a thick

479
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 2: cough and difficulty speaking. Crosby's mother made sure everyone had

480
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 2: a drink and a biscuit.

481
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 12: I just went in for a gallbladder removal. I was

482
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 12: as fit as a fiddle.

483
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: Said Cox, keen to get the ball rolling.

484
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 12: That was on the twenty fifth of October two thousand

485
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 12: and four. The outcome there was a mess up in

486
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 12: the operation and I had to go back into surgery

487
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 12: again night.

488
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: Missus Cox piped up. The surgical nurse said, what happened

489
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: in there should not have happened.

490
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 12: That night I underwent another surgical procedure to fix the damage,

491
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,640
Speaker 12: and then I was moved to the ICU for a

492
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 12: day and a half. It was black and rotten. They

493
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 12: were taking four or five liters twice a day out

494
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 12: of me. I was that sick kneel by mouth for

495
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 12: sixteen days. Doctor Pateell did the first and the second procedure.

496
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 12: Something was done or cut that shouldn't have been done

497
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 12: or cut. All Patel said to me after five or

498
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 12: six days was you were very lucky that you were

499
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 12: fit and a good sportsman. He did the third procedure

500
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 12: as well. That was a cut to put a drain

501
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 12: in and get it all out of my gut. My

502
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 12: stomach had swollen up so much. I was up there

503
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 12: for more than three weeks. I thought I would only

504
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 12: be there overnight.

505
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: Cox lifted his shirt.

506
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 2: He carried hardly any fat on his wiry frame, but

507
00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 2: his abdomen was horribly distended. The size of one of

508
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 2: the local mangoes jutted out. There was angry scarring.

509
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 12: I reckoned there was something wrong from the start, but

510
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 12: he was the doctor and he was that nice to me.

511
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 12: He can't even put a staple in. The nurses would

512
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 12: say to me, by g you had a hard time

513
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 12: in surgery. You went through a lot. After the third operation,

514
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 12: he did not want to see me again. I had

515
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 12: to go back for checkups. I asked a couple of

516
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 12: times for him. He was still seeing patients, but not me.

517
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 2: I asked about Patel's personality. From interviews at Tony Hoffman's

518
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 2: house the night before and now with the patients in

519
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 2: the backyard, Peatel sounded like a man who believed he

520
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 2: was flawless. Crosby said he had a lovely manner.

521
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 11: We really believed in him because he was so positive

522
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 11: until something went wrong and he didn't want to know you.

523
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:52,800
Speaker 11: I told him I love you. When I was going

524
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 11: on to anesthetic. He was so nice to me. He

525
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 11: made you feel that you could have faith in him.

526
00:32:57,840 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 11: He told me that no matter what, he was going

527
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 11: to buy me some time. He was a lovely man.

528
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 11: After things went wrong, he never saw any of us.

529
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 11: He screamed at me. He passed the buck. Everyone knows

530
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 11: someone who had a problem. A lot took the attitude

531
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 11: that there's no point. It was never the case that

532
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 11: the doctors and nurses were not doing their jobs properly.

533
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,640
Speaker 11: They were wonderful, but they were gagged and forced to

534
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 11: stand by while people were being hurt. Leg and doctor

535
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 11: Keating should be held accountable, along with the hospital board.

536
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 11: They listened to reports and did not stop him. Messenger

537
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 11: was the lynchpin.

538
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 2: He deserves a metal chimed in Cocks. Fleming, who had

539
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 2: been listening patiently as Crosby and Cox described their experiences,

540
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 2: now spoke.

541
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 5: He made you feel that you and he would go

542
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 5: through it together. Once it was apparent there was a complication,

543
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 5: he became abrupt, rude, and arrogant and wiped his hands

544
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 5: of you. Complications in surgery are a fact of life.

545
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,240
Speaker 5: With the high complication rate he had goes back to

546
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,239
Speaker 5: when he started at the hospital and was covered up.

547
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 5: He was of an age where you expected he had

548
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 5: twenty to thirty years of experience and qualifications and ability

549
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 5: and competency. I didn't know his experience and I didn't

550
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 5: know anyone else was suffering. He's delusional because he would

551
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 5: convey a sense of absolute mastery of the subject. He

552
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 5: was very fluent and well spoken, and I think he

553
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,840
Speaker 5: hoodwinked and befuddled the executives and administration at the hospital.

554
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 5: I think the culture in the hospital maintains an atmosphere

555
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 5: of suppression and repression. I have nothing but the highest

556
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,240
Speaker 5: praise for the nurses and staff there, except for Patel.

557
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 2: Crosby took some telephone calls. She was torn. Ian Brown,

558
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 2: her solicitor had advised her not to meet the Queensland

559
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 2: Health staff or doctor Jerry Fitzgerald, who were due to

560
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 2: arrive in Bunderberg the next day. Brown was unable to

561
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 2: go to the meeting and he was playing it safe.

562
00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: We spoke about the pros and cons Crosby feared that

563
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:02,799
Speaker 2: she was out of her depth in her role as

564
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 2: an advocate for the patients, dealing with journalists, lawyers and

565
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 2: soon the chief health officer. She had never been a

566
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:15,120
Speaker 2: political player in her uncomplicated life in Bunderberg. Crosby did

567
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,320
Speaker 2: not know or care which side of politics Peter Beatty,

568
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:23,000
Speaker 2: the Premier represented. The slings and arrows of political theater

569
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 2: held no interest for her. She had a heart of

570
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,919
Speaker 2: gold and a capacity to keep giving to everyone around her.

571
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:35,280
Speaker 2: When she learned of Patel's errors and complications, Crosby's first

572
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 2: concern was for those who might have escaped his attentions

573
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 2: had she pressed her complaint. I told her that I

574
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:44,800
Speaker 2: thought there was nothing to lose in going to meetings

575
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 2: with senior Queensland Health staff who might hopefully shed light

576
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 2: on Patel and his legacy. Gordon Nuttle's backflip and Jerry

577
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:59,919
Speaker 2: Fitzgerald's apparent openness were encouraging signs information was almost always power.

578
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,359
Speaker 2: After leaving, I sped back to Boorbong Street to meet

579
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:11,720
Speaker 2: Kathy Heidrich for a chat over lunch. She too knew

580
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,839
Speaker 2: one of Patel's patients, a woman from Childers who had

581
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 2: died after surgery by Patel. She had been one of

582
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 2: the town stalwarts. In the immediate aftermath of the blaze

583
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:26,879
Speaker 2: at the hostel. She had made herself available at all

584
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 2: hours to give the survivors a shoulder to cry on, food, drink,

585
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:35,800
Speaker 2: and clothing. Over a cappuccino and a toasted sandwich, Kathy

586
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 2: told me that the popular woman's demise was a great loss.

587
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 2: Chapter forty nine, The Bombshell, twelve April two thousand and five.

588
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 2: For a few moments at the arrival's terminal at Brisbane Airport,

589
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,720
Speaker 2: I considered going straight home in a taxi to Ruth

590
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 2: and the kids. It was already after four pm. I

591
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 2: was tired, I had barely slept. It seemed unlikely I

592
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 2: would get much work done at my desk at the

593
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 2: office in the late afternoon. But the doubts over Patel's

594
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 2: background kept niggling at me. I had a sense there

595
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 2: was something more. It was stronger than a hunch. So

596
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 2: much of the double speak of the politicians, bureaucrats and

597
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:24,080
Speaker 2: spin doctors did.

598
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: Not add up.

599
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 2: And there was Karen Jenner's haunting comment about the trail

600
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 2: of human wreckage elsewhere. I went directly to the office.

601
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,839
Speaker 2: There were fourteen messages on my voicemail, one from an

602
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 2: irate Pakistani doctor furious that I had misreported Patel's nationality,

603
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 2: one from someone in Mount ISAA seeking someone to investigate.

604
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: His feud with the bank.

605
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 2: There were several hang ups, a couple of friends calling

606
00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:58,240
Speaker 2: for a chat my doubles partner for Tuesday night tennis

607
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 2: asking if I would be available in an hour, and

608
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:06,399
Speaker 2: an overseas trained medical practitioner, doctor Jen Singh and that's

609
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 2: not her real name, who had left three increasingly anxious messages.

610
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,760
Speaker 2: There were too many emails to read. The last one

611
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 2: was from doctor Singh.

612
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 13: My DearS are for the fourteen patients and their families.

613
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 13: My DearS are also for the poor doctor whose life

614
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 13: and reputation are now in shreds. Certainly lives could have

615
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 13: been saved by more appropriately actionable systems, and maybe a

616
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,279
Speaker 13: doctor could have been helped to modify his practice to

617
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,760
Speaker 13: the high standards of care, integrity and compassion the medical

618
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 13: profession stands for.

619
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 2: The other email of interest came from Stuart Copeland, the

620
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 2: opposition's health spokesman, who declared Gordon Nuttle unfit to be

621
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:50,280
Speaker 2: health minister.

622
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 14: Why did the Minister's office initially try and bury the

623
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 14: findings of an investigation, claiming doctor Patel had fled the

624
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,200
Speaker 14: country and there was no point in pursuing the matter.

625
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 14: What else is he trying to hide in relation to

626
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 14: this sad and shameful cover up that has clearly cost

627
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:09,360
Speaker 14: patients lives?

628
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:14,280
Speaker 2: I returned to the online quest for clues to Betel's past.

629
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:18,920
Speaker 2: Were there other victims? Was there anything to hide? A

630
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 2: decade ago, such a quest would have meant waiting up

631
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 2: half the night to telephone a faithless stranger in an

632
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 2: office on the other side of the world, in the

633
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,840
Speaker 2: forlorn hope that the information would be made available to

634
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:36,120
Speaker 2: a journalist. But the Internet had changed everything. When organizations,

635
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:40,399
Speaker 2: including the registration bodies for medical practitioners, realized they could

636
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 2: save time and money by making the data freely available

637
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 2: to visitors. In cyberspace, there were fewer boundaries. A couple

638
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 2: of double cliques could transport a journalist from Brisbane or

639
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 2: a patient from Bunderberg into an online draw of file

640
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,720
Speaker 2: setting out the disciplinary history if indeed there was any

641
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 2: a surgeon in the United States. After unsuccessfully trying a

642
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 2: few variations of jont Patel in search engines used by doctors.

643
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 2: I went to Google and typed his name. I had

644
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,280
Speaker 2: done an identical search a few days earlier and nothing

645
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:18,359
Speaker 2: of interest came up.

646
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:19,960
Speaker 1: But this time a.

647
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 2: Little after five pm, when Google presented me with dozens

648
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,560
Speaker 2: of pages of hits, I saw a reference to a

649
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:27,440
Speaker 2: doctor JR.

650
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: Patel.

651
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 2: Halfway down the first screen, one word disciplinary stood out.

652
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 2: Double Clicking on the link brought the New York State

653
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 2: Office of the Profession's website to the screen. There was

654
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 2: the distinctive logo for a PDF file next to the

655
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 2: words JANT M.

656
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 1: Patel.

657
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,640
Speaker 2: When I opened the pdf file, I felt the hair

658
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:54,280
Speaker 2: on the back of my neck stand up. The documentation

659
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 2: was damning, perhaps too damning.

660
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:58,479
Speaker 1: To be true.

661
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 2: There were copies of chorus depondents between the board's lawyers

662
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 2: in New York City and Patel at his home in Oregon.

663
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,839
Speaker 2: His home address was published. His signature was there at

664
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 2: the foot of several of the letters. The text detailed

665
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,440
Speaker 2: his negligence. There was a ruling that he bestruck off

666
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:22,280
Speaker 2: for gross and repeated acts of negligence insurgery. The detail

667
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:26,919
Speaker 2: unfolding on the screen mesmerized me. Surely, I thought, this

668
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 2: can't be the same Paateel. I began to doubt the information.

669
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 2: I doubted myself. I had to be mistaken. Surely he

670
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 2: would not have been registered by the Medical Board of

671
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 2: Queensland without a background check. But then I recalled the

672
00:41:42,719 --> 00:41:48,320
Speaker 2: Board's track record of utter incompetence, its naivety and complete

673
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 2: lack of rigot in verifying the credentials of overseas trained doctors.

674
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,400
Speaker 2: When I wrote about the problems and the warnings in

675
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,879
Speaker 2: late two thousand and three had caused me and health

676
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:03,840
Speaker 2: professionals to be gravely concerned with the Medical Board. Anything

677
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 2: was possible. The board conducted fewer checks for doctors wanting

678
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:12,400
Speaker 2: to come from overseas than vets applying to treat animals.

679
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 2: Stunned at the potential enormity of the discovery, I printed

680
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,879
Speaker 2: the pages and went to the equivalent site for the

681
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:22,080
Speaker 2: Oregon Board.

682
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:22,920
Speaker 1: Of Medical Examiners.

683
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 2: It's built in search engine allows visitors to type the

684
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 2: surname of a medical practitioner to check for disciplinary or

685
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,920
Speaker 2: competence issues. When I clicked with the mouse, it returned

686
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,160
Speaker 2: more information on Patel more pages to print. The printer

687
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 2: seemed to take forever to disgorge the documents They were

688
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 2: queued up behind page proofs of horse racing guides, court lists,

689
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,800
Speaker 2: and other essential elements of the newspaper, but they seemed

690
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 2: so banal as I paced back and forth. When the

691
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 2: paper finally crawled out of the printer, I walked over

692
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 2: to Graham Lloyd, who was leaning against a bench covered

693
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 2: with bound files of month old newspapers. He was planning

694
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 2: the placement of stories for the following day's edition. Mate,

695
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,720
Speaker 2: you are not going to believe what a Google search

696
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,640
Speaker 2: on doctor Patel has turned up. I said, What have

697
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:22,240
Speaker 2: you got? He asked, It looks like he's been struck

698
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 2: off in the United States for dodgy surgery. I mean,

699
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:28,440
Speaker 2: it all looks right, but I can't believe it. There

700
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:29,720
Speaker 2: must be some mistake.

701
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,640
Speaker 15: What those stupid, fucking idiots.

702
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: He said.

703
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 2: In six years, I had never seen Lloyd, one of

704
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,839
Speaker 2: the most intelligent journalists in the industry, lose his call.

705
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,120
Speaker 2: He might have looked like a well dressed hippie, but

706
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:49,799
Speaker 2: he rarely believed conspiracy theories. He blamed incompetence first and foremost.

707
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 2: I showed him the documents fresh from the printer. What

708
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 2: do you reckon?

709
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 1: I asked.

710
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 2: We looked faintly ridiculous, two grown men jabbing pieces of paper,

711
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 2: one swearing and wildly waving his arms. Stephen Seeley, the

712
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:09,560
Speaker 2: deputy editor, stopped to see what was going on. I

713
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 2: told him hurriedly about the discovery. It looks right, I said,

714
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 2: I haven't been able to confirm yet that it's the

715
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 2: same Patel, But what are the chances of another negligent

716
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:27,280
Speaker 2: surgeon called Jaunt Patel coming from Oregon. Seally shook his head. Well,

717
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:30,919
Speaker 2: you'd better start making the calls, he said. He urged

718
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 2: me to get cracking on the confirmation. He turned to

719
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 2: the back bench to explain to the night editor Rory

720
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:40,799
Speaker 2: Gibson and his deputy Neil Maynard. The contingency planned to

721
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:43,320
Speaker 2: remake the front page in the event of the story

722
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 2: being true.

723
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 1: Soon there would be a newsroom.

724
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 2: Clamor for images of Patel's patients in Bunderberg, patients I

725
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 2: had visited earlier that day without a photographer. Over at

726
00:44:56,120 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 2: my desk, Graham Lloyd restored calm in methodical life, analyzed

727
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 2: the documents from the two medical registration boards. They were

728
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 2: clearly dealing with the same surgeon, but was he our surgeon?

729
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 2: Lloyd correctly synthesized the details.

730
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 15: He was disciplined first in Oregon in two thousand, he said,

731
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 15: so they banned him from doing surgery there. Then he's

732
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 15: tried to obtain registration in New York State, and he

733
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,400
Speaker 15: hasn't told them about his Oregon problems. When they found

734
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 15: out they've struck him off altogether, he's agreed to go

735
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 15: along with that as a kind of plea bargain to

736
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:35,320
Speaker 15: avoid a greater punishment.

737
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 2: We were still no closer to determining whether he was

738
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 2: Bunderberg's Jon Patel. When I telephoned Jerry Fitzgerald, it was

739
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:49,759
Speaker 2: shortly before six pm. Time was against me. The strategy

740
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 2: I had decided to follow involved a few simple queries.

741
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 2: I planned to ask Fitzgerald to confirm Patel's home address

742
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:02,200
Speaker 2: or his US physician LIE number. Figuring that the chief

743
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:06,480
Speaker 2: Health Officer had access to Patel's file during the clinical audit,

744
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 2: I hoped the details would be readily available to Jerry.

745
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 2: I would not volunteer what I had found. The cryptic

746
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 2: approach fell apart. I had delivered it clumsily. Fitzgerald told

747
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 2: me he did not have the basic information that I sought.

748
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,399
Speaker 8: We have his CV showing his address care of the

749
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:31,080
Speaker 8: Bunderberg Base Hospital. It says he was staff surgeon at

750
00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:36,239
Speaker 8: Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon October eighty nine to September

751
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 8: two and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Oregon Health

752
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:42,719
Speaker 8: Science University.

753
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,680
Speaker 2: I changed tack Jerry. I probably should have explained this

754
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 2: at the start. I'm ringing because I've just done a

755
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,359
Speaker 2: Google search on Jon Patel. It's come back showing him

756
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:57,479
Speaker 2: being struck off in New York State. He was also

757
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 2: banned from doing surgery in Oregon. But there could be

758
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 2: many doctors in the US with that name. I need

759
00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:09,600
Speaker 2: to check if it is the same Petel Naively, I

760
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 2: believed that Jerry Fitzgerald had no knowledge of what I

761
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:13,760
Speaker 2: was talking about.

762
00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 8: Oh really, I wonder if it's the same bloke. Probably is,

763
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 8: There wouldn't be too many in Portland, Oregon. He got

764
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:24,680
Speaker 8: a certificate of good standing from Portland, Oregon before he

765
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:27,719
Speaker 8: came here. They have to produce a certificate a good

766
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:28,800
Speaker 8: standing when they come.

767
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 2: Fitzgerald let on nothing as I asked about these certificates

768
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 2: and how they were verified.

769
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:38,759
Speaker 8: We rely on the medical board from where they have

770
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 8: come from. If they can't produce the certificate, then we

771
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 8: make further inquiries.

772
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 2: I read to Fitzgerald extracts from the correspondence. When I

773
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 2: asked him if he was hearing about this for the

774
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 2: first time, he said he was, but although I did

775
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 2: not know it at the time, I was preaching to

776
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:02,840
Speaker 2: the converted ERLD had known about Patel since the previous Thursday.

777
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 2: I asked again if he had anything I could use

778
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:10,800
Speaker 2: to match Bunderberg's now infamous surgeon with the Patel thrown

779
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 2: up by the Google search.

780
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 8: We don't have his date of birth. It sounds like

781
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,960
Speaker 8: it's him, but he still appears to be registered in Oregon.

782
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 8: What I'm intrigued about is the relationship over what's happened

783
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,600
Speaker 8: in New York and Oregon. It sounds like the New

784
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 8: York Board has done a deal with him.

785
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 2: At the time, I was struck by Fitzgerald's immediate acceptance

786
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:36,280
Speaker 2: that it was the same Patel. It was out of character.

787
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:41,840
Speaker 2: Senior public servants are always overly cautious. Doctors are the

788
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 2: last to assume the worst about their colleagues, or at

789
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,560
Speaker 2: least the last to share their views with those outside

790
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 2: the club. At the time, I did not comprehend Fitzgerald's

791
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 2: apparent confidence that it was the same Patel. He suggested

792
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:00,200
Speaker 2: that I contact Jim O. Dempsey at the Medical Board

793
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 2: and ask him for the information about Patel's home address

794
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 2: and US license number. In previous exchanges with Odempse, I

795
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 2: had put down the phone, infuriated by his lack of candor.

796
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:18,480
Speaker 2: We had invariably exchanged strong words. I doubted tonight would

797
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:22,839
Speaker 2: play out any differently. As chief Health Officer, You'll have

798
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,279
Speaker 2: more luck than me, I said, Could you please ring him,

799
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:30,640
Speaker 2: explain the situation and ask him to contact me urgently.

800
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,239
Speaker 2: Tony Hoffman was at home when I called her. In

801
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 2: the meantime, do you have any documents signed by doctor Patel?

802
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:42,400
Speaker 2: I asked, I've found something and I need to compare

803
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:45,640
Speaker 2: his signature with it. As soon as possible. I'll have

804
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:50,080
Speaker 2: a look, she said. Within thirty minutes, she had sent

805
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:54,760
Speaker 2: me a handful of emails. The attachments were documents bearing

806
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 2: his signature. It was a lucky break. Hoffman had feared

807
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,920
Speaker 2: that the Administra would deliberately lose the medical file for

808
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:06,919
Speaker 2: Desk Bramage, so she had copied it and taken it home.

809
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:12,440
Speaker 2: Amongst the paperwork were documents bearing Patel's signature. She scanned

810
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:16,880
Speaker 2: an email the Messy Swirl as jpeg files. It looked

811
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:20,400
Speaker 2: very much like the signature on the letters. It was close,

812
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 2: but not conclusive. I asked if she knew anything definite

813
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 2: of a New York connection or the medical college he

814
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 2: had attended in India.

815
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 3: He talked about his time in New York and Portland, Oregon.

816
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 1: She said.

817
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 2: Hoffman went on the internet herself and called back later

818
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 2: to say that he had graduated from the University of

819
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:45,959
Speaker 2: Saurashtra in nineteen seventy three.

820
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 3: Peter Leck lost the plot at the hospital today, she added,

821
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 3: he had to be escorted from the premises. Someone said

822
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 3: he's behaving like an orangutang. Everyone in an executive now

823
00:50:58,880 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 3: is really very afraid.

824
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:05,440
Speaker 2: The editor, David Fagan, wanted an urgent briefing on everything

825
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,520
Speaker 2: we had. Lloyd and I sat in his office and

826
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:12,480
Speaker 2: showed him the material, the Oregon and New York documents,

827
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 2: the signatures, and I read to him my notes of

828
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:17,160
Speaker 2: the interview with Fitzgerald.

829
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:20,359
Speaker 16: I think we've got enough to publish. It looks good

830
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:20,560
Speaker 16: to me.

831
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 12: If it were not for the signatures, we'd fall short.

832
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:25,799
Speaker 16: They are pretty close.

833
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 2: Fagan was more confident than me. What if we were wrong,

834
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:34,680
Speaker 2: I cringed at the thought of the consequences. The ABC's

835
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:38,400
Speaker 2: media watch would have a field day. As we talked

836
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 2: in Fagan's office, my mobile phone rang. It was oh Dempsey.

837
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 2: He had stepped out of a scheduled monthly meeting of

838
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:49,320
Speaker 2: the Medical Board at Forestry House in Brisbane. I figured

839
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,320
Speaker 2: he would have been well briefed by Fitzgerald, a fellow

840
00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 2: board member who was at the meeting, but he asked

841
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,960
Speaker 2: me what I was calling about. The question surprised me.

842
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 2: Surely knew. I told oh Dempsey what I had told

843
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:06,480
Speaker 2: Fitzgerald and that I needed details to confirm whether Patel

844
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 2: from Bunderberg was the same person uncovered in the Google search.

845
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 2: He said he had been in a meeting and would

846
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:17,320
Speaker 2: need to go away again to check Patel's personnel file.

847
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:20,760
Speaker 16: I think it's likely, given he came from Oregon.

848
00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:26,319
Speaker 2: Like Fitzgerald, the executive officer of the Medical Board was

849
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 2: being casually optimistic about something gravely serious. It was out

850
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:35,120
Speaker 2: of character. After ending the brief exchange with me, Oh

851
00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 2: Dempsey made an urgent call in a desperate bid to

852
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:42,080
Speaker 2: minimize the probable damage he knew the game was almost

853
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:45,480
Speaker 2: up when he telephoned one of doctor Steve Buckland's advisors,

854
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 2: Jill Finxed, on her mobile phone. Finst was on a

855
00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 2: road trip in Atherton in North Queensland with Buckland, Nuttle

856
00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,839
Speaker 2: and one of the other advisors, Cameron Milner. They had

857
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 2: been to Athurtson Hospital after a visit to the indigenous

858
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:06,520
Speaker 2: community at Yarrabah Oh. Dempsey, by now severely rattled, tipped

859
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:10,400
Speaker 2: off Finxed, explaining that I had done an Internet surge

860
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 2: and discovered what they already knew about Patel and his

861
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:19,760
Speaker 2: disciplinary history. Gordon Nuttle winced the worst secret was about

862
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:23,680
Speaker 2: to get out when O Dempsey called back fewer than

863
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,399
Speaker 2: thirty minutes later. He asked me what address I had

864
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 2: for Patel. I repeated the house number of the mansion

865
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:36,359
Speaker 2: in Northwest Bluegrass Place, Oregon. We also compared the date

866
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:36,880
Speaker 2: of birth.

867
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,480
Speaker 16: It matches, He said, we have that date of birth

868
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:43,920
Speaker 16: in nineteen fifty and that address.

869
00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 1: It was now conclusive.

870
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 2: I told him the license number of the Patel on

871
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 2: the Google search. He confirmed it was the same number

872
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 2: in the personnel file of the former director of Surgery.

873
00:53:56,719 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 2: I was incredulous Jim. This is unbelievable. It means that

874
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 2: he should never have been registered here in Queensland. Odempsey

875
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:09,920
Speaker 2: was ready with an explanation and he delivered it smoothly.

876
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,960
Speaker 16: He provided the board with a false statutory declaration, and

877
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:16,880
Speaker 16: he removed part of his certificate of good standing prior

878
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:20,560
Speaker 16: to providing it to the board. On my review, that

879
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 16: appears to be what has happened. I've asked my staff

880
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:26,560
Speaker 16: to undertake a full review. There was a reference to

881
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 16: an attachment on the certificate of good standing. We did

882
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 16: not receive it. If we had received it, it's still

883
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 16: likely that we would not have had a sustainable case

884
00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 16: to refuse his registration totally. We may have had to

885
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 16: put conditions on his license. They would not have addressed

886
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:45,560
Speaker 16: the issues in Bunderberg. The issues in Bunderberg were around

887
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:47,360
Speaker 16: the types of operations he was doing.

888
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 2: The justifications did not make sense to me, but there

889
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:53,760
Speaker 2: was no time to argue.

890
00:54:53,960 --> 00:54:55,279
Speaker 1: A deadline loomed and.

891
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,440
Speaker 2: There was much to rite. It dawned on me that

892
00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:03,400
Speaker 2: O Dempsey's explanation meant he already knew about Patel. O

893
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:07,440
Speaker 2: Dempsey's routine of asking what I was calling about. Going

894
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:10,000
Speaker 2: back to the file, asking me what I needed to

895
00:55:10,160 --> 00:55:14,040
Speaker 2: confirm it was a charade. I asked him when he

896
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 2: discovered the fraud.

897
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:19,000
Speaker 16: He responded, I got a review of the file over

898
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:22,320
Speaker 16: the weekend. We have been aware of the issues from Oregon,

899
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,920
Speaker 16: and I was waiting confirmation from Oregon. I'm not aware

900
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 16: that the chief Health Officer was aware of it. I

901
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:30,920
Speaker 16: am awaiting a brief from my staff member, which is

902
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:34,480
Speaker 16: in draft form. He's looking at what went wrong. Can

903
00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 16: I stress there have been no findings against doctor Patel.

904
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:41,920
Speaker 16: There's been a surgical audit that raised issues with doctor Patel.

905
00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:45,880
Speaker 16: The Medical Board is extremely concerned about this one off incident.

906
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 16: We are so concerned that I've instructed my staff tomorrow

907
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 16: to commence a full review of every current overseas trained

908
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,280
Speaker 16: doctor registrant to ensure that their certificates of good standing

909
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 16: are accurate.

910
00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:03,760
Speaker 2: I questioned Odempsey closely on the timing of his knowledge.

911
00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 2: The answers to who knew what and when were essential.

912
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:12,120
Speaker 16: I looked at the doctor Patel file on Friday. I

913
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:15,520
Speaker 16: saw the note regarding the attachment. I instructed a senior

914
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 16: Medical Board officer to find out what it was and

915
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:21,360
Speaker 16: get the details from Oregon. We advised the Minister's office

916
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:24,960
Speaker 16: today on the basis of getting formal information back. I

917
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 16: merely briefed the Director General's liaison person.

918
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:32,719
Speaker 2: I asked him repeatedly when precisely he spoke to the

919
00:56:32,760 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 2: Minister's office. I said that the findings about Patel's previous

920
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:40,920
Speaker 2: incompetence were startling, and that surely he could remember at

921
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 2: what time that same day he had advised the Minister's office,

922
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:48,719
Speaker 2: But he insisted he could not recall. He rejected my

923
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:52,520
Speaker 2: suggestion that there had been a shockingly negligent lapse by

924
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,279
Speaker 2: the Medical Board with tragic consequences.

925
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:59,800
Speaker 16: Absolutely not. We have one incident of what would appear

926
00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 16: to be fraudulent activity by a doctor and an error

927
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:06,759
Speaker 16: in processing. Here we rely on the certificate of good

928
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:10,200
Speaker 16: standing from the jurisdiction. We rely on the certificate rather

929
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:13,400
Speaker 16: than searches of the web. If we have a certificate

930
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:17,520
Speaker 16: of good standing that says they are okay, they are okay.

931
00:57:18,880 --> 00:57:22,240
Speaker 2: It was immediately clear that the warnings of late two

932
00:57:22,240 --> 00:57:25,640
Speaker 2: thousand and three about the lack screening of overseas trained

933
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:28,919
Speaker 2: doctors had not been heated by the Medical Board, which

934
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:33,280
Speaker 2: was little more than a rubber stamb. If doctors or

935
00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:38,680
Speaker 2: complete impostors were capable of fraud or handy at desktop publishing,

936
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:42,120
Speaker 2: they might get away with the unlawful killing of patients.

937
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:46,920
Speaker 2: And maybe Patel had Hoffman must have been sitting next

938
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 2: to the phone. She was on tenterhooks when she answered

939
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,960
Speaker 2: it on the first ring. We've got him, I said,

940
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:59,040
Speaker 2: I explained the events of the previous two hours, She cried.

941
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:05,760
Speaker 2: Hoffman felt immense and indescribable relief. She had been completely vindicated,

942
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:10,120
Speaker 2: But she was also disgusted and furious. How she asked me,

943
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 2: could her bosses and the board be so reckless? And

944
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:17,280
Speaker 2: at what terrible cost for the patients and the nurses.

945
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:23,040
Speaker 2: David Fagan wanted a maximum display in the newspaper. The

946
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:27,480
Speaker 2: rush for pictures became frantic. The Bunderberg Newsmail refused when

947
00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:29,720
Speaker 2: we asked if we could buy one of their pictures

948
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 2: of des Bramich, Mark or Tess. The Newsmail had no

949
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 2: idea of the story about to explode in their backyard.

950
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 2: Our photographer in Harvey Bay, John Wilson, rushed to the

951
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:45,120
Speaker 2: Bramwich home to shoot a few frames and email them

952
00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:50,200
Speaker 2: back before deadline. It was imperative to publish such extraordinary

953
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:54,600
Speaker 2: news as quickly and as prominently as possible. A little

954
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 2: after seven PM, I began writing the main splash under

955
00:58:58,040 --> 00:59:03,280
Speaker 2: the banner headline why didn't they check? The story began

956
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:08,000
Speaker 2: like this. The surgeon of doctor death by colleagues at

957
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:12,600
Speaker 2: Bunderberg Base Hospital had been found guilty of gross negligence

958
00:59:12,720 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 2: in the US and forced to hand in his practicing

959
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:20,000
Speaker 2: certificate less than two years before coming to Australia.

960
00:59:20,920 --> 00:59:22,120
Speaker 1: A Google search.

961
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,440
Speaker 2: Of public registers by The Courier Mail revealed yesterday that

962
00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:30,120
Speaker 2: doctor J. R. Patel, an Indian trained practitioner, had been

963
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:33,720
Speaker 2: cited over serious problems with his surgery in New York

964
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:39,520
Speaker 2: State and Oregon. Stephen Seely made an astute decision to

965
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:42,960
Speaker 2: throw out the feature slated for page thirteen and replace

966
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:47,000
Speaker 2: it with a lengthy read on the Patel case as

967
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:50,240
Speaker 2: well as the page one splash story. He needed a

968
00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:55,560
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred word inside story by nine pm. Before leaving

969
00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:58,400
Speaker 2: the office, I needed to respond to my source from

970
00:59:58,480 --> 01:00:02,439
Speaker 2: late two thousand and three, doctor marsh Godsill, who had

971
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:06,240
Speaker 2: first explained to me the concerns over the proficiency and

972
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:10,400
Speaker 2: vetting of overseas trained doctors, was following the Petel stories.

973
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:15,920
Speaker 2: Marsh had emailed me the previous day, pointing out.

974
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,720
Speaker 6: The Bunderberg saga is an extension of what we discussed

975
01:00:19,720 --> 01:00:20,959
Speaker 6: in two thousand and three.

976
01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:23,560
Speaker 8: Situation has not changed.

977
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:27,720
Speaker 2: My reply a few minutes before ten pm must have

978
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:32,080
Speaker 2: seemed somewhat cryptic. I wrote, I've been thinking of you

979
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:35,200
Speaker 2: these past few days and recalling what we tried to

980
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:38,720
Speaker 2: achieve in late two thousand and three. The news in

981
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 2: Wednesday's courier mail will blow your mind, or maybe it won't,

982
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:47,480
Speaker 2: given your warnings, but it could also finally produce the

983
01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:55,840
Speaker 2: sort of positive reforms you've been seeking. When I finally

984
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,720
Speaker 2: made it home and recounted the saga to Ruth, it

985
01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:03,240
Speaker 2: was eleven pm. The Curiaml's first editions were being printed.

986
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 2: There was a window of about six hours before they

987
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:10,880
Speaker 2: would hit the streets and unleash waves of shock and anger.

988
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:17,480
Speaker 2: The story was still missing something its most important character, Patel.

989
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:23,120
Speaker 2: From home, I called our correspondent in Los Angeles, Nick Papps,

990
01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:27,040
Speaker 2: who was waking up in another time zone. I explained

991
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 2: the story, telling Paps he could take an early flight

992
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:33,440
Speaker 2: and be on Patel's doorstep in Portland, Oregon before the

993
01:01:33,480 --> 01:01:38,600
Speaker 2: Curymale's revelations were read or understood by anyone else. This

994
01:01:38,880 --> 01:01:41,960
Speaker 2: was an area before there was instant news from the Internet.

995
01:01:43,040 --> 01:01:46,720
Speaker 2: Phaps and his partner, a photographer, fought the rush hour

996
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 2: to the airport. Sick to Death is written and presented

997
01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:04,960
Speaker 2: by men Headley Thomas, the Australian's national Chief correspondent. Claire

998
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:10,480
Speaker 2: Harvey is The Australian's editorial director. Audio editing, production and

999
01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 2: music have been done by Jasper Leik, with assistants from

1000
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:19,760
Speaker 2: Leah Sammaglu and Neil Sutherland. Our producer is Christin Amias.

1001
01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:26,680
Speaker 2: Production management by Stephanie Coombs, artwork by Sean Callenan. Thanks

1002
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:32,600
Speaker 2: to Ryan Osland, Matthew Condon, Karina Berger, Ellie Dudley, David Murray,

1003
01:02:32,960 --> 01:02:38,400
Speaker 2: Dominique McDermott, Zach Sculander and all our family, friends and

1004
01:02:38,560 --> 01:02:42,560
Speaker 2: colleagues who helped in this series and contributed voice acting

1005
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:49,040
Speaker 2: and special thanks to Tony Hoffman and Rob Messenger. Subscribers

1006
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:52,880
Speaker 2: to The Australian here new episodes of Sick to Death

1007
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:57,520
Speaker 2: first at Sick to Death podcast dot com and on

1008
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts. You can get exclusive access to photographs, videos,

1009
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:23,800
Speaker 2: timelines and more at the website,