WEBVTT - Episode 10: The Bombshell

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<v Speaker 1>My name is Headley Thomas.

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<v Speaker 2>Sick to Death is based on my book of the

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<v Speaker 2>same name, and it's the true story of doctor j.

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<v Speaker 2>Patel's lies and manipulation and the herculean effort it took

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<v Speaker 2>to finally stop him. We've used voice actors throughout this series,

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<v Speaker 2>and on occasion the real people from the story have

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<v Speaker 2>read their words for us.

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<v Speaker 1>It is brought to you by Me and the Australian.

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<v Speaker 2>Chapter forty six, Sugartown, eleven April two thousand and five.

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<v Speaker 2>It is known as a DEE or a distant engagement,

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<v Speaker 2>and depending on how well you are perceived by the

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<v Speaker 2>editor to have been working, DEE can be a reward,

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<v Speaker 2>perhaps even a junket to an exotic island with A

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<v Speaker 2>most onerous task is to appear attentive as a guide

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<v Speaker 2>provides helpful facts for a travel story. Another kind of

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<v Speaker 2>DEE is stressful work dropping in on a community, usually

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<v Speaker 2>after a tragedy. There might be a rough car trip

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<v Speaker 2>over rutted roads, after a wobbly flight in a light aircraft,

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<v Speaker 2>a scramble to interview the locals, the injured, and the

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<v Speaker 2>relatives and friends of the dead. Sometimes they want to talk,

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<v Speaker 2>but the intrusion on their grief is awful. The trip

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<v Speaker 2>to Bunderberg shaped as something in between. Patricia Holloway, the

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<v Speaker 2>Courier Male's travel organizer, had set up the Monday morning

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<v Speaker 2>Quantus flight, the higher car and the motel accommodation for

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<v Speaker 2>two nights. There would be interviews with the injured and bereaved,

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<v Speaker 2>but I expected they wanted to talk. I read the

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<v Speaker 2>Courier mail on the flight. The story I had filed

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<v Speaker 2>from home after the interview with Jerry Fitzgerald ran as

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<v Speaker 2>a page four lead. Page four was an ordinary space

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<v Speaker 2>in a Monday paper, but I was glad to keep

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<v Speaker 2>the issue alive. It had to maintain momentum. I had

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<v Speaker 2>called Tony Hoffman after my conversation with Fitzgerald because I

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<v Speaker 2>wanted to tell her about his praise for the nurses.

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<v Speaker 2>She was beginning to feel positive. My father had been

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<v Speaker 2>following the story with increasing interest. He emailed me shortly

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<v Speaker 2>before the flight to Bunderberg. Good to see you have

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<v Speaker 2>started an inquiry into the activities of our man from Pakistan,

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<v Speaker 2>he wrote. I winced again at being reminded of my

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<v Speaker 2>earlier mistake about Bettel's nationality. Dad read the newspapers closely.

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<v Speaker 2>He was always poised to pounce on the print media

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<v Speaker 2>or the ABC for anything that could be seen as

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<v Speaker 2>left wing bias. A twice decorated former Royal Australian Air

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<v Speaker 2>Force pilot flown dangerous missions into jungles in Vietnam. He

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<v Speaker 2>led squadrons in Australia and the Middle East before resigning

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<v Speaker 2>to go into commercial aviation. He was my hero as

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<v Speaker 2>a boy, and he remained a steadying influence. Our political

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<v Speaker 2>views were then poles apart, but we agreed on the

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<v Speaker 2>vital importance of a free media. We also agreed on

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<v Speaker 2>the threats posed by the dishonesty and secrecy which was

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<v Speaker 2>pervading parts of the Beaty government. Dad was cranky with

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<v Speaker 2>one of my colleagues who had written a weekend article

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<v Speaker 2>on a military helicopter accident. Dad reckoned it was, in

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<v Speaker 2>his words, rubbish, with a pile of codswallop thrown in

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<v Speaker 2>for balance. It was an irresponsible piece and ought not

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<v Speaker 2>to have been published, he said. On the other hand,

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<v Speaker 2>it was a fine example of how misreporting can mold opinion,

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<v Speaker 2>which leads me to my point. The truth pow always

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<v Speaker 2>the truth. The last time I had been to Bunderberg

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<v Speaker 2>was in late June two thousand, after fire had destroyed

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<v Speaker 2>a backpacker's hostel in the nearby town of Childers. Robert Long,

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<v Speaker 2>who was an itinerant fruit packer with a grudge against

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<v Speaker 2>the hostel operators and some of its occupants, had lit

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<v Speaker 2>a match in a bin in the downstairs lounge fronting

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<v Speaker 2>the main road one chilly night. When the volunteer firefighters

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<v Speaker 2>combed the ruins of the historic building after the flames

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<v Speaker 2>were finally extinguished, they counted fifteen bodies. The victims were young,

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<v Speaker 2>exuberant and hopeful travelers. Some died in their sleep, Others

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<v Speaker 2>who realized their peril were unable to escape the smoke

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<v Speaker 2>and heat because of bars on the windows. Unforgivably, the

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<v Speaker 2>fire alarm system had been turned off within minutes of

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<v Speaker 2>landing and shutting the engines down. We wandered around a

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<v Speaker 2>community in shock. The tragedy and the trespassing on the

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<v Speaker 2>grief of the sixty nine survivors and the families of

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<v Speaker 2>victims had a profound impact on me and my colleagues.

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<v Speaker 2>The Courier Male's reporting team of Justine Nolan, Paula Donovan,

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<v Speaker 2>Amanda Watt and myself filed dozens of stories in the

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<v Speaker 2>first few days. Despite his sensitivity with a camera, photographer

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<v Speaker 2>Anthony Wheat was abused and physically assaulted by one traumatized survivor.

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<v Speaker 2>It was a sobering reminder of the fine line we

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<v Speaker 2>walked between the public's need for news and an individual's

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<v Speaker 2>right to privacy. Some of Bunderberg's retailers had asked the

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<v Speaker 2>survivors to come to town for free clothing, backpacks, and

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<v Speaker 2>other kit A bus was put on to ensure everyone

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<v Speaker 2>arrived in Bunderberg safely. After a shopping expedition in which

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<v Speaker 2>no money changed hands, the survivors and the journalists returned

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<v Speaker 2>to Childers. Our closest contact with the local community, our

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<v Speaker 2>source for factual material about the rescuers, the police investigation,

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<v Speaker 2>the suspect, and even the shopping trip, came via a

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<v Speaker 2>woman called Kathy Heidrich and her husband Wayne. They owned

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<v Speaker 2>and put together the newspaper called The Isis Town and Country.

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<v Speaker 2>It was a weekly which was dedicated to local news.

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<v Speaker 2>Everyone trusted Kathy and Wayne and they were generous to

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<v Speaker 2>us with their news tips. After arriving in Bunderberg on

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<v Speaker 2>eleven April two thousand and five, I called Kathy. She

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<v Speaker 2>would know about the surgeon Patel and the problems at

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<v Speaker 2>Bunderberg Base Hospital, I figured. We agreed to meet for

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<v Speaker 2>lunch the next day. My plan was to meet Tony

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<v Speaker 2>Hoffman after nightfall. It left me six hours to make calls,

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<v Speaker 2>visit the hospital in Bunderberg, and drive to the seaside

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<v Speaker 2>at Bagara to drop in on the Bold politician and

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<v Speaker 2>Rob Messenger, for whom my respect was growing. Although I

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<v Speaker 2>had told Gordon Nuttle and Jerry Fitzgerald of my Bunderberg plan,

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<v Speaker 2>it was my intention to keep a low profile while

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<v Speaker 2>in town. There would be no dramatic attempts to doorstop

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<v Speaker 2>hospital managers such as Darren Keating or Peter Leck to

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<v Speaker 2>pose questions that they would I suspected be under strict

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<v Speaker 2>instructions to ignore. After parking outside a private clinic on

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<v Speaker 2>Boorbonk Street, I was struck by the provincial feel and

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<v Speaker 2>dilapidated condition of the hospital and its grounds. There were

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<v Speaker 2>dying weeds ringing a faded concrete helipad a short walk

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<v Speaker 2>from a dejected main entrance. I left my notepad in

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<v Speaker 2>the higher car for all that the staff and patients

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<v Speaker 2>knew as I confidently pressed the elevator button, stopped to

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<v Speaker 2>read the notices on the board, and checked out the

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<v Speaker 2>older wing of the hospital with its suite of executive officers,

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<v Speaker 2>far removed in every sense from where the doctors and

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<v Speaker 2>nurses improved or saved countless lives.

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<v Speaker 1>I was one of them.

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<v Speaker 2>Nobody challenged me outside the intensive care unit, I appeared

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<v Speaker 2>around corridors and into wards. After about twenty minutes, I

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<v Speaker 2>left for the drive to Megara. With the renewal of

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<v Speaker 2>its seafront esplanade, a swathe of holiday accommodation, more buildings

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<v Speaker 2>still coming out of the ground, and restaurants promising all

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<v Speaker 2>day breakfasts and bottomless cups of coffee. Baghara, on the

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<v Speaker 2>Coral Coast had become one of Queensland's newest magnets for tourists.

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<v Speaker 2>It was also where Patel had chosen to live. I

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<v Speaker 2>introduced myself to Rob Messenger's media adviser, me Linda Bradford,

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<v Speaker 2>who told me the boss was still out of town. Bradford,

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<v Speaker 2>who was aged just twenty, had her hands full. A

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<v Speaker 2>middle aged man, perhaps a constituent, sat transfixed as she

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<v Speaker 2>offered advice. He seemed infinitely more interested in her than

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<v Speaker 2>in the obscure problem he had brought.

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<v Speaker 1>To the office.

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<v Speaker 2>In a news agency, I bought the Bunderberg newsmail to

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<v Speaker 2>check whether their reporters were still on the case. They

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<v Speaker 2>had a story about Nuttle's backflip in establishing the review.

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<v Speaker 2>I mentioned the controversy to the newsagent while passing over

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<v Speaker 2>ninety cents. I was just fishing. If she knew Pettell

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<v Speaker 2>as a customer, she might say so. Perhaps he spent

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<v Speaker 2>one hundred dollars a day on instant lottery tickets. Maybe

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<v Speaker 2>he subscribed to Home Beautiful magazine. It was all grist

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<v Speaker 2>for the mill. I don't know him, she said sharply.

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<v Speaker 2>Bradford agreed to photocopy a handful of articles and a

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<v Speaker 2>few written complaints from some of the people who had

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<v Speaker 2>been to Messenger since his stand in State Parliament. She

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<v Speaker 2>gave me names phone numbers. There was Ian Fleming, Beryl

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<v Speaker 2>Crosby and Nelson Cox. They had all been patients of Patel,

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<v Speaker 2>she explained. And there was Ian Brown. He was their

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<v Speaker 2>Brisbane based solicitor, a personal injury expert from Carter Capna Lawyers.

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<v Speaker 2>I knew the firm, having worked closely with one of

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<v Speaker 2>their solicitors, Dudy Titsl. While reporting in two thousand and

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<v Speaker 2>one on property marketeering and ripoffs, Judy Titsl had been

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<v Speaker 2>targeting some of the people I was investigating and writing about.

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<v Speaker 2>She launched legal actions to claim damages for their misleading

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<v Speaker 2>and deceptive conduct. By swapping intelligence, we both came out

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<v Speaker 2>in front. I did not know Ian Brown, but I

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<v Speaker 2>figured that he would welcome the Courier Mail's interest publicity

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<v Speaker 2>was free advertising for his law firm two Patel clients

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<v Speaker 2>who had suffered or who thought they might win some money.

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<v Speaker 2>The usually symbiotic relationship between lawyers and journalists thrived on

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<v Speaker 2>these understandings. We relied on the victims for their story.

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<v Speaker 2>The lawyers relied on the victims for the money they

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<v Speaker 2>could bring into the firm. The victims relied on the

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<v Speaker 2>journalists and the lawyers to promote their case. I was

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<v Speaker 2>in the car reading the local newspaper and scanning the

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<v Speaker 2>material copied by Bradford when Hoffman called my mobile phone.

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<v Speaker 2>The onus was on her to set the evening meeting up.

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<v Speaker 2>She offered her home and told me the address.

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<v Speaker 3>I think few other nurses will be coming to talk

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<v Speaker 3>to you. I told them you were bringing the food.

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<v Speaker 2>Earlier, I had offered to buy dinner a range of curries.

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<v Speaker 2>Hoffman said the best ones came from the Indian Curry Bazaar,

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<v Speaker 2>Patel's favorite restaurant and the venue for his farewell party.

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<v Speaker 2>She giggled at the delicious irony, and I agreed to

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<v Speaker 2>ring in the order. Returning to the motel, I put

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<v Speaker 2>in a call to the Bunderberg Base Hospital and asked

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<v Speaker 2>to speak to Keating. Although I was certain that he

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<v Speaker 2>would not come to the phone or call me back,

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<v Speaker 2>I needed to ensure he had been given the opportunity.

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<v Speaker 2>I contacted the local Channel seven news reporter who had

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<v Speaker 2>covered the visit of the Bramwich family to the local police.

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<v Speaker 2>She was too busy to meet me for a chat

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<v Speaker 2>about the story, and she doubted anyone from the hospital

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<v Speaker 2>would talk to me on the record. My next call

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<v Speaker 2>was to Mark Bramich, a quietly spoken bloke who just

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<v Speaker 2>missed his dad.

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<v Speaker 4>Before this, everyone including myself, bagged politicians. But if it

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<v Speaker 4>wasn't for Rob Messenger, none of this would have come about.

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<v Speaker 4>I really think he's trying to help.

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<v Speaker 1>Us, he told me.

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<v Speaker 2>Brammich had witnessed the accident which pinned his father Dez

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<v Speaker 2>beneath the caravan. One day in July two thousand and

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<v Speaker 2>four in the town of Agnes Water, Dees had appeared

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<v Speaker 2>to be doing well when Mark visited him in the.

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<v Speaker 4>Hot We went in there and he was stabilized, sitting

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<v Speaker 4>up in bed and having a sip of coffee and talking.

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<v Speaker 4>No worries at all. And that was the next day.

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<v Speaker 4>He was just normal. He was thanking God that he

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<v Speaker 4>had got out of the situation. I went home and

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<v Speaker 4>started doing some work, and then the missus said you'd

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<v Speaker 4>better come back. He's taken a turn for the worse.

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<v Speaker 4>I got there at nighttime. He wasn't conscious. We were

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<v Speaker 4>up there until he died.

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<v Speaker 2>Brammich recalled Patel, saying.

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<v Speaker 5>You had better pray because he has only a ten

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<v Speaker 5>percent chance of surviving.

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<v Speaker 4>I didn't know what to think. In a way, it

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<v Speaker 4>was sad, but in a way it was also up front.

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<v Speaker 4>It was arrogant in the way he said it. The

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<v Speaker 4>nurses were crying. I'll never forget that they could see

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<v Speaker 4>something wasn't right.

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<v Speaker 2>After thanking Brammig for his time, I called the solicitor

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<v Speaker 2>ian Brown in Brisbane to clear the path for a

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<v Speaker 2>meeting with him his clients in Bunderberg. Brown and I

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<v Speaker 2>talked about Queensland Health's decision to announce the clinical review.

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<v Speaker 2>A few days earlier, Gordon Nuttle and Steve Buckland had

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<v Speaker 2>firmly told the staff of the hospital that there would

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<v Speaker 2>be no completed report and no finalized investigation. Now a

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<v Speaker 2>major inquiry was under way. Privately, I suspected that Nuttle

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<v Speaker 2>had heeded at least some of my advice at our lunch,

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<v Speaker 2>but I did not know how much he really knew

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<v Speaker 2>about Patel. Brown told me.

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<v Speaker 1>It all seems very rushed.

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<v Speaker 6>It could be a response to the Thursday public meeting

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<v Speaker 6>that Beryl Crosby is driving.

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<v Speaker 1>She's one of the patients.

0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.680
<v Speaker 6>In the space of two days we fielded a dozen

0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.880
<v Speaker 6>people interested in making claims. The hospital staff are concerned

0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.400
<v Speaker 6>about going to the meeting because they fear the hospital

0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.200
<v Speaker 6>send spies. We are still worried that Queensland Health is

0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:58.520
<v Speaker 6>going to do a whitewash on this.

0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.120
<v Speaker 2>Brown told me that Beryl Crosby was keen to set

0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:04.680
<v Speaker 2>up a patient support group.

0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.920
<v Speaker 1>There's nothing better than shared experiences.

0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.680
<v Speaker 2>Cynically, I thought it was also a clever strategy adopted

0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:17.119
<v Speaker 2>by personal injury law firms. It meant as many potential

0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.560
<v Speaker 2>claimants as possible were brought together with a minimum of

0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:28.160
<v Speaker 2>fuss and expense. The administrative head of the Bunderberg Hospital,

0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.920
<v Speaker 2>Peter Leck, was feeling foolish. His earlier backing of Jayon

0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:37.440
<v Speaker 2>Patel was backfiring now after all the face it seemed

0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.440
<v Speaker 2>to Leck that the hierarchy was less concerned about the

0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.280
<v Speaker 2>natural justice.

0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:43.560
<v Speaker 1>He was confused.

0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.080
<v Speaker 2>The report Doctor Jerry Fitzgerald had sent to Peter Leck

0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.440
<v Speaker 2>on seven April was far from a clean bill of

0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.560
<v Speaker 2>health for the former director of Surgery, and Steve Buckland,

0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.440
<v Speaker 2>the Director General, had to have known it when he

0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:03.640
<v Speaker 2>visited the hospital that day. So why Peterleck wondered the

0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.840
<v Speaker 2>angry condemnation of the staff at the time and then

0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.600
<v Speaker 2>the weekend backflip Lex still had no idea about how

0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:17.760
<v Speaker 2>incompetent Patel had been, nor did Leck know anything about

0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:24.560
<v Speaker 2>Patel's lethal negligence. In the United States. Fitzgerald, Buckland, Darren

0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.640
<v Speaker 2>Keating and the medical board were holding that information back.

0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.760
<v Speaker 2>It was too damning for them all. Fitzgerald had been

0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.280
<v Speaker 2>asked to go to Bunderberg to meet the staff on

0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.920
<v Speaker 2>thirteen April and brief them on his findings, but he

0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.720
<v Speaker 2>had not been asked to tell the staff about the

0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:49.840
<v Speaker 2>discovery of Pateel's United States history. Those findings were still

0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.760
<v Speaker 2>a secret. Peter Leck thought it best for Jerry Fitzgerald

0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.680
<v Speaker 2>to meet first with the staff from the intensive care

0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.960
<v Speaker 2>unit prior to a general staff meeting at either lunchtime

0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:05.200
<v Speaker 2>all afternoon tea time. Leck wrote to Fitzgerald.

0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.160
<v Speaker 7>This will allow for those staff who expressed the concerns

0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.800
<v Speaker 7>to feel a little special in talking to you prior

0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.040
<v Speaker 7>to a wider audience. Would be grateful if you confirm

0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:15.720
<v Speaker 7>that you are happy to meet with the families of

0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.000
<v Speaker 7>some patients before we make the offer. The ones getting

0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.800
<v Speaker 7>most publicity are the Brammiches crushed by caravan case currently

0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.919
<v Speaker 7>subject to coronial inquiry, and Beryl Crosby. You did not

0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.080
<v Speaker 7>review this case, but she has complained that she was

0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.600
<v Speaker 7>wrongly diagnosed with cancer and has had lots of media attention.

0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.919
<v Speaker 2>Fitzgerald replied that he was happy to meet the families

0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:38.400
<v Speaker 2>if that would be helpful.

0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.560
<v Speaker 8>We should also meet with the local press, and the

0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.480
<v Speaker 8>Minister asked that I try and give Nita Cunningham a

0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.520
<v Speaker 8>briefing on the situation as well. That would need to

0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:48.560
<v Speaker 8>be done discreetly.

0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:54.000
<v Speaker 2>Fitzgerald said, if any politician deserved a briefing from the

0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.840
<v Speaker 2>Chief Health Officer, it was Rob Messenger. His outspokenness in

0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.000
<v Speaker 2>Parliament did the lead. But Messenger was from the wrong

0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:08.919
<v Speaker 2>political party. Anita Cunningham, who had done nothing but spout propaganda,

0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.720
<v Speaker 2>was the first political cab off the rank. That's because

0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.960
<v Speaker 2>she was the Labor Party's representative. Lek asked Joan Dooley

0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:23.080
<v Speaker 2>to arrange a very discreet meeting between Fitzgerald and Cunningham.

0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.600
<v Speaker 7>Would be grateful if you could make confidential arrangements.

0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:39.840
<v Speaker 2>Leck said, Chapter forty seven, The Penny Drops Evening, eleven

0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:46.520
<v Speaker 2>April two thousand and five. Behind the counter at the

0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.320
<v Speaker 2>Indian Curry Bazaar, the restaurant's owner, Pam Samra, her fingers

0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:56.119
<v Speaker 2>and wrists dazzling with gold rings and bracelets, smiled. She

0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.360
<v Speaker 2>motioned me to a seat to wait for the takeaway meals.

0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:01.800
<v Speaker 1>It won't be long, she said.

0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.680
<v Speaker 2>At a table strewn with magazines and newspapers. The Bunderberg

0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.959
<v Speaker 2>news mail from the previous Saturday stood out. The local

0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.600
<v Speaker 2>paper had done its biggest story yet on Jon Patel.

0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.679
<v Speaker 2>Its front page declared families to sue over doctor death.

0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.960
<v Speaker 2>The letters page, a pot pori of opinions, included a

0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.760
<v Speaker 2>kurt missive from Nita Cunningham, the Labor member for Bunderberg,

0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.760
<v Speaker 2>who was still criticizing Rob Messenger for revealing the complaints

0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:34.479
<v Speaker 2>against Patel.

0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.960
<v Speaker 9>It is not proper for a member of Parliament to

0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.360
<v Speaker 9>rush in and defame a doctor before he has had

0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.760
<v Speaker 9>the benefit of natural justice, but to do it in parliament,

0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.639
<v Speaker 9>to defame someone so badly under the cowardly protection of

0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.800
<v Speaker 9>parliamentary privilege has disgusted us all since then. As a

0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.640
<v Speaker 9>direct result of the Member for Burnett's prolonged and vicious attacks,

0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.760
<v Speaker 9>this surgeon has left a hospital. Many sick people will

0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.520
<v Speaker 9>now having their surgery postponed or being sent to another

0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.959
<v Speaker 9>hospital in Brisbane or Harvey Bay to have this work done,

0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.000
<v Speaker 9>and of course the waiting times in Bunderberg will blow out.

0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.720
<v Speaker 9>Meanwhile the hospital has to find a replacement. It is

0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.040
<v Speaker 9>encouraging to see that my disgust that his lack of

0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.440
<v Speaker 9>responsibility is being shared by so many health professionals throughout

0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:22.280
<v Speaker 9>our district.

0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:27.199
<v Speaker 2>Knowing that Patel had been one of the restaurant's best customers.

0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.520
<v Speaker 2>I held up the newspaper's front page to use as

0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.720
<v Speaker 2>a pretext for a seemingly innocent query. The story about

0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.120
<v Speaker 2>this surgeon at the hospital has stirred up a lot

0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.240
<v Speaker 2>of trouble. It's all over the papers, I said to

0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:41.040
<v Speaker 2>Pam Samra.

0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:43.200
<v Speaker 9>He's a lovely man.

0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.560
<v Speaker 4>He used to come here all the time. He made

0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:47.560
<v Speaker 4>a few enemies because he was very talented.

0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:49.880
<v Speaker 9>Some of the people he worked with at the hospital

0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:50.920
<v Speaker 9>became jealous.

0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.120
<v Speaker 4>I don't believe the things they've said about him.

0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.480
<v Speaker 9>I heard from others there that it's all wrong.

0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:56.679
<v Speaker 4>It's terrible.

0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:57.360
<v Speaker 1>He had to leave.

0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:05.040
<v Speaker 2>She replied to me. Tony Hoffman's directions were precise, but

0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:10.440
<v Speaker 2>somewhere it went bad. I was late, hopelessly lost, speeding

0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:14.120
<v Speaker 2>crazily and throwing the higher car into violent turns as

0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.680
<v Speaker 2>plastic containers of curry bumped and leaked on the front

0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.080
<v Speaker 2>passenger seat, and then I almost crashed.

0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:22.240
<v Speaker 1>Near the railway line.

0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.560
<v Speaker 2>Even with a map and directions, I couldn't find her street,

0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.040
<v Speaker 2>just a few minutes from town. When I used the

0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:33.480
<v Speaker 2>mobile phone to ask for help, she sounded exasperated. I

0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.360
<v Speaker 2>wondered if She shared my thoughts. What sort of investigative

0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:43.919
<v Speaker 2>journalist can't find a clearly marked street. Tony's small weatherboard home,

0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.879
<v Speaker 2>aglow with candles, ornate frames around, pictures of loved ones,

0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.600
<v Speaker 2>exotic trinkets, antique furniture hangings and ornaments from the Middle

0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:59.080
<v Speaker 2>East and Asia, had an immediate calming effect. As nurses

0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:04.400
<v Speaker 2>Karen Jenny and Karen Fox introduced themselves, Hoffman set plates

0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.520
<v Speaker 2>and cutlery around the kitchen table and opened a bottle

0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.960
<v Speaker 2>of wine. There were two other nurses there, and they

0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.400
<v Speaker 2>asked to be given made up names. I'm calling them

0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:18.280
<v Speaker 2>Jody Gerda and Rita Black. I don't think I was

0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:23.040
<v Speaker 2>followed here, I told them feebly. After telling Tony what

0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:27.280
<v Speaker 2>Pam Samra at the Indian Curry Bazaar had said about Patel,

0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:32.560
<v Speaker 2>I suddenly felt sick. Pam knew that Tony had telephoned

0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.360
<v Speaker 2>the order for the curries, which I had picked up

0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.439
<v Speaker 2>and paid for with a credit card bearing my full name.

0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.560
<v Speaker 2>If the restaurant's owner read the courier mail and noticed

0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.080
<v Speaker 2>my byline, she would realize the connection, and if she

0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.640
<v Speaker 2>spoke about it to one of Patel's friends. I feared

0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.760
<v Speaker 2>that hospital management would have the evidence it needed to

0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:57.840
<v Speaker 2>go after Hoffman, I confessed and apologized for my carelessness.

0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.560
<v Speaker 2>I should have paid cash for the meal. Hoffman and

0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:04.359
<v Speaker 2>her colleagues had taken a big risk in meeting me

0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.280
<v Speaker 2>under a veil of secrecy. I hoped it would not

0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:12.440
<v Speaker 2>bring them more grief. Between mouthfuls of rogan Josh, garlic,

0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:17.280
<v Speaker 2>nan and chicken Tanduri, we spoke of cardiac arrest, perforations

0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:21.640
<v Speaker 2>of the bow, and pass using infections. Hoffman had been

0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:24.359
<v Speaker 2>through the charts during her shift that day to see

0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:29.280
<v Speaker 2>the number of Patel's patients who had suffered serious complications, infections,

0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:35.200
<v Speaker 2>wound breakdowns, and death since September. The exercise had made

0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:36.200
<v Speaker 2>her more depressed.

0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:41.800
<v Speaker 3>She told me, there's fourteen more. Doctor Martin Carter is

0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:45.359
<v Speaker 3>the one who should have stopped Patel earlier. I said

0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:48.280
<v Speaker 3>to him that he should be ashamed of himself, that

0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:51.040
<v Speaker 3>he had left it all to the nurses. And he

0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.720
<v Speaker 3>said he realized that now and should have done more.

0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:57.399
<v Speaker 3>The doctors cling together, they would not stand up and

0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:01.119
<v Speaker 3>be counted. The doctors are commenting now, well, none of

0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:02.280
<v Speaker 3>us are safe anymore.

0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:03.560
<v Speaker 1>You I see you.

0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:06.720
<v Speaker 3>You build up a special rapport with the families. You

0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:11.600
<v Speaker 3>become surrogate families. They trust you. You see the patients

0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:12.440
<v Speaker 3>at their sickest.

0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.840
<v Speaker 2>Rita Black seemed naturally more reserved than the other nurses

0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:22.159
<v Speaker 2>Because of her quiet demeanor, Her descriptions of some of

0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:26.400
<v Speaker 2>Patel's procedures carried a lot of force. It was very

0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:30.639
<v Speaker 2>difficult for nursing staff to complain about the doctors, she explained,

0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:34.919
<v Speaker 2>adding that Petel's antics were like something out of a movie.

0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:39.640
<v Speaker 2>Karen Jenna was more direct, still furious about the attempt

0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.560
<v Speaker 2>by Gordon Nuttle and Steve Buckland to shut down the inquiry.

0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:48.480
<v Speaker 2>Karen seethed over management's mishandling of a surgeon she regarded

0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:50.000
<v Speaker 2>as a dangerous menace.

0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:53.520
<v Speaker 10>Patel Blue is trumpet so hard for himself in the

0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:56.040
<v Speaker 10>hospital that he made it seem he was untouchable.

0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:02.439
<v Speaker 2>Jody Gerda was blunt and brutally directed Patel's incompetence. She

0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:05.119
<v Speaker 2>had also tried to figure out what made him tick.

0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:10.160
<v Speaker 2>Hours after Rob Messenger spoke about Patel in State Parliament,

0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:13.800
<v Speaker 2>Jodie Girder had watched the surgeon going around the ward

0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:18.160
<v Speaker 2>as if it was any other day. His blind self

0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:22.960
<v Speaker 2>belief was abnormal Karen Fox, who had been with Hoffman

0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:25.879
<v Speaker 2>when we first met at the Courier Maal's Brisbane office,

0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:30.040
<v Speaker 2>became upset talking about the death of des Bramich. She

0:25:30.240 --> 0:25:33.640
<v Speaker 2>had been there for his final minutes and she heard

0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.280
<v Speaker 2>Patel's heartless comments to test and the rest of the family.

0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:41.359
<v Speaker 2>She had seen people die before, but never as violently

0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:44.800
<v Speaker 2>as Brammich, with a surgeon standing over him, stabbing his

0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:50.120
<v Speaker 2>chest repeatedly with a long needle. The stories of negligence,

0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:54.200
<v Speaker 2>death and cover up tumbled out. A man who died

0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:58.320
<v Speaker 2>after Patel persuaded him to let him perform an aesophagectomy

0:25:58.520 --> 0:26:01.679
<v Speaker 2>instead of going to Brisbane to have it done, a

0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:05.119
<v Speaker 2>man whose bow was perforated in surgery. On the evening

0:26:05.160 --> 0:26:10.040
<v Speaker 2>of Messengers' revelations in Parliament, they told how Patel's one

0:26:10.080 --> 0:26:14.320
<v Speaker 2>hundred percent complication rate with the insertion of catheters for

0:26:14.520 --> 0:26:18.280
<v Speaker 2>renal dialysis prompted the hospital to bypass him and have

0:26:18.400 --> 0:26:23.919
<v Speaker 2>the procedures done privately. They described Patel's obsession with performing

0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:27.359
<v Speaker 2>surgery even when the patients were not in his care.

0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:31.560
<v Speaker 2>They spoke about the lopping of gangrenous toes with no

0:26:31.760 --> 0:26:36.919
<v Speaker 2>pain relief. The delusional perception of his abilities, How he

0:26:37.000 --> 0:26:39.840
<v Speaker 2>opened his wallet to shower gifts on the staff he

0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:43.800
<v Speaker 2>regarded as supporters. How he would keep his patients in

0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:49.200
<v Speaker 2>Bunderberg even when their deteriorating conditions were life threatening. Why

0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:51.960
<v Speaker 2>did he keep his patients, I asked.

0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:55.560
<v Speaker 10>Naively, because if they went to Brisbane, the complications would

0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:57.600
<v Speaker 10>be obvious, said Black.

0:26:58.720 --> 0:27:01.800
<v Speaker 11>In the public coffee shop, he held court, comparing us

0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:05.560
<v Speaker 11>to the Third World and referring to our substandard equipment.

0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:06.760
<v Speaker 1>Said girder.

0:27:07.480 --> 0:27:11.080
<v Speaker 2>Hoffmann chimed in, he worked long hours.

0:27:11.320 --> 0:27:14.960
<v Speaker 3>I don't think he had a life outside. On weekends

0:27:15.000 --> 0:27:17.360
<v Speaker 3>when he was not on call, he would turn up

0:27:17.480 --> 0:27:20.800
<v Speaker 3>and in that time he would cause more mischief, telling

0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:24.040
<v Speaker 3>the ICUs stuff that I did not support him, and

0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:27.480
<v Speaker 3>asking them whose team they were on. He wanted to

0:27:27.520 --> 0:27:30.399
<v Speaker 3>be on every committee and every panel, and people thought

0:27:30.400 --> 0:27:33.120
<v Speaker 3>that because he talked a lot, he was good. Were

0:27:33.119 --> 0:27:36.960
<v Speaker 3>worried about what monsters he was creating. From the younger doctors.

0:27:37.280 --> 0:27:39.200
<v Speaker 3>There were a lot of people who knew a lot

0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:41.960
<v Speaker 3>and did nothing, and I think that's part of the

0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:45.199
<v Speaker 3>culture of medicine that has to change as well. The

0:27:45.240 --> 0:27:47.359
<v Speaker 3>doctors protecting doctors.

0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:51.840
<v Speaker 2>Away from the tragic accounts of those patients who died

0:27:52.040 --> 0:27:56.360
<v Speaker 2>or were severely injured. The four nurses found humor. They

0:27:56.440 --> 0:27:59.480
<v Speaker 2>laughed about the night his two hundred dollars Gucci shoes

0:27:59.520 --> 0:28:03.480
<v Speaker 2>were stolen and from theater. They recalled his after shave

0:28:04.000 --> 0:28:06.960
<v Speaker 2>so pungent. The nurses knew where he was and how

0:28:07.000 --> 0:28:11.600
<v Speaker 2>to avoid him, and they recalled his relentless flirting. At

0:28:11.640 --> 0:28:14.560
<v Speaker 2>the end of a five way conversation which filled a

0:28:14.640 --> 0:28:18.240
<v Speaker 2>dozen pages of notes, we stood in Hoffman's lounge room

0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:22.800
<v Speaker 2>and began to say goodbye. It was after ten thirty pm.

0:28:23.320 --> 0:28:28.320
<v Speaker 2>Ming her pint sized larsa Apso dog and Sammy, the

0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:34.480
<v Speaker 2>Maltese terrier were barking crazily. Karen Jenner said something matter

0:28:34.560 --> 0:28:35.160
<v Speaker 2>of factly.

0:28:36.000 --> 0:28:38.560
<v Speaker 10>You know, he didn't become a bad surgeon overnight.

0:28:40.560 --> 0:28:44.800
<v Speaker 1>What do you mean, I asked, Well.

0:28:44.560 --> 0:28:47.080
<v Speaker 10>He's in his mid fifties. He's worked as a surgeon

0:28:47.080 --> 0:28:50.040
<v Speaker 10>for about thirty years. You don't suddenly go bad as

0:28:50.040 --> 0:28:52.720
<v Speaker 10>a surgeon. He must have always been a bad surgeon,

0:28:53.160 --> 0:28:55.320
<v Speaker 10>so there has to be a trail of wreckage everywhere

0:28:55.320 --> 0:28:55.840
<v Speaker 10>he's worked.

0:28:57.160 --> 0:29:00.640
<v Speaker 2>Her words jolted me like a sharp elbow to the face.

0:29:01.440 --> 0:29:05.240
<v Speaker 2>What she had said was so fundamentally sensible and logical.

0:29:05.880 --> 0:29:09.680
<v Speaker 2>It meant an examination of Patel's US background was at

0:29:09.760 --> 0:29:14.280
<v Speaker 2>least as important as his legacy in Bunderberg. On the

0:29:14.400 --> 0:29:18.040
<v Speaker 2>drive back to the motel on Boorbong Street, I decided

0:29:18.080 --> 0:29:21.240
<v Speaker 2>to leave Bunderberg as soon as possible. There was a

0:29:21.280 --> 0:29:24.680
<v Speaker 2>new priority. I wanted to return to Brisbane to run

0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:29.800
<v Speaker 2>checks on Patel's employment in the United States. Karen Jenner's

0:29:29.800 --> 0:29:33.200
<v Speaker 2>comment and the appalling horror stories kept me up most

0:29:33.240 --> 0:29:45.880
<v Speaker 2>of the night thinking about the possibilities Chapter forty eight,

0:29:46.240 --> 0:29:52.680
<v Speaker 2>Close and Personal. Twelve April two thousand and five, As

0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:55.800
<v Speaker 2>the earliest available flight back to Brisbane would not leave

0:29:55.920 --> 0:29:58.840
<v Speaker 2>until two pm, I still had time to meet some

0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:02.040
<v Speaker 2>patients at the home of Beryl Crosby's parents on the

0:30:02.040 --> 0:30:06.280
<v Speaker 2>outskirts of Bunderberg. For the second time in as many days,

0:30:06.320 --> 0:30:11.680
<v Speaker 2>I became hopelessly lost and arrived late. Crosby radiated genuine

0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:13.520
<v Speaker 2>warmth and friendliness.

0:30:14.000 --> 0:30:15.680
<v Speaker 1>She led me around the house.

0:30:15.360 --> 0:30:19.320
<v Speaker 2>To a backyard sitting area where Nelson Cox, an elderly

0:30:19.400 --> 0:30:22.280
<v Speaker 2>man who had once been a handy boxer, sat with

0:30:22.360 --> 0:30:27.120
<v Speaker 2>his doting wife Harriet, and Ian Fleming, a former police officer.

0:30:28.320 --> 0:30:32.080
<v Speaker 2>Of everyone there Crosby's father, who had never laid eyes

0:30:32.120 --> 0:30:36.240
<v Speaker 2>on Patel, booked the most unwell. He had a thick

0:30:36.320 --> 0:30:41.200
<v Speaker 2>cough and difficulty speaking. Crosby's mother made sure everyone had

0:30:41.200 --> 0:30:42.400
<v Speaker 2>a drink and a biscuit.

0:30:43.640 --> 0:30:46.160
<v Speaker 12>I just went in for a gallbladder removal. I was

0:30:46.200 --> 0:30:47.520
<v Speaker 12>as fit as a fiddle.

0:30:48.120 --> 0:30:50.520
<v Speaker 1>Said Cox, keen to get the ball rolling.

0:30:52.080 --> 0:30:54.280
<v Speaker 12>That was on the twenty fifth of October two thousand

0:30:54.280 --> 0:30:57.200
<v Speaker 12>and four. The outcome there was a mess up in

0:30:57.240 --> 0:30:59.600
<v Speaker 12>the operation and I had to go back into surgery

0:30:59.640 --> 0:31:00.440
<v Speaker 12>again night.

0:31:01.720 --> 0:31:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Missus Cox piped up. The surgical nurse said, what happened

0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:07.720
<v Speaker 1>in there should not have happened.

0:31:08.760 --> 0:31:12.280
<v Speaker 12>That night I underwent another surgical procedure to fix the damage,

0:31:12.560 --> 0:31:14.640
<v Speaker 12>and then I was moved to the ICU for a

0:31:14.720 --> 0:31:17.840
<v Speaker 12>day and a half. It was black and rotten. They

0:31:17.880 --> 0:31:20.560
<v Speaker 12>were taking four or five liters twice a day out

0:31:20.600 --> 0:31:24.240
<v Speaker 12>of me. I was that sick kneel by mouth for

0:31:24.360 --> 0:31:28.000
<v Speaker 12>sixteen days. Doctor Pateell did the first and the second procedure.

0:31:28.360 --> 0:31:30.760
<v Speaker 12>Something was done or cut that shouldn't have been done

0:31:30.880 --> 0:31:33.720
<v Speaker 12>or cut. All Patel said to me after five or

0:31:33.720 --> 0:31:36.040
<v Speaker 12>six days was you were very lucky that you were

0:31:36.080 --> 0:31:39.160
<v Speaker 12>fit and a good sportsman. He did the third procedure

0:31:39.200 --> 0:31:41.440
<v Speaker 12>as well. That was a cut to put a drain

0:31:41.600 --> 0:31:43.600
<v Speaker 12>in and get it all out of my gut. My

0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:46.880
<v Speaker 12>stomach had swollen up so much. I was up there

0:31:46.880 --> 0:31:49.440
<v Speaker 12>for more than three weeks. I thought I would only

0:31:49.480 --> 0:31:50.360
<v Speaker 12>be there overnight.

0:31:51.440 --> 0:31:53.000
<v Speaker 1>Cox lifted his shirt.

0:31:53.240 --> 0:31:56.480
<v Speaker 2>He carried hardly any fat on his wiry frame, but

0:31:56.560 --> 0:32:01.480
<v Speaker 2>his abdomen was horribly distended. The size of one of

0:32:01.520 --> 0:32:05.520
<v Speaker 2>the local mangoes jutted out. There was angry scarring.

0:32:06.720 --> 0:32:09.480
<v Speaker 12>I reckoned there was something wrong from the start, but

0:32:09.560 --> 0:32:11.920
<v Speaker 12>he was the doctor and he was that nice to me.

0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:15.640
<v Speaker 12>He can't even put a staple in. The nurses would

0:32:15.680 --> 0:32:17.760
<v Speaker 12>say to me, by g you had a hard time

0:32:17.760 --> 0:32:21.440
<v Speaker 12>in surgery. You went through a lot. After the third operation,

0:32:21.600 --> 0:32:23.480
<v Speaker 12>he did not want to see me again. I had

0:32:23.520 --> 0:32:25.800
<v Speaker 12>to go back for checkups. I asked a couple of

0:32:25.840 --> 0:32:28.920
<v Speaker 12>times for him. He was still seeing patients, but not me.

0:32:30.160 --> 0:32:34.600
<v Speaker 2>I asked about Patel's personality. From interviews at Tony Hoffman's

0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:37.680
<v Speaker 2>house the night before and now with the patients in

0:32:37.720 --> 0:32:41.520
<v Speaker 2>the backyard, Peatel sounded like a man who believed he

0:32:41.680 --> 0:32:46.000
<v Speaker 2>was flawless. Crosby said he had a lovely manner.

0:32:46.440 --> 0:32:48.360
<v Speaker 11>We really believed in him because he was so positive

0:32:48.680 --> 0:32:50.800
<v Speaker 11>until something went wrong and he didn't want to know you.

0:32:51.240 --> 0:32:52.800
<v Speaker 11>I told him I love you. When I was going

0:32:52.800 --> 0:32:55.840
<v Speaker 11>on to anesthetic. He was so nice to me. He

0:32:55.880 --> 0:32:57.480
<v Speaker 11>made you feel that you could have faith in him.

0:32:57.840 --> 0:32:59.320
<v Speaker 11>He told me that no matter what, he was going

0:32:59.360 --> 0:33:02.040
<v Speaker 11>to buy me some time. He was a lovely man.

0:33:03.000 --> 0:33:05.280
<v Speaker 11>After things went wrong, he never saw any of us.

0:33:05.480 --> 0:33:09.000
<v Speaker 11>He screamed at me. He passed the buck. Everyone knows

0:33:09.000 --> 0:33:11.560
<v Speaker 11>someone who had a problem. A lot took the attitude

0:33:11.600 --> 0:33:13.960
<v Speaker 11>that there's no point. It was never the case that

0:33:14.000 --> 0:33:16.240
<v Speaker 11>the doctors and nurses were not doing their jobs properly.

0:33:16.800 --> 0:33:19.640
<v Speaker 11>They were wonderful, but they were gagged and forced to

0:33:19.640 --> 0:33:22.480
<v Speaker 11>stand by while people were being hurt. Leg and doctor

0:33:22.520 --> 0:33:25.040
<v Speaker 11>Keating should be held accountable, along with the hospital board.

0:33:25.560 --> 0:33:28.960
<v Speaker 11>They listened to reports and did not stop him. Messenger

0:33:29.000 --> 0:33:29.640
<v Speaker 11>was the lynchpin.

0:33:30.320 --> 0:33:35.400
<v Speaker 2>He deserves a metal chimed in Cocks. Fleming, who had

0:33:35.440 --> 0:33:40.280
<v Speaker 2>been listening patiently as Crosby and Cox described their experiences,

0:33:40.440 --> 0:33:41.080
<v Speaker 2>now spoke.

0:33:42.200 --> 0:33:43.920
<v Speaker 5>He made you feel that you and he would go

0:33:44.000 --> 0:33:47.120
<v Speaker 5>through it together. Once it was apparent there was a complication,

0:33:47.600 --> 0:33:50.840
<v Speaker 5>he became abrupt, rude, and arrogant and wiped his hands

0:33:50.880 --> 0:33:54.320
<v Speaker 5>of you. Complications in surgery are a fact of life.

0:33:54.760 --> 0:33:57.240
<v Speaker 5>With the high complication rate he had goes back to

0:33:57.280 --> 0:34:00.239
<v Speaker 5>when he started at the hospital and was covered up.

0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:02.840
<v Speaker 5>He was of an age where you expected he had

0:34:02.880 --> 0:34:06.680
<v Speaker 5>twenty to thirty years of experience and qualifications and ability

0:34:06.880 --> 0:34:10.440
<v Speaker 5>and competency. I didn't know his experience and I didn't

0:34:10.440 --> 0:34:14.160
<v Speaker 5>know anyone else was suffering. He's delusional because he would

0:34:14.160 --> 0:34:18.040
<v Speaker 5>convey a sense of absolute mastery of the subject. He

0:34:18.120 --> 0:34:20.640
<v Speaker 5>was very fluent and well spoken, and I think he

0:34:20.680 --> 0:34:24.840
<v Speaker 5>hoodwinked and befuddled the executives and administration at the hospital.

0:34:25.320 --> 0:34:27.920
<v Speaker 5>I think the culture in the hospital maintains an atmosphere

0:34:27.920 --> 0:34:31.960
<v Speaker 5>of suppression and repression. I have nothing but the highest

0:34:32.000 --> 0:34:35.240
<v Speaker 5>praise for the nurses and staff there, except for Patel.

0:34:38.160 --> 0:34:42.600
<v Speaker 2>Crosby took some telephone calls. She was torn. Ian Brown,

0:34:42.760 --> 0:34:46.080
<v Speaker 2>her solicitor had advised her not to meet the Queensland

0:34:46.120 --> 0:34:49.520
<v Speaker 2>Health staff or doctor Jerry Fitzgerald, who were due to

0:34:49.640 --> 0:34:53.680
<v Speaker 2>arrive in Bunderberg the next day. Brown was unable to

0:34:53.719 --> 0:34:56.279
<v Speaker 2>go to the meeting and he was playing it safe.

0:34:56.800 --> 0:35:00.520
<v Speaker 2>We spoke about the pros and cons Crosby feared that

0:35:00.600 --> 0:35:02.799
<v Speaker 2>she was out of her depth in her role as

0:35:02.800 --> 0:35:06.640
<v Speaker 2>an advocate for the patients, dealing with journalists, lawyers and

0:35:06.920 --> 0:35:10.000
<v Speaker 2>soon the chief health officer. She had never been a

0:35:10.040 --> 0:35:15.120
<v Speaker 2>political player in her uncomplicated life in Bunderberg. Crosby did

0:35:15.160 --> 0:35:18.320
<v Speaker 2>not know or care which side of politics Peter Beatty,

0:35:18.400 --> 0:35:23.000
<v Speaker 2>the Premier represented. The slings and arrows of political theater

0:35:23.239 --> 0:35:26.319
<v Speaker 2>held no interest for her. She had a heart of

0:35:26.360 --> 0:35:29.919
<v Speaker 2>gold and a capacity to keep giving to everyone around her.

0:35:30.800 --> 0:35:35.280
<v Speaker 2>When she learned of Patel's errors and complications, Crosby's first

0:35:35.360 --> 0:35:38.480
<v Speaker 2>concern was for those who might have escaped his attentions

0:35:38.560 --> 0:35:41.840
<v Speaker 2>had she pressed her complaint. I told her that I

0:35:41.880 --> 0:35:44.800
<v Speaker 2>thought there was nothing to lose in going to meetings

0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:48.239
<v Speaker 2>with senior Queensland Health staff who might hopefully shed light

0:35:48.320 --> 0:35:53.200
<v Speaker 2>on Patel and his legacy. Gordon Nuttle's backflip and Jerry

0:35:53.280 --> 0:35:59.919
<v Speaker 2>Fitzgerald's apparent openness were encouraging signs information was almost always power.

0:36:04.239 --> 0:36:07.359
<v Speaker 2>After leaving, I sped back to Boorbong Street to meet

0:36:07.480 --> 0:36:11.720
<v Speaker 2>Kathy Heidrich for a chat over lunch. She too knew

0:36:11.800 --> 0:36:14.839
<v Speaker 2>one of Patel's patients, a woman from Childers who had

0:36:14.920 --> 0:36:18.960
<v Speaker 2>died after surgery by Patel. She had been one of

0:36:19.000 --> 0:36:22.600
<v Speaker 2>the town stalwarts. In the immediate aftermath of the blaze

0:36:22.600 --> 0:36:26.879
<v Speaker 2>at the hostel. She had made herself available at all

0:36:26.920 --> 0:36:31.160
<v Speaker 2>hours to give the survivors a shoulder to cry on, food, drink,

0:36:31.280 --> 0:36:35.800
<v Speaker 2>and clothing. Over a cappuccino and a toasted sandwich, Kathy

0:36:35.920 --> 0:36:43.200
<v Speaker 2>told me that the popular woman's demise was a great loss.

0:36:44.600 --> 0:36:49.440
<v Speaker 2>Chapter forty nine, The Bombshell, twelve April two thousand and five.

0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:55.560
<v Speaker 2>For a few moments at the arrival's terminal at Brisbane Airport,

0:36:55.719 --> 0:36:58.720
<v Speaker 2>I considered going straight home in a taxi to Ruth

0:36:58.760 --> 0:37:02.880
<v Speaker 2>and the kids. It was already after four pm. I

0:37:03.000 --> 0:37:06.520
<v Speaker 2>was tired, I had barely slept. It seemed unlikely I

0:37:06.520 --> 0:37:08.759
<v Speaker 2>would get much work done at my desk at the

0:37:08.800 --> 0:37:12.680
<v Speaker 2>office in the late afternoon. But the doubts over Patel's

0:37:12.719 --> 0:37:15.920
<v Speaker 2>background kept niggling at me. I had a sense there

0:37:16.000 --> 0:37:19.200
<v Speaker 2>was something more. It was stronger than a hunch. So

0:37:19.400 --> 0:37:22.840
<v Speaker 2>much of the double speak of the politicians, bureaucrats and

0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:24.080
<v Speaker 2>spin doctors did.

0:37:23.960 --> 0:37:24.680
<v Speaker 1>Not add up.

0:37:25.520 --> 0:37:28.960
<v Speaker 2>And there was Karen Jenner's haunting comment about the trail

0:37:29.040 --> 0:37:34.719
<v Speaker 2>of human wreckage elsewhere. I went directly to the office.

0:37:34.840 --> 0:37:38.839
<v Speaker 2>There were fourteen messages on my voicemail, one from an

0:37:38.920 --> 0:37:44.000
<v Speaker 2>irate Pakistani doctor furious that I had misreported Patel's nationality,

0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:49.520
<v Speaker 2>one from someone in Mount ISAA seeking someone to investigate.

0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:50.360
<v Speaker 1>His feud with the bank.

0:37:51.480 --> 0:37:54.680
<v Speaker 2>There were several hang ups, a couple of friends calling

0:37:54.719 --> 0:37:58.240
<v Speaker 2>for a chat my doubles partner for Tuesday night tennis

0:37:58.320 --> 0:38:01.640
<v Speaker 2>asking if I would be available in an hour, and

0:38:01.760 --> 0:38:06.399
<v Speaker 2>an overseas trained medical practitioner, doctor Jen Singh and that's

0:38:06.440 --> 0:38:11.000
<v Speaker 2>not her real name, who had left three increasingly anxious messages.

0:38:12.320 --> 0:38:15.760
<v Speaker 2>There were too many emails to read. The last one

0:38:15.800 --> 0:38:18.040
<v Speaker 2>was from doctor Singh.

0:38:18.600 --> 0:38:21.560
<v Speaker 13>My DearS are for the fourteen patients and their families.

0:38:22.120 --> 0:38:25.000
<v Speaker 13>My DearS are also for the poor doctor whose life

0:38:25.000 --> 0:38:28.960
<v Speaker 13>and reputation are now in shreds. Certainly lives could have

0:38:29.000 --> 0:38:33.120
<v Speaker 13>been saved by more appropriately actionable systems, and maybe a

0:38:33.160 --> 0:38:36.279
<v Speaker 13>doctor could have been helped to modify his practice to

0:38:36.320 --> 0:38:39.760
<v Speaker 13>the high standards of care, integrity and compassion the medical

0:38:39.760 --> 0:38:40.719
<v Speaker 13>profession stands for.

0:38:41.920 --> 0:38:45.360
<v Speaker 2>The other email of interest came from Stuart Copeland, the

0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:49.520
<v Speaker 2>opposition's health spokesman, who declared Gordon Nuttle unfit to be

0:38:49.640 --> 0:38:50.280
<v Speaker 2>health minister.

0:38:51.560 --> 0:38:54.640
<v Speaker 14>Why did the Minister's office initially try and bury the

0:38:54.680 --> 0:38:58.400
<v Speaker 14>findings of an investigation, claiming doctor Patel had fled the

0:38:58.480 --> 0:39:01.200
<v Speaker 14>country and there was no point in pursuing the matter.

0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:04.600
<v Speaker 14>What else is he trying to hide in relation to

0:39:04.680 --> 0:39:08.400
<v Speaker 14>this sad and shameful cover up that has clearly cost

0:39:08.480 --> 0:39:09.360
<v Speaker 14>patients lives?

0:39:10.600 --> 0:39:14.280
<v Speaker 2>I returned to the online quest for clues to Betel's past.

0:39:15.120 --> 0:39:18.920
<v Speaker 2>Were there other victims? Was there anything to hide? A

0:39:19.000 --> 0:39:21.680
<v Speaker 2>decade ago, such a quest would have meant waiting up

0:39:21.760 --> 0:39:25.120
<v Speaker 2>half the night to telephone a faithless stranger in an

0:39:25.120 --> 0:39:27.480
<v Speaker 2>office on the other side of the world, in the

0:39:27.520 --> 0:39:30.840
<v Speaker 2>forlorn hope that the information would be made available to

0:39:30.880 --> 0:39:36.120
<v Speaker 2>a journalist. But the Internet had changed everything. When organizations,

0:39:36.160 --> 0:39:40.399
<v Speaker 2>including the registration bodies for medical practitioners, realized they could

0:39:40.480 --> 0:39:44.080
<v Speaker 2>save time and money by making the data freely available

0:39:44.080 --> 0:39:48.680
<v Speaker 2>to visitors. In cyberspace, there were fewer boundaries. A couple

0:39:48.680 --> 0:39:52.440
<v Speaker 2>of double cliques could transport a journalist from Brisbane or

0:39:52.480 --> 0:39:56.080
<v Speaker 2>a patient from Bunderberg into an online draw of file

0:39:56.239 --> 0:39:59.720
<v Speaker 2>setting out the disciplinary history if indeed there was any

0:40:00.120 --> 0:40:05.960
<v Speaker 2>a surgeon in the United States. After unsuccessfully trying a

0:40:06.000 --> 0:40:10.520
<v Speaker 2>few variations of jont Patel in search engines used by doctors.

0:40:10.920 --> 0:40:14.200
<v Speaker 2>I went to Google and typed his name. I had

0:40:14.280 --> 0:40:17.280
<v Speaker 2>done an identical search a few days earlier and nothing

0:40:17.280 --> 0:40:18.359
<v Speaker 2>of interest came up.

0:40:18.920 --> 0:40:19.960
<v Speaker 1>But this time a.

0:40:19.880 --> 0:40:23.440
<v Speaker 2>Little after five pm, when Google presented me with dozens

0:40:23.440 --> 0:40:26.560
<v Speaker 2>of pages of hits, I saw a reference to a

0:40:26.600 --> 0:40:27.440
<v Speaker 2>doctor JR.

0:40:27.560 --> 0:40:27.960
<v Speaker 1>Patel.

0:40:28.360 --> 0:40:33.560
<v Speaker 2>Halfway down the first screen, one word disciplinary stood out.

0:40:34.360 --> 0:40:37.080
<v Speaker 2>Double Clicking on the link brought the New York State

0:40:37.239 --> 0:40:41.239
<v Speaker 2>Office of the Profession's website to the screen. There was

0:40:41.280 --> 0:40:44.480
<v Speaker 2>the distinctive logo for a PDF file next to the

0:40:44.520 --> 0:40:46.600
<v Speaker 2>words JANT M.

0:40:46.719 --> 0:40:47.200
<v Speaker 1>Patel.

0:40:48.160 --> 0:40:50.640
<v Speaker 2>When I opened the pdf file, I felt the hair

0:40:50.719 --> 0:40:54.280
<v Speaker 2>on the back of my neck stand up. The documentation

0:40:54.640 --> 0:40:57.360
<v Speaker 2>was damning, perhaps too damning.

0:40:56.960 --> 0:40:58.479
<v Speaker 1>To be true.

0:40:58.640 --> 0:41:02.200
<v Speaker 2>There were copies of chorus depondents between the board's lawyers

0:41:02.239 --> 0:41:05.560
<v Speaker 2>in New York City and Patel at his home in Oregon.

0:41:06.480 --> 0:41:09.839
<v Speaker 2>His home address was published. His signature was there at

0:41:09.840 --> 0:41:13.640
<v Speaker 2>the foot of several of the letters. The text detailed

0:41:13.680 --> 0:41:17.440
<v Speaker 2>his negligence. There was a ruling that he bestruck off

0:41:17.520 --> 0:41:22.280
<v Speaker 2>for gross and repeated acts of negligence insurgery. The detail

0:41:22.440 --> 0:41:26.919
<v Speaker 2>unfolding on the screen mesmerized me. Surely, I thought, this

0:41:27.040 --> 0:41:31.600
<v Speaker 2>can't be the same Paateel. I began to doubt the information.

0:41:31.880 --> 0:41:35.840
<v Speaker 2>I doubted myself. I had to be mistaken. Surely he

0:41:35.840 --> 0:41:38.440
<v Speaker 2>would not have been registered by the Medical Board of

0:41:38.520 --> 0:41:42.680
<v Speaker 2>Queensland without a background check. But then I recalled the

0:41:42.719 --> 0:41:48.320
<v Speaker 2>Board's track record of utter incompetence, its naivety and complete

0:41:48.400 --> 0:41:52.520
<v Speaker 2>lack of rigot in verifying the credentials of overseas trained doctors.

0:41:52.520 --> 0:41:55.400
<v Speaker 2>When I wrote about the problems and the warnings in

0:41:55.560 --> 0:41:58.879
<v Speaker 2>late two thousand and three had caused me and health

0:41:58.920 --> 0:42:03.840
<v Speaker 2>professionals to be gravely concerned with the Medical Board. Anything

0:42:04.040 --> 0:42:08.600
<v Speaker 2>was possible. The board conducted fewer checks for doctors wanting

0:42:08.640 --> 0:42:12.400
<v Speaker 2>to come from overseas than vets applying to treat animals.

0:42:14.080 --> 0:42:18.120
<v Speaker 2>Stunned at the potential enormity of the discovery, I printed

0:42:18.160 --> 0:42:20.879
<v Speaker 2>the pages and went to the equivalent site for the

0:42:20.920 --> 0:42:22.080
<v Speaker 2>Oregon Board.

0:42:21.760 --> 0:42:22.920
<v Speaker 1>Of Medical Examiners.

0:42:23.840 --> 0:42:27.160
<v Speaker 2>It's built in search engine allows visitors to type the

0:42:27.200 --> 0:42:31.200
<v Speaker 2>surname of a medical practitioner to check for disciplinary or

0:42:31.400 --> 0:42:35.920
<v Speaker 2>competence issues. When I clicked with the mouse, it returned

0:42:36.000 --> 0:42:40.160
<v Speaker 2>more information on Patel more pages to print. The printer

0:42:40.280 --> 0:42:44.120
<v Speaker 2>seemed to take forever to disgorge the documents They were

0:42:44.200 --> 0:42:49.000
<v Speaker 2>queued up behind page proofs of horse racing guides, court lists,

0:42:49.040 --> 0:42:52.800
<v Speaker 2>and other essential elements of the newspaper, but they seemed

0:42:52.800 --> 0:42:56.239
<v Speaker 2>so banal as I paced back and forth. When the

0:42:56.280 --> 0:42:59.520
<v Speaker 2>paper finally crawled out of the printer, I walked over

0:42:59.560 --> 0:43:02.400
<v Speaker 2>to Graham Lloyd, who was leaning against a bench covered

0:43:02.400 --> 0:43:06.680
<v Speaker 2>with bound files of month old newspapers. He was planning

0:43:06.719 --> 0:43:11.040
<v Speaker 2>the placement of stories for the following day's edition. Mate,

0:43:11.280 --> 0:43:13.720
<v Speaker 2>you are not going to believe what a Google search

0:43:13.840 --> 0:43:17.640
<v Speaker 2>on doctor Patel has turned up. I said, What have

0:43:17.719 --> 0:43:22.240
<v Speaker 2>you got? He asked, It looks like he's been struck

0:43:22.280 --> 0:43:25.520
<v Speaker 2>off in the United States for dodgy surgery. I mean,

0:43:25.680 --> 0:43:28.440
<v Speaker 2>it all looks right, but I can't believe it. There

0:43:28.520 --> 0:43:29.720
<v Speaker 2>must be some mistake.

0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:33.640
<v Speaker 15>What those stupid, fucking idiots.

0:43:33.840 --> 0:43:34.640
<v Speaker 1>He said.

0:43:35.080 --> 0:43:37.560
<v Speaker 2>In six years, I had never seen Lloyd, one of

0:43:37.600 --> 0:43:40.839
<v Speaker 2>the most intelligent journalists in the industry, lose his call.

0:43:41.640 --> 0:43:44.120
<v Speaker 2>He might have looked like a well dressed hippie, but

0:43:44.200 --> 0:43:49.799
<v Speaker 2>he rarely believed conspiracy theories. He blamed incompetence first and foremost.

0:43:50.719 --> 0:43:54.040
<v Speaker 2>I showed him the documents fresh from the printer. What

0:43:54.080 --> 0:43:54.680
<v Speaker 2>do you reckon?

0:43:55.120 --> 0:43:56.040
<v Speaker 1>I asked.

0:43:56.800 --> 0:44:01.120
<v Speaker 2>We looked faintly ridiculous, two grown men jabbing pieces of paper,

0:44:01.239 --> 0:44:05.960
<v Speaker 2>one swearing and wildly waving his arms. Stephen Seeley, the

0:44:06.120 --> 0:44:09.560
<v Speaker 2>deputy editor, stopped to see what was going on. I

0:44:09.640 --> 0:44:13.960
<v Speaker 2>told him hurriedly about the discovery. It looks right, I said,

0:44:14.560 --> 0:44:17.040
<v Speaker 2>I haven't been able to confirm yet that it's the

0:44:17.080 --> 0:44:21.120
<v Speaker 2>same Patel, But what are the chances of another negligent

0:44:21.160 --> 0:44:27.280
<v Speaker 2>surgeon called Jaunt Patel coming from Oregon. Seally shook his head. Well,

0:44:27.400 --> 0:44:30.919
<v Speaker 2>you'd better start making the calls, he said. He urged

0:44:30.960 --> 0:44:33.759
<v Speaker 2>me to get cracking on the confirmation. He turned to

0:44:33.840 --> 0:44:36.600
<v Speaker 2>the back bench to explain to the night editor Rory

0:44:36.640 --> 0:44:40.799
<v Speaker 2>Gibson and his deputy Neil Maynard. The contingency planned to

0:44:40.880 --> 0:44:43.320
<v Speaker 2>remake the front page in the event of the story

0:44:43.360 --> 0:44:45.040
<v Speaker 2>being true.

0:44:45.440 --> 0:44:47.560
<v Speaker 1>Soon there would be a newsroom.

0:44:47.080 --> 0:44:51.520
<v Speaker 2>Clamor for images of Patel's patients in Bunderberg, patients I

0:44:51.560 --> 0:44:56.080
<v Speaker 2>had visited earlier that day without a photographer. Over at

0:44:56.120 --> 0:45:00.920
<v Speaker 2>my desk, Graham Lloyd restored calm in methodical life, analyzed

0:45:00.960 --> 0:45:05.000
<v Speaker 2>the documents from the two medical registration boards. They were

0:45:05.040 --> 0:45:09.600
<v Speaker 2>clearly dealing with the same surgeon, but was he our surgeon?

0:45:10.320 --> 0:45:13.160
<v Speaker 2>Lloyd correctly synthesized the details.

0:45:14.239 --> 0:45:18.560
<v Speaker 15>He was disciplined first in Oregon in two thousand, he said,

0:45:19.160 --> 0:45:22.160
<v Speaker 15>so they banned him from doing surgery there. Then he's

0:45:22.200 --> 0:45:25.160
<v Speaker 15>tried to obtain registration in New York State, and he

0:45:25.200 --> 0:45:28.400
<v Speaker 15>hasn't told them about his Oregon problems. When they found

0:45:28.440 --> 0:45:31.520
<v Speaker 15>out they've struck him off altogether, he's agreed to go

0:45:31.600 --> 0:45:34.000
<v Speaker 15>along with that as a kind of plea bargain to

0:45:34.040 --> 0:45:35.320
<v Speaker 15>avoid a greater punishment.

0:45:36.680 --> 0:45:39.960
<v Speaker 2>We were still no closer to determining whether he was

0:45:39.960 --> 0:45:44.719
<v Speaker 2>Bunderberg's Jon Patel. When I telephoned Jerry Fitzgerald, it was

0:45:44.760 --> 0:45:49.759
<v Speaker 2>shortly before six pm. Time was against me. The strategy

0:45:49.800 --> 0:45:53.040
<v Speaker 2>I had decided to follow involved a few simple queries.

0:45:54.200 --> 0:45:58.200
<v Speaker 2>I planned to ask Fitzgerald to confirm Patel's home address

0:45:58.440 --> 0:46:02.200
<v Speaker 2>or his US physician LIE number. Figuring that the chief

0:46:02.239 --> 0:46:06.480
<v Speaker 2>Health Officer had access to Patel's file during the clinical audit,

0:46:07.120 --> 0:46:10.800
<v Speaker 2>I hoped the details would be readily available to Jerry.

0:46:11.360 --> 0:46:15.160
<v Speaker 2>I would not volunteer what I had found. The cryptic

0:46:15.239 --> 0:46:20.440
<v Speaker 2>approach fell apart. I had delivered it clumsily. Fitzgerald told

0:46:20.480 --> 0:46:23.440
<v Speaker 2>me he did not have the basic information that I sought.

0:46:24.600 --> 0:46:27.399
<v Speaker 8>We have his CV showing his address care of the

0:46:27.440 --> 0:46:31.080
<v Speaker 8>Bunderberg Base Hospital. It says he was staff surgeon at

0:46:31.160 --> 0:46:36.239
<v Speaker 8>Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon October eighty nine to September

0:46:36.480 --> 0:46:41.440
<v Speaker 8>two and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Oregon Health

0:46:41.520 --> 0:46:42.719
<v Speaker 8>Science University.

0:46:43.800 --> 0:46:47.680
<v Speaker 2>I changed tack Jerry. I probably should have explained this

0:46:47.880 --> 0:46:50.480
<v Speaker 2>at the start. I'm ringing because I've just done a

0:46:50.560 --> 0:46:54.359
<v Speaker 2>Google search on Jon Patel. It's come back showing him

0:46:54.400 --> 0:46:57.479
<v Speaker 2>being struck off in New York State. He was also

0:46:57.680 --> 0:47:01.400
<v Speaker 2>banned from doing surgery in Oregon. But there could be

0:47:01.440 --> 0:47:05.080
<v Speaker 2>many doctors in the US with that name. I need

0:47:05.120 --> 0:47:09.600
<v Speaker 2>to check if it is the same Petel Naively, I

0:47:09.640 --> 0:47:12.839
<v Speaker 2>believed that Jerry Fitzgerald had no knowledge of what I

0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:13.760
<v Speaker 2>was talking about.

0:47:14.640 --> 0:47:18.400
<v Speaker 8>Oh really, I wonder if it's the same bloke. Probably is,

0:47:18.920 --> 0:47:21.640
<v Speaker 8>There wouldn't be too many in Portland, Oregon. He got

0:47:21.680 --> 0:47:24.680
<v Speaker 8>a certificate of good standing from Portland, Oregon before he

0:47:24.800 --> 0:47:27.719
<v Speaker 8>came here. They have to produce a certificate a good

0:47:27.719 --> 0:47:28.800
<v Speaker 8>standing when they come.

0:47:30.000 --> 0:47:34.000
<v Speaker 2>Fitzgerald let on nothing as I asked about these certificates

0:47:34.040 --> 0:47:35.560
<v Speaker 2>and how they were verified.

0:47:36.480 --> 0:47:38.759
<v Speaker 8>We rely on the medical board from where they have

0:47:38.920 --> 0:47:42.759
<v Speaker 8>come from. If they can't produce the certificate, then we

0:47:42.840 --> 0:47:44.120
<v Speaker 8>make further inquiries.

0:47:45.200 --> 0:47:49.480
<v Speaker 2>I read to Fitzgerald extracts from the correspondence. When I

0:47:49.640 --> 0:47:51.920
<v Speaker 2>asked him if he was hearing about this for the

0:47:52.000 --> 0:47:55.640
<v Speaker 2>first time, he said he was, but although I did

0:47:55.680 --> 0:47:58.239
<v Speaker 2>not know it at the time, I was preaching to

0:47:58.280 --> 0:48:02.840
<v Speaker 2>the converted ERLD had known about Patel since the previous Thursday.

0:48:03.800 --> 0:48:06.520
<v Speaker 2>I asked again if he had anything I could use

0:48:06.560 --> 0:48:10.800
<v Speaker 2>to match Bunderberg's now infamous surgeon with the Patel thrown

0:48:10.920 --> 0:48:12.040
<v Speaker 2>up by the Google search.

0:48:13.320 --> 0:48:15.719
<v Speaker 8>We don't have his date of birth. It sounds like

0:48:15.760 --> 0:48:18.960
<v Speaker 8>it's him, but he still appears to be registered in Oregon.

0:48:19.640 --> 0:48:22.920
<v Speaker 8>What I'm intrigued about is the relationship over what's happened

0:48:22.920 --> 0:48:25.600
<v Speaker 8>in New York and Oregon. It sounds like the New

0:48:25.680 --> 0:48:28.000
<v Speaker 8>York Board has done a deal with him.

0:48:28.560 --> 0:48:32.799
<v Speaker 2>At the time, I was struck by Fitzgerald's immediate acceptance

0:48:32.880 --> 0:48:36.280
<v Speaker 2>that it was the same Patel. It was out of character.

0:48:36.960 --> 0:48:41.840
<v Speaker 2>Senior public servants are always overly cautious. Doctors are the

0:48:41.920 --> 0:48:45.520
<v Speaker 2>last to assume the worst about their colleagues, or at

0:48:45.600 --> 0:48:48.560
<v Speaker 2>least the last to share their views with those outside

0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.680
<v Speaker 2>the club. At the time, I did not comprehend Fitzgerald's

0:48:52.719 --> 0:48:57.520
<v Speaker 2>apparent confidence that it was the same Patel. He suggested

0:48:57.560 --> 0:49:00.200
<v Speaker 2>that I contact Jim O. Dempsey at the Medical Board

0:49:00.280 --> 0:49:03.640
<v Speaker 2>and ask him for the information about Patel's home address

0:49:04.040 --> 0:49:09.040
<v Speaker 2>and US license number. In previous exchanges with Odempse, I

0:49:09.120 --> 0:49:12.960
<v Speaker 2>had put down the phone, infuriated by his lack of candor.

0:49:13.760 --> 0:49:18.480
<v Speaker 2>We had invariably exchanged strong words. I doubted tonight would

0:49:18.520 --> 0:49:22.839
<v Speaker 2>play out any differently. As chief Health Officer, You'll have

0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:26.279
<v Speaker 2>more luck than me, I said, Could you please ring him,

0:49:26.520 --> 0:49:30.640
<v Speaker 2>explain the situation and ask him to contact me urgently.

0:49:31.880 --> 0:49:34.239
<v Speaker 2>Tony Hoffman was at home when I called her. In

0:49:34.280 --> 0:49:38.920
<v Speaker 2>the meantime, do you have any documents signed by doctor Patel?

0:49:39.200 --> 0:49:42.400
<v Speaker 2>I asked, I've found something and I need to compare

0:49:42.520 --> 0:49:45.640
<v Speaker 2>his signature with it. As soon as possible. I'll have

0:49:45.719 --> 0:49:50.080
<v Speaker 2>a look, she said. Within thirty minutes, she had sent

0:49:50.160 --> 0:49:54.760
<v Speaker 2>me a handful of emails. The attachments were documents bearing

0:49:54.880 --> 0:49:59.160
<v Speaker 2>his signature. It was a lucky break. Hoffman had feared

0:49:59.200 --> 0:50:02.920
<v Speaker 2>that the Administra would deliberately lose the medical file for

0:50:03.120 --> 0:50:06.919
<v Speaker 2>Desk Bramage, so she had copied it and taken it home.

0:50:07.680 --> 0:50:12.440
<v Speaker 2>Amongst the paperwork were documents bearing Patel's signature. She scanned

0:50:12.480 --> 0:50:16.880
<v Speaker 2>an email the Messy Swirl as jpeg files. It looked

0:50:17.000 --> 0:50:20.400
<v Speaker 2>very much like the signature on the letters. It was close,

0:50:20.680 --> 0:50:25.120
<v Speaker 2>but not conclusive. I asked if she knew anything definite

0:50:25.160 --> 0:50:28.160
<v Speaker 2>of a New York connection or the medical college he

0:50:28.200 --> 0:50:30.000
<v Speaker 2>had attended in India.

0:50:30.760 --> 0:50:33.920
<v Speaker 3>He talked about his time in New York and Portland, Oregon.

0:50:34.680 --> 0:50:35.160
<v Speaker 1>She said.

0:50:36.200 --> 0:50:39.560
<v Speaker 2>Hoffman went on the internet herself and called back later

0:50:39.719 --> 0:50:42.840
<v Speaker 2>to say that he had graduated from the University of

0:50:43.320 --> 0:50:45.959
<v Speaker 2>Saurashtra in nineteen seventy three.

0:50:46.960 --> 0:50:50.920
<v Speaker 3>Peter Leck lost the plot at the hospital today, she added,

0:50:51.320 --> 0:50:55.040
<v Speaker 3>he had to be escorted from the premises. Someone said

0:50:55.080 --> 0:50:58.759
<v Speaker 3>he's behaving like an orangutang. Everyone in an executive now

0:50:58.880 --> 0:50:59.960
<v Speaker 3>is really very afraid.

0:51:01.320 --> 0:51:05.440
<v Speaker 2>The editor, David Fagan, wanted an urgent briefing on everything

0:51:05.520 --> 0:51:08.520
<v Speaker 2>we had. Lloyd and I sat in his office and

0:51:08.600 --> 0:51:12.480
<v Speaker 2>showed him the material, the Oregon and New York documents,

0:51:12.760 --> 0:51:15.799
<v Speaker 2>the signatures, and I read to him my notes of

0:51:15.840 --> 0:51:17.160
<v Speaker 2>the interview with Fitzgerald.

0:51:18.040 --> 0:51:20.359
<v Speaker 16>I think we've got enough to publish. It looks good

0:51:20.360 --> 0:51:20.560
<v Speaker 16>to me.

0:51:21.280 --> 0:51:23.600
<v Speaker 12>If it were not for the signatures, we'd fall short.

0:51:24.400 --> 0:51:25.799
<v Speaker 16>They are pretty close.

0:51:26.480 --> 0:51:29.920
<v Speaker 2>Fagan was more confident than me. What if we were wrong,

0:51:30.680 --> 0:51:34.680
<v Speaker 2>I cringed at the thought of the consequences. The ABC's

0:51:34.800 --> 0:51:38.400
<v Speaker 2>media watch would have a field day. As we talked

0:51:38.400 --> 0:51:42.080
<v Speaker 2>in Fagan's office, my mobile phone rang. It was oh Dempsey.

0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:45.279
<v Speaker 2>He had stepped out of a scheduled monthly meeting of

0:51:45.320 --> 0:51:49.320
<v Speaker 2>the Medical Board at Forestry House in Brisbane. I figured

0:51:49.360 --> 0:51:52.320
<v Speaker 2>he would have been well briefed by Fitzgerald, a fellow

0:51:52.400 --> 0:51:55.520
<v Speaker 2>board member who was at the meeting, but he asked

0:51:55.560 --> 0:51:58.960
<v Speaker 2>me what I was calling about. The question surprised me.

0:51:59.480 --> 0:52:03.080
<v Speaker 2>Surely knew. I told oh Dempsey what I had told

0:52:03.120 --> 0:52:06.480
<v Speaker 2>Fitzgerald and that I needed details to confirm whether Patel

0:52:06.560 --> 0:52:10.840
<v Speaker 2>from Bunderberg was the same person uncovered in the Google search.

0:52:11.719 --> 0:52:14.040
<v Speaker 2>He said he had been in a meeting and would

0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:17.320
<v Speaker 2>need to go away again to check Patel's personnel file.

0:52:18.320 --> 0:52:20.760
<v Speaker 16>I think it's likely, given he came from Oregon.

0:52:22.719 --> 0:52:26.319
<v Speaker 2>Like Fitzgerald, the executive officer of the Medical Board was

0:52:26.360 --> 0:52:31.120
<v Speaker 2>being casually optimistic about something gravely serious. It was out

0:52:31.120 --> 0:52:35.120
<v Speaker 2>of character. After ending the brief exchange with me, Oh

0:52:35.200 --> 0:52:38.000
<v Speaker 2>Dempsey made an urgent call in a desperate bid to

0:52:38.040 --> 0:52:42.080
<v Speaker 2>minimize the probable damage he knew the game was almost

0:52:42.160 --> 0:52:45.480
<v Speaker 2>up when he telephoned one of doctor Steve Buckland's advisors,

0:52:45.880 --> 0:52:49.840
<v Speaker 2>Jill Finxed, on her mobile phone. Finst was on a

0:52:49.920 --> 0:52:53.840
<v Speaker 2>road trip in Atherton in North Queensland with Buckland, Nuttle

0:52:54.200 --> 0:52:57.839
<v Speaker 2>and one of the other advisors, Cameron Milner. They had

0:52:57.880 --> 0:53:00.960
<v Speaker 2>been to Athurtson Hospital after a visit to the indigenous

0:53:00.960 --> 0:53:06.520
<v Speaker 2>community at Yarrabah Oh. Dempsey, by now severely rattled, tipped

0:53:06.560 --> 0:53:10.400
<v Speaker 2>off Finxed, explaining that I had done an Internet surge

0:53:10.440 --> 0:53:14.200
<v Speaker 2>and discovered what they already knew about Patel and his

0:53:14.360 --> 0:53:19.760
<v Speaker 2>disciplinary history. Gordon Nuttle winced the worst secret was about

0:53:19.800 --> 0:53:23.680
<v Speaker 2>to get out when O Dempsey called back fewer than

0:53:23.800 --> 0:53:27.399
<v Speaker 2>thirty minutes later. He asked me what address I had

0:53:27.480 --> 0:53:31.000
<v Speaker 2>for Patel. I repeated the house number of the mansion

0:53:31.120 --> 0:53:36.359
<v Speaker 2>in Northwest Bluegrass Place, Oregon. We also compared the date

0:53:36.400 --> 0:53:36.880
<v Speaker 2>of birth.

0:53:37.680 --> 0:53:41.480
<v Speaker 16>It matches, He said, we have that date of birth

0:53:41.520 --> 0:53:43.920
<v Speaker 16>in nineteen fifty and that address.

0:53:44.520 --> 0:53:46.000
<v Speaker 1>It was now conclusive.

0:53:46.520 --> 0:53:49.359
<v Speaker 2>I told him the license number of the Patel on

0:53:49.400 --> 0:53:53.040
<v Speaker 2>the Google search. He confirmed it was the same number

0:53:53.120 --> 0:53:56.040
<v Speaker 2>in the personnel file of the former director of Surgery.

0:53:56.719 --> 0:54:01.960
<v Speaker 2>I was incredulous Jim. This is unbelievable. It means that

0:54:02.040 --> 0:54:06.360
<v Speaker 2>he should never have been registered here in Queensland. Odempsey

0:54:06.480 --> 0:54:09.920
<v Speaker 2>was ready with an explanation and he delivered it smoothly.

0:54:10.960 --> 0:54:13.960
<v Speaker 16>He provided the board with a false statutory declaration, and

0:54:14.000 --> 0:54:16.880
<v Speaker 16>he removed part of his certificate of good standing prior

0:54:17.000 --> 0:54:20.560
<v Speaker 16>to providing it to the board. On my review, that

0:54:20.680 --> 0:54:23.640
<v Speaker 16>appears to be what has happened. I've asked my staff

0:54:23.680 --> 0:54:26.560
<v Speaker 16>to undertake a full review. There was a reference to

0:54:26.560 --> 0:54:30.120
<v Speaker 16>an attachment on the certificate of good standing. We did

0:54:30.200 --> 0:54:33.120
<v Speaker 16>not receive it. If we had received it, it's still

0:54:33.320 --> 0:54:36.040
<v Speaker 16>likely that we would not have had a sustainable case

0:54:36.080 --> 0:54:39.520
<v Speaker 16>to refuse his registration totally. We may have had to

0:54:39.520 --> 0:54:42.480
<v Speaker 16>put conditions on his license. They would not have addressed

0:54:42.480 --> 0:54:45.560
<v Speaker 16>the issues in Bunderberg. The issues in Bunderberg were around

0:54:45.600 --> 0:54:47.360
<v Speaker 16>the types of operations he was doing.

0:54:49.040 --> 0:54:52.440
<v Speaker 2>The justifications did not make sense to me, but there

0:54:52.480 --> 0:54:53.760
<v Speaker 2>was no time to argue.

0:54:53.960 --> 0:54:55.279
<v Speaker 1>A deadline loomed and.

0:54:55.200 --> 0:54:58.440
<v Speaker 2>There was much to rite. It dawned on me that

0:54:58.520 --> 0:55:03.400
<v Speaker 2>O Dempsey's explanation meant he already knew about Patel. O

0:55:03.520 --> 0:55:07.440
<v Speaker 2>Dempsey's routine of asking what I was calling about. Going

0:55:07.480 --> 0:55:10.000
<v Speaker 2>back to the file, asking me what I needed to

0:55:10.160 --> 0:55:14.040
<v Speaker 2>confirm it was a charade. I asked him when he

0:55:14.160 --> 0:55:15.200
<v Speaker 2>discovered the fraud.

0:55:15.840 --> 0:55:19.000
<v Speaker 16>He responded, I got a review of the file over

0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:22.320
<v Speaker 16>the weekend. We have been aware of the issues from Oregon,

0:55:22.480 --> 0:55:25.920
<v Speaker 16>and I was waiting confirmation from Oregon. I'm not aware

0:55:25.960 --> 0:55:28.640
<v Speaker 16>that the chief Health Officer was aware of it. I

0:55:28.680 --> 0:55:30.920
<v Speaker 16>am awaiting a brief from my staff member, which is

0:55:30.920 --> 0:55:34.480
<v Speaker 16>in draft form. He's looking at what went wrong. Can

0:55:34.520 --> 0:55:37.640
<v Speaker 16>I stress there have been no findings against doctor Patel.

0:55:38.360 --> 0:55:41.920
<v Speaker 16>There's been a surgical audit that raised issues with doctor Patel.

0:55:42.520 --> 0:55:45.880
<v Speaker 16>The Medical Board is extremely concerned about this one off incident.

0:55:46.560 --> 0:55:49.840
<v Speaker 16>We are so concerned that I've instructed my staff tomorrow

0:55:49.920 --> 0:55:53.400
<v Speaker 16>to commence a full review of every current overseas trained

0:55:53.400 --> 0:55:57.280
<v Speaker 16>doctor registrant to ensure that their certificates of good standing

0:55:57.440 --> 0:55:58.239
<v Speaker 16>are accurate.

0:56:00.200 --> 0:56:03.760
<v Speaker 2>I questioned Odempsey closely on the timing of his knowledge.

0:56:04.160 --> 0:56:07.759
<v Speaker 2>The answers to who knew what and when were essential.

0:56:08.880 --> 0:56:12.120
<v Speaker 16>I looked at the doctor Patel file on Friday. I

0:56:12.160 --> 0:56:15.520
<v Speaker 16>saw the note regarding the attachment. I instructed a senior

0:56:15.560 --> 0:56:17.840
<v Speaker 16>Medical Board officer to find out what it was and

0:56:17.880 --> 0:56:21.360
<v Speaker 16>get the details from Oregon. We advised the Minister's office

0:56:21.360 --> 0:56:24.960
<v Speaker 16>today on the basis of getting formal information back. I

0:56:25.040 --> 0:56:27.600
<v Speaker 16>merely briefed the Director General's liaison person.

0:56:28.880 --> 0:56:32.719
<v Speaker 2>I asked him repeatedly when precisely he spoke to the

0:56:32.760 --> 0:56:37.040
<v Speaker 2>Minister's office. I said that the findings about Patel's previous

0:56:37.160 --> 0:56:40.920
<v Speaker 2>incompetence were startling, and that surely he could remember at

0:56:41.000 --> 0:56:44.960
<v Speaker 2>what time that same day he had advised the Minister's office,

0:56:45.000 --> 0:56:48.719
<v Speaker 2>But he insisted he could not recall. He rejected my

0:56:48.840 --> 0:56:52.520
<v Speaker 2>suggestion that there had been a shockingly negligent lapse by

0:56:52.520 --> 0:56:55.279
<v Speaker 2>the Medical Board with tragic consequences.

0:56:56.040 --> 0:56:59.800
<v Speaker 16>Absolutely not. We have one incident of what would appear

0:56:59.880 --> 0:57:03.239
<v Speaker 16>to be fraudulent activity by a doctor and an error

0:57:03.239 --> 0:57:06.759
<v Speaker 16>in processing. Here we rely on the certificate of good

0:57:06.800 --> 0:57:10.200
<v Speaker 16>standing from the jurisdiction. We rely on the certificate rather

0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:13.400
<v Speaker 16>than searches of the web. If we have a certificate

0:57:13.440 --> 0:57:17.520
<v Speaker 16>of good standing that says they are okay, they are okay.

0:57:18.880 --> 0:57:22.240
<v Speaker 2>It was immediately clear that the warnings of late two

0:57:22.240 --> 0:57:25.640
<v Speaker 2>thousand and three about the lack screening of overseas trained

0:57:25.680 --> 0:57:28.919
<v Speaker 2>doctors had not been heated by the Medical Board, which

0:57:29.080 --> 0:57:33.280
<v Speaker 2>was little more than a rubber stamb. If doctors or

0:57:33.320 --> 0:57:38.680
<v Speaker 2>complete impostors were capable of fraud or handy at desktop publishing,

0:57:39.040 --> 0:57:42.120
<v Speaker 2>they might get away with the unlawful killing of patients.

0:57:42.760 --> 0:57:46.920
<v Speaker 2>And maybe Patel had Hoffman must have been sitting next

0:57:46.920 --> 0:57:49.920
<v Speaker 2>to the phone. She was on tenterhooks when she answered

0:57:49.960 --> 0:57:53.960
<v Speaker 2>it on the first ring. We've got him, I said,

0:57:55.160 --> 0:57:59.040
<v Speaker 2>I explained the events of the previous two hours, She cried.

0:58:00.200 --> 0:58:05.760
<v Speaker 2>Hoffman felt immense and indescribable relief. She had been completely vindicated,

0:58:05.880 --> 0:58:10.120
<v Speaker 2>But she was also disgusted and furious. How she asked me,

0:58:10.200 --> 0:58:13.720
<v Speaker 2>could her bosses and the board be so reckless? And

0:58:13.840 --> 0:58:17.280
<v Speaker 2>at what terrible cost for the patients and the nurses.

0:58:18.520 --> 0:58:23.040
<v Speaker 2>David Fagan wanted a maximum display in the newspaper. The

0:58:23.160 --> 0:58:27.480
<v Speaker 2>rush for pictures became frantic. The Bunderberg Newsmail refused when

0:58:27.520 --> 0:58:29.720
<v Speaker 2>we asked if we could buy one of their pictures

0:58:29.720 --> 0:58:34.240
<v Speaker 2>of des Bramich, Mark or Tess. The Newsmail had no

0:58:34.360 --> 0:58:37.560
<v Speaker 2>idea of the story about to explode in their backyard.

0:58:38.560 --> 0:58:41.960
<v Speaker 2>Our photographer in Harvey Bay, John Wilson, rushed to the

0:58:41.960 --> 0:58:45.120
<v Speaker 2>Bramwich home to shoot a few frames and email them

0:58:45.160 --> 0:58:50.200
<v Speaker 2>back before deadline. It was imperative to publish such extraordinary

0:58:50.280 --> 0:58:54.600
<v Speaker 2>news as quickly and as prominently as possible. A little

0:58:54.600 --> 0:58:58.040
<v Speaker 2>after seven PM, I began writing the main splash under

0:58:58.040 --> 0:59:03.280
<v Speaker 2>the banner headline why didn't they check? The story began

0:59:03.480 --> 0:59:08.000
<v Speaker 2>like this. The surgeon of doctor death by colleagues at

0:59:08.040 --> 0:59:12.600
<v Speaker 2>Bunderberg Base Hospital had been found guilty of gross negligence

0:59:12.720 --> 0:59:16.400
<v Speaker 2>in the US and forced to hand in his practicing

0:59:16.440 --> 0:59:20.000
<v Speaker 2>certificate less than two years before coming to Australia.

0:59:20.920 --> 0:59:22.120
<v Speaker 1>A Google search.

0:59:22.040 --> 0:59:25.440
<v Speaker 2>Of public registers by The Courier Mail revealed yesterday that

0:59:25.560 --> 0:59:30.120
<v Speaker 2>doctor J. R. Patel, an Indian trained practitioner, had been

0:59:30.240 --> 0:59:33.720
<v Speaker 2>cited over serious problems with his surgery in New York

0:59:33.760 --> 0:59:39.520
<v Speaker 2>State and Oregon. Stephen Seely made an astute decision to

0:59:39.600 --> 0:59:42.960
<v Speaker 2>throw out the feature slated for page thirteen and replace

0:59:43.000 --> 0:59:47.000
<v Speaker 2>it with a lengthy read on the Patel case as

0:59:47.000 --> 0:59:50.240
<v Speaker 2>well as the page one splash story. He needed a

0:59:50.280 --> 0:59:55.560
<v Speaker 2>fifteen hundred word inside story by nine pm. Before leaving

0:59:55.600 --> 0:59:58.400
<v Speaker 2>the office, I needed to respond to my source from

0:59:58.480 --> 1:00:02.439
<v Speaker 2>late two thousand and three, doctor marsh Godsill, who had

1:00:02.520 --> 1:00:06.240
<v Speaker 2>first explained to me the concerns over the proficiency and

1:00:06.360 --> 1:00:10.400
<v Speaker 2>vetting of overseas trained doctors, was following the Petel stories.

1:00:11.320 --> 1:00:15.920
<v Speaker 2>Marsh had emailed me the previous day, pointing out.

1:00:16.120 --> 1:00:19.720
<v Speaker 6>The Bunderberg saga is an extension of what we discussed

1:00:19.720 --> 1:00:20.959
<v Speaker 6>in two thousand and three.

1:00:21.360 --> 1:00:23.560
<v Speaker 8>Situation has not changed.

1:00:24.800 --> 1:00:27.720
<v Speaker 2>My reply a few minutes before ten pm must have

1:00:27.840 --> 1:00:32.080
<v Speaker 2>seemed somewhat cryptic. I wrote, I've been thinking of you

1:00:32.160 --> 1:00:35.200
<v Speaker 2>these past few days and recalling what we tried to

1:00:35.240 --> 1:00:38.720
<v Speaker 2>achieve in late two thousand and three. The news in

1:00:38.800 --> 1:00:42.920
<v Speaker 2>Wednesday's courier mail will blow your mind, or maybe it won't,

1:00:43.080 --> 1:00:47.480
<v Speaker 2>given your warnings, but it could also finally produce the

1:00:47.560 --> 1:00:55.840
<v Speaker 2>sort of positive reforms you've been seeking. When I finally

1:00:55.840 --> 1:00:58.720
<v Speaker 2>made it home and recounted the saga to Ruth, it

1:00:58.880 --> 1:01:03.240
<v Speaker 2>was eleven pm. The Curiaml's first editions were being printed.

1:01:04.000 --> 1:01:06.760
<v Speaker 2>There was a window of about six hours before they

1:01:06.760 --> 1:01:10.880
<v Speaker 2>would hit the streets and unleash waves of shock and anger.

1:01:12.000 --> 1:01:17.480
<v Speaker 2>The story was still missing something its most important character, Patel.

1:01:18.760 --> 1:01:23.120
<v Speaker 2>From home, I called our correspondent in Los Angeles, Nick Papps,

1:01:23.400 --> 1:01:27.040
<v Speaker 2>who was waking up in another time zone. I explained

1:01:27.080 --> 1:01:30.040
<v Speaker 2>the story, telling Paps he could take an early flight

1:01:30.120 --> 1:01:33.440
<v Speaker 2>and be on Patel's doorstep in Portland, Oregon before the

1:01:33.480 --> 1:01:38.600
<v Speaker 2>Curymale's revelations were read or understood by anyone else. This

1:01:38.880 --> 1:01:41.960
<v Speaker 2>was an area before there was instant news from the Internet.

1:01:43.040 --> 1:01:46.720
<v Speaker 2>Phaps and his partner, a photographer, fought the rush hour

1:01:46.840 --> 1:01:59.560
<v Speaker 2>to the airport. Sick to Death is written and presented

1:01:59.600 --> 1:02:04.960
<v Speaker 2>by men Headley Thomas, the Australian's national Chief correspondent. Claire

1:02:05.000 --> 1:02:10.480
<v Speaker 2>Harvey is The Australian's editorial director. Audio editing, production and

1:02:10.720 --> 1:02:14.520
<v Speaker 2>music have been done by Jasper Leik, with assistants from

1:02:14.760 --> 1:02:19.760
<v Speaker 2>Leah Sammaglu and Neil Sutherland. Our producer is Christin Amias.

1:02:20.040 --> 1:02:26.680
<v Speaker 2>Production management by Stephanie Coombs, artwork by Sean Callenan. Thanks

1:02:26.720 --> 1:02:32.600
<v Speaker 2>to Ryan Osland, Matthew Condon, Karina Berger, Ellie Dudley, David Murray,

1:02:32.960 --> 1:02:38.400
<v Speaker 2>Dominique McDermott, Zach Sculander and all our family, friends and

1:02:38.560 --> 1:02:42.560
<v Speaker 2>colleagues who helped in this series and contributed voice acting

1:02:43.080 --> 1:02:49.040
<v Speaker 2>and special thanks to Tony Hoffman and Rob Messenger. Subscribers

1:02:49.040 --> 1:02:52.880
<v Speaker 2>to The Australian here new episodes of Sick to Death

1:02:53.240 --> 1:02:57.520
<v Speaker 2>first at Sick to Death podcast dot com and on

1:02:57.800 --> 1:03:03.440
<v Speaker 2>Apple Podcasts. You can get exclusive access to photographs, videos,

1:03:03.680 --> 1:03:23.800
<v Speaker 2>timelines and more at the website,