1
00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:08,200
Speaker 1: My name is Hedley Thomas. Sick to Death is based

2
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:10,440
Speaker 1: on my book of the same name, and it's the

3
00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:15,000
Speaker 1: true story of doctor Jayant Patel's lies and manipulation and

4
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,920
Speaker 1: the herculean effort it took to finally stop him. We've

5
00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:23,200
Speaker 1: used voice actors throughout this series, and on occasion the

6
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,599
Speaker 1: real people from this story have read their words for us.

7
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:30,520
Speaker 1: It is brought to you by me and the Australian

8
00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:47,080
Speaker 1: Chapter sixty Ego Analysis, thirteen to twenty June two thousand

9
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: and five. The journey from Brisbane to jan Patel's hometown

10
00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:57,280
Speaker 1: took us through Mumbai, Amadabad and on a five hour

11
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,440
Speaker 1: bone rattling ride through Gujarat Province to the town of Jamnagar.

12
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:07,200
Speaker 1: Our friend and escort, Rahul Betty, decided he knew just

13
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,600
Speaker 1: where he would go if he were in Jayan Patel's shoes.

14
00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,480
Speaker 1: We were crossing the southwest corner of a country where

15
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,800
Speaker 1: as many as three hundred million people earned a dollar

16
00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:22,600
Speaker 1: a day. In India, medical treatment is largely for the wealthy,

17
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,840
Speaker 1: and doctors and even those who should not have been

18
00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:31,920
Speaker 1: trusted with a pocket knife are revered. Unquestioningly, Rahul decided

19
00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,839
Speaker 1: that if Patel felt threatened, he would return to Jamnagar,

20
00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,440
Speaker 1: where he grew up and enjoyed an education, and where

21
00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,880
Speaker 1: his family retained strong caste ties. Patel could even start

22
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,360
Speaker 1: a clinic to complement the hospital where he first performed surgery.

23
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,560
Speaker 1: His troubles in the US and Australia would be of

24
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,559
Speaker 1: little consequence in India. According to my friend, the course,

25
00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:00,160
Speaker 1: life is very cheap here, he explained, it's not such

26
00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:03,920
Speaker 1: a big deal. We left the metabout at dawn and

27
00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,600
Speaker 1: were in Jamnagar by noon. India's poverty made it difficult

28
00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:13,000
Speaker 1: to put the Patel scandal into perspective. My first world

29
00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:18,200
Speaker 1: standards and values worked well in Australia. These same standards

30
00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,560
Speaker 1: and values could not withstand the sight and smell of

31
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,320
Speaker 1: needy children in rags lying with their parents in the

32
00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,720
Speaker 1: dust and rubbish beside the road as we sped past

33
00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,320
Speaker 1: in an air conditioned four wheel drive emblazoned with the

34
00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,800
Speaker 1: insignia of one of Gujarat's most luxurious hotels. The taj

35
00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,800
Speaker 1: our room rate of US one hundred and seventy dollars

36
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,080
Speaker 1: a night plus taxes would have taken a low caste

37
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 1: Gujarati laborer half a year of backbreaking toil to earn.

38
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,760
Speaker 1: At dusk in Jamnagar, the potholed road to the Guru

39
00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 1: Govin Singh Hospital heaved with a chaotic jumble of cars, trucks,

40
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 1: motorcycles and cabs weaving noisy paths around street urchins and

41
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:09,480
Speaker 1: pedestrians alike. By nightfall, casualties from several accidents had been

42
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,560
Speaker 1: dropped at the hospital for patching up. Some, like the

43
00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,720
Speaker 1: man we saw wheeled out of the surgery ward on

44
00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:22,239
Speaker 1: a decrepit trolley at sundown, would not survive. The equipment

45
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:26,040
Speaker 1: in the surgery ward looked decades old. If a hammer

46
00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:28,679
Speaker 1: and anvil had been in one of the cupboards, I

47
00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,960
Speaker 1: would not have been surprised. There was no air conditioning

48
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,600
Speaker 1: to offer relief from the near forty degree celsius summer

49
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:41,400
Speaker 1: heat wave. No electronic life saving devices monitored the vital

50
00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,440
Speaker 1: signs of patients fallen on hard times with failing health.

51
00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,800
Speaker 1: The ward was quiet, apart from the swishing of overhead fans.

52
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,800
Speaker 1: I spoke to doctor Manserli Mamdani during a tour.

53
00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 2: Doctor Patel was a resident here with me. We worked

54
00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,240
Speaker 2: together that in these wards we did general surgery, including neck,

55
00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:09,760
Speaker 2: abdomen hernia, breslamp and tyroid. Many times he operated and

56
00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:11,600
Speaker 2: I assisted or he assisted me.

57
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,560
Speaker 1: An old hand painted sign above the dusty entrance to

58
00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:21,080
Speaker 1: the adjoining MP Shah Medical College, the teaching show piece

59
00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,120
Speaker 1: for every privileged Gujarati wanting to study to be a doctor,

60
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:30,640
Speaker 1: implores students to leave their arrogance behind. The sign says,

61
00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,719
Speaker 1: be teachable, Always assume that there is vital information you

62
00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:40,239
Speaker 1: still need to learn. Little had changed at the college,

63
00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:45,560
Speaker 1: whose graduates three decades ago still remembered their confident classmate Patel.

64
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,800
Speaker 1: His regular visits back to Jamnagar from the US and

65
00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:55,480
Speaker 1: Australia were always warmly received. But now the most illustrious

66
00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 1: export of the city of five hundred thousand people had

67
00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:03,880
Speaker 1: become the most disgraced doctor. Mam Danny walked me into

68
00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:07,640
Speaker 1: the college's student branch to seek old files proving Patel's

69
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,120
Speaker 1: original enrollment and grades. For those who knew him as

70
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:15,480
Speaker 1: a medical student and then a resident doctor in Jamnagar

71
00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,440
Speaker 1: and who stayed in touch during his career as a

72
00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,400
Speaker 1: surgeon in the US, there was a shared view. The

73
00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:27,000
Speaker 1: doctors I spoke to agreed that Patel had abnormal self belief.

74
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:31,799
Speaker 1: He never accepted he was wrong. Doctor mam Darney described

75
00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:37,520
Speaker 1: this personality tray as the key to understanding Patel's downfall. Patel,

76
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,680
Speaker 1: whose deception and pride meant nobody in Jamnigar knew of

77
00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:45,200
Speaker 1: the bands and discipline reaction against him in the US,

78
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,760
Speaker 1: was always dangerously confident in his own abilities. Doctor mam

79
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:51,760
Speaker 1: Darney told me.

80
00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:57,240
Speaker 2: He saw no need for consultation. Colleagues with alternative solutions

81
00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,760
Speaker 2: to surgical or medical questions were deficient. He had a

82
00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:05,200
Speaker 2: very different type of personality. He's arrogant. He thinks that

83
00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,279
Speaker 2: whatever he says is the word of God. He doesn't

84
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:12,760
Speaker 2: like to hear anyone's challenge. He's very intelligent, but he

85
00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,760
Speaker 2: is autocratic. He feels he is the superior doctor and

86
00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,800
Speaker 2: he knows everything, and that there is no need for

87
00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,479
Speaker 2: him to have any supervision. He would not like to consult.

88
00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,679
Speaker 2: He was final. He was never prepared to accept whatever

89
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:31,080
Speaker 2: he has done wrong. Suppose he was having a discussion

90
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,400
Speaker 2: about surgery and there were questions about his responses. His

91
00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,920
Speaker 2: answer was always no, whatever I say is true, then

92
00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,800
Speaker 2: he would refuse to discuss it. We saw this in

93
00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,840
Speaker 2: a teaching program. Whatever answer he gave, he said was

94
00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 2: always right. That is the root cause. I think the

95
00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:54,440
Speaker 2: autocratic personality will ruin your life. His trouble he's facing

96
00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:58,359
Speaker 2: now is the result. He could have found peace doing

97
00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:02,680
Speaker 2: something else, but Giant Patel would never believe that such

98
00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,800
Speaker 2: things should happen to him. I am not against him.

99
00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:09,159
Speaker 2: He's done nothing wrong to me. His wife, Kishori, and

100
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:13,200
Speaker 2: my wife are closely associated. We've had many family dinners.

101
00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:17,760
Speaker 2: The medical negligence he can fate. This is a professional thing,

102
00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,800
Speaker 2: and we said to him, we can help you. But

103
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,120
Speaker 2: as far as the other things are concerned with the

104
00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:28,000
Speaker 2: fraud and misrepresentation, this is not something we can help with.

105
00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:30,640
Speaker 2: He will have to face the consequences.

106
00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:35,360
Speaker 1: As we chatted, a small group of medical students gathered

107
00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 1: around Ma'am Danny, the associate professor of the college for

108
00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:43,320
Speaker 1: a decade. He patiently explained the reason for our presence

109
00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,640
Speaker 1: during a meeting with doctor Subahash Patel in his nearby

110
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:52,760
Speaker 1: gastro interology clinic. I understood the disappointment so keenly felt

111
00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:57,600
Speaker 1: by Jayant's closest Jamnagar friends. They are not related, but

112
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 1: Subash and Patel, which childhood playmates, college classmates, and professional colleagues.

113
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,320
Speaker 1: In the years since Patel had emigrated to the United States,

114
00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:14,280
Speaker 1: they remained friends. Subhash had fretted every day for weeks

115
00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,120
Speaker 1: about whether to pick up the telephone to offer support.

116
00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:22,560
Speaker 1: He always decided against it. Patel was not someone who

117
00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,120
Speaker 1: could take the call in the spirit in which it

118
00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,640
Speaker 1: was intended. Sebash decided that Patel would regard it as

119
00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,920
Speaker 1: offensive or in bad taste.

120
00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:36,040
Speaker 3: He has always been like that. He has never liked

121
00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:41,240
Speaker 3: anything negative said about himself. He is very strong, willed

122
00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:46,400
Speaker 3: and ambitious. He has always been very sure about himself.

123
00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,920
Speaker 3: All of us are very worried about him, but we

124
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:53,400
Speaker 3: do not want to hurt his feelings. He has been

125
00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:58,280
Speaker 3: branded doctor debt. His carrier is doomed. It is something

126
00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:03,400
Speaker 3: very tragic for one who has had such an illustrious

127
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:04,520
Speaker 3: medical carrier.

128
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,600
Speaker 1: Until Patel left the antiquated and cash starved Guru Govian

129
00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:15,240
Speaker 1: Singh Hospital to make his fortune and improve his qualifications

130
00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:18,880
Speaker 1: in the US, He and Subhash had something else in common.

131
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,520
Speaker 1: They grew up together as the privileged progeny of well

132
00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:27,560
Speaker 1: off families. In the campus cafe, the manager Vinu Bay

133
00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:32,040
Speaker 1: recalled Patel as a son of royalty, and indeed Jahan

134
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:36,720
Speaker 1: Patel's grandfather, a former deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat State

135
00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:41,840
Speaker 1: during the pre independence era of fellow Gujarati Mahatma Gandhi,

136
00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:47,280
Speaker 1: was once treated like royalty. The prominent politician's son became

137
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:53,240
Speaker 1: a successful and influential oil mill businessman. Jayant's father trusted

138
00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:56,960
Speaker 1: one doctor in Jamnagard to look after his health, the

139
00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:03,160
Speaker 1: father of doctor Subash Patel. The bonds, loyalties and recognition

140
00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:08,199
Speaker 1: of clan and caste are far reaching, particularly among Patels

141
00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:12,959
Speaker 1: in this trader's town with its strategic military interest near

142
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:17,800
Speaker 1: the Pakistan border. Whenever Patel visited Jamnagar, he would make

143
00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,319
Speaker 1: a point of meeting Subash, who told me.

144
00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:24,520
Speaker 3: He came from Australia one time and said he was

145
00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,319
Speaker 3: commissioned by the US government and an institute in Australia

146
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:31,920
Speaker 3: to set up a surgical facility. He took it as

147
00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:36,160
Speaker 3: a challenge, That's what he told me. I'm now learning

148
00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,960
Speaker 3: of matters that I did not know about before. We

149
00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:44,440
Speaker 3: knew nothing about his Oregon and New York history. He

150
00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:47,360
Speaker 3: would come to visit me here and said nothing of

151
00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:51,400
Speaker 3: his trouble. But on the internet now there are fifteen

152
00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:55,040
Speaker 3: hundred references to him. We can only hope that some

153
00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,240
Speaker 3: good comes of all this, if only that doctors will

154
00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:03,840
Speaker 3: think to our before indulging in such things in future.

155
00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:10,119
Speaker 1: Patel's old mentor and teacher, doctor Rudresh Metta, now retired,

156
00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,880
Speaker 1: led me to the roof garden above his flat. There

157
00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,800
Speaker 1: was still no sign of the monsoon rains needed to

158
00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:21,360
Speaker 1: rejuvenate the land and ensure a harvest to ward off famine.

159
00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 1: Meta looked crestfallen. He had regarded Patel as almost infallible,

160
00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:31,000
Speaker 1: a most brilliant product of the MP Shah Medical College,

161
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:35,960
Speaker 1: to which Meta had devoted most of his working life. Indeed,

162
00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 1: Meta had taken credit for Patel's apparent success. His wife

163
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:46,400
Speaker 1: was also fond of Patel's wife, Keshoori, a junior guynecologist

164
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,720
Speaker 1: at a Jamnagar private hospital before the move to the

165
00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:55,360
Speaker 1: United States. A fortnight before our visit, Patel had telephoned Meta.

166
00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:59,760
Speaker 4: I said to him, what is on this? I asked him,

167
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,520
Speaker 4: way are you? I told him that people are looking

168
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:04,160
Speaker 4: for him. That's what the TV says.

169
00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,640
Speaker 1: Metta listened incredulously as his former student made light of

170
00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:13,880
Speaker 1: the problems. Patel insisted to his old teacher that he

171
00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,080
Speaker 1: had done nothing wrong. It was a misunderstanding.

172
00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:21,720
Speaker 4: He said, it's nothing that serious. He said, a surgeon

173
00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:25,600
Speaker 4: never operates to kill, and cancipations can day. He was

174
00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:28,480
Speaker 4: upset in the beginning, but I found him very calm

175
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,640
Speaker 4: and composed. It was a serious talk.

176
00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 5: He said.

177
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,480
Speaker 4: He was waiting for Australia's moments. For fifty years, We've

178
00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:39,120
Speaker 4: been giving excellently just to the US. I feel very bad.

179
00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:41,760
Speaker 4: What is a real story? Will be able to know

180
00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,640
Speaker 4: he could have talked to me earlier. Unless one recognizes

181
00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:48,200
Speaker 4: his own mistakes, one never improves.

182
00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,959
Speaker 1: Some of the other doctors we interviewed in jam Nagar

183
00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:56,280
Speaker 1: suggested that Meta's overt favoritism of Patel as a student

184
00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:01,360
Speaker 1: had unhealthily fared the understudies. Ego down a rubble and

185
00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:04,959
Speaker 1: rubbish strewn alley close to the town hub, the Patel

186
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:11,360
Speaker 1: family's Mukund villa where he grew up stood desolate and uninviting.

187
00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,079
Speaker 1: His mother was living with her daughter in a nearby town.

188
00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 1: Gujarat Police Inspector Shri o'heat doubted the issue would ever

189
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:25,360
Speaker 1: excite his jurisdiction's interest. He told me, this is very

190
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,320
Speaker 1: big news in Australia, where life has more value but

191
00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:34,959
Speaker 1: it is of less interest. Here. It was a different

192
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,160
Speaker 1: story in Portland, Oregon, where my colleague Tuck Thompson competed

193
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:44,120
Speaker 1: with Australia's sixty Minutes US TV crews and journalists representing

194
00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:49,240
Speaker 1: newspapers and radio outlets along the West Coast. Tuck went

195
00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:53,200
Speaker 1: to Patel's neighborhood with neat front gardens and double fronted

196
00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:58,480
Speaker 1: two story houses, evoking notions of prosperity and solid family values.

197
00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:03,000
Speaker 1: Patel was hold up inside the house as Mexican helpers

198
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:07,240
Speaker 1: tended the garden. His wife, Kishore, played cat and mouse

199
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,600
Speaker 1: with the media crews on her drive to work. Tuck

200
00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:14,800
Speaker 1: Thompson spoke to doctors and Patel's former patients who described

201
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:19,120
Speaker 1: a sociopathic personality and a monumental ego.

202
00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,920
Speaker 6: You don't want a doctor with a god complex.

203
00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,640
Speaker 1: Said Lindy Davis, an Oregon medical technical assistant whose right

204
00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 1: arm was partially paralyzed when Patel severed three nerves in

205
00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:36,040
Speaker 1: her neck while removing a lump. Lyndy Davis was one

206
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:39,840
Speaker 1: of Patel's last surgical cases in Oregon in two thousand

207
00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:43,400
Speaker 1: and one, before the Kaiser Healthcare group finally forced him

208
00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,920
Speaker 1: to quit. She had been referred by Patel's wife, Kishouri.

209
00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,880
Speaker 6: My hand and shoulder went instantly numb. He said not

210
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,080
Speaker 6: to worry about it. It was common. The medical oath

211
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:58,440
Speaker 6: says first, do no harm. He has done harm, and

212
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,520
Speaker 6: he should be held accountable for that. I'm upset with

213
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,760
Speaker 6: the regulators. They protect the doctors and the organizations. There's

214
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,400
Speaker 6: a brotherhood of doctors who don't want to let anything out.

215
00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:10,040
Speaker 6: They think they are gods.

216
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:16,760
Speaker 1: When Tuck Thompson contacted the American doctors who had lauded

217
00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:19,720
Speaker 1: Patel in the references that helped him win the job

218
00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:25,320
Speaker 1: in Bundenberg, none would defend their earlier favorable assessments. Tuck

219
00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,480
Speaker 1: was scolded for having the temerity to bother them. Oregon

220
00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:34,400
Speaker 1: Medical Association Chief executive Jim Cronenberg said that to.

221
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:36,360
Speaker 7: Be a good surgeon, you need to understand how to

222
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,040
Speaker 7: navigate anatomy. You need good eye hand coordination, and you

223
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:43,080
Speaker 7: need good surgical judgment when to operate and when not

224
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:45,320
Speaker 7: to and what to do and what not to do.

225
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,280
Speaker 7: This guy was lousy technically and had terrible surgical judgment.

226
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,880
Speaker 7: This is a remarkable case in thirty years I've never

227
00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:56,480
Speaker 7: seen anything like it. He doesn't understand consequences. He does

228
00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,000
Speaker 7: what he does and he doesn't care.

229
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:03,680
Speaker 1: As top Queensland government lawyers in Brisbane held confidential talks

230
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,400
Speaker 1: with Patel's Australian barrister Tom Percy and newly hired solicitor

231
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:13,640
Speaker 1: Damian Scatini. The surgeon's Portland lawyer, Stephen Howes, was also

232
00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 1: holding a closed door meeting in Oregon. Queensland's Premier Peter

233
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:22,080
Speaker 1: Beatty was embarking on a trade and investment mission to

234
00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:25,280
Speaker 1: the United States and Italy, and he had ordered his

235
00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:30,520
Speaker 1: Director General leo' kelleher and the State Development Minister Tony McGrady,

236
00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:33,800
Speaker 1: who were in the US for a biotech conference and

237
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,640
Speaker 1: trade mission, to make a very public appearance in Oregon.

238
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,920
Speaker 1: McGrady told an airport press conference in Portland.

239
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:45,760
Speaker 8: That every Queenslander thinks that doctor Patel should return.

240
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:51,280
Speaker 1: Tuck Thompson described a dishevelled le o'kellerher looking like he

241
00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:55,680
Speaker 1: came down the luggage chute, but McGrady had designs on

242
00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:00,720
Speaker 1: stardom descending the escalator to the baggage claim area. Thompson

243
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,639
Speaker 1: watched a passer by ask McGrady, why he was so important?

244
00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:06,920
Speaker 1: Why was the media around him?

245
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:09,640
Speaker 8: I'm a movie star, Tom Cruise.

246
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:15,119
Speaker 1: He equipped later in the lawyer Stephen House's high rise

247
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,240
Speaker 1: law office on the eleventh floor of the Pack West Center,

248
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:23,360
Speaker 1: the talks went nowhere. Patel's lawyer regarded his visitors from

249
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:27,439
Speaker 1: Brisbane with disdain. When McGrady taped an interview with the

250
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:32,160
Speaker 1: ABC's State Line host Kieren mckechney shortly after the hopeless

251
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,680
Speaker 1: meeting with Stephen Howes, the politician sounded pleased with himself.

252
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,560
Speaker 1: McGrady spoke of generating.

253
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:41,159
Speaker 8: Massive coverage of our trip.

254
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:45,840
Speaker 1: He emphasized the turnout at his morning media conference and

255
00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:49,920
Speaker 1: boasted that the coverage went across the US. It raised

256
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,920
Speaker 1: the question was his mission more to do with hogging

257
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:56,040
Speaker 1: the news or seeking the return of a surgeon?

258
00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:58,000
Speaker 9: Given all of.

259
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,840
Speaker 10: These media conferences that you were in the premier doing,

260
00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:03,480
Speaker 10: I mean, is this just a media stunt because you

261
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:08,280
Speaker 10: know that you have very little hope of extraditing Dr Patel, Kieran.

262
00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:09,120
Speaker 1: Mckeckney asked him.

263
00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:12,480
Speaker 8: Now, I get a little angry when people suggest that

264
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,720
Speaker 8: this is some sort of political stunt. I mean, that's

265
00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,160
Speaker 8: the sort of nonsense you hear from the opposition all

266
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,280
Speaker 8: of the time. The reality is that we are determined.

267
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 8: We are determined to do everything we can to get

268
00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,640
Speaker 8: doctor Patel to return to Queensland to face the inquiry.

269
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:33,120
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Beattie had held another media conference, this time at

270
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:37,959
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Airport, just in case anyone missed the earlier coverage.

271
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,879
Speaker 11: What we're trying to do is create a set of

272
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:45,639
Speaker 11: circumstances where mister Pittell can't practice medicine anywhere in the

273
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:49,200
Speaker 11: world unless he comes home to Queensland or to Brisbane

274
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,480
Speaker 11: to give evidence to the inquiry.

275
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,560
Speaker 1: Doctor Bruce Flagg, the Liberal Party's hard working politician with

276
00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,960
Speaker 1: ambitions to succeed Beattie, condemned the traveling circuit.

277
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:06,360
Speaker 12: The bt McGrady publicity stunt in America is bizarre. It's

278
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 12: got to be one of the strangest activities in a

279
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,600
Speaker 12: criminal pursuit in Australian history. Thinking people understand that a

280
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,359
Speaker 12: criminal pursuit is a matter for legal authorities and not

281
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,640
Speaker 12: for politicians looking for a media headline.

282
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: Tony Morris took some of the credit for the international ruckus.

283
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 13: One of the purposes of the Commission of Inquiry when

284
00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:33,000
Speaker 13: it decided to release the interim report last Friday, containing

285
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:37,560
Speaker 13: recommendations for Patel's prosecution was to flush out Patel a

286
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:39,879
Speaker 13: Dislegal representatives.

287
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:44,440
Speaker 1: Scatini and Howe stayed in regular telephone and email contact,

288
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 1: comparing notes from their respective meetings. In the two hours

289
00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 1: Scatini had spent in talks with Crown law officials. It

290
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:57,920
Speaker 1: appeared possible, under certain conditions, that Patel would come back

291
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:02,919
Speaker 1: to Australia. Land's Attorney General Rod Welford said.

292
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:06,399
Speaker 14: He is interested in returning to Australia to give some

293
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:10,200
Speaker 14: account of how he managed things in Bunderberg, but.

294
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:16,000
Speaker 1: The terms were unacceptable. Patel asked for an indemnity from prosecution.

295
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,640
Speaker 1: Betty was prepared to pay the economy fare, organized safe

296
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:24,800
Speaker 1: accommodation and even fund a portion of the legal expenses,

297
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:31,160
Speaker 1: but an indemnity was unthinkable. By the end of the week, Scatini,

298
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,639
Speaker 1: Howe's and Patel were all agreed he would definitely not

299
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:41,280
Speaker 1: be returning voluntarily to Queensland, not soon, not under these circumstances.

300
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:48,399
Speaker 1: I was surprised that Scatini, a fierce critic of Queensland

301
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,840
Speaker 1: Health who had made his name and money by suing doctors,

302
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:56,680
Speaker 1: for negligence wanted Patel as a client. If Scatini had

303
00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: been leading the legal fight on behalf of the patients

304
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:04,400
Speaker 1: for company and corrective surgery, nobody would have batted an eyelid.

305
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:09,240
Speaker 1: When the Patel fuor erupted two months earlier, Scatini had

306
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: been one of the first to express alarm and to

307
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:17,000
Speaker 1: encourage follow up articles. He wrote to me, it beggars belief.

308
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,360
Speaker 15: I can think of another regional hospital with guest doctors

309
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 15: that bear scrutiny as well.

310
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: The dry humored son of an agricultural scientist, Scatini had

311
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 1: always struck me as honest and ethical. His reputation among

312
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:36,439
Speaker 1: his peers was excellent. He genuinely believed that Patel was

313
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: being unfairly treated, but some of the staff in his

314
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,680
Speaker 1: own firm, Quinn and Scatini, were uncomfortable about the decision

315
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:48,399
Speaker 1: to act for the surgeon. Scatini stayed back at his

316
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:52,160
Speaker 1: desk one night to compose an appropriate explanation, and then

317
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 1: he sent around an internal NEMO.

318
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 15: Probably many of you have had friends or relatives ask

319
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,160
Speaker 15: you how we can repent such a person. The practice

320
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,960
Speaker 15: of law is not a popularity contest. Sometimes our clients

321
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,919
Speaker 15: will be unpopular sometimes, such as now, they will be

322
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 15: actually hated by large numbers of people who, like the

323
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 15: rest of us, only know what they have been told

324
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:15,959
Speaker 15: to believe.

325
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 1: Stephen Howes in the United States, however, was well suited

326
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,840
Speaker 1: to one of his toughest legal assignments on behalf of

327
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: the tell He had been making headlines in Oregon for years.

328
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,879
Speaker 1: I found a revealing profile from August two thousand and

329
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 1: three in the Oregonian newspaper. It was headlined Champion of

330
00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:43,120
Speaker 1: the Unpopular Causes Stephen Howes. Reporter Robin Franz describes him

331
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 1: as a short, unassuming, publicity shy criminal lawyer who pursues

332
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 1: justice for the most publicity prone clients.

333
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 16: Friends say he often takes cases where he sees the

334
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 16: possibility of redemption, and he tells clients facing lengthy prison

335
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 16: sentences is that the best measure of a man is

336
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:09,440
Speaker 16: what he does after he stumbles. Those who know him well, attorneys, prosecutors, judges,

337
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 16: and private investigators, say he's a complex man, highly principled, intelligent,

338
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:19,920
Speaker 16: and driven by a ferocious energy that intimidates his adversaries

339
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 16: in the courtroom. I think winning was everything he ever

340
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 16: thought about says pat Mancuso, Howes's high school football coach

341
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:33,199
Speaker 16: in Ohio. Despite his small size, Howes played quarterback and

342
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 16: defensive back, and what he lacked in size he made

343
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 16: up for with determination. He was a scrapper, a fighter,

344
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:42,200
Speaker 16: all go go go.

345
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,199
Speaker 1: With How's in Oregon and Scatini in Brisbane, the Betty

346
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:56,360
Speaker 1: government had met its match Chapter sixty one, Wound Feuds,

347
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: twenty June two thousand and five. Jody Hellier could stand

348
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 1: it no longer. Chantu Shah, one of Jan Pateel's acquaintances

349
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: in Portland, had described cancer as quote a punishment of

350
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,439
Speaker 1: God for the past and present life deeds of a

351
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 1: person unquote, and according to Shah, doctor Patel was a

352
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: doctor life and a hero who helped cure thousands. On

353
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,600
Speaker 1: the TV news, Jody Heillier had also heard one of

354
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: Patel's Oregon neighbors extolling the surgeon's friendly virtues. The sympathy

355
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:42,280
Speaker 1: infuriated Jody. She had felt a burning hatred. Her mother, Doris,

356
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 1: who also had cancer, had suffered greatly as one of

357
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 1: Patel's patients. They wanted to throttle him. For many of

358
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 1: the traumatized patients and their relatives in Bunderberg. The start

359
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: of public hearings in the Sugartown meant the reopening of

360
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: Angry wounds. The story was still dominating the news agenda.

361
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: The private investigator retained by reporter Paul Barry and sixty

362
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:14,480
Speaker 1: minutes had earned his fee for some old fashioned covert surveillance.

363
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 1: Several million Australians saw Patel looking harried and drawing deeply

364
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 1: on a cigarette near his Portland mansion on the top

365
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: rating Current Affairs program. The private investigator, a former FBI agent,

366
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 1: tells Barry, this is his third stop at the video store.

367
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: The reporter strides to the front door of Patel's home

368
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: and starts knocking. Dr Patel. Dr Patel, we know you're

369
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: in there, he says. There was even talk of a

370
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: dramatic movie. Lance Reynolds, the president of Atlantic Films and

371
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: Television in New York, wanted a few key figures to

372
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:57,479
Speaker 1: consider an offer for film rights. The same day, The

373
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 1: New York Times published a lengthy front by correspondent Ray Bonner,

374
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: headlined Deaths and a Doctor's past transfix Australians. Patel's celebrity lawyer,

375
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: Stephen Howes, told the world's most influential newspaper.

376
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 14: We have very grave concerns about this drumbeat of incessant

377
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 14: and prejudicial publicity that is saturating all of Queensland and

378
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 14: indeed all of Australia.

379
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: Howe's and his newfound legal colleague in Brisbane, Damian Scatini,

380
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: were running hard on a line that the publicity meant

381
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: Patel would never receive a fair trial. I was reminded

382
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 1: of one of the most notorious accused killers in the

383
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: United States, OJ Simpson, who was televised live to air

384
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: in a freeway chase after the murder of his wife,

385
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 1: Nicole and a friend. In high profile cases involving multiple deaths,

386
00:26:54,040 --> 00:27:00,200
Speaker 1: overwhelming publicity was inevitable the more hearous or sensational of

387
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,400
Speaker 1: the drumbeat. If society adopted Howes's philosophy, the most wicked

388
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 1: alleged offenders would never be brought to trial. Nor did

389
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: it necessarily follow that sensational publicity led to a guilty verdict.

390
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: Simpson was acquitted despite overwhelming evidence, including that of DNA.

391
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: When I trolled the Internet to try to understand more

392
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: about Stephen Howes, I noted his earlier and seemingly contradictory

393
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:33,360
Speaker 1: comments to his own professional association, the Oregon State Bar,

394
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: Howse told the Bar Bulletin, published in May two thousand

395
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: and four.

396
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 14: I've observed that crime news coverage is a huge phenomenon

397
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:45,160
Speaker 14: in this country.

398
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: Despite that, Howse said that he had.

399
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 14: Been pleasantly surprised by the relatively minimal impact media coverage

400
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 14: seems to have on prospective jurors. The saturation of the

401
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 14: media is not as rate as we think. It's not

402
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 14: as bad as we think in terms of tempting the process,

403
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,880
Speaker 14: which is good because it's very, very difficult to get

404
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 14: a change of venue.

405
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: When Terry O'Gorman, a Brisbane criminal lawyer and Queensland President

406
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: of the Council for Civil Liberty, said there was a

407
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: high risk that would tell if extradited would not get

408
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: a fair trial, the politician Peter Beatty denounced the theory

409
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: as absolute rot. Peter Beatty said it is just.

410
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 11: Taking civil liberties to an absolute absurd position.

411
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: At last, Beattie had found favor with Jody Hillier, who commented.

412
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 17: We have people saying that this man won't have a

413
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 17: fair trial and that he can have all the media

414
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 17: and patience for defamation for his new name that suits

415
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 17: him so well, doctor Death. What would he like us

416
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 17: to call him? God? Does he expect us to thank

417
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 17: him for the hell that he has put so many

418
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 17: people through? Can this man get away with it? How

419
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 17: on earth are people ever going to feel the same

420
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 17: again about going to a public hospital. I hope to

421
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 17: God that he has prosecuted for every single person that

422
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 17: he touched with his hands of death. I hope that

423
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 17: he suffers like all of his patients have. And I

424
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,719
Speaker 17: hope to God that he will never be able to

425
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 17: pick up his scalpel again. But if he ever does,

426
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 17: he can use it on himself.

427
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: Her mother told how she had been left for five

428
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: days with a horrific flesh eating disease feasting out on

429
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: my body. Doris Hellier blamed Patel for a botched operation

430
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:41,880
Speaker 1: and subsequent complications. She urged anyone upset at the treatment

431
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: of Patel to travel to Bunderberg and, as she put.

432
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 17: It, sit in on one of our support group meetings

433
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 17: and listen and see what this barbaric animal has done

434
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 17: to us.

435
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: All detectives from the homicide squad, who had kept a

436
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: low profile in Brisbane while downloading transcripts and exhibits from

437
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: the inquiry's website were secondered to Bunderberg to take statements

438
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: and attend the inquiry's public hearings in the lecture hall

439
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: of a local education center. Two detectives went to Portland

440
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: and New York to gather formal documentation about the discipline

441
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: reactions by the respective regulatory bodies. It was the same

442
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: documentation that we had discovered on the websites. Police Commissioner

443
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 1: Bob Atkinson had already parted company with Tony Morris on

444
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: the extradition issue. Atkinson favored a slow burn approach, a

445
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 1: laborious investigation by a handful of experienced detectives, hundreds of interviews,

446
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: a panel of medical experts, thorough reviews by the Director

447
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: of Public Prosecutions, and finally an approach to the Federal

448
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 1: Justice Minister to trigger a formal extradition application and the

449
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: arrest of Patel by US federal marshals. There were risks

450
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: in this strategy, too, the most obvious being a move

451
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: by Patel to India, which does not share an extradition

452
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 1: treaty with Australia. Maurice firmly believed there was more than

453
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: enough evidence already for a prima facie case for fraud,

454
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. Patel should not have been

455
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: practicing in Australia full stop. Any adverse outcomes arising from

456
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,959
Speaker 1: his deception were therefore criminal. The Maurice views seemed plausible,

457
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,719
Speaker 1: particularly after a leading US criminal lawyer who specialized in extradition,

458
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: Douglas McNabb, contacted me to query why the Queensland police

459
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: had not moved swiftly. McNabb said Patel should have been

460
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: arrested immediately. I thought it unlikely that the American justice

461
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 1: system would wage a battle to prevent Patel being extradited

462
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: to Brisbane. Had been blamed by independent US medical investigators

463
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: for the deaths of Americans before he came to Australia.

464
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: We were not dealing with the blue eyed all American

465
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: hero with no blood on his hands. Bettel was drenched

466
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: in it. Chapter sixty two sound Bites twenty June to

467
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: one July two thousand and five. Gail Aylmer felt uncomfortable

468
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: about being filmed in the cavernous Inquiry Venue, a short

469
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: walk from the shopping malls in Bunderberg's Commercial Heart. She

470
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: exercised her right to have the cameras turned off during

471
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 1: her evidence. In a makeshift offer strewn with TV cables,

472
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: screens and film editing equipment, the journalists and their crews

473
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: collectively groaned they needed dramatic footage. It would be a

474
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: lot harder to package a story bereft of pictures. As

475
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 1: the first witness called on to the stage for the

476
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: start of the hearings in Bunderberg, Gail painted a sorry

477
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 1: portrait of Ptel and his contact with the patients. She

478
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: recounted the efforts to persuade Petel to wash his hands

479
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 1: and wear gloves, and his stubborn reluctance to observe basic hygiene.

480
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 5: Now, can you explain was this simply a matter of

481
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 5: principle or was this something significant?

482
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 18: Was doctor Bateell's simply touching patients on the head.

483
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 19: Oh no, he was touching their wounds, pulling off dressings

484
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:48,720
Speaker 19: to have a look to see how the wound is going,

485
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 19: poking around the wound. He was actually really touching the

486
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 19: wounds where I felt that there was a risk to

487
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 19: the patient and to the next patient that he went

488
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 19: to as well.

489
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: It explained why many wounds had become infected and broken open.

490
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: The evidence of nurses, patients and doctors over the days

491
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 1: and weeks was tragically spellbinding. Aylmer was followed by other

492
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: senior nurses Lindsey Druce, Robin Pollock and Jenny White. They

493
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: all gave damning evidence. Doctor Darren Keating sat impassively for

494
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,399
Speaker 1: most of the Bunderberg sittings twenty one days in all,

495
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 1: staring ahead at the stage as patients glared at him.

496
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,800
Speaker 1: Was he taking in every word of testimony? Would he

497
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:40,800
Speaker 1: seek redemptions for his apparent failings as a manager. Amanda

498
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,479
Speaker 1: wat my friend and reporting colleague from the Courier Mail,

499
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: doubted that doctor Keating had accepted responsibility. She suspected he

500
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 1: was coming each day out of arrogance and the need

501
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: to absorb as much detail as possible to better brief

502
00:34:56,160 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: his lawyer, Jeff Deem. Keating was not going down without

503
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 1: a fight, and he won grudging respect for his stance.

504
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 1: Jane Hodgkinson, Channel nine senior reporter, boiled the complexities and

505
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 1: tensions down to a succinct SoundBite. This, she told me,

506
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: is about heroes and villains. Sitting in the front row

507
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 1: of the second tier of the lecture hall and hearing

508
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: the testimony of nurses, doctors and patients, it was clear

509
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: Tony Morris still enjoyed public approval as the head of

510
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: the inquiry. People were speaking their mind about serious matters

511
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: than the past. They had felt compelled to bury. The

512
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 1: administrators and bureaucrats, who had been accustomed to turning bad

513
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 1: news into a series of bumps under the carpet and

514
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: overriding doctors and nurses on what was good for the patients,

515
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: were ducking for cover. Morris had also begun to herald

516
00:35:56,080 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 1: bad news for the Beaty government. He was broadening the

517
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:04,280
Speaker 1: inquiry's focus from a dysfunctional hospital and a deadly surgeon

518
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:09,919
Speaker 1: to a sick system replete with cover ups and negligence. Inevitably,

519
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:14,320
Speaker 1: this would cause heartache for labor politicians in electorates across

520
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 1: the state. We were seeing the stirrings of a potential

521
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:23,240
Speaker 1: revolution in health and politics. On the other hand, reputations

522
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 1: were being damaged, some were to be damaged irreparably. One afternoon,

523
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: outside the lecture hall, I stopped briefly to talk to

524
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 1: Patricia Feeni, the solicitor for Peter Leck. She looked distressed.

525
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,280
Speaker 4: She said, it's so unfair.

526
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,720
Speaker 1: Although at the time, it was a closely guarded secret.

527
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: Feenie had received further advice from Lex's psychiatrist about his

528
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: worsening mental state. Doctor Jeremy Butler told her the principal

529
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: factor in Peter Leck's declining condition was his unexpected appearance

530
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: at the inquiry in Bridge, Usban. When he endured the

531
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: withering examination by Tony Morris. Leck subsequently exhibited significant psychiatric

532
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:13,040
Speaker 1: symptoms indicating a fragile mental state, and doctor Butler warned

533
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,440
Speaker 1: that if Lek appeared at the inquiry in Bunderberg, his

534
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: condition would further deteriorate. Tony Hoffman meanwhile, needed to finish

535
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 1: her evidence. She knew that the lawyers for Peter Leck,

536
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: Darren Keating and the director of Nursing Linda Mullighan, wanted

537
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: to discredit much of what she had already told the inquiry.

538
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,719
Speaker 1: Hoffman feared that she would be singled out and have

539
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,360
Speaker 1: her motives questioned. Yet the doctors who had done little

540
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: or nothing would emerge unscathed. Even the highly experienced and

541
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 1: authoritative doctor Peter Meak, the strongest critic of Patel throughout

542
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: his reign, had not taken an opportunity to report his

543
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 1: concerns to the Director General, or the Medical Board, or

544
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: the Health Rights commit or the Australian Medical Association or

545
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: the coroner. And he looked uncomfortable when Justin Harper, one

546
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: of the lawyers for the patients, pointedly illustrated that many

547
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 1: avenues Miak had not taken.

548
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 20: I'm not an ombudsman in the surgical ward. I don't

549
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,399
Speaker 20: de facto become a sort of policeman for the surgical unit.

550
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,360
Speaker 18: If I put to you an assertion that there is

551
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 18: a culture within the hospital that you keep the reports

552
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 18: within the system and that you don't go outside the system,

553
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,120
Speaker 18: would that be a fair reflection of the culture of

554
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 18: the Bunderberg Hospital and the associated medical profession surrounding it.

555
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,439
Speaker 20: I think that's probably accurate. Yes, I mean it's well

556
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,319
Speaker 20: known that if you go outside the system, you get

557
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 20: into trouble.

558
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: As a senior nurse, Deputy Commissioner Margaret Bider understood the

559
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 1: culture and hierarchy in hospitals.

560
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 9: Was it difficult for you to advance your concerns factually

561
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 9: without the support of doctor Martin Carter given the culture

562
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,839
Speaker 9: in which doctor and nurses clinically operate, She.

563
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 21: Asked Hoffman, I think one of the hardest things is

564
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 21: in the unit, Dr Carter would verbalize how terrible he

565
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:13,799
Speaker 21: thought Dr Patel was. He was the doctor who you know,

566
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 21: coined the phrase DoD to death. But when the chips

567
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 21: were down, he wouldn't. He was not willing to make

568
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 21: a complaint or come with me or support me. He

569
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 21: would talk about it to all of us in the

570
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 21: ICU about how terrible he was and openly, you know, say,

571
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 21: you know, don't let him near me.

572
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: Linda Mulligan's barrister, Phil Morrison, QC, who was not in

573
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: the least intimidated by Morris, launched himself at Hoffman. He

574
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,839
Speaker 1: accused the local hero of withholding information from Mulligan and

575
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 1: of wanting to see her sacked.

576
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 18: You were setting her up for a four weren't you,

577
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 18: And you still are, aren't you.

578
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 22: No.

579
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 4: I had one intention.

580
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 8: To fix the system, not to fix the system.

581
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 21: If we could fix the system, that would be wonderful.

582
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 21: I had one intention, and that was to stop doctor

583
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 21: Patel from operating on any more patients. That was my intention,

584
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:17,239
Speaker 21: to try and save just one life, just one more life.

585
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 1: When Mulligan's barrister tried to interrupt, Hoffman was having none

586
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:23,760
Speaker 1: of it. She was shouting and tearful.

587
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 21: No, I will finish now. And that is what my

588
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:31,399
Speaker 21: only intention was. This was never about them and us.

589
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 21: This was never a bad executive and myself, I thought

590
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 21: executive would be glad to try and save some of

591
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 21: these patients' lives, and I thought Queen's Unhealth would be

592
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 21: supporting me in that. But instead that is not the case,

593
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 21: and it has become them and our situation.

594
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,840
Speaker 1: Tony Morris had become fed up with what he saw

595
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: as the bureaucracy's attempts to thwart his inquiry. He was

596
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: convinced that the administrators were out of control.

597
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,360
Speaker 13: The evidence suggests a situation within Queensland Health which is

598
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:11,319
Speaker 13: rapidly approaching what might be termed bureaucratic gridlock. There are

599
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 13: so many bureaucrats writing memoranda to one another, reading memoranda

600
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 13: from one another, and attending meetings with one another that

601
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 13: nobody has any time left to actually get anything done.

602
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:28,360
Speaker 1: But on twenty nine June, Morris and the inquiry would

603
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: self destruct. As the lawyer Robert Mulholland QC later argued

604
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, it happened during a penetrating cross

605
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:41,799
Speaker 1: examination of Peter Meak by Jeff Deem, Keitting's resourceful and

606
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:46,960
Speaker 1: quietly effective lawyer Tony Morris. Appearing unhappy at the tarnishing

607
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 1: of one of his key witnesses, Crossley asked Deim if

608
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 1: Keating had instructed him to attack Peter Meak, and the

609
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 1: inquiry Commissioner said he wanted.

610
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 13: Everyone at the bar table to understand that one of

611
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 13: the issues that's clearly being raised is this shoot the

612
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 13: messenger attitude. And if it comes to our attention that

613
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 13: anyone from the Director General of Queensland Health down has

614
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:14,200
Speaker 13: given instructions for a witness like doctor Meak to be attacked,

615
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 13: then that will be an appropriate foundation for us to

616
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,839
Speaker 13: make findings. At the end of the proceedings. An astonished

617
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:26,480
Speaker 13: Deem held his ground. How could he defend Keating without

618
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 13: exploiting weaknesses in Meak's version of events at the hospital.

619
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:35,720
Speaker 13: Keating's solicitor in Brisbane, David What, sent an urgent letter

620
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 13: to Queensland Health. Thus far, all of doctor Keating's legal expenses,

621
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 13: totaling about five thousand dollars a day, had been funded

622
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 13: by the public purse. David What wanted to know if

623
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,560
Speaker 13: the public purse would also pick.

624
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: Up the tab for extra costs. In the event that

625
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,239
Speaker 1: doctor Keating was advised by his lawyers to bring an

626
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: application to have the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry

627
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:07,840
Speaker 1: stayed due to the lack of natural justice. David Watt

628
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 1: was effectively asking whether Queensland Health was prepared to fund

629
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:17,280
Speaker 1: a legal bid to terminate the inquiry. The confidential response

630
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 1: from Queensland Health lawyers Kate Kerno and Peter Croft's heartened

631
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: doctor Keating. The taxpayers had funded the inquiry and the

632
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:32,440
Speaker 1: taxpayers would fund an attempt to obliterate the inquiry. I

633
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 1: had missed the exchange involving doctor Miak, but I was

634
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: similarly angry about her shoot the Messenger attitude over a

635
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 1: story I had published that day. The story gave a

636
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:46,919
Speaker 1: sneak preview of the just completed clinical review, which found

637
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:51,799
Speaker 1: Patel culpable in up to sixteen deaths. Eight of these

638
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:57,120
Speaker 1: were definite, a further eight were probable, though inconclusive according

639
00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:01,280
Speaker 1: to doctor Peter Woodroffe, as the review had not yet

640
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 1: been handed to either Peter Beatty or Tony Morris, both

641
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: were myth that I had got in first when Beatty

642
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 1: flew into a rage. My major concern was to protect sources.

643
00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 1: As if there were not enough inquiries under way, Beattie

644
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 1: demanded another one. Queensland Health's internal investigator, Rebecca McMahon was

645
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,400
Speaker 1: ordered to try to identify the source. She worked hard,

646
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:32,839
Speaker 1: wasting valuable time, hers and others to produce a strictly confidential,

647
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:37,880
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty five page, in conclusive report. Doesn't

648
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 1: Beattie understand what has been going on? I asked my wife, Ruth,

649
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 1: who had moved to Bunderberg with our children so we

650
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:48,840
Speaker 1: could stay together for the hearings. Ruth encouraged me to

651
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 1: make the point in a column which was written in

652
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:56,120
Speaker 1: anger and criticized Bettie for losing the plot. The political

653
00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 1: hypocrisy was breathtaking. When it suited the pol peticians, they

654
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 1: leaked like sieves to promote themselves. But when well intentioned

655
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: public servants leaked matters of great public interest, all hell

656
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: broke loose. If it had not been for leaks by

657
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 1: Tony Hoffman in Bunderberg, the giant Patel scandal would have

658
00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 1: been swept under the carpet. All the far reaching reforms

659
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:25,480
Speaker 1: and funds being promised to make hospitals safer would not

660
00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:28,560
Speaker 1: be on the agenda. All the critical lessons would not

661
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,240
Speaker 1: be learned. Peter Beatty still didn't get it. He looked,

662
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 1: I wrote, like a tinpot dictator, fermenting the very culture

663
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:41,480
Speaker 1: that has helped produce the disaster in his health system.

664
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 1: I wished he had met doctor Brian Teel, the clinical

665
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:48,640
Speaker 1: professor of surgery who had been Bunderberg's highly effective and

666
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 1: respected director of medical services until the bureaucracy and the

667
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:54,200
Speaker 1: political games wore him out.

668
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 22: I really do believe this was waiting to happen.

669
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: Said doctor Tel, describe riving the system which, through steady

670
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:06,600
Speaker 1: decline and corporate bastardree was no longer sensitive to patient needs.

671
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: He had become disillusioned because he saw political sensitivities, not patients,

672
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: being the priority for administrators. He railed against their overly

673
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:18,719
Speaker 1: zealous controls.

674
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:24,160
Speaker 22: Bureaucratic administrators do not like to hear bad news. They

675
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 22: do not like to be exposed to criticism. Many present

676
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 22: problems are symptomatic of a culture of avoiding or burying criticism.

677
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,000
Speaker 22: The government has the view that health cannot win you

678
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 22: an election, but can lose you one. Against this background,

679
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 22: it has not been keen to hear anything bad about health.

680
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,960
Speaker 22: It's a control freak mentality that permeates the system. There

681
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 22: is a desire to control, which to me is almost pathological.

682
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 22: It discourages critical commetary and it leads to a system

683
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,920
Speaker 22: which walks around with its head down and not agree

684
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:04,440
Speaker 22: deal of self respect. It gradually erodes the importance of

685
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 22: the individual contribution within the amorphous system. Goodwill has disappeared

686
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:14,720
Speaker 22: from the system and unfortunately it has gone forever.

687
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:26,439
Speaker 1: Chapter sixty three kill it. Early July two thousand and five,

688
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: the rumors were right. On four July, a Monday, David Groth,

689
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: the inquiry's official secretary, sat back in his chair. Holy snap,

690
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 1: he said. The letter from Peter Lex solicitor Patricia Feenie,

691
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 1: fresh out of the facsimile machine, was brief and to

692
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 1: the point.

693
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 23: Feeni wrote, we confirm our instructions to bring an application

694
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:56,200
Speaker 23: to the Supreme Court to have the chairperson, mister Morris

695
00:47:56,320 --> 00:48:01,400
Speaker 23: QC disqualified from further proceedings in the Bunaberg Hospital Commission

696
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 23: of Inquiry on the basis that he has demonstrated apprehended

697
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:09,800
Speaker 23: bias against our client in respective matters arising under the inquiry.

698
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:15,240
Speaker 1: At ten oh two am the next day, Morris started

699
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:18,960
Speaker 1: Day eighteen of public hearings in Bunderberg by disclosing the

700
00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:23,839
Speaker 1: letter and the inquiri's fight for survival. I looked over

701
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,480
Speaker 1: to the tireless advocate for the patient's Beryl Crosby. She

702
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:32,440
Speaker 1: was slowly shaking her head in disbelief. As Morris asked

703
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: Patricia Feeney for more information, Jeff Dean, the lawyer for

704
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 1: doctor Darren Keating, signaled his intention to join the challenge.

705
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 1: The financial, political, and emotional cost of the inquiry so

706
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:49,920
Speaker 1: far had been enormous. Morris was determined to finish the

707
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:54,879
Speaker 1: work and ensure his place in history. He blinked. He

708
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:56,320
Speaker 1: held out an olive branch.

709
00:48:57,719 --> 00:49:01,320
Speaker 13: One solution would be if there were a substantial case

710
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 13: for bias or something of that nature, would be simply

711
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,160
Speaker 13: to say, well, we'll make no findings with respect to

712
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:11,160
Speaker 13: your client at adverse findings. We might not say nice

713
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 13: things about him, we won't make adverse findings. Would that

714
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 13: address your client's concerns?

715
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 1: For forty minutes at the morning break, the patience, angry, bewildered,

716
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 1: and fearful, sought answers from their lawyer Jerry Mullins. Tess Brammich,

717
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:31,200
Speaker 1: who had been enduring almost every day of evidence with

718
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 1: her daughter.

719
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 11: Asked, are they allowed to do that?

720
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:39,399
Speaker 1: And Beryl Crosby said so, it's a cop out. Ian

721
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:43,360
Speaker 1: Fleming volunteered that it was his own evidence the previous week,

722
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:48,040
Speaker 1: bulletproof and iron clad, as he called it, of his

723
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:53,719
Speaker 1: complaint to Keithing about Patel, which had triggered the challenge.

724
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 24: Where was the natural justice when we were suffering in

725
00:49:54,719 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 24: that hospital, when they were slicing me open like an animal?

726
00:49:57,760 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 24: Where was my justice? It was us together that got

727
00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:03,120
Speaker 24: something done. This is unbelievable.

728
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:07,920
Speaker 1: Doris Hillier was so angry she looked ready to strike someone.

729
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:09,880
Speaker 9: How can they do what they're doing?

730
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:12,359
Speaker 22: Don't they give a damn about what we went through

731
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 22: in the hospital.

732
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 1: Fellow patient Lisa Hooper said.

733
00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 25: I think Tony Morris is the most understanding and compassionate man.

734
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,120
Speaker 25: I don't believe for one minute that he's biased. How

735
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:26,640
Speaker 25: can they say that about him? It's so unfair.

736
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:32,120
Speaker 1: Tony Hoffman called my mobile telephone from the hospital's intensive

737
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,760
Speaker 1: care unit to find out what was happening. The nurses

738
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 1: were dealing with patient crises, but the news from the

739
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:43,320
Speaker 1: nearby inquiry room was already racing around the ICU.

740
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,600
Speaker 21: There has been a bus accident and abdominal aortic aneurysm

741
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 21: a woman with a detached placenter.

742
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 1: Now this, hoffman told me. Darren Keating, usually expressionless and unemotional,

743
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 1: smiled broadly to days later, on seven July, his legal

744
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 1: documentation designed to sack Morris was filed in the Supreme Court.

745
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 1: He started to diggle as he made his way to

746
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 1: the exit of the Bunderberg inquiry room. You look very happy,

747
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: doctor Keating, I said. He nodded in agreement.

748
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,760
Speaker 4: I haven't had much to be happy about until now.

749
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:28,560
Speaker 1: The witnesses, doctors, nurses, patients and their loved one soldiered

750
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 1: on valiantly to give evidence. In the days that followed,

751
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 1: Morris rejected legal submissions to down tools pending a resolution.

752
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:40,799
Speaker 1: It would take weeks or months. Morris reasoned for the

753
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 1: Supreme Court to hear the legal arguments and reach a view.

754
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:49,040
Speaker 1: The stakes were enormous. The inquiry had become a lightning

755
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 1: rod for change in the health system. On the other hand,

756
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:56,879
Speaker 1: the most senior bureaucrats in Queensland Health who were yet

757
00:51:56,880 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: to give their evidence wanted Morris to fail and collapse.

758
00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:04,640
Speaker 1: They had given their blessing for Keating and Lek to

759
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:09,160
Speaker 1: rely on public funds to pay for the legal challenge.

760
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:12,960
Speaker 1: So too had the Crown Solicitor Conrad Lowe and his

761
00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:17,720
Speaker 1: deputy Robert Campbell. When Peter Beatty and the Attorney General

762
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:21,480
Speaker 1: in his government, Rod Welford were briefed, the agreement to

763
00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 1: fund Lek and Keating in their Supreme Court challenge was reversed.

764
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 1: Just twenty four hours after Keating Solicitor David Watt had

765
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: heard of the generosity of the Queensland public purse, he

766
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 1: received a letter from an embarrassed doctor Steve Buckland.

767
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,440
Speaker 5: I have been directed by the Premier to inform you

768
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 5: that Queensland Health will not authorize the expenditure of public

769
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:48,480
Speaker 5: funds for the purpose of legal representation beyond that approved

770
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 5: solely for your client's appearance at the Bunderberg Hospital Commission of.

771
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 1: Inquiry, doctor Buckland wrote. Peter Beatty pledged his backing for

772
00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:03,880
Speaker 1: the inquiry process. Whatever happened over a drink with the

773
00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:08,640
Speaker 1: patient's lawyer, Jerry Mullins at Bagara Beach near Bunderberg. Keating's

774
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:13,040
Speaker 1: lawyer Jeff Dean, who was navigating a perilous legal cause

775
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:17,520
Speaker 1: while managing to remain friends with everyone, said, you.

776
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:19,880
Speaker 26: Know there will only be one person to blame if

777
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:23,680
Speaker 26: the inquiry falls over Morris. You can't be accused of

778
00:53:23,719 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 26: showing bias if you remain silent on the evidence, he

779
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:29,680
Speaker 26: will be the only person who could be held responsible.

780
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:40,800
Speaker 1: Sick to Death is written and presented by me Headley Thomas,

781
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:46,120
Speaker 1: the Australians National Chief correspondent. Claire Harvey is The Australian's

782
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:51,640
Speaker 1: editorial director. Audio editing, production and music have been done

783
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: by Jasper Leik, with assistants from Leah Sammaglu and Neil Sutherland.

784
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 1: Our producer is Kristin Amias. Management by Stephanie Coombs, artwork

785
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:09,840
Speaker 1: by Sean Callenan. Thanks to Ryan Osland, Matthew Condon, Kaarina Berger,

786
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley, David Murray, Dominique McDermott, Zach Sculander and all

787
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:20,400
Speaker 1: our family, friends and colleagues who helped in this series

788
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:25,440
Speaker 1: and contributed voice acting and special thanks to Tony Hoffman

789
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:31,319
Speaker 1: and Rob Messenger. Subscribers to The Australian Here New episodes

790
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:35,880
Speaker 1: of Sick to Death first at sick to deathpodcast dot

791
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:41,240
Speaker 1: com and on Apple Podcasts. You can get exclusive access

792
00:54:41,320 --> 00:55:03,239
Speaker 1: to photographs, videos, timelines, and more at the website