Thread: OR: Doctor accused of killing patients will face trial in AU

Doctor accused of killing patients will face trial in Australia

06:01 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon doctor charged with manslaughter in the deaths of three patients at an Australian hospital plans to agree to extradition to stand trial.

According to documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Jayant Patel is expected to sign the extradition agreement on Thursday.

Patel is also expected to ask for release from jail pending his extradition, but a federal judge will have to decide whether to grant that request at a hearing Thursday afternoon.

Patel was sued repeatedly for malpractice in Oregon before his license was suspended and he moved to a remote area of Australia to continue working as a surgeon.

He returned to Oregon as concern was growing over his care for patients at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in the Australian state of Queensland from 2003 to 2005.

In addition to manslaughter, the extradition complaint charged Patel with grievous bodily harm, negligence and fraud under Australian law.

Background: Patel faces charges

The complaint also said Patel hid his history of professional misconduct and lied repeatedly on forms required for registration in Australia.

Police photo

Dr. Jayant Patel

If convicted on all counts, Patel could face up to three life terms in prison plus 100 years.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Portland, which is handling the extradition request, had said in a memo filed earlier in the case that Patel "bungled surgeries with tragic results" in Australia, including failure to stop internal bleeding in one patient who later died.

Patel was also accused of removing a healthy gland from one patient and leaving behind a cancerous gland, tearing one patient's esophagus and performing unnecessary surgery on patients in poor health.

Families of the patients in Australia had welcomed the arrest of Patel in March following the extradition request.

Patel was born in India but trained in New York state at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in the 1980s, where he was cited for failure to examine some patients before operating on them.

After a three-year disciplinary probation in New York, Patel was hired in 1989 by Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland.

The Portland hospital had severely restricted his practice by 1998 after reviewing 79 complaints, including several that resulted in lawsuits. Patel left the hospital in 2001 after the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners cited him for "gross or repeated acts of negligence" and extended the restrictions on his practice statewide.

An extradition consent form was filed Wednesday and Patel was expected to sign it Thursday afternoon.


http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/k ... bcc7a.html

Of course, the MSM can't be trusted to portray the full facts.

Here's a bit more from Wiki - yes, not totally objective nor verified - but the facts outlined in the description below comport with what I have heard and learned about the case locally:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayant_Patel

Career

Patel was born in Jamnagar in Gujarat, India. Whilst the vast majority of his training was conducted from within the US, he first trained at the M.P. Shah Medical College at Saurashtra University, and obtained a master's degree in surgery. After graduation he moved to the United States where he received further surgical training at the University of Rochester School of Medicine as a surgical intern and resident of surgery. Patel first began to raise alarm bells in 1984 at a hospital in the city of Buffalo where New York health officials cited Patel for failing to examine patients before surgery. Patel was fined US$5,000 and was placed on three years' clinical probation. In 1989, Patel moved to Oregon and began working for Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland. Medical staff alleged that he would often turn up, even on his days off, and perform surgery on patients that were not even his responsibility. In some cases, surgery was not even required, and caused serious injuries or death to the patient.