Convicted
'Dr Death' Jayant Patel jailed for seven years
The man once dubbed Dr Death was convicted on Tuesday of the manslaughter of Mervyn Morris, Gerardus Kemps and James Phillips.
He was also sentenced to three years jail, to be served concurrently, for causing grievous bodily harm to a fourth patient.
Justice John Byrne this afternoon sentenced Patel after the disgraced doctor was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and one of grievous bodily harm.
In the Supreme Court in Brisbane this morning, Justice Byrne adjourned Patel's sentence hearing until this afternoon after hearing submissions from prosecutor Ross Martin, SC, and defence lawyer Michael Byrne, QC.
Mr Martin and Mr Byrne were "miles apart" in their submissions on what Patel's fate should be.
In 50 minutes of submissions, Mr Martin asked Patel be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years' jail, which would carry an automatic serious violent offender classification, meaning he serve a minimum eight years' in jail.
Mr Byrne submitted that when all the background was taken into account Patel should be sentenced to four to four-and-half-years' jail, which could be suspended immediately or after a short period of time.
The tasks of the lawyers were not made any easier because there were no precedent cases of surgeons being tried for manslaughter on the basis the Crown brought its case.
On Tuesday Patel was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter and one of grievous bodily harm as a result of operations he performed at Bundaberg between 2003 and 2005.
The jury had deliberated for six-and-a-half days and a further 48 hours before delivering guilty verdicts to the manslaughter of Gerry Kemps, 77, James Phillips, 46, and Mervyn Morris, 75. It also found Patel had caused grievous bodily harm to Ian Rodney Vowles, 62.
Kemps and Phillips died after oesophagectomy operations while Morris died after a major operation on his colon. Vowles allegedly had a large part of his bowel wrongly removed.
Mr Martin gave an outline of Patel's background as a doctor in India and then the USA where he eventually lost the right to practise in New York and then was put under a stipulated order in Portland, Oregon.
He said there were overseas cases of surgeons being charged with criminal negligence in New Zealand and the UK but those countries had different civil negligence rules which meant they should not be applied to Australia.
Mr Martin based his assessment on a case of a homeopath in NSW who in effect failed to properly treat his nine-month-old daughter who died and the man was jailed for eight years to serve six years.
He said the key points in the Crown submissions were:
1. The existence of a stipulated order in the USA meaning Patel could only operate with a second opinion and how Patel essentially ignored that order.
2. The fact Patel had not practised for two years before doing the operations.
3. That Patel undertook remarkably difficult operations.
4. There were multiple victims which made it different from single operation manslaughters.
5. Patel persisted in continuing with the operations despite bad outcomes and warnings from nurses and other doctors.
Mr Byrne said the New Zealand and UK cases should be taken into account because at least they involved criminal negligence by doctors and surgeons.
He said Patel had been an award-winning doctor in the USA who can from a family of achievers.
Mr Byrne said Patel had been held for four months and 11 days in the USA awaiting extradition and had been under virtual house arrest in Australia.
His key points were:
1.Patel was 60 years old with no previous criminal convictions.
2. Patel had suffered public shaming and humiliation which had spread not just in Queensland but all around Australia and to the USA.
3. Patel had not only lost his reputation as a human but also his career.
4. Patel had stayed in Australia on bail with no family support and unable to see his daughter and grandson.
5. Patel as an American would do jail time harder than normal.
To read the sentence, click here.
(Published by Herald Sun – July 1, 2010)