Dr. Jayant Patel: "Dr. Death" and the Bundaberg Hospital Scandal

Jayant Mukundray Patel trained at M.P. Shah Medical College in India and completed his surgical residency at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. In 1984, New York health officials cited him for failing to properly examine patients before surgery; he was ordered to surrender his New York medical licence in April 2001. He went on to work at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland, Oregon, which barred him from performing certain procedures, including liver and pancreatic surgery — a restriction the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners made statewide in September 2000.

Bundaberg Base Hospital

Despite these restrictions, Patel submitted letters of recommendation — written on Kaiser Permanente letterhead but never approved or endorsed by the hospital, according to a Kaiser spokesperson — to secure a position as director of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital in rural Queensland, Australia, in 2003. Over the next two years he treated 1,202 patients and was later linked to as many as 87 deaths, with an inquiry finding he may have directly contributed to at least 13. Nurses testified they nicknamed him "Dr. E. coli" because so many of his patients developed infections, and that they began hiding patients from him to keep him from operating on them. Former patient Doris Hillier said Patel diagnosed her rash as a simple bruise and left her with open wounds for four to six weeks; another patient, Ian Fleming, described his surgical incision bursting open one night at home, exposing infected tissue, after Patel operated on him for a digestive disorder. Toni Hoffman, the intensive-care nurse in charge, told the resulting inquiry she had raised warnings about Patel as early as October 2004 that were ignored by hospital administration. District manager Peter Leck later admitted he never checked Patel's qualifications before appointing him head of surgery in late 2003 — an appointment the inquiry found had been made illegally, since Patel was authorized only to operate under supervision — saying that responsibility instead belonged to the hospital's director of medical services, Dr. Darren Keating.

As questions about his competence mounted, the hospital paid for Patel's US $2,265 ticket back to the United States in April 2005, and he returned to Portland, Oregon. The Queensland government's Morris Commission of inquiry that followed was later disbanded after a Supreme Court ruling that its commissioner, Tony Morris QC, had shown "ostensible bias" against two health officials.

Extradition, Trial, and Reversal

An arrest warrant for Patel's extradition was issued in November 2006. He was ultimately tried in Queensland on three counts of manslaughter and one count of grievous bodily harm, relating to four patients. In June 2010, a jury convicted him on all four counts and he was sentenced to seven years in prison, eligible for parole after three and a half. In April 2011, the Queensland Court of Appeal upheld both the conviction and the sentence. In August 2012, however, the High Court of Australia quashed all of the convictions, finding the jury had been exposed to "highly emotive and prejudicial evidence" unrelated to the charges, and ordered a retrial.

Rather than retry the manslaughter and grievous-bodily-harm charges, prosecutors dropped them in 2013. Patel instead pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud for concealing his U.S. disciplinary history from Queensland regulators when he applied for his position. He received a suspended sentence and was permanently barred from practising medicine in Australia. He has since said publicly that he considers the matter behind him and lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, who is also a physician.

Timeline

• 1984Cited by New York health officials for failing to examine patients before surgery.
• Sep 2000Oregon Board of Medical Examiners imposes a statewide ban on Patel performing certain surgeries.
• Apr 2001Ordered to surrender his New York medical licence.
• 2003–2005Works as director of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital, Queensland; treats 1,202 patients, later linked to up to 87 deaths.
• Oct 2004Nurse Toni Hoffman raises internal warnings about Patel's conduct; they go unheeded.
• Apr 2005Hospital pays for Patel's return flight to the U.S. as scrutiny mounts; a public inquiry (the Morris Commission) follows.
• Nov 2006Arrest warrant issued for Patel's extradition to Australia.
• Jun 2010Convicted of three counts of manslaughter and one of grievous bodily harm; sentenced to seven years.
• Apr 2011Queensland Court of Appeal upholds the conviction and sentence.
• Aug 2012High Court of Australia quashes all convictions and orders a retrial, citing prejudicial evidence.
• 2013Manslaughter and grievous-bodily-harm charges dropped; Patel pleads guilty to four counts of fraud, receives a suspended sentence, and is barred from practising in Australia.