Indian-origin doctor guilty of manslaughter in Australia

MELBOURNE - Jayant Patel, an Indian origin doctor, was Tuesday held guilty of manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm on patients at an Australian hospital.

Sixty-year-old Patel, dubbed as “Doctor Death”, was held guilty by a court in Brisbane of manslaughter of three patients and causing grievous bodily harm to a fourth patient, brisbanetimes.com.au reported.

The jury delivered its verdict in the Brisbane Supreme Court, after seven days of deliberations. Patel stared at the floor as the jury’s decision was read out. He will be sentenced Thursday.

Patel was chief of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital between 2003 and 2005.

Indian-born and US-trained, Patel pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of James Phillips, 46, Gerry Kemps, 77, and Mervyn Morris, 75, who died following surgery performed by him.

He had also pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Ian Vowles, whose healthy bowel he removed in October 2004.

The trial involved the evidence of 76 witnesses over 53 days, the media report said.

The prosecution had alleged that Phillips, Kemps and Morris would not have died but for Patel’s decision to operate.

The surgeries on them were all “dangerous, unnecessary and inappropriate”, the court was told.

The prosecution went on to state that the operations on the three men should not have been done at Bundaberg as the hospital did not have the resources to cope with such major surgeries.

Patel’s barrister, Michael Byrne, told the jury that Patel had performed the operations the benefit of his patients. He said that each operation had been carried out with the patient’s consent.