Personal Injury Lawyers in New York

In 1984, one Dr. Jaycant Patel was found guilty of gross negligence and incompetence by New York regulators. He had failed to examine patients before their surgery and was fined and placed on clinical probation. In 1989, he moved to Oregon, where he worked for Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland. Complaints began at once, that he performed surgery when it was not needed, and on patients who were not his responsibility. In some cases the surgeries led to severe injury or patient death.

In 1998 Kaiser put limitations on his licence, requiring that he seek second opinions before performing any surgery, and banning him from performing liver or pancreatic surgeries. The limitations were made statewide in 2000, and in 2001 New York State health officials had him surrender his license.

A distant sanctuary?

So Dr. Patel took action which 100 years ago might have been effective: he went to Australia to disappear. By falsifying application forms he managed to be appointed the Director of Surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia in April, 2003. The Queensland health authorities did not check his background. They hired him for the “area of need” program which hires foreign-trained doctors for under-serviced areas. Bundaberg is a pretty town 385 kilometers north of Brisbane, on the Burnett River, just south of the Great Barrier Reef. It has a large sugar cane industry and manufactures rum.

Again, complaints began at once, his surgeries being described as “sloppy” and “antiquated”. They called him Dr. E. coli. Nurses had noticed that he didn’t wash his hands, and some hid their patients when he was in the hospital. Between 2003 and 2005 Patel was linked to over 87 deaths. Thirty of those died under his care in Bundaberg.

Patel arrested

After some Queensland politicians raised these issues, the media uncovered Patel’s past, giving him the name Dr. Death. He quickly left Australia, returning to Portland Oregon. On March 13, 2008, FBI agents arrested him there. The subsequent hearing revealed that he is facing numerous charges and three life terms in prison, plus over 100 years more. Now there is a warrant for his extradition to Australia for trial.

The question of extradition

A Texas doctor in support of Dr. Patel has urged him to fight the extradition, and stated that the responsible party is the Queensland medical authorities who should have provided more supervision. He claims that Patel would not get a fair trial in Australia because of the media coverage. There is a case concerning a possible extradition to Greece of another defendant, and lawyers say it might provide a test as to whether Patel can be extradited to Australia. In the other case the defendant is claiming he would not get a fair trial in Greece because of media coverage.

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