Indian-origin doctor appeals conviction in Australia

SYDNEY - Jayant Patel, an Indian origin doctor sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm on patients at an Australian hospital, Thursday appealed against his sentence and conviction.

His lawyers lodged the papers in the Queensland Court of Appeal late Thursday afternoon, Australian news agency AAP reported.

Dubbed “Dr Death”, Patel was sentenced July 1 to seven years for each case of manslaughter and three years for grievous bodily harm. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

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

Indian-born and US-trained, Patel had 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 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.