Indian-born Dr Jayant Patel, who is facing a total of 14 criminal charges, including three of manslaughter during his term as director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia, has been described in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court as "erratic" who "had outdated medical knowledge".
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Patel has also been charged with committing grievous bodily harm and fraud relating to his time as the hospital's director of surgery between 2003 and 2005.
An anaesthesist at the Hospital told the Court yesterday that Patel, the 58-year-old, who is a US citizen and had fled to the USA, but has returned to Australia to face trial, performed certain operations effectively but didn't cope when things went wrong.
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Dr Dieter Berens, the anaesthesist, told the court a number of patients on whom Patel operated developed bleeding while in the operating theatre and Patel would get "upset" if he pointed this out to him.
"He became nasty and at times started to lose his temper." he is quoted as saying.
Dr Benrens also said he disagreed with some of Patel's treatments, saying he believed the surgeon's medical knowledge about some issues such as when to give blood to patients in the intensive care unit was "outdated".
Sanjeeva Kariyawasan, a former junior hospital surgeon at the hospital, told the committal hearing that Dr Patel ignored his suggestion of a procedure to buy time to find internal bleeding in a surgical patient, a day before the patient died from blood loss.
Among others charges, the surgeon is also involved in the manslaughter of Gerry Kemps during an emergency operation in December 2004.
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