US doctor faces first day of manslaughter trial

BRISBANE, Australia – An American doctor accused of repeatedly botching operations and performing surgeries he was not capable of handling pleaded not guilty in an Australian court Monday to three manslaughter charges and one of grievous bodily harm.
Prosecutors say Indian-born surgeon Jayant Patel repeatedly performed surgeries he'd been banned from undertaking in the United States, misdiagnosed patients and used sloppy, antiquated surgical techniques.
Patel's trial at Brisbane Supreme Court kicked off Monday and is expected to include testimony from some 90 witnesses and last four to six weeks. It comes more than 25 years after questions were first raised about his competency, and five years after a government inquiry found he may have directly contributed to patient deaths.
Patel, 59, has not spoken publicly about the charges, which relate to four patients he treated while working as director of surgery between 2003 and 2005 at a state-run hospital in Bundaberg, a sugar industry town 230 miles (370 kilometers) north of Brisbane in Queensland state. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutor Ross Martin spent much of the day delivering a lengthy opening statement that largely focused on the death of one patient, 76-year-old Mervyn John Morris. Morris died two weeks after Patel removed his lower bowel in May 2003 — a procedure Martin said "was the wrong thing to do."
Martin's opening address was packed with complex medical terminology, hospital charts and constant references to doctors' short-form notations, indicating the trial is likely to be a complicated one.
Patel has faced complaints about his competency since the early 1980s, when he practiced in the U.S. In 1984, he was fined by New York health officials and placed on probation for three years for failing to examine patients before surgery.