Graeme Reeves, M.D.

The Butcher of Bega
500 plus complaints and still practicing

Victims complained of being stonewalled by health authorities and laughed at by police. What stuns his victims is not only the scope of the malpractice but how far back it goes. Complaints against him dated back to 1990, yet he was not deregistered until 2004.

Newspapers have become full of shocking tales of torn vaginal canals, perforated bladders, post-birth vaginas stitched up too tightly for sex or tampon use, of hysterectomies allegedly carried out by Reeves without the patient's knowledge. He has been accused of sexual harassment and botching procedures on hundreds of women, like another Dr. James Burt. To Carolyn Dewaegeneire, moments before she was sedated to have a pre-cancerous lesion removed from her labia minora, he whispered close to her face, "I'm going to take your clitoris, too." Female genital mutilation, unless necessary for medical welfare, is a crime under Section 45 of the Crimes Act in Australia.

The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has revealed it dealt with complaints against Reeves concerning 14 patients from 1990 to 1996. Notice that more are complaining to the newspapers than complained through official channels. What does that say about official channels?

Gail Small said: "He was rude. The room was horrible. There were flies everywhere. I remember thinking something was wrong but I just went ahead with it. . . He mutilated me."

As usual, other physicians were referring  patients to him as though they were objective assessors of to whom it is safe to refer patients. One man whose wife died after her baby was delivered by Reeves had a message for all the nurses and doctors who protected the medic for all those years: "Hang your heads in shame."

Had they checked before employing him in April 2002, they would have discovered that not only had he been banned from obstetrics in 1997 but had a file bursting with complaints, three of which involved deaths.

A damning dossier proves the Medical Board knew of serious allegations against him.

A midwife who worked for several years with him said that nurses often were too afraid to confront him.

Robin Moon, a midwife with 30 years' experience, spoke of the burden she has carried for a decade. She said that when she complained to management she was told: "Don't take this any further." She says, "I feel like I have been a voice lost in the wilderness and finally I can now speak."

The president of the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association, Andrew Keegan, said "Simply being in the same room doesn't mean you know what's going on." Medicine tends to think patients don't know what is going on either and doesn't have a good track record of listening to their complaints.

This case is on-going in Australia at the time of this writing. It doesn't appear to matter what continent you are on, the relationship between medicine and patients is not right. There needs to be someplace victims of practices like this can turn to find advocates and information. There needs to be someone interested in protecting patients more than providers. Doctors, nurses, hospitals and other groups in medicine have organizations that lobby for and advocate for and listen to them. Patients don't. They need one.

References:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23444811-5006009,00.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/battle-to-prove-malice/2008/03/09/1204998283826.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
http://news.theage.com.au/board-told-of-butcher-of-bega-claims/20080306-1x9b.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hospital-warned-board-of-butcher/2008/03/09/1204998283808.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10496793&pnum=0

Home | Table of Contents | It's a Path
Silence versus Patient Safety
Loyalty versus Patient Safety
The White Wall of Silence versus Patient Safety
Blacklisting Patients
Freedom of Speech for Patients
Medical Complaints - How to

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It's a path

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