No “grave injustice” was done when Pinetown anaesthetist Leon Rheeder was suspended from practising for three months after a patient in his care went into a coma and died.
This was the argument by advocate E Labuschagne, acting for the Health Professions Council and Medical and Dental Professional Board, in the Durban High Court yesterday. He was arguing over why Rheeder should pay his clients’ hefty costs for bringing them to court over a “futile appeal” which could not have succeeded.
Rheeder pleaded guilty on May 12 before the Medical and Dental Professional Board’s conduct committee for failing to ensure that 70-year-old Ian Fordyce was monitored during a cataract operation.
While Rheeder went to the toilet, Fordyce, who was sedated, went into a coma and died a month later. The board fined Rheeder R50 000 and barred him from practising for one year, suspending nine months of that period for three years. The effective three-month suspension was to be served immediately.
Rheeder went to court arguing that he wanted to appeal against the “harsh” sentence but the Health Professionals Act prevented proper redress as he had to serve the suspension before the appeal hearing.
In July he secured an interim interdict allowing him to return to work pending his appeal.
Yesterday the matter came before acting Judge Glenn Thatcher, but Rheeder’s advocate, Steven Mullins, said the only issue to be decided was costs, as his client had withdrawn his appeal and had served the sentence.
“There was chaos when he was suspended as surgeons could not perform operations as it was difficult to find someone to stand in for him. He decided that if he lost the appeal he would be subjecting the hospital staff to the same circumstances again. He got a doctor to stand in for him, therefore he withdrew his appeal,” said Mullins.
Labuschagne said that his clients were entitled to costs as Rheeder had not taken the appeal seriously.
“He gets a locum to stand in for him now and that is his reason to withdraw the appeal. In the first place the appeal was an exercise in futility as it would have only been successful if it had induced a sense of shock. There was no grave injustice done to him; a man’s life was entrusted to him and he walked out when that person needed him the most. If he does not understand the board’s approach, when they gave him that sanction, then he has not learnt enough,” said Labuschagne.
Mullins said Rheeder had effectively raised a constitutional challenge to the Health Professionals Act and therefore should not be saddled with costs.
Judge Thatcher reserved judgment.
