'Butcher' doctor slammed by furious former patients

Posted On:   24 August 2018

New South Wales, Australia – 26th June, 2018: For a place where they went for help, too many women have left Manning Base Hospital in more pain than when they arrived.

They’re all hurting in different ways, but their suffering was caused by the same man. His name is Dr Emil Shawky Gayed.

“He absolutely ruined my life,” mum of six Lee Elliott told A Current Affair.

“I hate him - I don’t think I hate anybody more in my life.”

Lee almost died on Dr Gayed’s operating table.

She went in to have a lump removed from her stomach. Instead, Dr Gayed gave her a full hysterectomy, against her wishes and against the advice of the hospital’s head specialist.

“The head gyno had spoken to Dr Gayed and said to him, ‘whatever you do - don’t do a hysterectomy on Lee Elliott because she’s had five caesars - six children, twins - and she’s got a lot of adhesions and she’ll bleed to death’," Lee said.

Lee ended up in intensive care and needed two further operations to save her life.

“I hate him and he deserves to be punished,” she said.

Emma Strybis said she never felt completely comfortable with Dr Gayed, but in a regional town like Taree, on the New South Wales mid-north coast, women don’t have a lot of choice.

“He re-assured me that he would do his best to fix me - fix my pain,” she explained.

Emma suffers from endometriosis - a condition that in 2015 caused her to miscarry her fifth child.

She thought Dr Gayed was performing follow up surgery to remove some cysts.

“I had a feeling something wasn’t right … I just had to keep telling myself ‘nothing’s wrong, nothing’s wrong.’”

Something was terrible wrong. The 65-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist had removed one of Emma’s perfectly healthy ovaries and fallopian tube, and while doing so, severed her ureter, causing her stomach to swell as it filled with urine.

“I’ve given birth four times and this was by far the worst thing that I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

In need of medical treatment for the rest of her life, Emma is building a case against Dr Gayed. From hospital records to pathology results, perhaps one piece of evidence is most alarming.

“Dr Gayed sent me a text message saying he was distressed and upset and shocked that he’d caused this,” she revealed.

“It’s an admission of guilt - he knows he did wrong.”

Emma made the first official complaint about the doctor, unaware her bravery would uncover dozens of other women who too have suffered at the hands of Dr Gayed.

“I’m horrified that it’s taken 10 years for all this to come up,” she said.

Racheall O’Shannessey’s story dates back 15 years.

She said she was “in the hands of a monster” when Dr Gayed cut her baby girl’s face while delivering her via caesarean section.

“The intern actually came over and told me that my baby has been cut on the face and she’ll be needing stitches,” Racheall said.

“He just tried to tell me it was a pretty common thing - basically, Brittney’s scar will heal in time.”

Monica Bolton said Dr Gayed scarred her too, for life. Pregnant with her third child, she went into premature labour at 35 weeks in 2006.

“They said they’ll call the doctor on-call in, who happened to be Dr Gayed. I wasn’t happy about it, but couldn’t do much about it," she said.

Once her baby was born, Monica said Dr Gayed became aggressive.

“My previous pregnanices, I’ve had to have a general anaesthetic for the removal because I suffer from placenta accreta," she said.

"He’s like ‘no, you won’t be getting a general anaesthetic, I’ll just manually remove it’ and I said, ‘no, you have to knock me out’.”

Monica was left in “absolute fear”, with a torn uterus and robbed of the chance to have anymore children.

“As far as female production organs go, you wouldn’t send your cat to him for a desex. He’s a butcher,” she said.

Nicole Ramsey never got to meet her fourth child. She miscarried at 13 weeks, after Dr Gayed performed a procedure that’s considered too risky on a pregnant woman.

“I was shocked, I was sad, and I just couldn’t believe that a doctor who specialises in that field would do that,” she said.

“I had no choices - he made my choices for me.”

Nine other women have been red-flagged as being at risk of developing cancer of the uterus because of a procedure called an ablation that Dr Gayed performed on them.

“Dr Gayed operated on those women with a diagnosis of hyperplasia - that is inappropriate,” said the Chief Medical Officer at Manning Base Hospital in Taree, Dr Osama Ali.

“We should not do it, simply because you are increasing the chances of changing those cells into cancerous cells.”

One of the most heartbreaking stories is of a 64-year-old woman who health bosses fear died because Dr Gayed operated on her, even though he knew it would increase her risk of contracting cancer. Just as concerning is the fact that more women could face the same fate.

“We have conducted a full review on all the ablations he’s done for the last 10 years - there were over 300 cases of them,” Dr Ali said, urging any other women with concerns to contact the hospital.

Dr Ali stood Dr Gayed down in February 2016. This month, Dr Gayed was found guilty of professional misconduct and disqualified from practicing for three years.

But it seems wherever he has worked, he’s left a trail of devastation. More than 30 complaints across four different public hospitals in New South Wales have prompted the state’s health department to launch an independent review into the oversight and quality of care, and safety of patients, treated by Dr Gayed.

Although suspended just weeks ago, A Current Affair revealed Dr Gayed had been under the microscope for most of his 28 year career in Australia.

The New South Wales medical board placed him under the supervision of a “professional mentor”, whom he had to report to every two weeks.

According to Dr Ali, he and his staff at Manning Base Hospital were never told why, as “this is all within the privilege within the medical board”.

Each of their traumatic experiences at Taree’s main hospital might be different, but there seems to be a constant concern among each of the women who have spoken out about Dr Gayed’s misconduct - were they simply unlucky to be treated by an incompetent doctor, or did he have a motive?

“I can’t really tell why it happened - it’s only Dr Gayed who will be able to tell us why,” Dr Ali said.

A Current Affair tracked Dr Gayed down leaving church, of all places.

Asked if he had gone there for forgiveness, the disgraced, disqualified specialist said “yes”.

Seemingly flustered, he chose not to focus on the women whose lives he’s all but ruined.

“I served in that place for 18 years and I have 10,000 families I cared for, and that is the only comment I will do,” he said, adding, “this is all incorrect information”.

However, Dr Ali has the proof, explaining “we do have pathological evidence of those women that he operated on”.

Dr Gayed refused to explain whether his actions were deliberate or the result of incompetence.

Having shut down several private practices and warned not to step foot near a hospital, he now resides on Sydney’s northern beaches. It’s a far cry from the lives his victims have been left to rebuild.

“I think a three year ban is ludicrous - it should be life,” Monica said.

Lee said she didn't want anybody else to endure what happened to her.

"What he put my whole family through was horrific,” she said.

Emma agreed.

“I feel like he’s a butcher and the one thing I’ve wanted out of all of this - since I’ve been home from hospital - is for him to not hurt anyone else," she said.

The inquiry into the management of any complaints, adverse events or performance issues relating to Dr Gayed will report back to NSW Health by September 30, 2018.

Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/06/26/18/24/emil-gayed-women-claim-botched-procedures-unnecessary-surgery-butcher