WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-08-31 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
Gail Graham, 38, describes herself as one of those “typical South Africans who trusts their doctor”.
But this naivety has gone following a year of agonising pain, eight operations and an expensive potential lawsuit against one of Joburg’s most respected urologists.
The Star has established that 11 competence and billing-related complaints against Dr Warren Vickers had been made to the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) since 1995, but in each case his explanations were accepted.
But two more are pending. They were lodged this year by women who say their lives were ruined by surgery performed on Vickers’ operating table.
| ‘Being a naive patient who trusts her doctor, I said okay’ |
They allege he perforated various pelvic organs during operations he performed, ostensibly to correct weak pelvic-floor muscles.
They also claim he has responded to complaints with “arrogance” and “aggression”.
Graham, one of the most recent complainants to the HPCSA, intends taking her case as far as the Johannesburg High Court.
The second complainant spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity but said she would join Graham in any application for damages.
Both cases relate to pelvic organ prolapse, which normally occurs in women over 45 when the envelope of connective tissue around the vaginal walls gives way as pelvic-floor muscles weaken.
Pelvic organs such as the bladder, vagina and rectum are then at risk of becoming displaced.
Vickers travelled to France in June 2005 to receive training on how to insert tension-free vaginal tape (TVT), billed as a revolutionary product by Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, who paid for the two-day training course.
He was one of 180 South African doctors who have been trained by Johnson & Johnson to use TVT.
Catherine Lepley, business unit manager for Ethicon Women’s Health and Urology in SA, said the training was open only to “very experienced and very good” surgeons. Those chosen for sponsored training needed to “do enough of the procedures to get a hand-in” and have a “certain practice profile”.
As far as they were concerned, Vickers was one of the best and therefore one of the “very lucky ones”.
The two days of training comprised theory classes and a practical session in which doctors did three prolapse procedures in a row.
But Graham is not convinced two days of training was enough.
She blames the surgeon for a less than perfect sexual relationship with her husband, a future of popping painkillers and medical bills of “at least R1-million”.
She has briefed Ian Levitt Attorneys to lodge a civil claim against both Vickers and her gynaecologist, Dr Graeme Naylor, for pain and suffering.
Neither Vickers nor Naylor responded to queries from The Star. This was after the newspaper refrained from publishing the story for two days when Vickers’ assistant, Hester Bosse, said earlier this week that neither he nor his lawyers were able to respond earlier because “they play golf on a Wednesday”.
Graham said Naylor recommended she undergo a hysterectomy last August because she’d “already had four children”. She mentioned she was “slightly incontinent” when exercising on a trampoline and he advised her to have prolapse surgery.
“Being a naive patient who trusts her doctor, I said okay. I mean, a woman thinks she can trust her gynae. He said he’d contact Vickers, who would do it at the same time (as the hysterectomy).”
And he did, allegedly without meeting or examining Graham, either before or immediately after the operation.
“It was described as a simple procedure,” she said.
Graham’s first operation – the combined hysterectomy and prolapse surgery – was performed in October. She has since undergone seven reconstructive operations, including expensive plastic surgery to repair scar tissue.
“After the seventh operation my tummy was totally puckered – it was just one mass of scars.”
She alleges Vickers did not see her again, despite several requests.
The next she heard from him was when he phoned her husband for payment of an R11 000 bill. Graham refused to pay and the surgeon is still demanding payment.
Vickers, however, cleared the account of the second complainant without explanation after she complained to the HPCSA.
“I saw him at the end of October, about a month later. He was arrogant and obnoxious. He said he’d heard that I’d had a torrid time, and that was that.”
Graham said the excruciating pain in the weeks immediately after the initial prolapse surgery masked other symptoms, many of which continue.
She struggled to urinate because of severe pain and also suffered with what she feared would be permanent back pain. She took pain killers and other anti-inflammatory medication almost daily, in addition to laxatives.
“This has affected my children and my relationship with my husband.”
HPCSA spokesperson Tendai Dhliwayo told The Star that 11 previous complaints against Vickers were closed after the “explanations he gave were noted”.
He refused to give details of the complaints, except to say they related to competence and overcharging.
Independent Newspapers has instructed its lawyers, Webber Wentzel Bowens, to apply for these details in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
Johnson & Johnson’s Lepley said they believed Vickers was competent and that septicaemia, such as Graham had, was possible with all operations.
“We have such a good complications report line, but surgeons don’t always like to admit mistakes.”
Graham’s lawyer, Tracey Wols, told The Star the HPCSA had so far ignored requests for information.
Vickers was claiming that Graham’s and the second complainant’s medical files had been forwarded to the council.
Wols said medical bills would need to be collated and malpractice claims proven before any civil claim for damages could be lodged.