Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 29, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 local Winnipeg free november 2000 baby deaths inquest the probe widens Odim faces scrutiny in licensing Board to investigate findings of Manitoba inquest by Tracy Tjaden the physician licensing Board in California will investigate the findings of a Manitoba inquest into the death of 12 babies under the care of a doctor who is now working in los Dave chief of enforcement for the medical Board of said his office will Check into the Long awaited report that found five and possibly nine of the deaths could have been i will gather All of that information and have my investigators look into Thornton said from we have to assure ourselves that the patients in California this doctor might be treating Are that not an Jonah who operated on a dozen children who died during or after heart surgery during a 10month Span in 1994 at health sciences is currently working As a research associate at Urcla medical besides removing organs for trans Plant from he conducts research and has no Contact with living a spokesman for the University med ical Centre said dims record in Mani Toba was a consideration when the prominent surgeon was hired As a research associate at the facility two years we were concerned about said David referring to the Langness said the Centre is aware of the inquest but will not take action until a decision is made by the medical Board of which hinges on an investigation into dims practice by the College of physicians and surgeons in that process which could take years did not get under Way until Manitoba associate chief judge Mur Ray Sinclair released his report on Mon the fact Odim is not treating patients directly in California is Thornton it Doest prevent him from going out and practising coming just Short of laying blame because inquests in Manitoba cannot legally do that Sinclair levelled harsh criticism against the doctors in charge of infant heart surgery at health sciences Centre in the tragic rash of deaths that year shut Down the hospitals paediatric car Diac surgery program and left parents desperate for the two heart specialists at the Cen tre of the controversy Are keeping a Low the lawyer representing Odim and Niels the cardiologist who continuously referred patients to said neither would be speaking to the Media on the an official for the Hospital where Gid dins works As a paediatric cardiologist said it will not limit his patient responsibilities As a result of the we Are aware of the said Kimberly Almon of the Deborah heart and lung Centre in Brown while Giddins is out of the office he is treating patients Here and we have every Confidence in his ability to do an internet search revealed Odim has been fined by the medical Board of Cal Board officials confirmed he was Given a citation order in february 1999 for knowingly making a false statement or omitting to state a material fact in his application for a licence in that the us Fine was for failing to Dis close two previous medical licences Odim held in new Hampshire and geor Gia when he applied for a licence in Cal dims career has suffered since the rash of deaths in Winnipeg in he career took another turn for the worse in when medical authorities at Emory University in Atlanta refused to extend his temporary licence after learning of the in a 1998 interview with the los Ange Les Odim said he walked into a hornets nest when he applied to head up the paediatric cardiac surgery pro Gram at Winnipeg health sciences Cen and the hornets have never let Odim told the newspaper that no mat Ter where he goes new Georgia and California he keeps get Ting stung by questions about the rash of in an Effort to Tell his Side of the Story two years Odim said he has been made a target by people in different he took the Job at Hsc Over several other lucrative but soon discovered the program was underfunded and had been for he told the he said his predecessors had similar complaints and their Success rate with patients was no at Issue was also whether such a sparsely populated province should even have a paediatric surgery program of this with files from the la times f Many families Are left wondering what to please Call for your complimentary brochure on the Glen Eden memorial gardens cemetery funeral Home 4477 main Street West Paul 9828300 a Lapp offer the Best of the from Birks extensive collection of Llandro Birks gifts since 1879 str barks pulp Park Centre 7867468 i 800 682 j Joe Bryksa free press archives Odim was fined for failing to disclose previous medical continued from Page a1 Agnes Bishop was the head of paediatrics at health sciences Centre and head of the childrens she left the Post Halfway through 1994 when she was appointed president of the atomic Energy control Board of Canada in Oscar Castro a neonatologist Newborn intensive care doctor who was alarmed at the condition of babies postoperatively in George Collins was the cardiologist who headed the childrens open heart surgery program from 1983 to 1993 director of variety heart the clinic where doctors saw children and Douglas Craig headed up the anaesthesia department at health sciences Centre and argued against the anaesthetists who blew the whistle on the surgery and briefly got it slowed Down in Kim Duncan was the paediatric heart surgeon from the mid80s to 1993 his departure resulted in the Hospital hiring Jonah Hancock dims assistant in some of the surgeries she dismissed nurses Ann Mcneill an anaesthetist who grew increasingly alarmed Over the Molly Peshla head of neonatal Newborn intensive care whose refusal to accept any More of dims babies from surgery effectively shut Down the Ian Sutherland medical Vic president at Hsc who was among senior officials who Learned of nurses warnings about High mortality rates Early to Swartz an anaesthetist who recalled some children on the operating room table were conscious or nearly so during the 1994 Suzanne Ullyot head of paediatric anaesthesia who raised the alarm about surgery and criticized the hospitals internal system of checks and bal Helmut Unruh he recruited Jonah Odim to work in a thoracic he per forms lung transplant surgery at he is director of the Manitoba lung transplant Cameron Ward the cardiologist who worked with Giddins and Odim and questioned what the parents of Jessie Maguire would be told after the newborns surgery was Nathan Wiseman head of paediatric surgery who led an internal review of the entire program after anaesthetists blew the whistle on the first baby deaths cleared it to resume High risk investigation continued from Page a1 if there is a wed like to Cor rect Stearns certainly if the College in any shape or form has let anybody Down or not been there when we should have wed be the first to say that we should assume responsibility and say were definitely Stearns was Quick to reassure the pub Lic that checks and balances introduced at health sciences Centre As a result of the 1994 botched surgeries make the Hospital a Safe place for the College is the final authority on whether doctors practise in the province and the investigative chairman is armed with subpoena the investigative chairman has the authority to require the attendance of any physician and any information he said College registrar Bill penalties Range from a called a to permanent withdrawal of a licence to the College operates under a seven year statute of which Means it has authority to investigate any doctor and to pursue charges of professional misconduct for up to seven years after a doctor leaves there Are two years left in the statute to investigate Odim and another five remaining in giddins1 until the College has conducted no investigation into the High mortality and complication rates from the apart from an annual review of paediatric deaths in 1994 that concluded that four deaths could have been the inquest report found Only one of the 12 deaths unavoidable and singled out five As the absence of the College throughout the tragedy came in for criticism in the 500page report of the paediatric cardiac surgery inquest released the reports provincial judge Murray called on the College to revamp its policies so that investigations and disciplinary action against doctors no longer depend on a formal complaint being filed with the Sinclair also called on the College to review his report and decide whether there Are grounds to proceed with disciplinary action against any of the Doc tors involved in the disciplinary hearings into doctors brought up on misconduct charges Are open to the Public investigations and the alternative to Are held behind closed that Means the Public has no inde pendent Means to review the colleges investigation or its the Public will be aware of any f hid ing of guilt against a they can have our Assurance that everybody in Here will be looked at to see if there is cause for individual Stearns gesturing to the they have to accept that because under the medical it is a confidential the College be Able to investigate doctors effectively if the process was open to Public Stearns defending the close door sys part of the Job youre asking us to do we could not do As Well if it was not con this is something even judge Sinclair Stearns he added that doctors brought before investigations or standards committees would otherwise withhold vital they dont want to be known to make he at the same the College is Back ing Sinclair Call for whistle blowing legislation to encourage nurses and other health professionals to speak out about problems and vowed to crack Down on doctors who stand in the Way of legitimate the College has and will discipline physicians who inappropriately harass other Pope the College is also instructing some of its other committees to review related for the legislation and ethics committee will look at the Issue of informed in part because parents were assured Odim was one of the Best in he had never per formed some of the surgeries 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