By JAN CORBETT
A man was given a massive overdose of radioactive iodine in a medical blunder that shattered his normal bodily functions and left him certain he would die in agonising isolation.
The 40-year-old will not only spend the rest of his life taking an expensive cocktail of drugs and natural remedies to maintain his digestive and nervous systems, but he also now has a higher chance of developing cancer.
Worse, he found he was unable to sue for compensation in New Zealand and, while the ACC covers ongoing medical expenses, it did not compensate him for the mental trauma or the inadequate way the hospital handled the emergency.
The man's case has been uncovered in a major Herald investigation, beginning today, into medical misadventure. Our inquiries show that New Zealanders who fall victim to medical misadventure are worse off financially than at any time in our history.
The New Plymouth man, who does not want to be identified, has been battling for years to get justice after the incident, which happened at Taranaki Base Hospital in 1994.
He was being treated for a thyroid condition. Within an hour of being administered radioactive iodine at the hospital, he was telephoned at home and told that, because of a labelling mistake by the suppliers in Australia, he had received a dose 30 times higher than prescribed.
His horrified father watched as staff from the hospital's nuclear medicine unit threw a sheet over his distressed son and escorted him back to the hospital, walking several metres away carrying Geiger counters to measure the radiation levels around him.
They repeatedly induced vomiting, and pumped him full of neutralising iodine, severely burning his oesophagus.
His family watched through a window as he stomped around the isolation room screaming in pain, his veins pulsating around his neck and temples, his neck raw and distended and his eyes bulging like a bullfrog's.
Believing he would die, he had to endure strict isolation for a week until the radiation subsided. Not even doctors went near him. Meals were pushed under the door.
"The anguish I went through - being treated like an animal behind closed doors."
That anguish was not matched by compensation. In New Zealand, you have more avenues of redress against your lawyer or accountant than against your doctor, dentist or midwife.
About 60 per cent of medical misadventure claims to ACC are rejected because they do not meet the stringent criteria.
The outgoing Health and Disability Commissioner, Robyn Stent, says compensation for medical misadventure victims is inadequate and she wants changes.
In the Taranaki case, ACC laws prevent the man from suing for compensation in New Zealand, and his unsuccessful bid to sue the Australian suppliers left him with a $30,000 bill for costs which the company waived on condition he drop further legal action.
He is still to pay his own legal costs.
The judge said the mistake should have been picked up in this country.
His lawyer, Christchurch-based Grant Cameron, said this case "underscores the hopeless position" of medical misadventure victims.
"Plainly his longevity and fertility have been put at risk. There could be some side-effects not yet recognised."
Despite what Mr Cameron calls outrageous conduct by the hospital, the case was not considered serious enough to sustain a claim for exemplary damages in this country.
Although ACC covers ongoing medical expenses, it does not pay for the alternative therapies the man prefers, nor does it compensate for the mental trauma, his constant depression and lethargy, the time off work for monthly tests, his limited employment opportunities, or the inadequate way the hospital handled the emergency.
Taranaki Health chief executive John O'Neill said the hospital conducted an internal investigation at the time and subsequently changed its protocols and procedures.
Radioactive iodine is no longer administered at Taranaki Base Hospital and patients now travel to Palmerston North for treatment.
Ms Stent, who leaves her post at the end of this month, is recommending that the Complaints Review Tribunal have wider compensation powers to help the victims of medical misadventure.
The tribunal, which is the final stop for complaints handed by her office, can award up to $200,000, but only for rare breaches of patient rights not already covered by ACC.
So far it has made only one award of $20,000 - to the parents of a child who died from brain damage at the age of six weeks.
In her review of the Health and Disability Act tabled in Parliament in October, Ms Stent recommended that the tribunal be allowed to award compensation regardless of ACC's acceptance of the claim.
The Government scrapped lump-sum compensation for accident and medical misadventure victims in 1992.
Ms Stent said people who had suffered personal injury at the hands of health professionals should be able to recover the total cost not met by accident insurance payments.
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