By MONIQUE DEVEREUX
A Te Kuiti doctor used koromiko leaves to treat a woman suffering a brain haemorrhage and told her family she had the flu, a Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal heard yesterday.
At a tribunal hearing in Hamilton, Ngaamo Thomson pleaded not guilty to a charge of professional misconduct, relating to the way he treated Meretina Kura of Te Kuiti in September 1996.
Mrs Kura died two weeks after the haemorrhage.
Dr Thomson was not Mrs Kura's usual doctor, but was a family friend.
Yesterday the tribunal heard that the Health and Disability Commission brought the charges against him after receiving a complaint from Mrs Kura's family.
Counsel for the commission, Bronwyn Klippel, said the family believed Dr Thomson had not taken Mrs Kura's condition seriously and had adopted a "wait and see" approach.
An ambulance was called to Mrs Kura's house after she suffered a seizure and a family member called Dr Thomson soon afterwards. He sent the St John Ambulance staff away, saying Mrs Kura had the flu.
But two hours later family members called a different doctor, who sent the ambulance back and Mrs Kura was admitted to Te Kuiti Hospital.
She was then airlifted to Waikato Hospital where she died two weeks later.
Senior Te Kuiti ambulance officer Jenny Cox told the tribunal that she was so worried about Dr Thomson's treatment of Mrs Kura that she phoned her control centre and another Te Kuiti doctor to register her concerns.
She said that when she arrived Mrs Kura was having a fit. On coming round Mrs Kura told Mrs Cox she had a severe headache.
Mrs Cox asked a family member to call the family doctor.
She assumed that was Dr Thomson when he arrived. He had no medical bag and had to borrow some St John Ambulance equipment to take blood.
Unhappy with what she considered a casual attitude, Mrs Cox told him she thought Mrs Kura had a "subdural haemorrhage." She said she purposely used the medical terminology to indicate how serious she believed Mrs Kura's condition was, without upsetting the family.
But Dr Thomson told her: "No, she's got the flu - who's the doctor here?"
Patricia Roach, a Te Kuiti health worker and a sister-in-law of Mrs Kura, told the tribunal she rushed to Mrs Kura's house on learning that her sister-in-law had taken ill.
She spoke to Dr Thomson who told her, "she's got the flu, she'll be all right."
Mrs Roach said she was the most senior whanau member at the house but was not consulted by Dr Thomson about proposed medication for her sister-in-law, or asked to give contact details for the sick woman's husband or brother.
Under cross-examination Mrs Roach admitted she had a strained relationship with Dr Thomson and the Te Pou Ora Health Clinic he works for - which was in competition with her employer, Community Health.
Martha Winikerei, another sister-in-law, said she was at the house when Dr Thomson gave Mrs Kura a drink which he said was made from koromiko leaves.
But Mrs Kura vomited the drink up, after which Mrs Winikerei's daughter, Marama, decided to call another doctor and get a second opinion.
That doctor, Keith Buswell, called an ambulance immediately and admitted Mrs Kura to hospital.
Dr Buswell told the tribunal that had he been presented with the same symptoms that Dr Thomson saw initially, he would have sent Mrs Kura straight to Waikato Hospital.
Dr Buswell said he accepted that admitting Mrs Kura to hospital as soon as she had her first seizure would not necessarily have saved her life, but it might have.
The hearing is expected to end today.
Te Kuiti doctor's treatment of haemorrhaging patient 'casual'
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