Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 7th July 2017 | Page 11

News Review
A doctor’s nightmare
Despite being
awarded
a record
$480,000 in
damages for
libel, the doctor
at the centre of
the courtroom
drama feels this
is not the last
he’ll hear from
his ‘bonded’
patient.
RACHEL WORSLEY
I
“I THINK this will escalate at
some stage and he may come up
with a gun or knife and try to kill
me,” says Dr Munjed Al Mud-
eris. He shifts in the chair, hands
clasped in front of him. His face
hardens. “But I am prepared for
that and I don’t have any fear.”
Dr Al Muderis is talking about
Gerardo Mazzella, a former
patient he will never refer to by
name during his interview with
Australian Doctor.
For the past seven years, Mr
Mazzella had carried out a cam-
‘I THINK THIS WILL ESCALATE
AT SOME STAGE.’
— Dr Munjed Al Muderis, orthopaedic surgeon
paign of terror against Dr Al
Muderis.
There have been multiple death
threats over the phone. He’s
sent pictures of himself hold-
ing a machine gun. Social media
has been swamped with images
claiming Dr Al Muderis was a
“butcher”. The harassment was
so intense that Dr Al Muderis
considered leaving Australia with
his family to escape.
It is every doctor’s worst night-
mare — the patient who feels so
wronged that they are willing to
destroy them.
www.australiandoctor.com.au
Harassment campaign
Dr Al Muderis is no stranger to
fear. Born in Iraq, in October
1999 he fled the country after a
busload of deserters from Saddam
Hussein’s army was driving into
the grounds of Baghdad Univer-
sity Hospital. The doctors were
told to amputate the deserters’
ears. The head of department
refused. He was taken outside
and shot. Dr Al Muderis, a first-
year resident, hid in the female
toilets for five hours. “It felt like
five years … I decided to escape,”
he says.
He fled with the help of his
family to the Jordanian border.
He eventually ended up on a leaky
boat to Christmas Island where he
applied for asylum. He was held
in Curtin Detention Centre for
10 months, where his guards only
called him by his detention num-
ber: 982.
After his release in 2000, Dr Al
Muderis spent the next 10 years
building his career, first finding
work at the Mildura Base Hos-
pital, and then gaining a place
on the surgery training program,
before ending up as a highly
regarded orthopaedic surgeon
who has helped transform the
lives of hundreds of amputees.
So when Gerardo Mazzella
walked into his surgery on
16 March 2010 needing a hip
arthroscopy, Dr Al Muderis had
little reason to suspect what was
to come.
The operation was a success,
helping to ease Mr Mazzella’s
lower back and right hip pain. But
then, Mr Mazzella flew to Thai-
land the following week contrary
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7 July 2017 | Australian Doctor |
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