Former patient Gerardo Mazzella in his YouTube video, where he defamed Dr Al Muderis. |
PHOTO: Youtube |
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from previous page to medical advice. On his return to Australia, he began complaining of numbness in the penis and scrotum, as well as a loss of sexual function. Feeling stripped of his manhood, Mr Mazzella looked for a scapegoat.
Mr Mazzella made complaints to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission as well as suing for medical negligence. Both cases were dismissed. A urologist and neurologist had found no damage to Mr Mazzella’ s pudendal nerves. But Mr Mazzella would not let it go. Dr Al Muderis had given him his mobile number, as part of his open-door policy with patients.
“ He kept calling me on my mobile in the early hours of the morning. A lot of the time he’ s calling when he’ s intoxicated.
“ He called me one day and said‘ I know where your wife works, I know where your children go to school and I can get to them’.”
Dr Al Muderis tried to reason with him, but to no avail. The phone threats escalated. Then there were visits to the hospital where Dr Al Muderis works. Specially designed flyers accusing him of medical negligence would appear on the windscreens of cars.
Massive cyber attack“ One day, he sent me images of himself carrying a machine gun, and he eventually tattooed my detention centre number on his neck.
“ That’ s when I had to take action because it was a classic example of the DSM-5 psychiatry book that this guy is bonded and he would never leave me alone. I reported him to the police.”
Mr Mazzella was arrested and given a suspended four-month jail sentence. The doctor also took out an Apprehended Violence Order against him. But his former patient next decided to embark on a“ massive case of cyber attack”.
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“ Obviously, he didn’ t get enough satisfaction in sending me images and calling me with threats,” says Dr Al Muderis, shrugging his shoulders.
A website was set up that mimicked both the look and feel of Dr Al Muderis’ professional website. But instead of the doctor’ s credentials, the page contained headings such as“ the un accountability of the surgeon Dr Al Muderis for his medical negligence”.
Next, a 10-minute YouTube video appeared, with Gerardo Mazzella ranting at the camera, calling Dr Al Muderis a“ butcher”.
And there was a public Facebook group titled‘ Al Muderis— Butcher or Surgeon?’. At one stage, it had more than 300 members. It contained images of monsters, a‘ wanted’ poster referring to Dr Al Muderis and captions that included‘ Dr Al-Muder— Penis lovechild’.
At one point during the interview with Australian Doctor, Dr Al Muderis says he feels unsafe. What about the police?
“ They have more important things to deal with,” he replies.“ Are you sure?” He smiles. At the height of the hate campaign, he opted to sue Mr Mazzella and his brother Rodney Duncan for defamation. It was intended as a statement, an attempt to serve as a public acknowledgement of the wrong done rather than a hope that Mr Mazzella would move on.
“ All I am after is justice. All I am after is that people should be accountable for what they do,” he says, with a note of anger in his voice.
When the case reached the Supreme Court of NSW last year, the brothers never appeared, refusing to defend themselves.
Meanwhile, the defamatory material was making the rounds on the internet. Dr Al Muderis’
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lawyers found defamatory posts on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Videobash, Internet Archive and Rutube.
The harms were real. The court heard from orthopaedic surgeon Dr Solon Rosenblatt how Dr Al Muderis’ s shoulders, head and face would drop and a“ look of despair and desperation come over him” whenever the material was brought up.
Dr Al Muderis said in court that he could be the next Victor Chang, referring to the famous cardiac surgeon who was shot twice in the head near his home in a failed extortion attempt.
Last month, Justice Stephen Rothman ordered $ 480,000 in damages to be paid jointly by Mr Mazzella and Mr Duncan to Dr Al Muderis. Mr Mazzella was slapped with an extra $ 160,000.
“ The level of hurt feelings and the damage to the reputation … is extremely high and probably at the highest level.”
The NSW Supreme Court made further orders for the brothers to take down the defamatory material by the end of June, and for their assets to be frozen as part of the recovery for damages.
Handling vexatious patients Mr Mazzella has made his life
a living nightmare for the past seven years, says Dr Al Muderis. He’ s never shown any remorse or guilt, and Dr Al Muderis fears he will never leave him alone.
“ When I get home, I walk around and make sure no one else is in the street. I’ m always travelling with another person in the car when I get dropped at home.”
“ I felt very vulnerable. I do still feel unsafe.”
Dr Al Muderis’ story is an extreme escalation of a common tale in medicine. In an era of patient-centred care, there’ s a sense that patients or their relatives can attack doctors without
‘ THE LEVEL OF HURT FEELINGS AND THE DAMAGE TO THE REPUTATION … IS EXTREMELY HIGH AND PROBABLY AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.’
— Justice Stephen Rothman, Supreme Court of NSW
fear of consequences.
“ You deal with human beings and, unfortunately, people or patients and relatives can express their emotions in variable ways,” says Dr Al Muderis.
“ Sometimes it turns out to be violent.
“ I remember that when I worked in an ICU, there was a very emotional family where a patient had a stroke and was announced brain dead. Then the senior physician had to break the news and it ended up in a fist fight.”
He says he has considered leaving Australia for safer shores— the US or Europe.
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“ But then I thought to myself would I let this guy destroy my family and my life?
“ No, I decided. I have faced a lot more life-threatening events than this person.
“ I’ m not the kind of person who can be held to ransom or to surrender to threats.”
Moving forward There is a cruel irony to much of this. Mr Mazzella’ s attacks on Dr Al Muderis have come amid a stellar career in orthopaedic surgery, where he is regarded as a leading pioneer in osseointegration, a technique where titanium pins are implanted into an amputee’ s femoral or fibial bones which are then attached to a prosthetic leg. It’ s widely used on injured war veterans.
For Dr Al Muderis, what matters now is that the law has vindicated his reputation, and he can go back to practise with a judgement that has restored his pride and dignity.
He adds:“ It also sets a legal precedent for anyone using illegal means to attack doctors.”
What effect has this had him? He says he’ s a“ glass half-full person”.
“ I am very optimistic. I strongly believe that life is very short and we live only once,” Dr Al Muderis says.
“ What I keep telling people around me is that this case should never change our practice.
“ Our practice should always be focused on providing the best for the patient to the best of our ability without the fear of being sued.”
When Australian Doctor asks Dr Al Muderis if he resents fate for giving him sanctuary in Australia only for fate to inflict misery on him again, he smiles.
“ Australia gave me everything and I will do my best to give back to this country with all the power that I have.” ●
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