By DPA
Sydney : The aggrieved patients of an Indian-trained surgeon, linked to death of several patients in the two years he worked at an Australian hospital, were Wednesday given credit for his arrest in the United States.
Jayant Patel left Australia in April 2005 amid claims of botched surgery at Queensland’s Bundaberg Hospital. He was arrested earlier this week in Portland, Oregon, and will be the subject of an extradition hearing there next month.
“I think overwhelmingly the credit goes to the people in the patient support group, who came forward and publicly made their claims,” Queensland Prime Minister Anna Bligh told the state parliament when news of Patel’s arrest broke.
Patel, who has been linked to the death of 17 patients, was hired by Australian health authorities despite the fact that the simplest Internet search would have found that he had been cited for negligence in Oregon and New York.
His arrest came three years to the day since the first question was asked in state parliament about him and 16 months after the extradition application was made.
The 57-year-old Patel, dubbed “Dr Death” in Australia, had a range of charges levelled against him, including three charges of manslaughter.