‘Deliberately dishonest’: Judge throws out patient’s $800,000 negligence claim against bariatric surgeon
The case failed because he made dishonest claims and launched legal action too late, the judge ruled.
A surgeon has been cleared of negligence 27 years after performing a bariatric procedure on a patient who falsely claimed the procedure ruined his life.
Dr James Ritchie was forced to endure a hearing spanning 24 days before the Supreme Court of NSW, which was tasked with considering the merits of the $800,000 compensation claim.
But the judge found that his former patient, Donald Campbell, had been deliberately dishonest, with the surgeon’s legal team arguing that many of his claims were “bald-faced lies”.
Dr Ritchie had originally performed a biliopancreatic diversion in 1999, which resulted in Mr Campbell’s weight falling from 148kg to about 81kg.
