He was a bit of an arrogrant jerk…
From ABC News:
The Director of Trauma Surgery at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital has been formally stood down, as the hospital investigates allegations of misconduct.
An external review of Professor Thomas Kossmann was commissioned when other doctors complained about his work.
He chose to stand down while the review was underway, but the hospital has now decided to formally suspend him, with pay. Professor Kossmann has been asked to respond to the draft report and denies any wrongdoing.
The review is looking into whether Professor Kossmann operated on road trauma patients unnecessarily.
The draft report does not suggest his work led to any patient deaths.
I know that guy! He tried to get involved in my case when I was admitted into the Alfred. This was back in 2002. To be honest, I thought that I’d be his patient as I was obviously a Trauma victim, but it was actually doctors from the Plastics team that had operated on me.
I remember him walking into my ward freaking early in the AM (why do all doctors do that? I’d like to sleep, dammit!) with his gaggle of interns following him, looking me over, doing important-looking things with a clipboard and being a bit of an arrogant, condescending jerk, really. I was pretty drugged up at the time, so I just looked at him bemused but afterwards I remember thinking “That man is why I’ll never marry a doctor”.
Anyway, he left and about half an hour later, the Plastics team turned up on their rounds. I told them that a doctor had already seen me. One of them snatched up the clipboard hanging off my bed, saw Kossmann’s name on it and started to get real pissed. He pointed at the sign above my bed saying ‘Chidade - Plastics’ and told his partner “Does that look like it says ‘Trauma’ to you?!”
His partner was just shaking his head. It seems like Kossmann made a habit of sticking his nose into other people’s business.
I was the show pony patient at the hospital. Everyone was amazed that I got to keep my arm after that accident. It was thanks to Michael Leung from Plastics. I think that Tam Dieu also assisted him. They’re both Plastics surgeons. Apparently Michael’s made a fair chunk of cash, travelling to conferences and presenting the operation he performed on me, heh.
Mind you, what they did to me probably counts as one of those “unneccessary operations” that they’re questioning Kossmann on but those “unneccessary operations”, where they took a risk and tried something different probably saved my arm so I ain’t complaining.
I wouldn’t begrudge Kossmann with performing extra operations if it improved quality of life. I do think he’s a bit of a jerk that needs to deflate his ego a bit, though. He didn’t do shit for my arm. But it was an impressive operation that was talked about and published all over the world. And he tries to take the glory away from the Plastics team?? Bugger off.
Didn’t see Kossmann again after that morning, funnily enough.