Indian-Origin Doctor Says "Completely Forgot" Deaths Linked To His Surgeries

Nearly two decades after the Bundaberg scandal, Indian-origin surgeon Jayant Patel has brushed aside the events that once made him one of Australia's most infamous medical figures. 

Confronted in the United States by a reporter for The Australian, his first public comment since 2015, the 75-year-old responded with a striking level of detachment.

"It was ages ago, and I completely forgot about it, and I'm beyond that," he told the journalist in Portland, Oregon. He added, "That's done, that's history ... I don't react to stupid criticisms, I'm (moved) on with my life. I'm fine."

Patel was once at the centre of an explosive medical and legal storm. Staff at Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, where he worked from 2003 to 2005, accused him of botched surgeries, misdiagnoses, and dangerously careless methods. 

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The volume of complaints, combined with a series of deaths and severe complications, led to the public dubbing him "Doctor Death".

US authorities arrested Patel in 2008, and he was extradited to Australia. In 2010 he was convicted of manslaughter over three patient deaths and sentenced to seven years behind bars. He was also found guilty of causing harm to a fourth patient. Two years later, Australia's highest court overturned the convictions, and by 2013 prosecutors dropped the remaining charges. Patel subsequently left Australia and resettled in the United States.

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Born and trained initially in India, with further medical qualifications in the US, Patel had faced previous disciplinary issues from New York and Oregon long before his arrival in Australia. 

He reportedly lives in a four-bedroom brick home in the US with his wife, Kishoree, who is also a doctor. Local reports describe him driving a white Lexus RX L and living in a property with three garages. When confronted about his past, the outlet noted that Patel appeared "detached and unaffected", offering little reflection on the trauma experienced by his former patients or their families.