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KEM neurosurgeon faces third probe for using patients as guinea pigs

KEM hospital found Dr Goel guilty of not taking permission from the ethics committee for using a “non-scientific and bio-mechanically unproven” technique.

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After being found guilty of using his patients as guinea pigs, KEM’s neurosurgery head Dr Atul Goel is now being probed by the municipal commissioner in a third enquiry committee held by the BMC.

In September, the KEM hospital’s three-member committee found Dr Goel guilty of not taking permission from the ethics committee for using a “non-scientific and bio-mechanically unproven” technique to perform complex surgeries and making money off of it from unaware patients. The hospital later asked Sir JJ Hospital for a probe. The JJ-appointed committee that was headed by Dr S Nanandwar also found Dr Goel guilty in its probe this month.

A source from KEM hospital said, “The commissioner has asked for additional information regarding Dr Goel’s case. Apart from the KEM and Sir JJ hospital’s report on Dr Goel, the commissioner has asked for details like how many operations were performed by him after January 2010, the name and addresses of the patients on whom Dr Goel operated, how many got better and how many suffered because of Dr Goel’s new technique, and so on.”

Dr Goel developed a device called Goel cervical facet, and a new method for surgery of cervical spondylosis. He faces charges for using poor patients to try his device to treat cervical spondylosis without approval from the ethics committee. He has also been accused of publishing forged data on his research paper in the June issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, to establish his device.

Dr Goel allegedly forced patients to pay Rs30,000 for the device to the General Surgical Company directly. A conventional device costs just Rs5,000.

While the two committees have already found Dr Goel guilty, the doctor continues to practice at KEM Hospital instead of being suspended. Other doctors at KEM are unhappy with Dr Goel continuing to practice. “He has been found to be guilty by two committees. What are the authorities waiting for? It is proven that he didn’t have permission for the surgery from the ethics committee, he used the patients, and made money too. Is this the kind of example the authorities want to set? ” said one of the doctors from the hospital.

On the matter of suspension, Kumar said, “We don’t require his suspension. He is not interfering in the inquiry.”

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