Hep C doctor did not realise danger, court told

A disgraced, drug-addicted anaesthetist who infected 55 patients with hepatitis C did not realise his contaminated needles were being used on patients, a court has heard.

James Latham Peters, 63, has pleaded guilty to 55 counts of negligently causing serious injury to the women patients by infecting them with the potentially deadly blood disease while they underwent pregnancy terminations at the Croydon Day Surgery between June 2008 and November 2009.

His defence barrister John Dickinson, SC, told a pre-sentence plea hearing in Victoria's Supreme Court on Tuesday that after injecting himself in private with the opioid he was addicted to, fentanyl, Peters failed to realise the same syringe which contained "blowback", or his contaminated blood, was then used on the patients.

"At no stage of what he did did he intend to use the same syringe, but he did," Mr Dickinson said.

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He said Peters became exposed to drugs after he married his second wife in 1991. By the mid-90s he was "hopelessly addicted".

Despite being suspended by the now defunct medical board of Victoria at his own request in 1996, Mr Dickinson described it as "mind-boggling" that an addict would then be allowed to go back to work where he would be put in a situation where he would have easy access to the drug he was addicted to.

"It was catastrophe waiting to happen, which did eventuate. It is a little bit like putting a sugar-addicted child in a candy store and saying 'behave yourself'," he said.

Peters had a complete relapse after his wife died at the age of 38 in 2003, the court said.

He was diagnosed in 2005 with cancer, which required drastic treatment, and currently suffered from not only his opiate dependency, but also emphysema, asthma and bronchitis. His client also suspected he was showing signs of early onset Alzheimer's, the court heard.

Originally posted here:
Hep C doctor did not realise danger, court told