Parents in $ 200,000 settlement with ‘Dr Death

Jayant Patel

WASHINGTON: The parents of a 3-year-old American boy, who died after being operated on by Indian-origin doctor Jayant Patel, nicknamed 'Dr Death', have agreed to an out of court settlement for USD 200,000.

According to the lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court by the parents, Patel, who is facing the charges of manslaughter and negligence in Australia for the death of 17 patients, had perforated the boy's bowel while attempting to place a feeding tube inside of him on February 5, 1999, The Oregonian newspaper reported.

He opened the boy up again the next day and found the perforation. The boy died a painful death by septic shock eight days later, the newspaper reported.

Before going to Australia Patel was working for Kaiser Permanente in Portland. He performed the surgeries on the boy at another hospital-OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

The boy's parents didn't file suit against Patel for seven years as they didn't learn the reason for their son's death until April 15, 2005, when The Oregonian published the first of a series of articles about growing concern over Patel's work.

The suit claimed that Kaiser, Patel and OHSU misled the McClellans by saying their son had developed a post-operative infection of unknown origin and originally sought USD 1.55 million in their suit against all three.

Ana Maria and Matthew McClellan signed a confidentiality agreement that prevents them to discuss the settlement with others.