By Charlotte Grieve
Sisters Temperance Gollan and Morgan Scivyer (holding her two-year-old son Zale Scivyer) with a photo of their mother Kim GollanCredit:Kate Geraghty
When Kim Gollan woke from her operation with celebrity surgeon Munjed Al Muderis in August 2016, she knew something was not right. She was in excruciating pain and repeatedly asked her medical team for assistance, according to her family.
But instead of investigating the cause of her pain, she was instructed to walk and bear weight on her legs — causing her to cry, scream and crawl on all fours. Later, it turned out two of her bones were fractured.
What was supposed to be a routine double knee replacement ended up becoming a six-year journey of agonising pain, further surgeries, hospitalisations, chronic infections and sepsis.
Kim Gollan died on June 10 this year, aged 58. There was no coroners’ report into her death and no investigation that links her death with Al Muderis’ treatment. The Age and Herald are not suggesting Al Muderis is to blame for her death.
A joint investigation by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes revealed a string of allegations against Al Muderis last month, including poor post-operative care, infection management and high-pressure sales tactics. Since publication, more than two dozen additional patients have come forward tell fresh stories about their surgeries completed by Al Muderis, not only for osseointegration but hip and knee procedures. The experiences include downplayed infections, missed fractures, botched surgeries and ignored requests for help.
Gollan sued Al Muderis for medical negligence and the matter settled outside court in 2020 under confidential terms that were finalised the following year. But her daughters Temperance and Morgan still have questions about the complications she suffered and Al Muderis’ delay in responding to her concerns about pain and infection.
“It was horrific,” says Temperance Gollan. “At the end she didn’t even know where she was or who I was. It ripped our mother away piece by piece. No other person should have years of pain like what she had.”
Al Muderis declined to comment citing patient confidentiality.
The NSW regulator, the Health Care Complaints Commission, said it has received “complaints regarding Dr Al Muderis and is continuing its formal inquiries” but would not comment further. The national health regulator, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority (AHPRA), has not announced any investigation into Al Muderis.
Rehab specialist Saul Geffen is calling for a regulatory investigation of Al Muderis’ clinic.Credit:Glenn Hunt
Al Muderis has built a significant reputation as a surgeon, and for his treatment of amputees, since arriving in Australia from Iraq in 1999. He was awarded NSW Australian of the Year in 2020 and praised by Prince Harry.
Rehabilitation specialist Saul Geffen says potential conflicts of interest must be explored regarding Al Muderis’ ownership of medical implants. He wants regulators to audit 200 consecutive patients and publish the results.
Geffen has treated six of Al Muderis’ patients. “All are unhappy,” he says. “I have personally seen multiple problems: Chronic wound infections, chronic pain, disfigurement, and patients have reported they feel dissatisfied with follow-up.”
‘Routine procedure’
The Gollan family home at Gwandalan, on the NSW central coast, still has traces of Kim’s final years — handrails in the bathroom, a lowered kitchen bench for the wheelchair, ramps to the garden where the former nurse grew vegetables.
Previously, the family lived in Kellyville, but that home was sold in December 2020 when Kim could no longer climb the stairs.
This new house was purpose-built to cater for her disability, with a driveway wide enough for an ambulance. “The medics joked that they loved our house,” says Temperance.
When Temperance, now 24 and studying law, heard Al Muderis say on 60 Minutes last month that “I’m sure you have spoken to most, if not all the disgruntled patients”, her grief turned to anger.
Through tears, she wrote to The Age and Herald, detailing her family’s “horrific” experience. “Mum was a fighter,” she says. “Now it’s our turn to fight for her.”
Her sister Morgan Scivyer, 31, was born with cystic fibrosis, and is aware how hard their mother fought for her rights. Their family’s protest outside Parliament House in Canberra in 2017 helped ensure the life-saving cystic fibrosis medication Orkambi was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Now Morgan is railing for her mother.
The Gollans travelled to Canberra in 2017 to advocate for greater funding for cystic fibrosis medications.Credit:Temperance Gollan
“Mum always hoped it would get better,” Scivyer said. “It was just five, six years of continual decline. The doctors didn’t listen to her.”
Before the surgery with Al Muderis, Gollan worked three to four night-shifts each week at her local hospital. She was responsible for most of the house cleaning, drove a hot-pink car and would regularly travel overseas with family.
Temperance says her health record was not perfect, she was overweight and had asthma, depression and dealt with pain from osteoarthritis in her knees. She previously suffered a broken pelvis. She occasionally used a walking aid, but was otherwise active.
Morgan Scivyer organised her wedding hastily when she thought her mother was about to die.Credit:Temperance Gollan
The aim of the double knee operation in 2016 was to get to her walking again, pain free. This is not the way it turned out. She came out of the initial treatment with broken bones in her leg. This was not immediately diagnosed.
During the subsequent medical negligence court case, one doctor provided an opinion that Gollan would not have developed a chronic bone infection, called osteomyelitis, and further complications had her stress fracture been diagnosed earlier. Another doctor said further investigations should have been arranged when “Gollan was not progressing post-operatively, in accordance with anticipated wellbeing for that stage”.
A third doctor said while the stress fracture “undoubtedly” contributed to her pain, pre-existing conditions were to blame for her immobility, pointing out she had gone to hospital for pain before the surgery. In contrast, an occupational therapist who examined Kim found she was independent before the surgery, but after it, “pain and physical limitations have impacted her ability to independently manage her [activities of daily living].”
“She spends her time on the computer, calls her sister and mother, watches TV and does light housework. She reported feeling lonely and missed her previous working and social life.”
‘She felt betrayed’
Kim had seen glowing media reports and billboards featuring Al Muderis, so when she decided to let him operate on her knees, she thought she was getting the best available treatment that would allow her to return to work.
“When she opted to get the knee reconstruction, the aim was to continue working for a few more years. She could have retired,” says Temperance. “But she wanted to keep helping people.”
She was told the recovery would be simple and, with the right rehab, she would be walking by the end of the year.
Over the next four months, Kim had to present to the emergency department multiple times because of her pain. The hospital staff told her the pain she claimed to be experiencing was too high for the procedure she had undertaken, and sent her home.
“They treated her like a liar after medication. She felt betrayed and [was] already in a lot of pain. She felt like she wasn’t being seen,” Temperance says.
Kim Gollan’s leg grew a lump following a double knee replacement with Al Muderis in 2016.Credit:Temperance Gollan
During this time, Kim was unable to get an appointment with Al Muderis. She was only able to see his registrar once and the physios told her to keep walking, triggering shooting pain that made her cry.
“I watched my mother, who is so proud, crawling up the stairs on her bottom and her hands… because she couldn’t walk,” Temperance says. “And no one listened.”
Eventually, Kim saw Al Muderis in December. By that time, there was a bump on her skin where the bone had bent out, her legs were swollen and disfigured. Al Muderis ordered an x-ray which found a stress fracture in her tibia.
“He came in crying, saying it was his fault, the break had happened during the initial surgery – it was a hairline fracture that no one had caught,” Temperance says. “Mum was like, ‘finally they believe me, so things will get better’. Instead, the nightmare just continued.”
Four days later, Al Muderis booked Kim in for another surgery to fix the break. Temperance and sister Morgan say he made light of the situation, saying she was getting a good deal.
A photo of Kim Gollan taken three weeks before she died at the age of 58.
“He joked once that we were lucky to be getting two for one surgery,” says Temperance. “That ended up being four for one.”
‘Screaming and crying’
Following the second surgery, her leg became red, itchy and so swollen it leaked fluid, Temperance says, but the family says their repeated concerns were again dismissed.
An infection was discovered following the second surgery which is an inherent risk in any operation.
An antibiotic rod was inserted into Kim’s bone, and later a metal cage installed around her leg, drilled into the bone. The cage’s technical name is an Ilizarov apparatus – an external fixation used by orthopaedic surgery to lengthen or reshape limb bones. By this time, Kim was suspicious about her care. She started collecting notes, writing diaries, and she engaged lawyers.
When the time came to remove the cage, Temperance says, Al Muderis began unscrewing the metal at his office, without offering pain management. “Mum was screaming and crying for them to stop before my father ultimately made them stop.”
For the next three years, Kim’s health deteriorated. She developed heart problems and sepsis which brought on a neurological condition where she had hallucinations and lost her memory.
“She didn’t even know who I was any more, she had gone septic so quickly,” Temperance says.
The family was given responsibility to make Kim’s medical decisions when she began dipping in and out of consciousness. But in January this year, Kim made one final decision.
Nurse and mother Kim Gollan died aged 58 in June 2022.
“She wanted to come home to die … She slowly lost her ability to eat, she couldn’t feed herself. By the end, she couldn’t roll over in bed, she couldn’t move. She needed oxygen and she was on an extremely high dose morphine just to deal with the pain,” Temperance says.
Temperance reduced her studies and moved in with her parents to care for her mother. She often slept on a mattress beside her mother’s bed so she was on hand to call an ambulance or soothe Kim’s panic attacks. “The mother-daughter relationship was flipped,” Temperance says.
“At the end, she didn’t even know where she was; it was horrible. And she didn’t deserve it. No one deserves that.”
In early June, Temperance called the family together, sensing her mother’s end was near.
“She died surrounded by us. We made sure she was as pain-free as possible.”
The Age and the Herald do not suggest Al Muderis is to blame for her death.
Now, Temperance is in her final semester of university studying a double degree in law and arts and has been accepted to study a master’s of history at the University of New England.
“It’s bittersweet because mum will never see me graduate, even though she was the one who was always pushing me, saying, ‘You can do it’.”
After lying low with family for three months, Temperance is now ready to tell her mother’s story. “We miss her every single day. She would want us to make sure no one else gets hurt,” she says.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
Source: Read Full Article
