Gynaecologist who ‘mutilated’ women faces inquiry in Australia
Women who went to Dr Emil Gayed for treatment sustained infections, psychological trauma and other complications during sometimes needless operations
Health authorities in Australia have launched an investigation into Dr Emil Shawky Gayed, a disgraced gynaecologist who mutilated and performed unnecessary operations on dozens of women over decades – including one woman who died after he failed to administer appropriate treatment.
The New South Wales (NSW) Department of Health has announced that it has set up an independent special counsel investigation and a dedicated telephone line at each of the hospitals where the surgeon worked. It encouraged women affected by Gayed – who has been banned from practising for three years – to get in touch.
Christy Smith was 20 when, in July 2002, Gayed allegedly stitched up tears in her vagina after childbirth. When she went to a general practitioner for a routine Pap smear a few months later, Smith mentioned to her that she had not been able to have sex since giving birth.
I still feel mutilated
“When she checked me out, she was horrified,” Smith said. “She said Gayed had stitched my vagina almost shut. She couldn’t even give me a Pap smear … she was really disgusted, and she even drew a picture of it for me, of how it looked. She said I needed to go see a gynaecologist and get it fixed. I still feel mutilated.”
Smith had corrective surgery with a specialist.
What has become a burgeoning public health scandal in Australia’s most populous state follows an investigation by Guardian Australia into the conduct of Gayed at one of the hospitals where he worked in the town of Taree, 310km (190 miles) north of Sydney.
Doctors accused of wrongly diagnosing hundreds with black lung disease
Dozens of women in and around the mid-north NSW coastal town have sustained infections, psychological trauma and other complications because of treatment they received from Gayed at the Manning Rural Referral hospital.