PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The initial indifference of the The Hospital for Sick Children to the dangers posed to innocent parents by its infamous Motherisk program brings to mind the hospital's failure to take action against the former doctor Charles Smith in spite of his colleagues concerns over the harm he was posing to patients and the risk he posed to the reputation of the hospital and its pathology staff - as is illustrating in this report of the proceedings of the Inquiry written by then Globe and Mail Justice reporter Kirk Makin.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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"Doctors at Toronto's Hospital for Sick
Children sounded internal alarms more than a decade ago that pathologist
Charles Smith was misdiagnosing diseases and precipitating needless
operations, the Goudge commission was told yesterday. In a day of testimony that provided candid
insights into stresses, rivalries and clashing philosophies within the
hospital, two former colleagues testified that some of Dr. Smith's
mistakes had grave consequences for young patients. One little girl's cancer spread to other
organs because Dr. Smith had misdiagnosed a kidney tumour as benign. A
portion of another girl's intestine was removed in error after Dr. Smith
misjudged biopsy results. The horror stories were supplied by Ernest
Cutz, an internationally recognized expert in sudden infant death
syndrome, and by Glenn Taylor, director of the hospital's pathology
division. Dr. Taylor testified that in another case,
Dr. Smith found that a growth on a child's face was benign. When it
turned out to be malignant, a second surgery had to be scheduled to
insert a "port" through which chemotherapy drugs could be administered. Mr. Justice Stephen Goudge is probing how
Dr. Smith rose to become a renowned pediatric pathologist despite making
errors that caused a string of wrongful charges and convictions. Dr. Cutz said yesterday that Dr. Smith sometimes saw potential foul play in deaths where the real cause was obviously innocent. In one such case, he said a child had
strangled on the cord of a Venetian blind left too close to its crib.
Dr. Smith called the death suspicious and suggested the parents be
looked at closely. "I found it quite ridiculous, knowing this was a
recognized hazard, which had been documented in the literature, and even
on television documentaries," Dr. Cutz said. In another case, Dr. Cutz said, a child
died after taking a small dose of cough medicine containing an
ingredient that some children cannot metabolize properly. He said Dr.
Smith theorized that a sibling might have given the child an overdose. Dr. Cutz revealed that he had misgivings
about Dr. Smith as far back as 1991, when Dr. Smith pushed hard to have a
pediatric forensic unit created at the hospital as an adjunct to the
chief coroner's office. "I didn't think he had the appropriate training
to do these kinds of cases," Dr. Cutz testified.........Ms. McAleer (Commission counsel) filed a letter written in 1999
by Laurence Becker, director of the pathology division, to chief
coroner James Young. Dr. Becker - who has since died - wrote that he
intended to sever the hospital's relationship with the chief coroner's
office. "The Hospital for Sick Children has
determined there is significant risk to the reputation of the Hospital
and its pathology staff," Dr. Becker wrote in the letter, which was
apparently never delivered. Dr. Becker also expressed discontent with a
police mindset that was resulting in the hounding of innocent parents
whose children had obviously died of natural causes."
