BACKGROUND: From a previous of this Blog: (November 27, 2025): "Dr. Sandie Bohin: Guernsey: The outlandish political attack on Guernsey Deputy Gavin St Pier for while-heartedly going to bat for numerous families on the island who had complained about the health care they had received from their health system and doctor (Dr. Sandie Bohin) who has since resigned her post - and had given 'expert' evidence for the prosecution against neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, which is now being questioned by her lawyer - has fortunately failed, as Gavin St Pier's fellow deputies have voted against suspending him for 25 days without pay. HL: The story is reported by BBC News Guernsey Political ReporterJohn Fernandez. Quote of the day: (Vice-President Sally Rochester) "I cannot agree that disclosing complaints to journalists was incompatible with the duty to act impartially or in the public interest."
"https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/preview/120008354894645705/8452329133261567225
-------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Before the debate, 17 signatories from the pressure group 'Families for Cultural Change' argued in an open letter that penalising Deputy Gavin St Pier for speaking to the journalist about healthcare safeguarding concerns would set a dangerous precedent. They raised serious allegations against the Medical Specialist Group and the level of care their children received. Speaking to ITV News anonymously, one parent said they felt "medically gaslit" and is highlighting their story "out of desperation". The group said: "As families, we approached Deputy St Pier as an elected representative with the power to highlight this issue. "We did so of our own volition and out of desperation. Our voices were suppressed or silenced.
————————————————————
"STORY: "Medically gaslit': Families say debate to suspend senior Guernsey politician was a 'smear campaign.' published by ITV News (no reporter attribution) on November 27, 2025.
Families say the debate held to suspend Guernsey's Deputy Chief Minister was a "smear campaign being mounted against someone challenging medical and health services".
The debate saw Deputy St Pier avoid suspension after breaking the States' Code of Conduct for talking with a national newspaper reporter about issues surrounding Dr Sandie Bohin.
Before the debate, 17 signatories from the pressure group 'Families for Cultural Change' argued in an open letter that penalising Deputy Gavin St Pier for speaking to the journalist about healthcare safeguarding concerns would set a dangerous precedent.
They raised serious allegations against the Medical Specialist Group and the level of care their children received.
Speaking to ITV News anonymously, one parent said they felt "medically gaslit" and is highlighting their story "out of desperation".
The group said: "As families, we approached Deputy St Pier as an elected representative with the power to highlight this issue.
"We did so of our own volition and out of desperation. Our voices were suppressed or silenced."
The anonymous parent added: "Our story should have been quite straightforward because my baby was in utero [in the womb] and she was diagnosed with a structural heart anomaly.
"A very clear plan was set out that we were to look out for symptoms.
"When my baby was three months old, we highlighted and spoke at length about these symptoms that had started to show themselves."
But the family later learned that notes suggested their baby was "fantastic, with no symptoms at all".
The parent continued: "Later on, I had allegations that I was difficult to deal with because I was fighting for a referral.
"After a CT scan in Southampton, we found that our daughter did have an issue with her heart. It was actually worse than we thought it would be.
"So in August of 2021, our daughter was operated on in Southampton."
However, the parent explains that whilst returning to Guernsey, their child's breathing worsened.Listen to the baby crying and struggling for breath. Warning: Some may find this audio distressing.
The parent explained: "We felt very strongly that the symptoms really just hadn't abated. So we reported that to Dr Sandie Bohin and she claimed, this was in October, that all of our daughter's symptoms were down to a case of respiratory virus (RSV)."
However, the family did not believe this and kept pushing for more answers.
The parent added: "I was so tired of being gaslit.
"Every time I would take her to the doctor's or to A&E, I would be told she had croup, maybe she had Covid. We were sticking the swabs up her nose, and we knew this had nothing to do with Covid."
The family's worries were confirmed as it was eventually discovered that the baby needed further surgery, following an earlier procedure.
The parent said: "She was originally cut around her ribs, and they went in to the side, but this time they had to cut the front to do a full sternotomy, open up her chest.
"You're so vulnerable. You've got a tiny child, and you know what you're saying, and you've got somebody doubting these symptoms."
After discovering they were correct about their child's symptoms, the parents submitted a complaint to Guernsey's Medical Specialist Group [MSG], which employs Dr Bohin and it was partially upheld.
ITV News has put the parent's claims to the Medical Specialist Group and Dr Bohin, but both said they cannot comment on individual cases.
The States' independent Commissioner for Standards, Dr Melissa McCullough, says independent reviews "have consistently found no wrongdoing related to Dr Bohin's clinical judgement or her actions".
However, more widely, a Health and Social Care report published several years ago found that there is a bias against families who are inclined to seek second opinions and alternative approaches.
In all, 30 parents have come forward to Deputy St Pier, but many say they have not officially complained because they are worried about future support on an island with no other health providers.
Seven of the families ITV News has spoken to shared their concerns about the complaint process itself, claiming it is not uniform for every case and some are not addressed appropriately.
Dr Steve Evans, Chair of the Medical Specialist Group, said this criticism is "unfair".
He added: "We have a joint complaint policy with HSC [Health and Social Care] and MSG, there's a robust process with deadlines, and there's a right of appeal if people are unhappy with the outcome.
"I think in the cases where we've received complaints, they've been investigated thoroughly, appropriately and fairly.
"I think the other thing you have to consider is that if a patient approaches a deputy or a third party or the media, they can share as many details as they want to, whereas as professionals we are duty-bound by a code of confidentiality."
All complaints are dealt with through the MSG and HSC itself; an independent body is only brought in if a complaint decision is appealed after those same organisations decide there are grounds for it.
The parent continued: "It's made me terrified by the thought that my children might end up in that system again.
"We don't have any contact with any paediatricians here.
"We only have contact with Great Ormond Street. And we will do so until my child is at least 18 and possibly longer."
Deputy St Pier said he feels a duty to voice families' concerns.
He explained: "The most significant thing to me is the people I am seeking to represent, which is a largely growing number of families who have had poor experiences of engaging with the health care system and a feeling of not being listened to.
"They have nobody to represent their interest or point of view - that is the most important part of this story that keeps getting forgotten."
He added why he thinks people are scared to complain: "I mean it's easy to point fingers at individuals or at individual organisations, but we need to recognise that this is probably a deep cultural and systemic issue."
When Deputy St Pier is asked whether he believes the issue is continuing and if the organisation has learnt from what has happened, he responded: "No it's not, it's very much ongoing.
"Some of it is historic and indeed watching the social media flurry driven by all the white noise around my Code of Conduct case means I am seeing names and stories that I don't recognise, so there is more out there that I don't know about."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
