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'Shaik to Blame for Condition' |
| Publication |
The Star |
| Date | 2009-03-14 |
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Web Link |
Schabir Shaik, Zuma's erstwhile financial adviser, was jailed in 2005 for 15
years for corruption and fraud.
He was released on medical parole 12 days ago after serving less than three
years of his sentence - igniting a storm of controversy over whether he was
getting preferential treatment from the authorities.
Now, a prominent Durban doctor has thrown another
cat among the pigeons in a
strong letter to Weekend Argus arguing that someone suffering from resistant
hypertension should not have had to be admitted to hospital provided "the
patient is co-operative"
and does "nothing to sabotage his own
health *1".
Dr L I Robertson at the Parklands Medical Centre in Overport, Durban, said he
believed Shaik's condition should never have reached the point where he was
admitted to hospital for hypertension.
"As a practising doctor for more than 50 years I have treated about 10 000
patients with hypertension - many with a resistant or refectory form of the
disease - and have never had to admit one
as the disorder is easily managed
in an outpatient setting, provided the patient is co-operative,
takes the prescribed medication, loses weight,
stops smoking, reduces alcohol and fat intake *2 and does
nothing to sabotage his own health," Robertson wrote.
There have been reports Shaik smoked while in hospital.
When contacted on Friday, Robertson declined to comment on whether he suspected
Shaik had sabotaged his own health, but in his letter he said he
suspected the truth would emerge
on whether Shaik co-operated with his physicians.
Robertson has also asked who referred Shaik to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central
Hospital because admissions were to the hospital were done only on a referral
basis.
Robertson came out in strong defence of his colleague, Professor D P "Wysie"
Naidoo, the head of the hospital's cardiology unit, who has been barred from
speaking to the media.
Naidoo is being investigated by the Health Professions Council of South Africa
since he revealed earlier this week that he had discharged Shaik in November
last year, but Shaik was kept in hospital by the Department of Correctional
Services.
It was then found that in September 2008 Naidoo had recommended Shaik be
considered for medical parole because prison authorities were reluctant to
manage him at the prison hospital.
"I don't know the other practitioners involved in his (Shaik's) prolonged stay,
but I write in defence of my friend Professor D P "Wysie" Naidoo -
a brilliant physician and an honourable man
- who had thrust upon him *3
an unwarranted and purely political
situation," Robertson wrote.
Health Professions Council of South Africa spokeswoman Bertha Peters-Scheepers
said their probe should be concluded in
three weeks, and they would allow the doctors involved to
give their sides of the story, and would assess whether there was any
external influence and if
the practitioners were guilty of unprofessional
conduct.
With acknowledgements to The Star.