'It's shocking': Victims speak as report into doctor handed to police

More than 200 pages of mistrust, negligence, systemtic failures and more than 50 women whose lives have been ruined.

They’re the repulsive findings against disgraced obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Emil Shawky Gayed.

“He was meant to help me; he’s ruined my life,” his former patient, Emma Strybis, told A Current Affair.

Dr Gayed botched an operation on Emma and removed one of her perfectly healthy ovaries.

“He’s just done irreparable damage to so many people, he needs to be held to account,” she said.

Dr Gayed performed surgery on Lynsday Heaton without detecting she was pregnant. To fix it, she said he personally paid for her to travel from Forster to Sydney to have an abortion when she was 20 weeks.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t think about the fact that I should have a toddler running around right now,” Lyndsay said.

“None of us should have ever gone through what we’ve all been through.”

Lee Elliott was given a hysterectomy without her consent, causing her to almost bleed to death on the operating table.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same person again,” Lee explained.

Throughout his career, 29 complaints were made to the Health Care Complaints Commission and Dr Gayed was prosected 11 times by medical authorities.

In 1996, he began working at Cooma Hospital, where 15 “adverse events” were reported to health bosses.

He resigned in 1999, and within the same month, started working at Taree’s Manning Base Hospital and Kempsey Hospital.

In 2001, he was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and banned from performing micro-surgery because of poor eyesight.

The next year, he quit Kempsey Hospital and took a job at Mona Vale Hospital.

It’s not a regional hospital. In fact, at the time, it was the major public hospital on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Before Dr Gayed was hired, the hospital did not check his registration or ask about his history. The report found he even came with a positive reference.

Dr Gayed would practice at Mona Vale Hospital for more than a year before anybody formally questioned his conduct.

In 2003, he was suspended, and then reinstated after a month long investigation.

But concerns continued to grow. By 2007, he was suspended again, and resigned the next day.

“He’s been able to go from one hospital to another and just keep hurting women,” Emma said.

“It’s shocking.”

Dr Gayed continued to work in Taree, where the report found he was “heavily relied upon” as an obstetrician in the regional town, and stafff became “desensitised” to his behaviour.

“We’re not a third world country,” Lee said.

“If they had done their job properly, this doctor would have been kicked in the butt years ago - he would never have operated on any of us and we’d be normal people today.”

Dr Nigel Lyons from NSW Health said the department let the victims down too.

“There’s no doubt that all the way, and closer to the end, there were signs that should have been picked up and were not picked up,” Dr Lyons said.

“We are very sorry the care wasn’t at the standard we would expect - we need to learn from this.”

Dr Lyons said medical staff who worked with Dr Gayed could also be investigated.

“I think there are some issues around whether or not enough action was taken at the time those issues occurred," he said.

The findings will now be handed to NSW Police.

For Dr Gayed’s victims, it is perhaps a dose of his own medicine.

“I hope they do a really thorough investigation into him and hit him with all they’ve got,” Emma said.

Read the full report online here.