Top British sex change doctor faces damages claims

As reported in the Guardian

The General Medical Council (GMC) today declared that the UK's top expert on transsexualism inappropriately rushed patients into sex changing treatments.

Its inquiry into the consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid found that he gave five patients hormones too soon and referred them for genital surgery without an adequate assessment of their health or proof that they were transsexuals.

The GMC disciplinary panel said Dr Reid's treatment of the patients, referred to only as B, C, D, E and F, was inappropriate, not in their best interests and in breach of international guidelines on the treatment of transsexuals.

The panel is due to announce later this week whether the findings amount to serious professional misconduct. If Dr Reid is found guilty, he could face being struck off the medical register.

The panel chairman, John Shaw, said: "The panel has concluded that the facts would not be insufficient to support a finding of serious professional misconduct."

Dr Reid was found to have prescribed hormones to Patient B despite lacking any evidence to corroborate that she was transsexual. She told the inquiry she was severely depressed and felt trapped in gender limbo.

The gender psychiatrist was found to have given Patient C, a convicted paedophile, hormones and referred him for surgery too quickly and without evidence that he was truly transsexual. Patient C - a male-to-female transsexual who has reverted to living as a man - told the inquiry that he wanted his sex change reversed.

Dr Reid was found to have prescribed Patient D male hormones against the advice in a second opinion provided by another psychiatrist. The patient, who wanted to change sex in order to fulfil a delusion that she was turning into Jesus, only avoided surgery to remove both her breasts because she was sectioned and diagnosed with manic depression. She told the inquiry she was never transsexual and claimed she had been misdiagnosed by Dr Reid.

The disciplinary panel determined that Dr Reid also prescribed patients E and F with hormones too quickly and without an adequate assessment of their health or proof that they were transsexuals.

He was also found to have repeatedly breached guidelines set by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (IGDA) - regarded as the minimum standards for the treatment of transsexuals.

The findings came as it emerged that Dr Reid now faces a possible multimillion pound claim for damages from six of his former patients who allege he provided them with "rushed and negligent treatment".

One of the six patients was misdiagnosed by the consultant psychiatrist, and the others were fast-tracked into sex-changing treatments in breach of medical guidance, the solicitor handling the proposed group claim, Peter Maughan, alleged today.

Three of the six patients are also involved in the separate GMC inquiry into Dr Reid, which will rule this week upon whether he is guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Mr Maughan said an overall figure for claimed damages had yet to be estimated. He said: "Some lives have been completely destroyed. It's hard to put a figure on that."

But one patient involved in the action, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she was looking for compensation in the region of £500,000 for alleged physical and psychological harm caused by undergoing genital surgery and sex hormone treatment.

Another of the patients, Claudia, said she was given sex-changing hormones and referred for genital surgery after a single appointment with Dr Reid. She claimed she was "rushed" into a sex change and that it had been "devastating" for her.

Claudia, whose case was not investigated by the GMC, added that she welcomed the disciplinary panel's findings today.

She said: "I'm delighted that, after this lengthy delay, the GMC has finally recognised what this man [Dr Reid] was up to. Thank God."

Mr Maughan said no court proceedings had yet been issued but the particulars of the claims and counsels' advice were ready.

A spokeswoman for the Medical Defence Union, which is representing Dr Reid, said it could not comment on the planned legal action against him.

The HBIGDA guidelines are "flexible directions", which are not legally binding and may be modified to suit individual patients. But they are widely regarded by doctors as the minimum standards of care patients should receive.

Dr Reid's defence team claims the complaint against him is motivated by a history of bad blood between him and psychiatrists at the main NHS gender clinic at Charing Cross hospital, west London, who brought the case to the GMC. His QC told the hearing that many patients dissatisfied with Charing Cross had switched to seeing Dr Reid.

Dr Reid also has wide support among the transsexual community. A blog set up by some of his former patients - many of whom call him "Uncle Russell" - has received hundreds of messages of support.

State suspends psychiatrist suspected of having sex with patient

As seen in the Lansing State Journal

The state has temporarily suspended the medical license of a Detroit-area psychiatrist suspected of having a sexual relationship with a patient, Attorney General Mike Cox said.

Albert Bayer of Farmington Hills is also suspected of over-prescribing narcotics to the same patient, Cox said in a news release.

A call to a Farmington Hills telephone listing for an Albert Bayer went unanswered Thursday evening.

Cox filed a complaint against Bayer in December with the state Department of Community Health's Bureau of Health Professions, which investigated the allegations against the psychiatrist.

"It is disturbing that a doctor would abuse the trust of patients who seek his medical assistance," Cox said. "After receiving the evidence against Dr. Bayer, my office has concluded that the public would be at risk if he were to continue practicing medicine."

Cox said his office will request "severe" sanctions against Bayer.

A reader comment at the newspaper website noted the following:

Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, 18 U.S.C. § 242. This provision makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

For the purpose of Section 242, acts under "color of law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official's lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim.

The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.( The Mich. Dept. of civl rights and the "E.E.O.C" should take special note of this)

Woman wanted sex change 'to become Christ'

Hearings continue in the matter of the now infamous Psychiatrist Russell Reid. As reported in the Guardian

A former patient of the UK's best-known expert on transsexualism wanted a sex change in order to fulfil her delusion that she was Jesus, an inquiry heard today.

The woman, identified only as patient D, told the General Medical Council disciplinary panel that consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid had failed to recognise that she was suffering from manic depression when he gave her sex changing hormones and referred her for surgery to remove both her breasts.

Patient D told the hearing she had never been transsexual and considered it "lucky" that she was detained in a psychiatric hospital just before the operation was due to go ahead.

She said: "I think I should have been offered counselling and the possibility that it [my problem] was something else [other than transsexualism] should have been considered further."

The inquiry heard that she first saw Dr Reid in March 1996 after watching a TV programme about transsexualism, which convinced her this was the reason for her history of depression.

Dr Reid has admitted that he prescribed her with male hormones on her second appointment despite a second opinion from another psychiatrist warning that treatment should be delayed, pending further psychiatric assessment.

The second psychiatrist, Dr Dalrymple, noted there were discrepancies in her story and advised she should not receive hormones until it was clear her desire to change sex was not just a reaction to watching the TV programme.

Patient D told the hearing that by the summer of 1996 she was exhibiting symptoms of mania, including religious delusions.

Dr Reid recorded that patient D was "doing well" and "feeling better and happier", but she told the hearing "the reality was that I was in a mess".

By the time of her final appointment with Dr Reid she believed she was "communicating with people psychically", could start and stop trains with her mind, and had the power to cure people's poor eyesight.

Patient D told the hearing she thought she was turning into Jesus and that becoming a man would complete that transformation.

"I believed I was becoming Jesus, which I understand is common in manic depression, and having the sex change was part of that," she said.

Just days after Dr Reid said he was referring her for a bilateral mastectomy to remove her breasts, patient D was found wandering the streets naked and was subsequently sectioned.

Doctors at the local psychiatric hospital said she believed she was possessed by various spirits including that of her grandfather, and diagnosed her with manic depression. After treatment she no longer wished to change sex.

The inquiry heard that patient D had been treated with Prozac prior to seeing Dr Reid. Her family repeatedly expressed their concern to Dr Reid about the speed of her diagnosis and treatment, warning that she had previously convinced an eye specialist that she needed glasses when she did not.

Patient D's father wrote to Dr Reid expressing his "shock and concern" at the pace of her treatment. He wrote: "It seems clear that accepted guidelines have been ignored. It is an understatement to say your diagnosis is rushed. The risk of it all being in vain is horrifying."

Dr Reid has admitted he failed to adequately assess patient D's mental and physical health prior to prescribing hormones. He has also admitted referring her for surgery before she had lived as a man for 12 months, as recommended by international standards of care for the treatment of transsexualism.

But he denies a charge of serious professional misconduct in relation to patient D and four other ex-patients. He also denies breaching the international standards of care and providing treatment not in the patients' best interests.

The hearing continues.