Fake or Fact -- Medical Expose`

Wed, Aug 23rd 2017 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

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Rotarian Hamish Tait spoke to the Club about Fake or Fact.

Medical imposters seem to be topical at the moment with the TV series "Trust Me" and "Quacks". History is littered with medical imposters. After graduating, Hamish was working at Greenock Royal Infirmary. There was a Registrar who claimed to be a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, but his surgical skills gave cause for concern and it turned out that he had no such qualification.

James Barry, an Army Surgeon in the early 19th century, had been a popular and very efficient officer with a distinguished career. But Dr Barry had been born Margaret Ann Bulkley! He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, having adopted a male persona, but was really the first woman to study medicine having preceded Elizabeth Garret Anderson by some fifty years. He died in 1865 at the age of seventy three. In the house where he died his body was being prepared for the burial, but they discovered not only that "he" was a woman but at some time he has given birth to a child.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara was at various points in his life a surgeon, teacher, Navy Officer, assistant Prison Warden, lawyer, Hospital orderly, editor and a cancer researcher. During the Korean War, he assumed the identity of a Canadian , Dr Joseph Cyr and in l951 worked on the Destroyer Cayuga. He successfully performed surgery on the soldiers with the aid of his medical textbook, even extracting a bullet from someone's chest in a major operation. He save thirteen lives and was hailed a hero. He served two terms in prison for his exploits and died in l982 aged sixty one. Tony Curtis played him in the film, The Great Imposter in l960.

Levon Mkhitarian, born in the former Soviet State of Georgia. In 2010 he obtained provisional registration from the General Medical Council to practice under the status of foundation year one training He did not complete the year which meant he could not work as a locum. In 2013 the GMC were notified by the North West London Hospitals Trust that Levon has perpetrated an email from a person supposedly from the GMC that he was fit for a role that he was applying for. They found out this person did not exist so he was suspended from the register in August 2013 and then struck off in 2014. He was eventually caught out when he started work at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent in April 2015. When the HR department tried to create a personal issue smart card it showed one had already been issued in that name with a different photograph. He was jailed for six years in 2015.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this very interesting talk and Rotarian Arthur Grifiths proposed the vote of thanks.