Student’s death: doctor gets permanent name suppression

AUCKLAND: A doctor’s name will be kept secret after concerns were raised about the care given to a young medical student dying of meningococcal disease.

Zachary Gravatt died on July 8, 2009, hours after heading to his GP with fevers, rigours, headaches and groin pain.

The 22yearold was admitted to Auckland City Hospital at 1.43pm, and despite quickly deteriorating over the afternoon he was not transferred to the department of critical care medicine until 6.40pm.

He died 35 minutes later of septicaemia from the Cstrain meningococcal bacteria.

Two inquests were held over his death at Auckland City Hospital after he was admitted on suspicion he had swine flu.

The second inquest, held in October 2018, was ordered by Deputy Solicitorgeneral Virginia Hardy after an anonymous letter which claimed to be from an Auckland District Health Board staff member alleged a ‘‘coverup’’.

In June, the High Court heard a judicial review and the applications of two doctors associated with Mr Gravatt’s care who wished to have their names permanently suppressed.

One of the doctors involved had their name suppressed by High Court Judge Paul Davison.

The other doctor’s submission for name suppression was not accepted because they provided appropriate care.

‘‘The fact that [he] was involved in providing appropriate and competent care and treatment of Zachary in July 2009, could not be damaging to his reputation,’’ the judge said.

The entire contents of the anonymous letter which revealed the ‘‘coverup’’ have also been suppressed.

During the second inquest, the oncall doctor’s evidence was that he was stuck in traffic when attempting to return from a Ponsonby restaurant to hospital to treat Mr Gravatt.

It was a claim a coroner later said had ‘‘no support for the proposition’’. When coroner Morag McDowell released her findings in April, she said the doctor’s evidence about being ‘‘dead stopped’’ in traffic was unfounded.

The oncall doctor and a colleague from the hospital were at a Japanese restaurant in Ponsonby when he received the first call about Mr Gravatt’s worsening condition.

The inquest heard the call ended at 6.14pm, 61 minutes before Gravatt died.

The coroner also noted a nurse had made a flippant comment about the doctor needing to finish dessert.

However, ‘‘there is no evidence that this was the actual reason for any delay in his return to the hospital’’.

But she found that even if the doctor had returned to the hospital sooner, it would have been unlikely to have changed the outcome for Mr Gravatt.

The doctor was granted name suppression due to the potential for unfair or unsubstantiated prejudice to the doctors’ reputation.