A top professor accidentally revealed details of a
A top professor accidentally revealed details of a teenage girl victim of mad cow disease which led to her house being besieged by the media, the GMC heard today.
Peter Behan told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that he was treating a 15-year-old who was suspected of suffering from a new strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
He also discussed the case while giving evidence at the High Court, the hearing was told.
It led to reporters tracking down the girl’s address before publicly naming her in Sunday newspapers.
Now Professor Behan has hauled before the GMC’s disciplinary committee on a charge of serious professional misconduct.
The scandal erupted after Professor Behan was interviewed for a Newsnight programme in April 1996.
It came just days after he revealed the girl’s illness at the High Court while giving evidence as an expert witness in the case of four other CJD victims.
Professor Behan was consultant neurologist at the Institute of Neurological Sciences at Southern General NHS Hospital in Glasgow.
He told how the teenager had come to the unit with mild psychiatric problems but her condition had rapidly deteriorated until she had visual and auditory hallucinations.
Andrew Collinder QC, for the GMC, said: ‘He gave particulars of the patient’s sex, her age, and the fact that she was a present patient of his.
‘Those were significant facts to help in the identification of patient ‘A’.
‘During the course of the Newsnight programme he again revealed that he was treating a 15 year-old patient who was suspected of suffering from a new strain of CJD.
‘He described her history, symptoms and prognosis.
By saying what he did in court and to the BBC, he unnecessarily disclosed information about Miss A without her consent or that of her parents.
‘He provided information without good cause that enabled her identity to be discovered by the media.
‘The media did indeed get hold of the story and by June 1996 had identified Miss A by name and the address where she lived.
‘The media attended her address.
The next day the story appeared in the national press, her name being given.
‘
In a letter to the GMC, Professor Behan admitted ‘innocently and unwittingly’ helping the media to find the girl, and added: ‘I bitterly regret having given answers in the way I did.
‘
The committee also heard that Professor Behan later used information from a colleague’s thesis in an article he later published.
He denies one charge of serious professional misconduct.
The hearing continues.
ends
addCJD.
