The attempted assassination of Eric Gassy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Tobin was working against my interests for months before her letter to the NSW Medical Board (MB);

Her complaint was opportunistic and disingenuous; 

She engineered my deregistration by lying to the MB;

She tried to have me killed in 1994 by having me infected with a virus which is not HIV but which causes AIDS in the presence of a second agent; this agent was being introduced into the water supply at my home in Oyster Bay and later at the gaol;

The virus is not detected by HIV-antibody tests;

In 2003 I nearly died of cytomegalovirus (CMV) encephalitis and pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) before I became aware that the gaol water contained an agent that was making me immunosuppressed by activating the virus; 

Denial of treatment with penicillin by the Prison Health Service (PHS) for neurosyphilis (NS) has caused me brain and neurological damage including loss of deep pain sensation; this resulted in a perforating ulcer of the foot which became infected and eventually led to partial amputation - this would not have happened if I had been treated with penicillin as requested in 2007; 

The surgeon cut off all the toes of my right foot with their skin making no provision for closing the wound with skin flaps fashioned from the skin surrounding the toes, leaving the wound at risk of becoming reinfected; 

The antibiotics I was being treated with were not effective against one of the infecting organisms. When a nurse practitioner (NP) prescribed an effective antibiotic, 2 weeks later this antibiotic was discontinued prematurely after my case was discussed with the surgeon;

I was unlawfully transferred against my will to a DCS-run forensic psychiatry unit despite not being mentally ill or a danger to myself or others, and without prior psychiatric assessment; 

The proposed guardianship application was an abuse of process aimed at forcing me to have treatment I did not want or need, such as further amputation.

Psychiatry at St George Hospital

At St George Hospital departments were grouped into ‘divisions’ with Psychiatry, Geriatrics and Rehabilitation forming the division of ‘Extended Care’. HF was the first divisional director I answered to as Acting Director of Psychiatry. In response to my lobbying, she modestly increased psychiatric services although her brief was to reduce services. I was with her at her farewell party when Owen Thomas, the General Manager (GM) came up to her and said ‘You were supposed to reduce psychiatric services!’ in a reproachful tone.

After HF’s departure I complained to the NSW Director of Mental Health (MH) about: the hospital’s plans to move psychiatry off campus against state MH policy (phase 5 of the hospital’s redevelopment plan showed a garden where the psychiatry unit stood); not advertising the vacant Director of Psychiatry position; debiting the MH budget more than $1,000 each month for electricity and maintenance, and to build the rehab pool.

Tobin and the aftermath

The hospital’s plan was eventually thwarted. In payback, Tobin was headhunted for Area Director of MH. She was known as the ‘dragon lady’ and was considered ‘not susceptible to Gassy’s charms’.  Area Director of MH and Director of Psychiatry (St George) are separate positions. Tobin was unprecedentedly appointed to both simultaneously and given her own Division of MH, thus answering directly to the GM and to herself as director of psychiatry at St George. 

When Tobin started the Dir. of Psychiatry position had been vacant since Dr Koller had been forced to resign by the GM 2 years previously. I had consequently been carrying double the usual patient load in that time. I worked till 7 pm most weekdays and was on-call all week every second week. Directors have clinical as well as administrative responsibilities, but Tobin did no clinical work and did not join the on-call roster. She attempted to increase my workload at a time when I was nearly exhausted. She calculated that our average length of stay (ALOS) was greater than the state average and implied that patients were getting sub-standard treatment. If she’d done her share of the work I would have been able to spend more time with patients who would then have improved faster. I specialised in eating disorders and had inpatients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Patients with AN have protracted admissions which skews the ALOS, especially on a small (12-bed) unit. At Bankstown Hospital our ALOS was double that of Liverpool’s, a comparable unit. But Liverpool’s readmission rate was more than double that of Bankstown’s. Patients do not take medication because they believe they have a brain disorder. They take their medication because they come to trust their psychiatrist over the course of their admission. This degree of trust takes time to establish. When patients are discharged prematurely they are likely to discontinue their medication, relapse and require readmission. It was inappropriate for Tobin to consider ALOS in isolation.

The lifetime risk of suicide in mood disorder and schizophrenia is 10%. Through the whole of my career only one patient suicided while under my care, a Vietnamese woman with psychotic depression. She had come to believe that her 8-year old son was afflicted with a terrible disease that caused him great suffering for which no cure or relief was available. In an act of compassion she drowned him in the bath. On the unit, she recovered from the psychotic depression but remained distraught over her son’s death. Her husband did not accept that her action was the result of a medical condition. To him she was simply a mother who had killed her own child. It was unforgivable. He did not want her home. The unit did not have a locked ward. It was a five-minute walk to the train station. After about 3 months on the unit, one morning the patient walked to the station and jumped in front of a train. The coroner ruled that the patient’s death was a tragedy but that hospital staff were not at fault. This happened 1-2 weeks after Tobin raised the ALOS issue. The patient knew she was unwanted by her community. The unit was her last refuge. Nurses are with patients a lot of the time and sometimes discuss unit issues within earshot of patients. If the patient had heard nurses discussing the ALOS issue, it could have proved the last straw.

Tobin also tried to get me to write a procedural manual, a step-by-step guide nurses could follow in assessing patients in Emergency, something traditionally done by psychiatrists.

Not long after she started Tobin’s manner became distant and unfriendly. She declined to have weekly meetings like I would have with past divisional directors (I was the de facto director having to deal with day to day problems on the unit as Tobin spent most of her time elsewhere). Continuing education meetings are traditionally attended by all consultants and trainees. A general discussion of issues raised by the presentation follows. When I attended a session she conducted, Tobin suggested I had better things to do, an unconventional attitude to say the least. She did not invite me to a meeting she organised for local GPs and all other doctors in the service. I only found out inadvertently when talking to a GP who didn’t realise I wasn’t invited to the meeting, evidence the plan was for me not to be around long-term.

Around this time I received a call from HF, past Div Dir. and senior medical administrator with many contacts. She told me ‘Eric you have to get out of St George!’.  I considered this and thought ‘I’m competent ... done nothing wrong... St George was geographically convenient... why should I leave just because Tobin doesn’t like me?’ I said to HF ‘What can they do?‘. Little did I know. 

The workload forced me to take shortcuts, increasing the risk of misdiagnosis. Consultation requests from the general hospital were initially handled by trainees. They would present the case and I would then go with them to see the patient. The workload was such that regularly patients seen by trainees were discharged before I got to see them.

Not long before my patient suicided the news reported a psychiatric patient jumping in front of a train. The next day, I happened to see Tobin and she told me that when she heard the news she thought it was our patient (as I had). We both sensed that our patient was at high risk but Tobin as director never asked me about this patient or offered any suggestions. The plan was to wait for a bad outcome for which I could be held responsible. It would be a matter of when, not if. 

After 6 months I decided to go on sick leave to force her to do some work. I used a medical certificate provided by Dr Ali, psychiatrist, citing ‘burnout’ as the diagnosis. In 15 years I’d only had 2 days off sick and had more than 6 months of accrued sick leave. Instead of networking from the sidelines watching me struggle as she tried to increase my workload, Tobin was left carrying the can - 12 inpatients, a waiting list to manage, 2 trainees to supervise, multiple consults from the general hospital and the community mental health team and on-call all week every second week, potentially for an extended period. Not what she’d envisaged. Tobin had to come up with Plan B.

Political abuse of psychiatry

Tobin contacted the MB falsely claiming the certificate provided by Dr Ali was the product of a ‘corridor consultation’ and therefore unreliable. The MB should have contacted Dr Ali who would have affirmed that I made an appointment with his secretary, attended his practice like any other patient, had a one-hour consultation, paid for the consultation, showed no evidence of psychosis, and was expected to make a full recovery from burnout and resume practice in short order. However, the MB accepted Tobin’s allegations without question. No account was obtained from Dr Ali.

Tobin expressed no concern about my fitness to practise before I went on sick leave, when she was directly interacting with me and had feedback from colleagues about me. Once I went on sick leave she would have had no information about my behaviour or state of mind. Tobin had no patients on the unit and did not attend regular meetings such as patient care and drug committee meetings. David Burke, psychogeriatrician, had patients on the unit and attended all regular meetings. We had regular discussions, provided second opinions to each other and were on-call for each other’s patients after hours. He gave evidence that he had no concerns about my standard of practice on the unit before I went on leave. He recalled me telling him Tobin was ‘trying to get me out of St George’. He turned his mind to the question of whether I was delusional. He concluded that I was not: VD 182.

Tobin’s complaint was opportunistic and disingenuous; she seized upon my going on sick leave and reframed her wish to see me leave the service as ‘concern’ over my fitness to practise.

At the request of the MB I naively attended an interview (IV) with Woodforde, a ‘Board-approved’ psychiatrist. After a 40-minute IV (short for an initial assessment), Woodforde claimed he believed I was suffering from ‘Delusional Disorder’ (DD).  I had told him that there were rumors among the nurses that I was having sex with my patients. He claimed to believe this was a figment of my imagination. This formed the basis for his diagnosis: report dated 30/08/94.

A diagnosis of DD is not made lightly; once made it cannot be undone as someone can be psychotic for a few hours only. The diagnosis has serious consequences as it could be a precursor to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Wooforde’s manner was cold and brusque; he showed no empathy - not the manner of an unbiased interviewer. He became irritated when he did not get the history he wanted in the sequence he wanted; it was more an interrogation than a psychiatric IV. Rumours about psychiatrists having sex with their patients are not uncommon. Woodforde’s ‘diagnosis’ was unjustified. He was just looking for something on which to hang a finding of ‘unfit to practise’. That’s why the IV only took 40 minutes. The best he could do was to label accurate perceptions as ‘delusional’. He seems to have been influenced by extraneous information (probably given to the MB by Tobin, ‘a bit of a networker’ according to the prosecutor at my first trial, and the only one who stood to benefit from my removal). It is unlikely that Tobin would have left the outcome of a complaint to chance; she would have lobbied the MB to get the outcome she wanted before she wrote her official letter requesting MB intervention. Dr Ali said in evidence that ‘Gassy was surprised at the negative feeling Tobin had raised against him in a short period’.

An Impaired Registrants panel (IRP) made up of Arnold and Pasfield was convened before my first appointment  with Woodforde, evidence that Tobin had persuaded the MB that I was ‘impaired’ before Woodforde came up with his DD ‘diagnosis’: VD 157 L 20. The MB refused to adjourn the hearing scheduled for 02/09/94 to allow Dr Ali, who was on holiday at the time, to give evidence: VD 158 L 29. I had told the MB that Dr Floyd would give evidence that I was not delusional. She had made herself available and ‘welcomed an opportunity to give evidence before the panel’: VD 158 L5+.  Arnold refused to call Dr Floyd. MB docs showed that when appointed to the IRP he had suggested I get Dr Floyd to give evidence on my behalf. It appears that he received information in the interim which made him unwilling to hear evidence that I was not ‘impaired’ - from whom but Tobin via the MB?  I have never faced the degree of hostility Arnold directed at me from anyone, let alone a fellow medical practitioner. Every question was attacking, comments contemptuous, demeanour one of hostile condemnation. It could not be explained by his South African origin and my brown skin. It was totally unexpected. Even though she wasn’t there at the time Tobin told the panel ‘None of those things happened’, referring to my complaints about attempts to move psychiatry off campus, failure to advertise the vacant director of psychiatry position and misuse of the MH budget (to make me look paranoid). I left the meeting reeling from the psychological battering I received from Arnold. I was in shock. But much worse was to follow.

The first assassination attempt

Soon after I arrived home from the IRP hearing there was a knock at the door. I opened to a slim, attractive, white-skinned girl around 20 years old wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and canvas shoes. She was a welcome distraction. I invited her in and we had coffee and listened to some music. As things were getting intimate she began to shake, which I found odd. She then produced her own condom which she insisted on using. I’d never had sex with a girl who offered to use her own condom. This and the shaking should have alerted me that something nefarious was afoot. My gut feeling was to decline but I was still in shock from my experience with Arnold and did not have the wherewithal to object.  During vaginal intercourse she suddenly withdrew. ‘It’s come off’ she said. She then grasped my penis and twisted it sharply causing pain, In fact, the condom had not come off; she couldn’t have felt it if it had. There was a triumphant cry from a group of females as she walked out the front door.

Four weeks later I suffered the worst acute viral syndrome I had ever experienced with fever, malaise, rash and conjunctivitis. I was so debilitated I couldn’t get out of bed for 3 days. The conjunctivitis ended up persisting for more than 3 months.

One month after the viral syndrome I developed a fungal infection in both armpits which did not respond to antifungal cream and took several weeks to resolve. Such opportunistic infections are common in early HIV infection as the virus kills cells which fight fungi before the host fights back with antibody production. However, I proved HIV-antibody negative.

In early 1996 I developed shortness of breath (SOB) on exertion and eventually at rest, followed by cough with clear mucoid, stretchable sputum (in asthma and viral respiratory infections the sputum is yellow/green, globular and not stretchable). Spirometry showed minimal airways obstruction. I suspected pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), often the first AIDS- defining condition, but which usually occurs more than 4 years after infection with HIV. Pneumocystis is a ubiquitous fungus spread by airborne spores which attach to the alveolar wall and is kept in check by alveolar macrophages. HIV kills CD4 lymphocytes and when the CD4 count falls below 200/uL, the organism propagates and fills the alveoli, impairing gas exchange. Corticosteroids suppress immune function. In the healthy subject, the allergic asthma reaction can be suppressed without impairing resistance to chest infections. Where immune status is marginal inhaled steroids suppress alveolar immune cells and pneumocystis propagates and fills the alveoli. I think I was expected to assume the SOB was due to asthma and to increase the dose of inhaled steroid (I was on beclomethasone, an inhaled corticosteroid, as asthma preventive). This would have led to PCP and death. Even if I’d been hospitalised PCP would not have been on the radar as I was heterosexual, HIV-negative and a non-user of recreational drugs. Severe asthma is treated with nebulized ventolin and high-dose IV corticosteroids. I would have died of PCP before anyone realised what was happening. Instead I switched from beclomethasone to Tilade, a non-steroidal asthma preventive and my respiratory symptoms resolved, supporting my provisional diagnosis of PCP. Four months after switching from beclomethasone to Tilade, my respiratory symptoms returned. I started taking trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) and was forced to gradually increase the dose to 10 double-strength (DS) tablets/d. PCP is the only infection that responds to TMP/SMX in high dose and nothing else. The diagnosis was further confirmed by exercise-induced desaturation. 

Healthy subjects maintain arterial oxygen saturation above 95% despite exercising until their heart rate (HR) exceeds 150 b.p.m. My arterial oxygen saturation fell to 76% with a HR barely above 100 b.p.m. The technician aborted the test and kept asking me if I was OK. She seemed really worried that I was on the verge of a medical catastrophe. This degree of desaturation was a grossly abnormal finding indicating severe lung disease, confirming the diagnosis of PCP.

In 1997 I spent 2 months in Thailand. Within 2 weeks of my arrival my respiratory symptoms resolved and I was able to discontinue TMP/SMX (in Sydney even on 10 DS tabs/d I still had respiratory symptoms). I thought I had cleared my condition and had unprotected sex with 3 Thai girls in Bangkok, and with another 2 Thai girls in Sydney on my return (they were helping me learn Thai and I was helping them with their university assignments). However, 2-3 months after I returned to Sydney, my respiratory symptoms returned and I was forced to resume TMP/SMX 10 DS tabs/d.

Halfway through my holiday in Thailand I had to return to Sydney to appear before the Medical Tribunal (MT). After the IRP Wilhelm from the Professional Standards Committee used Woodforde’s fabricated diagnosis to place conditions on my registration; one was that I consult another ‘Board-approved’ psychiatrist. After my experiences with Woodforde and the MB I was unwilling to subject myself to such an assessment. Other than Woodforde I had seen 6 psychiatrists all of whom disagreed with Woodforde, Drs Floyd, Ali, Andrews, Calthorpe, Prof. Sachdev and Phillips. The MT did not accept Woodforde’s assessment. The complaints that I was ‘mentally impaired’ and ‘unfit to practise’ were dismissed. The complaint that I had refused to comply with one condition on my registration, see a Board-approved psychiatrist was upheld. I was deregistered and barred from reapplying for registration for 6 months, effectively rendering me unemployable. I returned to Thailand for another month.

Lesbians who hate men are invariably victims of child sexual abuse. They call themselves ‘survivors’ and have support groups and networks. Suggestions that I was seeing patients for my own gratification hit a raw nerve, causing Tobin to overreact and proceed under the rationale that the ends (preventing me from practising and ‘abusing’ patients) justified the means (manufactured complaint). She lied to the MB to engage me in a process that would lead to my deregistration. Her egregious actions cost me millions in lost earnings and superannuation, humiliated me and my parents and nearly cost me my life.

In late 2000 I developed intractable diarrhoea, a common complication of HIV infection. I lost 25 kg, nearly 1/3 of my body weight, over several months. I looked like death warmed up in a 2001 passport photo. Dr J Ell, neurologist, described me as ‘borderline cachectic’ when I consulted him in Feb 2001.

In mid-2001 I developed Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) with multiple 5-10 mm purple, painless, non-pruritic and non-blanching macules on both feet. KS is the second most common AIDS-defining condition.

In late 2001 I commenced Kaletra, a potent protease inhibitor (one class of anti-HIV drugs).  Within weeks the diarrhoea stopped. Over 2-3 months I regained the weight and the KS lesions melted away. I was able to reduce the dose of TMP/SMX. I felt the best I had felt in years.

Throughout this time my HIV-antibody test was repeatedly negative (Sydney, Melbourne, London, LA, NY). HIV was undetectable on HIV RNA PCR, a test which measures HIV directly rather than detecting antibody to HIV. 

I couldn’t understand how clinically I had AIDS, which responded to one class of anti-HIV drugs, but remained HIV antibody negative with no detectable HIV on RNA PCR.

State-sanctioned attempted murder

In Nov 2002 I was arrested at my home in Oyster Bay, extradited to SA and incarcerated in Yatala Prison. In gaol I was initially symptom-free despite not having access to TMP/SMX or kaletra. However, after a few months my symptoms gradually returned (SOB, cough with characteristic clear, mucoid sputum). They would worsen at night and improve during the day, a puzzling pattern.

Three to four days after starting propecia, a drug which reduces hair loss, my symptoms became much worse. They improved back to baseline within days of discontinuing propecia. I re-challenged myself twice to confirm propecia was responsible. I was alerted to the possibility that I was ingesting an agent which was worsening my underlying condition.  I excluded items from my diet one by one e.g. chocolate, coffee, biscuits, lollies, tuna etc - but nothing made any difference. My symptoms were getting worse and worse. I developed scintillations across both fields of vision, speech difficulties e.g. mispronouncing words, and daytime drowsiness. It became a major effort to get out of bed. As a last resort I stopped drinking the water, just for completeness. It was the only thing I hadn’t tried. I didn’t expect it to make any difference. To my amazement, within days I improved dramatically. Within 2 weeks I had no respiratory symptoms or speech difficulties; visual symptoms were greatly improved. Material I had written in the previous week contained multiple spelling errors with words left uncompleted.

This confirmed my provisional diagnosis of CMV retinitis and encephalitis. CT brain scan in 2003 showed areas of calcification consistent with CMV encephalitis, CT brain scans undertaken before 2002 having shown no calcification. Manual mapping of visual fields and later computerised visual perimetry showed areas of visual loss effectively doubling the diameter of the normal blind spot. This pattern is typical of CMV retinitis. It is impossible to simulate visual loss during computerised visual perimetry which will infallibly detect malingering. In some areas of the visual field straight lines appear kinked, an indication of retinal scarring. The retinal damage is irreversible and the visual loss permanent. Ironically, if an agent had not been introduced via the Propecia, it would never have crossed my mind to stop drinking the water and I would have gone blind and died of PCP in 2003.

When healthy I can sing and hold a note for 20 seconds. As I drink the water this decreases each day accompanied by the clear mucoid sputum caused by pneumocystis carinii. When I stop drinking the water the length of time I can hold a note slowly increases back to 20 secs and I stop producing the clear mucoid sputum. This has happened many times since 2003. There can be no doubt that the gaol water contains an agent that causes me to become immunosuppressed without affecting other prisoners.

My medical training

Before commencing psychiatry training I worked as an intern and resident medical officer in medicine and surgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney for 3 years averaging 80 hours/week.  This medical training included terms in neurology, ophthalmology, respiratory medicine, immunology, orthopaedics, emergency medicine, intensive care, cardiothoracic surgery and radiotherapy. As trainee psychiatrist I was responsible for the medical examination and treatment of psychiatric patients in my care I.e. I was their primary care physician. The psychiatry exam includes a medical viva where the standard is at least that of a resident medical officer and higher than that of a medical student. As consultant psychiatrist I was responsible for the psychiatric evaluation of medical and surgical patients as requested. This required the maintenance of basic medical skills. All my psychiatric training and practice was undertaken in psychiatry units of general teaching hospitals where I was constantly exposed to current medical practice.

Delusions

A delusion is a fixed, unshakeable false belief and not a logical inference from a set of facts. A well-known example from a classic text on psychopathology by Fish is a man who ‘knew’ his wife was adulterous because one of the lights in his street was out, but could not explain the connection. My account is based on logical inferences from established facts.

Why I remained HIV-negative despite having developed PCP and KS

After several years in gaol I formed the hypothesis that on my return from the IRP in Sep 1994 my visitor deliberately infected me with a virus which is not HIV but which causes AIDS in the presence of a second agent. This agent, possibly an immunosuppressant, was being introduced in the water of my home in Oyster Bay and later in the gaol water. The virus is possibly attenuated HIV designed for use as a trial live vaccine. This hypothesis explains: the diurnal variation in symptoms; the resolution of symptoms during my 2-month stay in Thailand; the onset of PCP a mere 18 months after infection with the virus; why I couldn’t reduce the dose of TMP/SMX below 10 DS tabs/d without SOB worsening; how I’ve managed to stay alive 30 years after infection; why I responded to anti-HIV drugs despite being HIV- negative; why I never experienced a syphilitic chancre or 2° syphilis when I suffer from neurosyphilis. As I didn’t drink water overnight my immune system would begin to recover until I started drinking again the next day and the cycle would repeat. In Thailand I was not exposed to the agent and my immunity was restored until I returned to Sydney and again ingested the agent through the water. Constant ingestion of the agent accelerated the rate of development of immunosuppression and brought forward the time PCP would manifest. By minimising my water intake in gaol I have been able to largely avoid activation of the virus. The chancre of primary and rash of secondary syphilis are caused by an immunological reaction. An immunosuppressant would dampen such reactions. The virus shares properties with HIV rendering it susceptible to at least one class of anti-HIV drugs.

HIV is an RNA virus containing the enzyme reverse transcriptase. Upon entry into target cells via the CD4 receptor, the viral RNA is transcribed into DNA which is inserted into the host DNA. I expect that DNA sequencing of infected CD4 lymphocytes in my system would show segments coding for components of a virus which is not HIV.

As I had unprotected sex with a number of girls when I thought I had recovered, there is virtually no chance that the virus has not been introduced into the general population. 

My visitor was not known to me. How was she recruited and persuaded to infect me with a virus which was expected to kill me? The virus must have come from a medical source. Tobin is a bridge between the virus supplier and my visitor, who I imagine was recruited through the ‘survivor’ network’.

Medical input would have been required to determine what agent to introduce in the water supply to activate the virus.

Why Phillips wants me dead

Phillips, former president of the College of Psychiatrists and friend of Tobin, replaced her as SA Director of MH. From that position he persuaded relevant medical practitioners that I would keep adding to a ‘hit list’ and remain a danger indefinitely and that nature should be allowed to take its course without intervention in my case. Psychiatrists have no ability to predict violence long-term. The real reason Phillips wants me dead is to bury evidence of a team effort by Tobin and associates to kill me with reckless disregard for the general community by infecting me a virus which is not HIV but which causes AIDS in the presence of an activating agent. How many others have they murdered in an attempt to kill me? Infection with the virus would result in an acute viral syndrome but no other problems unless treatment with an immunosuppressant was required e.g. for autoimmune disease or following organ transplantation. In that case the virus would be activated and cause AIDS. But the subject would be HIV negative and would not receive anti-HIV treatment. They would succumb to opportunistic infection or have their immunosuppressant withdrawn leading to organ rejection or progression of their autoimmune disease.

Deprivation of treatment for neurosyphilis

In 2004 prison officers escorting me to court noticed my knee was clicking as I walked. I realised some of the leg muscles were not contracting automatically to stabilise the knee joint during walking. In 2007 I told the PHS doctor that I was suffering from neurosyphilis (NS) based on: leg weakness and muscle wasting; ataxia (incoordination of movement); footslap (sudden involuntary jerky plantar flexion of the ankle, almost pathognomonic of NS); paresthesiae (numbness and  tingling in legs and buttocks with ever varying pattern); progressive cognitive impairment, especially short-term memory. His response was that the weakness was ‘only 4/5’ and that a negative VDRL ruled out NS. In fact weakness of 4/5 is a significant abnormal finding which requires explanation, and the VDRL is negative in 30% of cases of late syphilis. Two neurologists I saw in the RAH OPD claim the symptoms and signs are due to a degenerative neurological disorder of unknown cause. I did develop peripheral neuropathy (PN) in the mid-90s. Dr. Leicester, neurologist, attributed the PN to the high dose of Septrin (TMP/SMX) I was taking: letter dated 25 Jun 97. He reexamined me in Aug 1997 and found the condition to be non- progressive. That condition has slightly improved over time. Prof. Temlett noted wasting of my right thigh in Dec 2005: letter 20/12/05.  Prison medical file entry dated 12/04/06 documents my left thigh as 53.5 cm in circumference and right thigh at 51.5 cm (I am right-handed).  PN does not cause footslap, ataxia or memory loss and affects distal more than proximal muscles. The memory loss, ataxia, leg weakness, muscle wasting, paresthesiae and footslap constitute a new and separate syndrome (since 2004).

Penicillin is a universally effective treatment for NS. It is also one of the safest and cheapest drugs in medicine. Without treatment I will eventually be unable to walk, develop dementia and lose bladder and bowel control. I have been refused treatment with penicillin and no other treatment has been offered, one doctor claiming ‘my role is symptom management’?!

When forced to drink the water I experience increased weakness, incoordination and paresthesiae e.g. I have trouble walking up stairs, become more unsteady on my feet, can’t play guitar with my usual dexterity and my thongs come off my feet as I walk. The symptoms improve when I stop drinking the water. NS is a rare condition and other prisoners are not affected by the water as they don’t have NS.

I can’t completely avoid drinking the water and this together with denial of treatment with penicillin has caused me serious physical harm including cognitive impairment, loss of valued guitar-playing skills and physical weakness. By 2022  I had lost 15 kg in weight, mainly muscle mass, leaving me one of the physically weakest prisoners in the gaol.

Persistent (> 3 years) painless enlarged axillary lymph nodes with skin and salivary gland involvement is highly suggestive of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  One of the nodes is just under the skin in the cubital fossa well clear of any nerve or artery. Nevertheless, repeated requests for excision biopsy have been refused.

Loss of deep pain sensation resulted in a perforating ulcer on the sole of the foot which I was not aware of. The ulcer became infected requiring hospitalisation and IV antibiotics and eventually led to partial amputation of the foot, a classic complication of NS. This would not have happened if I’d been treated with penicillin as requested in 2007.

Surgical butchery

On admission to RAH on 25 May 23 I was told that the infection had got into the bone causing necrosis, which could only be managed surgically even though MRI showed no evidence of osteomyelitis. Despite being febrile and the ulcer oozing copious amounts of pus, for 5 consecutive days I was fasted until as late as 7 pm only to be told that the surgery had been cancelled. On 05 Jun 23 all the toes of my right foot were amputated with their skin leaving a large open wound. No effort was made to remove the skin from the toes while leaving it attached to the foot to serve as flaps for closing the wound. I remained febrile throughout the admission suggesting the amputation had failed to remove the source of infection. Contiguous-focus osteomyelitis is usually polymicrobial, with staph aureus a pathogen in more than 50% of cases. I was told that Strep and E. coli were cultured from the wound for which I was treated with IV cephazoline and oral Augmentin. Neither of these would have been effective against Staph aureus. I was discharged back to the prison on 10  Jun 23. Gauze swabs were being placed on the wound under a vacuum dressing as directed by the surgeon. The first PHS nurse to change the dressing on 16 Jun 23 questioned the placement of gauze swabs on the wound. He said that granulating tissue would grow into the gauze and be ripped out when the gauze was replaced, interfering with the healing process. He changed the dressing instructions to preclude the placement of gauze swabs on the wound under the dressing. Back in gaol I continued to wake up at 3-4 am my clothes drenched in sweat. Each week there was more and more discharge from the wound. On 29 Jun 23 my ESR was 75, an indication of serious inflammation (at my age ESR should be < 20). My C-reactive protein (CRP) was described by 2 nurses independently as ‘grossly abnormal’ and ‘deranged’.  CRP is a protein produced by the innate immune system which binds to infecting organisms causing lysis through activation of the complement system as well as marking them for destruction by macrophages through phagocytosis. A raised CRP indicates the presence of infection. When seen by the surgeon on 07 Jul 23 the CRP result had been removed from the file. On 10 July 23 Nurse Practitioner ‘Annette’ changed my antibiotic to flucloxacillin 1g b.d. On 13 Jul I stopped having night sweats and after one week the amount of discharge from the wound was much less. On 25 July the same NP ceased the flucloxacillin, now claiming the foot was not infected despite all evidence to the contrary. She would not explain the basis for starting the flucloxacillin two weeks previously (flucloxacillin is effective against Staph aureus). Dr ‘Simon’ who had ordered the ESR and CRP said he had discussed my case  with the surgeon and now ‘understood’ that the foot was not infected and refused to recommence the flucloxacillin.

Unlawful transfer to psychiatric unit

On 16 Aug 23 I presented my appeal against sentence before the Court of Appeal. The next day the newspaper reported my claims that the gaol water had caused visual loss and that Tobin had tried to have me killed in 1994. In 20+ years of goal I have never been depressed, never harmed myself or threatened to; never engaged in any violent act, never threatened others or been found with a weapon. Despite being neither mentally ill nor a danger to myself or others, and without psychiatric assessment, on 22 Aug 23 I was transferred against my will to James Nash House, a forensic psychiatric unit run by DCS. The Mental Health Act can only be invoked when someone is both mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others. Although I didn’t say anything or behave in any way that could possibly be interpreted as evidence of mental illness, I was kept there under an inpatient order. As my appeal against the order was about to be heard the order was revoked.

Abuse of process

However I was advised that a guardianship order would be sought on the grounds that mental illness was preventing me from processing information given to me and making informed decisions about my treatment ?! In fact, my medical background makes me the best-informed prisoner in the gaol in relation to medical issues. Guardianship orders are mostly for people with dementia who can no longer manage their affairs. The guardianship application was an abuse of process aimed at forcing me to have treatment I didn’t want or need, such as further amputation.  I was eventually returned to Yatala on 07 Sep 23.

Despite exemplary behaviour, DCS keeps me in gaols where it is impossible to collect rainwater. Two weeks after the GM of Mobilong Prison realised I was collecting rainwater, he prevailed on another prisoner to assault me and transferred me back to Port Augusta Prison under the pretext that he could not guarantee my safety in Mobilong Prison. My safety cannot be guaranteed in any prison. I am more likely to be assaulted in Port Augusta than in Mobilong prison. It is also impossible to collect rainwater in Port Augusta and Yatala prisons. Whatever gaol I’m in, I am regularly and unjustifiably transferred to units where it is harder to avoid drinking the water e.g. I am the only prisoner ever to have been placed in the punishment unit for having head lice. After 20 years of exemplary behaviour I am back in Yatala, the highest security prison in the state, while other prisoners who have committed worse offences and whose behaviour has been less than exemplary are enjoying a better quality of life in low-security prisons.

Nicotine lozenges were used as currency in the gaol after smoking was banned. Three days after I appeared before the Supreme Court in Feb 23 and outlined my proposed grounds of appeal, the gaol announced the withdrawal of lozenges from sale. It has been harder for me to avoid drinking the water without access to lozenges.

High level cover up

In falsely ruling that my grounds of appeal had ‘no merit’, Livesey J is colluding with the executive to cover up state-sanctioned attempted murder.

Dr J E Gassy MBBS

NB page numbers below refer to the ‘Exhibits’ section of ‘Application for leave to appeal sentence’, available on www.ericgassy.com