Widower, doctor call for disgraced surgeon to be stripped of award

3 hours ago 4

Ashley Gollan sits opposite his wife, Kim, tightly clasping her hands over the dining table on their last cruise together.

A woman in a colourful dress stands at the head of their table, gently swaying as she uses her powerful, throaty vocals to sing: “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

With those lyrics, Ashley points at his wife, as tears fall down his face. He quietly says “I love you” over and over and kisses her hand, wiping his eyes.

Ashley and Kim Gollan remarried on their last cruise together, in 2019.

“So don’t go, don’t go away,” the woman continues singing, as the dining room erupts in applause. When the song finishes, the woman tells Ashley not to cry. “She’s beautiful,” she says, as Ashley nods.

This song, Best Thing That Ever Happened, was played at Ashley and Kim’s wedding in 1989, and became the soundtrack to their decades-long marriage based on travel, hard work and raising three children to become accomplished adults.

Ashley cherishes the memories from that 2019 cruise where he arranged the private rendition before the couple remarried on the deck, as his wife battled complications from botched surgery by Dr Munjed Al Muderis three years earlier.

“We had a relationship that no one else could understand,” Ashley says now, in tears. “Had he not talked her into having two knees replaced, she would be alive.”

Before Kim’s death in 2022, she sued Al Muderis for medical negligence and was paid $1.2 million to settle on a “no admissions basis” and with a confidentiality agreement – waived by Al Muderis during his defamation case against this masthead.

The Federal Court dismissed Al Muderis’ defamation case last month, finding he failed a significant group of patients and that the star surgeon was cruel, callous, not honest and placed profits and fame before the safety of his patients. He has appealed the judgment.

Dr Munjed Al Muderis, pictured in 2014 in his surgical scrubs.

Ashley is now calling for the National Australia Day Council to strip Al Muderis of his NSW Australian of the Year award from 2020, something he promotes widely to patients.

“It doesn’t pass the pub test,” the grieving widower says.

This call is backed by retired surgeon Jan Swinnen, who was nominated for the same award that year but did not attend because he was on a humanitarian mission overseas. Swinnen has volunteered with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Congo, Pakistan, Yemen, Gaza and elsewhere. He said invasive surgeries should not be performed in poor countries without rigorous oversight.

“If the awards want to maintain their integrity in the public eye, they should say we made a mistake and withdraw,” Swinnen said. “I don’t want to squash medical innovation, but innovative activities should be well regulated, with good oversight. With Al Muderis, you scratch the surface, and you find business.”

Jan Swinnen has backed calls for Al Muderis’ NSW Australian of the Year award to be stripped.

‘Red flags called for investigation’

Al Muderis performed a double knee replacement on Kim Gollan in 2016, which was the beginning of six years of further surgeries, pain, disfigurement, infection, and ultimately, her death at the age of 58 in 2022.

Her daughter Temperance Gollan was one of the more than 30 patients and family members who gave evidence during Al Muderis’ failed defamation case against this masthead.

In her affidavit, Temperance described watching her mother “shuffling on her bottom around the house to avoid the pain of walking” and said her legs were a “deep purple-red colour” that would “sometimes leak and ooze” after the surgery.

Despite these symptoms, Al Muderis instructed Kim to walk on what later turned out to be broken bones, exacerbating the problems.

Eventually, when the fracture was found, Al Muderis organised for emergency surgery and joked about her condition: “You’re lucky, you’re getting two operations for the price of one,” he said.

The court saw a letter from Al Muderis to Kim’s GP stating he was “startled” to realise the fracture “was missed” and “obviously there was misleading diagnosis”.

An emotional Ashley Gollan looks over family photos from happier times.

“It is very unfortunate that this happened to her and I sincerely apologised to Kim about missing this fracture,” the letter stated.

However, under cross-examination, Al Muderis sought to minimise the letter, saying it was “speculation” and denied responsibility for her problems.

After examining the evidence, Justice Wendy Abraham ruled Al Muderis failed Kim.

“There were red flags that called for investigation. He failed to do so. As her surgeon, he was the person responsible,” the judge found.

“If the fracture had been detected earlier, as it should have been, there is little doubt that Mrs Gollan would have been treated differently.

“I am satisfied that in relation to Mrs Gollan’s aftercare, Dr Al Muderis failed to conduct himself with the level of care, skill and attention that an ordinary person in the position of his patients would have expected.”

Al Muderis’ lawyers continue to attack the integrity of this masthead’s journalism and said the appeal would challenge “all of the findings of the trial judge, including Her Honour’s entire approach to the matter”.

Grieving husband’s mission

Ashley Gollan now lives on Russell Island, a remote community accessible by barge on the outskirts of Brisbane, where he surrounds himself with photos and memorabilia of his late wife.

He watched his daughter give evidence over video link, and followed the trial closely from afar. He was relieved by the resounding victory for the media companies and said Kim would be “cheering from heaven”.

His eldest daughter, Morgan, wrote on social media: “This ruling doesn’t bring our mum back. But she fought hard, stood up for herself against trying circumstances and this ruling hopefully will save other patients from ever encountering this surgeon!”

Now, Ashley wants action. He has spent the past month sending emails to the Health Care Complaints Commission and National Australia Day Council, with links to the judgment, but received little response.

“Please read this and let me know why his award should not be REVOKED??” Gollan wrote to the National Australia Day Council.

Kim Gollan’s leg grew a lump following a double knee replacement with Dr Al Muderis in 2016.

“If you read some of the judge’s comments, you will surely understand why we needed to bring this to your attention. Had you been aware of his failings would you have chosen him?” he wrote in another email.

Al Muderis was made 2020 NSW Australian of the Year by then-premier Gladys Berejiklian. “I stand for help,” the star surgeon said when accepting the award. “Helping people, helping animals, helping trees and helping the land in order to secure our future.”

The council’s website currently promotes Al Muderis’ “surgical innovations and breakthroughs” and describes him as a “compassionate ambassador for multiple organisations, including the Red Cross”.

While surgeon Jan Swinnen was overseas for the ceremony, his family attended on his behalf and observed Al Muderis arrive in a luxury sportscar. Swinnen believes such awards are misconceived.

“Al Muderis has done precious little in the manner of real humanitarian work,” he said. “There are hundreds and hundreds of people out there who never get recognised because they’re not into blowing their own trumpet.”

Swinnen said there is a “medical impasse” with Al Muderis’ key surgery, osseointegration, because there remains no solution for the high rate of infection for any implant that protrudes through skin.

“That’s a problem we haven’t solved anywhere in medicine in any field. How has Al Muderis been going to the developing world, using this technology, without having solved that basic medical problem? How did he manage to do that?”

Swinnen said osseointegration, which involves inserting a titanium rod into an amputee’s residual bone to enable a prosthetic limb to be attached, should only be performed on carefully selected patients who have exhausted non-surgical options, and they must be closely monitored for life, adding it is unacceptable to abandon patients in poor countries.

“His patients were able to say they were ignored. How does that get past the regulator?” he said. “The impression I get is his activities are driven by commercial interests and not driven by patient interests.”

Gollan has reviewed the council’s withdrawal policy, which states that awards can be revoked or reviewed if a recipient is the subject of an adverse court finding, dishonesty, criminal conviction, or if information was not disclosed to the awards that bring the awards into disrepute. He believes Al Muderis’ conduct reaches the threshold.

“How can a disgraced doctor not have that award removed?” Ashley wrote to the awards.

In response, the National Australia Day Council told Gollan it was “unable to discuss any individual matter relating to recipients … due to privacy and confidentiality considerations”.

“We have taken careful note of your views,” the council responded.

Fresh documents released to this masthead by the NSW Supreme Court last week reveal Al Muderis’ colleagues actively promote his award when pressuring patients into aggressive surgery.

Ashley Gollan bought this clock for his wife when she could no longer tell the time.

In a medical negligence case currently before the courts, one patient alleges the star surgeon’s colleague promoted Al Muderis as “one of the best doctors in the world and had been recognised as Australian of the Year”.

This masthead asked the National Australia Day Council about any concerns that Al Muderis’ award is being used to recruit patients, whether Kim Gollans’ lawsuit was disclosed by Al Muderis, and whether the Federal Court ruling that Al Muderis was not honest met the threshold for a review.

In response, the council reiterated it could not comment on individual recipients, and pointed to the withdrawal policy.

“We have taken careful note of the information and views expressed by Mr Gollan and due processes with respect to this matter are underway in line with our policy.

“The NADC understands the importance of this matter to many within the community. We are unable to respond further at this time.”

In an email, Al Muderis’ lawyers accused this masthead of harassment, and did not respond to questions about whether Al Muderis was aware of any review of his award, or whether he disclosed Kim’s case to the judging panel.

“Any steps taken by any person or body based on those findings would be premature given the litigation is ongoing,” his lawyers said.

Asked if he would like to apologise to the Gollans in light of Justice Abraham’s findings, Al Muderis’ lawyers did not respond.

From Russell Island, Ashley treasures items to remember his wife – a large clock he bought for her when she became so ill she could no longer read the time, and photographs of their family home, boat and life together that ended too early.

He acknowledged Al Muderis had “done a lot of good” in the world, but said there needed to be accountability for the people he failed.

“I still wear my wedding ring every day,” he said. “The hospitals said he can’t make mistakes. They’re all backing him because of the coin. Someone needs to do something.”

Charlotte Grieve’s book Duty To Warn will be available in February. Pre-order here.

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