An Indian doctor on deputation inBritain has been jailed for two-and-a-half years formanslaughter after wrongly diagnosing a patient who laterdied.
Bala Kovvali, 64, was found guilty of "criminalnegligence" for the "wholly preventable death" of AndreFellows in June, 2009, at Sheffield Crown Court, yesterday.
Kovvali ignored the classic signs of diabetes-relatedpoisonous acids building up in 42-year-old Fellows anddiagnosed him as "depressed with a headache".
A test would have alerted the doctor to raisedblood-sugar levels and it is "virtually certain" Fellows wouldhave survived with an insulin injection and rehydration, thecourt was told.
"It was criminal negligence and a wholly preventabledeath followed," said Judge Roger Keen.
"You have devoted your working life to caring forothers.
I have seen glowing references as to your competence, empathyand thoughtfulness. It is a tragedy for you that this broughtabout an end to your career, destroyed your good character andyour ability to work in this country. However, the nature ofyour offending is too serious for anything other than acustodial sentence," the judge said.
According to a Daily Mail report, Kovvali was based inIndia but flew to Britain to work every summer for two orthree months for the UK-wide doctors' deputising servicePrimecare.
He qualified as a doctor in India in 1973, completedhis training before becoming a general practitioner and wasbased in Sheffield between 1981 and 1988.
He was arrested in the US last year and extraditedafter a Sheffield coroner had adjourned an inquest intoFellows' death for police investigations.
Kovvali admitted causing the death of Fellows by grossnegligence in failing to carry out an adequate clinicalassessment, failing to send the patient to hospital as anemergency when he paid him a home visit as a locum and failingto diagnose diabetic ketoacidosis from which he died.
Prosecutor Michael Burrows said, Fellows, who livedwith his family in Handsworth, Sheffield, had no medicalhistory of diabetes but suffered from anxiety and depression.
Kovvali's defence lawyer said the father of two had"misdirected" himself.
He had a particular interest in mental health mattersand coupled with Fellows not taking his medication it led himto rule out diabetes as a risk factor, his lawyer said.