Last update - 00:00 06/04/2007
Medical committee rebukes top doctor for 'false' opinion
By Ran Reznick
An Israeli Medical Association committee has harshly reprimanded gynecologist Yosef Shenkar for writing a "misleading" medical opinion that favored a procedure on a woman who after childbirth had to have here uterus removed. The opinion was used in a malpractice suit discussed in court.
Haaretz has learned that the four members of the ethics committee ruled last week that Professor Shenkar's opinion included "misleading and falsely-presented statements, which could have misguided the court in its review of the malpractice suit in the field of obstetrics."
The committee had reviewed the case following a complaint filed by two prominent gynecologists. The committee found that Shenkar's colleagues were right to file the complaint. However, the committee's ruling has not yet been made official, and Shenkar, who vehemently rejects the accusations, has the right to appeal.
The complaint against Shenkar, filed in 2004, pertained to a medical-opinion document he supplied to a 36-year-old woman who in 2000 gave birth at Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tzrifin.
After giving birth, she was diagnosed as having a ruptured uterus, and was rushed to an urgent hysterectomy. The woman sued the hospital in 2002, claiming the hysterectomy was caused by malpractice on the part of the hospital.
The woman based her statement on Shenkar's opinion, but in 2004 the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court rejected her claims and ruled in favor of the defendants, who claimed the plaintiff received proper medical care. The court based its ruling on the opinion of a third expert, Dr. Arnon Wiznitzer, who found that the woman had been given "proper and standard care."
The court even determined that the medical crew "reacted with skill and expediency, resulting in the best outcomes despite the loss of the plaintiff's uterus."
The bone of contention pertains to a particular procedure performed on the woman: the insertion of an inflatable balloon into the woman's cervix to expedite birth. In his medical opinion, Shenkar wrote that the procedure had been "dangerous, inefficient and possibly harmful" to the plaintiff. He also mentioned that countries with advanced obstetrics services such as Britain, the U.S. and Canada refrained from using the device.
In their complaint to the ethics committee against Shenkar, Professors Aryeh Herman and Dan Sherman - both prominent obstetricians at Assaf Harofeh - presented medical articles and publications that contradict all of Shenkar's claims.
Professors Herman and Sherman even quoted a document which they claim Shenkar helped draft in favor of the contested procedure.
In its ruling, the ethics committee raised questions as to how Shenkar could give his medical opinion, given his extensive medical experience. "The opinion given by Prof. Shenkar might have raised false doubts in the mind of a judge who is not knowledgeable in medical protocol. His opinion attests to one of two things: basic professional ignorance, or misrepresentation of fact in spite of it," it stated.
Shenkar is one of the leading gynecologists in Israel. He has served as head of the Union of Gynecologists in the Israeli Medical Association, and has also been the director of the gynecological department at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. He was recently selected to participate in a special ceremony for Independence Day featuring Jerusalem.
The head of the Union of Gynecologists, Prof. Eliezer Shalev, told Haaretz: "I regret to see that this is what Prof. Shenkar has come to," adding that the union "condemns Prof. Shenkar's behavior."