A NEUROSURGEON responsible for the death of two prostitutes in cocaine-fuelled sex sessions has been banned from trying to renew his registration until 2020 despite being eligible for parole within months.

 

Suresh Nair was jailed in August 2011 after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Suellen Domingues-Zaupa, 22, by failing to help as she lay dying of a cocaine overdose in his inner Sydney flat. He also pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine to another prostitute, Victoria McIntyre, 23, who died at his flat in February 2009. And he further admitted supplying cocaine after being found with the drug and two naked escorts in January 2010, in breach of his bail conditions.

 

He was initially sentenced to a minimum jail term of four years and three months but earlier this year the Court of Criminal Appeal cut his sentence so he will be eligible for parole in July next year. His registration has been suspended since 2009. 

 

This week the NSW Medical Tribunal said Nair had admitted to a series of complaints brought by the state’s Health Care Complaints Commission: that he was convicted of criminal offenses; that he was guilty of unsatisfactory professional and professional misconduct; and that he was “not a suitable person to hold registration in the practitioner's profession”.

 

The tribunal said the evidence against him was “overwhelming” and noted Nair’s own statement, which said “I accept that the medical profession will view my conduct severely". “The conduct was over a prolonged period during which the respondent must have known that his actions were both medically and ethically wrong as well unlawful,” the tribunal said. “In addition the conduct involved a complete abandonment by the respondent of his fundamental role as a protector of human health.”

 

The events surrounding Ms Domingues-Zaupa’s death suggested “a complete disregard for the welfare of the two escorts the respondent had engaged. He plied them with cocaine and alcohol until one of them reached a state in which she desperately required medical attention.  “This attention, which could have been administered, or at least arranged, by the respondent was not available because he had, by his own actions, again through alcohol and cocaine, rendered himself ineffectual.”

 

The tribunal ordered that Nair's registration be cancelled and banned him from applying for a review of his registration until 31 December 2019, 10 years after Ms Domingues-Zaupa’s death.

 

By Byron Kaye

Observer