A former kidney transplant surgeon who had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman he had operated on, and then took her own life, has been reprimanded and disqualified from applying to be a doctor in Australia for two years.
Dr Andrej Grajn’s relationship with the successful public servant known only as HBM lasted between approximately February 2016 and September 2017, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) has found.
HBM’s sister told QCAT that her sister told her that Dr Grajn’ held her hand when she woke up (from kidney transplant surgery) and immediately started telling her romantic things, like how he was the only person she ‘He had his hands on her organs and that no one knew her like he did.’
In a decision handed down on November 17 but published last Friday, QCAT judicial member John Robertson ruled that “almost immediately after” Grajn operated on HBM, his behavior “indicated a clear sexual interest” in her.
‘On October 12, 2017, HBM committed suicide under the most horrific circumstances. “Several board witnesses establish a link in their statements between the relationship with the defendant and HBM’s death,” Mr. Robertson wrote.
Surgeon Dr Andrej Grajn (pictured), who had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman he had operated on and who later took her own life, has been disqualified from applying to be a doctor in Australia for two years.
Grajn worked as a kidney transplant surgeon at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital and assisted in HBM’s “life-saving” surgery and “allowed an inappropriate relationship to develop very soon afterwards”, the court found.
Robertson said Grajn’s relationship with the woman was “clearly inappropriate” because there was a power imbalance when she was a patient.
“Although HBM was not a typically vulnerable person (she was a professionally accomplished woman who held senior positions in the Queensland public service), the importance of the surgery in improving HBM’s quality of life denoted HBM’s inherent vulnerability and consequent power imbalance,” the report noted. expressed decision.
“The court is satisfied that (Dr. Grajn) entered into an inappropriate relationship while (the woman) was still recovering from surgery in hospital.”
Robertson added: “The evidence establishes that she trusted him and held him in high regard at the time.”
“Not only did he fail to appreciate the unethical and unprofessional nature of his conduct from the beginning, but throughout the investigation he revealed a complete lack of understanding of the importance of not exploiting a patient, and then a former patient, to lead to a sexual relationship that clearly had a profound effect on her, but which he considered unimportant.
“The effect the relationship had on HBM’s mental state and HBM’s tragic death are testament to why professional boundaries between doctors and patients must be maintained,” he wrote.
The court also found it clear that the tragic death of a “very capable and much loved woman” was the result of severe mental anguish in her final months.
“It is clear that this distress was in some way related to his relationship with the defendant (Grajn),” he said.
Robertson said Grajn’s relationship with HBM was long and intimate and that the surgeon “shows a clear lack of remorse or insight.”
The court also heard HBM told her psychologist about their sexual relationship, while receipts showed she and Grajn went to Canberra together and stayed in a single room at the Hyatt Hotel.
One of his co-workers said he believed Grajn “groomed and manipulated” the woman while she was emotionally vulnerable.
HBM also allegedly told her best friend that she had sex with Grajn during a European vacation with him and was disappointed when the relationship was not “rekindled” later.
The patient’s widower also gave evidence in court.
Grajn denied acting inappropriately or being guilty of misconduct, which the court rejected.
During the hearing last September, Grajn attempted to belittle HBM’s widower for “instigating the investigation as some kind of baseless personal vendetta.”
Dr Grajn worked as a kidney transplant surgeon at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital (pictured) and assisted in HBM’s “life-saving” surgery and “allowed an inappropriate relationship to develop very soon afterwards”, he concluded. the court.
He also “consistently insisted that his ‘relationship’ with HBM began after their therapeutic relationship concluded and that his private life is irrelevant and beyond the jurisdiction of regulators and the court,” Mr Robertson said.
The court concluded that “a period of disqualification is necessary for the defendant (Grajn) to understand the significance of his deviations from professional standards.”
Dr Grajn obtained his medical degree in Slovenia in 2005 and was a transplant surgery fellow at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane between 2015 and 2017.
He then left Australia to work in Slovenia before moving to Manchester in England and then working for the charity Doctors Without Borders.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he currently works at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
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