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Doctor at the centre of sports doping allegations denies keeping diagnosis from cancer patient

A doctor at the centre of sports doping allegations has denied keeping a terminal cancer patient ...



Doctor at the centre of sports...
Golf

Doctor at the centre of sports doping allegations denies keeping diagnosis from cancer patient

A doctor at the centre of sports doping allegations has denied keeping a terminal cancer patient in the dark about her condition.

The General Medical Council (GMC) claims Mark Bonar failed to inform the patient, an American woman in her 40s, that her cancer had spread and there was no hope of a cure.

A disciplinary tribunal also heard he administered "unconventional" nutritional treatment to the woman, referred to as Patient A, when it was dangerous to do so and unlikely to help her.

Dr Bonar, 38, insists he was only following a treatment plan said to have improved her quality of life and that she had already been informed by numerous medics she was dying.

Earlier this month, Dr Bonar was reported to have claimed he treated more than 150 sports people, including Premier League footballers, with banned substances including growth hormones and steroids.

He has dismissed the Sunday Times story as "false and very misleading".

Since last year he has faced unrelated allegations over his treatment of Patient A at a five-star hotel apartment in London's Mayfair between December 2013 and January 2014.

Two nurses became concerned about the quality of her care, the panel heard, and she was admitted to hospital as an emergency on 16 January. She died two months later.

Lawyer Gary Summers, representing Dr Bonar, said the nurses' version of events was disputed and they had "tried on several key issues to pull the wool over your eyes".

He said his client had continued to give Patient A total parenteral nutrition (TPN) - a form of intravenous feeding lasting eight hours per day - after she was previously administered it in Germany by another doctor.

He said it was her wish to go on receiving TPN. It had "transformed her quality of life" and she was "desperate to hold on to as many days as she could in this world".

Another doctor who treated Patient A at the apartment, Siegfried Trefzer, denies similar misconduct allegations.

Both he and Dr Bonar deny failing to take overall responsibility for the woman's care or to ensure there was a clinician with overall responsibility.

Dr Bonar, who is already suspended, could be struck off the medical register if he is found guilty of misconduct.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel sitting in Manchester is to reconvene later this year to make a decision on the case.

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