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31 janvier, 2008 13:11
Doctor tells court he removed lump from his wife's breast by himself
By Sonya McLean
Tuesday January 29 2008
Consultant surgeon Dr Emad Massoud, who is charged with a €700,000 breast cancer insurance fraud, described in court yesterday how he removed a lump from his own wife's breast under local anaesthetic.
"A doctor is a human being and human beings can sometimes be happy and sometimes sad, sometimes laugh and sometimes cry, sometimes can be brave and sometimes can be a coward and I was scared," Dr Emad Massoud said in evidence in his defence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Dr Massoud (52) and his wife, Gehan Massoud (43), of Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, Co Meath, have pleaded not guilty to intent to defraud two companies by falsely pretending that Mrs Massoud had suffered breast cancer and that there was an obligation on them to settle serious illness claims.
They deny intent to defraud €685,658 from Scottish Provident Ltd on March 25, 2002 through having it made payable to Permanent TSB and €45,338 on February 22, 2002 from Lifetime Assurance Company Ltd by having that sum transferred to their account at the Bank of Ireland in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Dr Massoud said he discussed his wife's prognosis with his friend and colleague Dr Mohamed Hilal, who suggested that she have a mammogram on her right breast to exclude the possibility that cancer had developed there.
He said Dr Hilal also advised that Mrs Massoud have both radio and chemotherapy but she said there was "no way" she would have the suggested treatments.
He said that when he sent in the histology request forms to the Mater Hospital, he used Dr Hilal's name to cover himself and he later had to continue to use the name on the insurance claim forms because he knew he would have to send the pathology reports to the company.
Dr Massoud said that an earlier prosecution witness, Dr Mohamed Elsayed Attia, who claimed to have seen a jar containing human tissue in the Massoud's home sometime after his mother-in-law had been diagnosed with cancer was "a clever illusionist".
Gardai
But Dr Massoud accepted that the gardai "were perfectly entitled to interview him" after the surgeon, who the couple claimed had performed the lumpectomy, denied doing it.
Dr Massoud accepted his counsel's suggestion that in Ireland surgeons were not allowed to operate on their own family but added that it was allowed in Egypt.
He said he was aware he was breaking ethical codes of conduct but agreed that both he and his wife had "concerns about delay" in her treatmentwhen they decided to operate in his clinic under local anaesthetic. The trial continues.
- Sonya McLean
