Prison for the lying GP who tried to hide his fatal error
A GP has been jailed for falsifying a patient's medical records after telling her she was "fine" three months before she died of a heart attack.
Mayur Gopal, 38, covered up his mistake for two years after the death of Hazel Wood, 57, and told her family he had done all he could for her.
But after Mrs Wood's daughter, Tracey, 37, doggedly investigated his claims she discovered that he had secretly altered the notes in an attempt to hide his error.
Gopal was jailed for eight months after admitting making a false instrument. He was struck off in 2005 by the General Medical Council.
Mrs Wood, a retired catering assistant, went to see Gopal in 2000 at Burmantofts Health Centre in Leeds complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains.
When an electroencephalogram test in October revealed a heart abnormality the GP, who qualified in 1997, failed to diagnose her life-threatening illness.
Instead he prescribed medication for asthma and apparently told Mrs Wood that her condition was normal for a smoker while the chest pains were related to a gastric problem.
Mrs Wood, who feared she had cancer, is said to have punched the air with relief. But in February 2001 she died in her sleep.
When her distraught daughter contacted Gopal about her mother's death he lied and claimed that he had raised the possibility of angina before prescribing aspirin and a Glyceryl Trinitrate spray.
Richard Walters, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that Gopal also erased some of Mrs Wood's records, creating new ones to make it look as though he had prescribed the appropriate treatment.
But Mrs Wood's daughter insisted that her mother had never mentioned anything about heart trouble.
"She went to see Dr Gopal who told her he had prescribed medication for angina," said Mr Walters.
"She was still not satisfied and went to see him for a second time, putting it to him that he was not telling the truth.
"The doctor laughed in her face, denied he was lying, and walked away."
Miss Wood searched her mother's home for the drugs Gopal said he had prescribed but could find none.
As a result she instructed solicitors before reporting Gopal to an NHS Trust and the medical ombudsman.
Eventually, in January 2003, the doctor confessed, claiming he had panicked after Mrs Wood's death.
Richard Mansell, defending, said his client had misread the ECG due to inexperience and panicked.
"It was a most foolish thing to do and he knows he has thrown away his career," he said.
Miss Wood said: "I spoke to Dr Gopal the day my mum died and he lied to me. He lied all the way through.
"I was tormented - my mother was 57 and was told she was fine only to die. She was a lovely bubbly woman who played a central role in the family. She died and she did not really need to."
