Former patient of Toronto neurosurgeon who allegedly killed his wife feels abandoned by hospital

A former patient of Dr. Mohammed Shamji, the Toronto neurosurgeon accused of killing his wife late last year, says she ran to her car wiping away tears after meeting with her replacement surgeon, who she said won't operate to relieve her chronic pain. 

"It took me everything I had to keep it together to just get out to the car," said Bernadette Green, reflecting back on sitting in her new doctor's office for the first time this week at Toronto Western Hospital.

"The hospital's basically washed their hands of me," she said. "They just sent me on my way."

• Parents of murdered Toronto doctor Elana Fric attend Mohammed Shamji court appearance

• Alleged murderer a 'controlling' husband, says friend of slain Toronto physician

• Toronto neurosurgeon Mohammed Shamji, 40, charged with murder in death of physician wife

Green, 46, first met with Shamji in June 2016 and by October, she says, he'd decided she was a good candidate to have a neuro-stimulator implanted into her neck.

She said Shamji told her the complex procedure would reduce the chronic pain that's been getting worse since she suffered three compression fractures in her upper spine in a car accident in 1990. Right now, she manages the pain by taking oxycodone every four to six hours.

Green says the surgeon who replaced Shamji has recommended no change in they way she's managing her pain now.

"There's two doctors here. They are looking at the same patient with the same procedure, looking at all the same information and test results ... How can they have such polar opposite opinions?" she said. "I mean, I understand that doctors often have differing opinions, but they disagreed on every aspect."

Shamji's caseload was abruptly re-assigned in December after he was charged with first-degree murder.

The body of his wife, Dr. Elana Fric, who was a prominent family physician, was discovered in a suitcase under a bridge near Vaughan, Ont. on Dec. 1.

Several hundred patients, including a number of people waiting for surgery in December and January, had to be reassigned.  

Green had signed her surgery papers and was expecting to go under the knife in Spring of 2017, but now that Shamji's behind bars she's back to square one.

'I feel abandoned and hopeless'

Green said either Dr. Shamji was incompetent; green-lighting inappropriate surgeries, or — the more likely scenario in her mind — his replacements are not able to fill the celebrated neurosurgeon's shoes.

"Are they overwhelmed? Do they not have the doctors who can do what he can do? Are they trying to thin out the list? I don't know but I just don't accept that answer."

She said she called the hospital's patient help line and was told a number of Dr. Shamji's patients were reassigned to surgeons no longer recommending surgery.

The University Health Network (UHN), which includes Toronto Western Hospital, said all of Shamji's patients will begin "a new therapeutic relationship and advice may change for a number of reasons.

"The neurosurgeons and spine surgeons in the neurosurgical program at Toronto Western are neither over their heads nor are they overwhelmed," Gillian Howard, UHN's vice president of Public Affairs and Communications, wrote in a statement to CBC Toronto.

'More conservative management is being recommended,' UHN says

"Our surgeons have the clinical expertise to manage every patient who has been assigned and it is clear that more conservative management of a problem is being recommended in some cases," said Howard.

"Everyone understands that this is upsetting for some patients and we certainly regret that that is the case."

But it's a tough pill to swallow for Green.

"When he said, 'Yes, you are a candidate,' I was over the moon, I was so excited. Finally some hope," she said.

Now that hope is dashed and she's seeking another neurosurgeon at another hospital who might agree the surgery is better than a life of medicated pain management.