“It takes courage of a rare order to bring to light the reticence of many of one’s colleagues in controversial issues. You have not let blowback restrain you.”
DR MICHAEL NICHOLSON
DOES THE LAW HAVE A HEART?
A Cardiologist’s search for the legal profession’s pulse
A book by AMA (NSW) member Dr John England
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what it’s like to be a juror in a high-profile case? Have you ever considered the impact such a role can have on a juror for the rest of their life?
Dr John England, an expert witness for the coroner was inspired to collect 30 years of medico-legal cases to reveal what happens in the jury room.
“The impetus for this book came originally from a court case in Katoomba in which the accused was found guilty of murder (later manslaughter) in the death of a friend who made an unwanted and rather aggressive sexual advance to him.” Dr England said.
Dr England has treated many patients scarred by legal trials, among them three jurors from the case quoted above. Each suffered PTSD and nightmares after they touched the weapon used in the crime.
“Jurors can’t “unsee” what happened in the courtroom for the rest of their lives.” Dr England said. “And they are just a handful of those who suffer lifelong effects from serious crime.
“The favourite bookstore novels are crime fiction, but this book actually gives the reader the real “nitty gritty” of true NSW cases as it recounts what happened after the crime. There is the legacy of PTSD of the survivors but little access
to rural psychiatric help beyond Telehealth. Forensic medicine has retreated to the coastal cities and the rural magistrates no longer conduct coronial inquests.”
Dr England told The NSW Doctor.
“Over 50 years medical prescribing of psychotropic medications has changed extensively. Initially mental health patients were treated as inpatients under a psychiatrist who initiated treatments for psychosis, depression and anxiety disorders and case workers tracked patients.
“Currently in some practices 1 in 6 patients are on mood-altering drugs. The withdrawal of a very regular medication has changed a person’s response to provocation and resulted in uncharacteristic subsequent criminal behaviour.”
This book draws on the experiences of journalists who pushed for the John Sacker judicial inquiry into gay bashing deaths and hate crime. Further sections explore police taser deaths from a cardiologist’s perspective; eventually mediating “Hurt on Duty” claims for police officers suffering mental stress and heart attacks leading to a medical discharge pension for life.”
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Dr John England is a 50-year member of AMA (NSW). He is a full time physician and cardiologist in Lithgow, Mudgee and Gulgong.