Franciscus Versteeg, the Dutch ophthalmologist who operated on four people leaving them all partially, if not completely, blind failed to turn up at his trial in Portimão yesterday (December 3) on the plea of poverty. The news came as a yet another bombshell to former patients and their families, all of whom have been struggling with horrendously damaged lives.
“The Portuguese state let him work here and it should now oblige him to stand trial,” said Valdelene Aparecida, the Brazilian woman worst affected by treatment she received to both eyes at Versteeg’s former I-QMed in Lagoa in 2010.
“I have lived the last four years in the worst manner possible,” she told Correio da Manhã yesterday. I have completely lost my eyesight. Now, all I wish is that justice can be done for the sake of my children. One of them is only seven years old, and the other has had to give up school to go out to work because I am unable to.”
The 39-year-old spoke to reporters on the arm of her daughter.
Aparecida is asking for €95,000 in damages, while the other victims – two of which were present in court yesterday – are asking for lesser amounts.
Leopolidina Rosa, 92, Ernesto Barradas, 88, and Michael Donovan, now living in Madeira, claim cataract surgery at I-QMed left them all partially-blind.
Donovan gave evidence via a video link, while the others were all heard by the court.
But the question remains, will Versteeg be brought to justice?
The eye doctor is charged with four crimes of offence to physical integrity through aggravated negligence.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the doctor failed to keep his clinic and surgical implements “properly disinfected”, which resulted in the growth of sight-impairing bacteria.
Versteeg always maintained that the problems suffered by his patients were “horrible accidents” that “can sometimes happen”. But days after the stories of the horror suffered at IQ-Med broke, Versteeg is reported to have closed his clinic and returned to Holland.
According to CM, he “never even apologised to his patients, or gave them any explanations” for what had happened.
Charged alongside the Dutch eye doctor is psychologist Reinaldo Bartolomeu who is accused of working illegally at the clinic and not using gloves during surgical procedures – accusations he denied in court yesterday.
Meantime, the court has appointed a judge to defend Versteeg in his absence.
Wednesday’s hearings were adjourned until December 12 at 9.15am.
It is a case that many will recall and which highlighted the number of private clinics operating illegally in Portugal at the time.
Interviewed by Diário de Notícias when the story broke, Versteeg denied lack of hygiene in his surgeries, but the paper went on to discover other patients with horror stories of treatment at I-QMed.
Ronald Rietbroek told DN that he felt 50% of his life had been “stolen” as a result of eye surgeries in 2004. According to the paper, there were 14 others who felt much the same. But by the time Portugal’s doctors association had decided to suspend Versteeg from practising in Portugal, the doctor was out of national jurisdiction and “difficult to notify” in Holland.
Dutch eye doctor misses trial as he “can't afford” trip
