‘It changed our family’
A YOUNG boy hogtied during a medical appointment is too traumatised to enter a doctor’s consulting room six years after the incident.
The boy’s mum, who can’t be identified, said her family was “turned upside down” after she took her son, then aged 7, to see Dr Neville Davis in October 2012.
Dr Davis twice hogtied the boy and squatted over him. The child has attention deficit hyperactive disorder, autism and an auto-immune disease.
The single mother-offour broke her silence a week after a QCAT Tribunal sanctioned Dr Davis, who was acquitted of criminal charges, with a reprimand.
The boy, now 13, had “not been the same since the consult”, according to his mother. “That day changed our entire family,” she said.
The mother and her children, now aged 14, 13, 12 and eight, had moved to the Gold Coast only 18 months before the incident, looking for a fresh start.
“I went to Dr Davis seeking advice about my son’s behaviour, which I was certain was attributed to autism,” she said.
“When I told Dr Davis what I was thinking, he went to a drawer and pulled out a rope. I thought, ‘oh here we go, he’s going to make him walk in a line or something’, but he told my son to lie on his stomach and started tying him up. I knew it was not right but my son wasn’t upset, or crying, and broke free, but then he tied him again and sat on him, causing my son to cry out in pain.
“That’s when I pushed him off, grabbed my son and walked out.
“It took over a year for anyone to listen to me after what happened. I spoke to teachers, doctors, police … I had photographs, which I took while Dr Davis had him tied up, but still no one listened. It wasn’t until I found a new paediatrician who believed us that things progressed.”
The mother, who can’t work due to the disabilities of her four children, said the legal process was unrelenting on her family, but given the chance to do it all again, she wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s been horrific, but I did what I had to do for my son and my family.”
The mother said her son was often quiet and withdrawn.
Dr Davis has retired from medicine.