Diana doctor’s failures led to banker’s death
THE former private physician to Diana, Princess of Wales has admitted a catalogue of serious failings that led to the premature death of a leading City banker.
Dr Peter Wheeler, who officially identified the princess’s body after she was killed in Paris and has treated The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Kent, is facing a damages claim of £300,000 in connection with the death of Stefanos Vavalidis. Mr Vavalidis’s widow, Barbara, claims that the 69-year-old’s death from liver failure was caused by Dr Wheeler’s negligent prescription of a potentially dangerous drug.
Dr Wheeler, who works at the private Sloane Street Surgery in Knightsbridge and has treated celebrities such as Nigella Lawson and the actor Anthony Andrews, prescribed Mr Vavalidis with the cancer drug metho- trexate between May 2003 and 2015 to treat the skin condition psoriasis.
But, a writ lodged with the High Court, claims the drug severely damaged Mr Vavalidis’s liver and his immune system began to shut down, leading to his death from cirrhosis of the liver, with pneumonia and renal infection at University College Hospital in London in 2016.
Dr Wheeler admitted he was in breach of his duty as a doctor by failing to properly monitor Mr Vavalidis’s use of methotrexate and follow up apparent complication in his patient’s condition.
He is regarded as one of the most respected private physicians in London and his admissions will shock colleagues in the profession and his many patients.
His solicitors, Nabarro LLP, admit he “was aware that the drug may be associated with liver toxicity” and Mr Vavalidis would have lived for at least a year and a half longer had he been treated properly.
Mr Vavalidis’s widow and their two sons Alexander, 32, and Philip, 27, maintain he would have lived much longer than that had it not been for Dr Wheeler’s negligence, adding he “suffered gravely” before his death.