Doctor who left teen paralysed in crash avoids being struck off after helping her recovery
‘She is not blaming him’
A DOCTOR spared jail over a car crash that left his teenage passenger paralysed is to keep his job after it emerged he has used his medical expertise to help her take her first steps.
Dr David Rawaf, 28, had been driving Ekaterina Nuss home after they spent an evening at a restaurant when he tried to accelerate away from another car at traffic lights.
But he lost control when his BMW hit in a dip in the road, took off and span into nearby trees.
The mangled wreckage of his car only came to a standstill after it was hurled into a lamppost at speed.
Rawaf escaped with minor injuries, but Miss Nuss – a 19year- old art student who is known as Katya – was left with severe spinal damage and was temporarily paralysed from the waist down.
Seventeen months on from the incident in Wandsworth, south London, she has only just started taking steps with assistance and has ‘ lifechanging injuries’, a medical tribunal heard.
Following the crash, Rawaf was convicted of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, but escaped with a 16-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
This week, he faced being struck off by a medical tribunal for misconduct over the incident. However, a disciplinary panel decided to take no action against him after hearing how he had been visiting Miss Nuss virtually every day to check on her progress, and she did not want him to be punished.
Colleagues from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, where Rawaf is a clinical education fellow, also said he had liaised with spinal injury experts and studied techniques to help him support her recovery. Last night, her sister Valeria confirmed that Miss Nuss had forgiven Rawaf, despite feeling depressed over being stuck in a wheelchair and having to rely on others to wash and dress her.
‘It’s very difficult for her,’ she said. ‘She is not blaming him. It was an accident.
‘But she’s very conflicted – David put her in the wheelchair, but he has also stuck around afterwards to help her. He came to visit her in the hospital. He has helped with her massages and physiotherapy. He has researched cures for her. ‘So she doesn’t hate him, but she’s up and down. ‘She will need a miracle to walk again. There is a 2 per cent chance. Before the accident she was a happy-golucky young woman. Now she can’t do anything or go anywhere without help.’
Rawaf attended Whitgift School in Croydon, where boarding year. Miss Nuss, fees are from £36,411 Siberia, a went to an international school in Switzerland before studying in London at Central St Martins school of art.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) was told that Rawaf crashed on January 24 last year.
Rebecca Vanstone, the lawyer for the General Medical Council, told the Manchester hearing that he accelerated over the 40mph limit as he entered a roundabout before his car left the ground and span out of control. In addition to the suspended sentence Rawaf received at his trial in December at Kingston Crown Court, west London, Rawaf, from Carshalton, Surrey, was also ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and was banned from driving for three years. At the time, Judge Paul Dodgson told him that he had ‘no doubt your speed contributed to your loss of control’ and that the effect on Miss Nuss was ‘ catastrophic’. But he said Rawaf had the ‘courage and decency’ to visit her regularly. Paul Moulder chairman of the MPTS panel, said Rawaf was a ‘capable, caring and conscientious’ doctor, adding: ‘He has done everything he can do to make amends for his actions. ‘There are exceptional circumstances which would justify taking no action in this case.’