Headache specialist Dr Elliot Shevel (81), who has won international renown for his techniques in helping patients overcome head pains – and has also courted controversy – has been suspended by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) pending a formal inquiry and investigation into the deaths of two patients.
HPCSA spokesperson Priscilla Sekhonyana said: “It is alleged he was posing harm or risk as a result of unsafe professional practice or substantial risk of such harm or injury.”
News24 reports that Shevel, a maxillo-facial and oral surgeon, started The Headache Clinic in 1992 and has served as its medical director ever since.
The HPCSA would not confirm the identity of the complainants, however, News24 is in possession of a recording in which the establishment’s staff are informed of his suspension in connection with the deaths of two patients. One died three years ago and another in June under similar circumstances.
The first patient referred to was Marinella Avvakoumides (38) who was hospitalised hours after being treated at his clinic in 2021. She died eight days later.
The family of Avvakoumides, who was academic director of a Cape Town fashion school, approached the medical watchdog to investigate the possibility of professional misconduct or negligence as the cause of her death.
The complaint, lodged by the patient’s brother, shows she had suffered from recurrent severe headaches, for which she had visited several doctors.
She had consulted Shevel after finding him online, and underwent the “Shevel Desensitisation Procedure” in June that year.
The clinic’s website described the “very precise” practice that uses a cautery needle to permanently numb the pain signals from the tendons connecting the neck muscles to the skull. This while allowing the tendons to continue to function normally.
Shevel apparently developed the procedure after decades of research.
The treatment takes around 20 to 45 minutes under local anaesthesia.
However, according to the complaint, Marinella’s headaches persisted, and she was scheduled for a second desensitisation procedure, on 15 July 2021.
Several hours after that second procedure, however, she complained of neck pain. An hour and a half later, she complained of a headache and more severe pain, and after a call to Shevel, he advised her to return for an assessment.
“On the way to Shevel’s rooms, her condition deteriorated very rapidly, and (the friend) driving her there decided to take her to Life Fourways Hospital, where she was admitted to the emergency department in a deeply comatose state,” said the complaint.
She never regained consciousness and was declared brain dead a few days later.
An autopsy found that her cause of death was “sequelae of intraspinal and intracranial haemorrhage” – essentially bleeding in the spine and brain – with features of surgical intervention consistent with the available history of craniocervical intramuscular injection.
Her brother said he was told that evidence of nerve and/or brain tissue damage had been found.
He has asked that a “thorough professional review be undertaken” of Shevel’s conduct.
“In particular… a critical review regarding the so-called Shevel Desensitisation Procedure as a therapy in such cases…” he said.
It has further been asked that the HPCSA determine whether:
• The procedure constitutes an appropriate and accepted form of treatment that has been validated by the medical profession;
• The procedure was properly performed in respect of the required preparation, the manner it was carried out and the post-procedure monitoring and support provided to Marinella; and
• She had received appropriate and adequate information regarding the procedure beforehand, in terms of possible serious or fatal complications.
On Friday, a security guard said the facility had been “temporarily closed” for the past two days.
Shevel told News24 he had dedicated 30 years of his life to helping thousands of patients “find relief from debilitating pain”.
“While inferences can be made into the mechanism of what may have happened, the chain of events is still not certain, nor to what extent they are linked to the procedure. Due to this uncertainty, I understand the committee’s need to take this precautionary step and I am offering my full cooperation.”
He added that no determination of guilt had been made as the matter had not yet been put before a formal inquiry for the facts to be accurately ascertained.
“Medical complications, even very serious ones, may arise after any medical procedure… this does not automatically imply negligence nor that a duty of care was breached.”
He confirmed he had attended a suspension hearing last Wednesday, where he was verbally informed of the decision. “I have not yet received a formal written notification and have no further information,” he said.
Son alleges misconduct
In a public feud in 2015, according to a TimesLIVE report, his son Daniel alleged that his father was conducting illegal medical experiments on his patients, and that “innocent people have been hurt, some have been killed”.
At the time, Shevel Jnr was locked in a legal tussle for defaulting on thousands of rands in rental owed to his father for the flat in which he stayed in Cape Town. Rather bizarrely, he was also claiming the Hawks were attempting to assassinate him.
In what become a nasty spat peppered with the supposed death threats, the migraine guru’s son (47 at the time) was fired from his father’s business in December 2015 for apparent misconduct and insubordination, which included an attempted hostile takeover of The Headache Clinic, locking his father out, encouraging staff to strike, stealing patients’ files and computer disks and hacking staff emails.
Daniel unsuccessfully challenged his axing in the Labour Court and failed to have his father disciplined by the HPCSA, which found no evidence of unprofessional conduct.
“I cannot reconcile with my father emotionally until there is reconciliation of his actions. Innocent people have been hurt, some have been killed. Most of the families have no idea that their loved ones who presented with life-threatening headaches at The Headache Clinic were defrauded and then subjected to medical experiments in which some patients died,” he said.
His father denied all allegations.
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