'Jailed doc saved my life'

Cape Town - 121009 - Sofwaan Adams speaks to the Cape Argus about how, when he was 6 years old, he was treated by Dr. Cyril Karabus at the Red Cross Hospital. Dr. Karabus is being detained in a jail in Abu Dhabi after he was arrested in Dubai after being tried in absentia for the death of a cancer patient he worked on 10 years prior. Reporter: Nontando Mposo PICTURE: DAVID RITCHIE

Cape Town - 121009 - Sofwaan Adams speaks to the Cape Argus about how, when he was 6 years old, he was treated by Dr. Cyril Karabus at the Red Cross Hospital. Dr. Karabus is being detained in a jail in Abu Dhabi after he was arrested in Dubai after being tried in absentia for the death of a cancer patient he worked on 10 years prior. Reporter: Nontando Mposo PICTURE: DAVID RITCHIE

Published Oct 10, 2012

Share

Cape Town - A former patient of jailed Cape Town Professor Cyril Karabus says he received the best cancer treatment from the former oncology and haematology unit head at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital when he was diagnosed with lymph cancer at age six.

Safwaan Adams, of Athlone, was told he had only a few months to live, and was treated by doctors at the hospital, including Karabus, and was later found to be clear of cancer.

Adams, 51, was in and out of the hospital for 11 years.

 “Karabus and other doctors at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital are without a doubt still part of my life,” he said. “They cared for me through my most difficult period… I cannot thank them enough.”

Adams remembers Karabus arriving at the hospital driving his light blue Ford Anglia. “Sometimes he would take me home or to the beach with other children. He was much younger then… every time he walked into my ward, E2, he had a wide smile.”

 

Karabus, 77, of Claremont is imprisoned in the hospital wing of Al Wathba Central Prison in Abu Dhabi. He was arrested on August 18, while in transit in Dubai to SA.

 

While working as a locum 12 years ago at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi, UAE, he operated on a three-year-old cancer patient who later died of leukaemia.

 

His fifth bail application last week was rejected without a reason.

 

[email protected]

Cape Argus

Related Topics: