20 November 2019 - Doctors at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital are refusing to treat a terminally ill cancer patient who has less than two weeks to live because they fear a lifesaving therapy, obtained through the personal intervention of the federal Health Minister, could potentially cause him harm and breach ethical obligations.
Doctors have chosen to leave David Roberts, a renowned former NSW police officer, to die without treatment, a position that has stunned officials who have worked tirelessly to help him access the experimental treatment.
Mr Roberts, a father of three, said he was almost certain to die of stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma within the next fortnight unless he was given access to CAR T-cell therapy.