Labrador doctor under scrutiny after patients go public with allegations

A doctor in central Labrador is facing scrutiny following allegations from patients and their families that include a botched surgery, aggressive behaviour, and causing unnecessary pain during standard procedures.

Women in Labrador began sharing their experiences with Happy Valley-Goose Bay obstetrician/gynaecologist (OBGYN) Adolf Hamann after a family member of one of Hamann’s patients shared their mother’s experience on social media last fall. According to Jodie Ashini, things went terribly wrong for her mother Sheila Blake after Blake went into the hospital for a surgery on Oct. 21, 2024.

Jolene Ashini, Jodie’s younger sister and a practicing lawyer, told The Independent in a December phone interview that Hamann was supposed to remove a cyst from her mother’s ovaries. Immediately after the surgery, Blake’s family noticed she was suffering. “She was complaining that her back was really sore, and she was feeling really sick,” Ashini recalled. “It got to a point where Mom was screaming and crying in pain. We didn’t know at that time that her bowel was perforated; we thought that it was her back that was sore.”

Ashini said Dr. Hamann assumed Blake’s discomfort was normal, but nothing alleviated the pain. “They gave her morphine, they gave her Gravol; she was still throwing up, and she was saying she was in a whole whack of pain,” she said. “At that point I was in tears, because my mom was in tears from so much pain, and there was nothing that I could do.”

According to Ashini, Blake became low on oxygen and was sweating; she was also exhausted and oversleeping. Ashini recalled her mother saying, “I’m afraid because I can’t stay awake. I don’t know why I can’t stay awake.”

Ashini said she asked Dr. Hamann to check for sepsis and infection. What her mother was experiencing reminded Ashini of symptoms her late father experienced years earlier. “We have had experience with septic shock with our dad, so it was explained to us what the symptoms are for sepsis by doctors when dad was [in the hospital].”

Ashini said an emergency operation two days later confirmed something went wrong during Blake’s initial surgery. Her bowel was punctured “through and through,” she said, which caused the extreme pain and for bile to leak into her body.

Blake was medevacked to St. John’s, where she is still in recovery.

“Mom’s recovery has been pretty rough […] and within the first week of being [in St. John’s] she had to have emergency surgery while in the ICU,” Ashini explained. “The surgeon here recommended three to four months of waiting for the inflammation to come down in her abdomen and her bowls to repair [the damage].

“She is going to be here for a while.”

On Jan. 15, Ashini said the family has learned Blake will “need a fistula and bladder repair surgery whenever she’s strong enough.” She also said her mother “is slowly relearning how to walk.”

Ashini said she has filed a complaint with NL Health Services.

Other women come forward

When Isla Strachan read the social media post about Sheila Blake’s experience she was moved to action. The 37-year-old mother said Dr. Hamann left a speculum inside of her following an examination in October 2024. When she reminded the doctor to take it out, she said Dr. Hamann caused her physical pain when he abruptly removed it from her body.

Strachan said it felt like something ripped inside of her. “It was a routine procedure; it was supposed to be completely painless, but it wasn’t,” she recalled, adding she experienced bleeding for three days after the procedure. 

She says she immediately filed a complaint with the health authority.

When Strachan learned other women in Labrador had negative experiences with Dr. Hamann, she started an online petition and connected with 15 women. She then shared her story, along with those she collected from other women, with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador. “It felt like something had to be done because no one got any justification for what they went through,” she said.

The college would not confirm whether it has launched an investigation into Dr. Hamann, but an email to The Independent suggests it may be looking into the allegations.

“The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador is unable to comment on open investigations,” the college said in an emailed statement. “Members of the public can make a complaint about a physician’s conduct or the medical care they have provided by visiting Making a Complaint – CPSNL.”

‘I feared for my safety and my unborn child’s safety’

Karyn Couperthwaite, an Inuk woman and licensed practical nurse in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, first encountered Dr. Hamann as a patient nine years ago when she was ready to give birth to her second child.

Her first child was born through a cesarean section, but she was hoping to have a natural birth her second time around. According to Couperthwaite, this decision irritated Dr. Hamann for reasons not clear to Couperthwaite.

A few days after her first contraction though, she was sleep deprived and too exhausted. Couperthwaite realized she would need a c-section. She says she was surprised and confused when Dr. Hamann changed his mind on the matter. According to Couperthwaite, Dr. Hamann stated, “No c-section for you; you’re 29 years old — your body knows what to do.”

With her mother in the room, Couperthwaite argued with Dr. Hamann about having a c-section. “Me and him started yelling back and forth at each other. Both of our voices were raised,” she recalls. “Here I am, nine months pregnant. I hadn’t slept for days, I’m hormonal, and this guy is irritating [me].”

Things then got more heated, and stranger, according to Couperthwaite, who says Dr. Hamann physically blocked the door to the room, preventing her then husband from entering. She alleges Dr. Hamann said, “‘We’re not done our conversation, he doesn’t need to be a part of it,’” and that he “put his back up against the door to push it closed. So, I yelled out [to my husband], ‘Open the door, the doctor’s pushing against it.’” 

Eventually, Dr. Hamann agreed to the c-section, but Couperthwaite was now scared about the surgery. She says she asked a nurse if she could be flown to St. John’s for the procedure but was told that wasn’t possible. “I wasn’t comfortable, I was terrified. I feared for my safety and my unborn child’s safety,” she says. “There was nothing I could do but pray. I’m not a religious person, but I prayed.”

Fortunately, the c-section was successful and Couperthwaite’s second child was born healthy. But seven years later, Couperthwaite made a shocking discovery.

When she had her c-section, Couperthwaite says she had asked Dr. Hamann to tie her tubes — a procedure known as tubal ligation. But when she decided to try for another child, she went to have the reverse procedure done and get her tubes untied. That’s when she says another doctor informed her that her fallopian tubes had been removed altogether. 

“It was a punch to the gut. We were planning this, we were excited about this; I didn’t know there was going to be these issues,” Couperthwaite recalls. “This was all because of a choice [Dr. Hamann] made for me.”

Couperthwaite says she never filed a formal complaint against Dr. Hamann. In hindsight, she says, she wishes she did.

Doctor denies wrongdoing

On Dec. 11 Dr. Hamann agreed to an interview for this story but later backed out, saying he had been advised not to comment publicly on the matter.

Robin Cook, an attorney representing Dr. Hamann, said neither he nor his client are aware of any investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador. Cook says he spoke with the college’s legal counsel, who confirmed no investigation is underway.

“There are no active allegations at the college or investigations involving Dr. Hamann at this point in time,” Cook told The Independent on Jan. 10. “All I know is he renewed his [medical] license recently and there was no issue with it,” he added. “All physicians renew their licenses before January 15.”

Cook did confirm, however, that NL Health Services is reviewing the complaints from Sheila Blake and Isla Strachan. He said Hamann denies any wrongdoing in those cases. “He explained his version of what occurred,” he said. “We’re in the middle of resolving those [complaints], so it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about those.”

The lawyer said Dr. Hamann has been asked “to continue because of the shortage of physicians” in the region, and that Dr. Hamann has currently “gone to Columbia, just taking some time off.”

Cook said neither he nor Hamman can comment on the allegations from Couperthwaite because they are unaware of them. “We have no knowledge of those allegations, so I don’t know where they’re coming from,” he said.

A Facebook post made by this author inviting women to come forward with stories of Hamann received more than two dozen comments, the majority of which praised the doctor’s professionalism. One woman said Hamann “saved mine and my baby’s life,” and that “if it weren’t for him, we probably wouldn’t be here today.”

The doctor doesn’t have a clean slate, though. In 2011, while working in Corner Brook, Hamann pleaded guilty to uttering threats to a St. John’s doctor over the phone. According to CBC articles from 2010 and 2011, Hamann made a death threat against St. John’s oncologist Dr. Pradip Ganguly and his family. “You are a [expletive] Indian and if you don’t take back what you said you and your family will die.”

Hamann told a Corner Brook court in 2011 that he was “tired and stressed out” at the time of the incident, and that he is not a racist. His lawyer told the court that Hamann’s career as a doctor would be ruined if his client received a criminal conviction. Hamann was given a conditional discharge and 18 months probation.