February 25, 2000  No stranger to controversy Sick Kids' golden reputation has been tarnished in the past By Nicolaas van Rijn  Toronto Star Staff Reporter As a world-famous healing institution, Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children is no stranger to the limelight.  But every once in a great while, when something goes terribly wrong, the place where very sick children go to get better finds itself under a different kind of spotlight: the pitiless gaze of critical scrutiny.  The 20-day inquest into the death of 10-year-old Lisa Shore was one such case, but there have been others.  Late last year, the hospital was at the centre of worldwide controversy in the case of Dr. Gideon Koren, who was suspended as the hospital's director of pharmacology after he admitted sending fellow researchers, including Dr. Nancy Olivieri, what they considered to be hate mail.  Koren remains on paid leave from the hospital and the University of Toronto, where he is a full professor.  Olivieri's lawyers want open hearings into the matter, but the hospital has refused to allow this.  Olivieri has been at the centre of a long-standing dispute involving Koren, the hospital, U of T and Canadian drug manufacturer Apotex Inc.  She and Koren had a falling-out in 1996 while conducting research for Apotex on the drug deferiprone, which was being tested for use in treating a rare blood disease. Apotex threatened to sue Olivieri when she wanted to go public with negative results - results Koren did not support.  In another black eye for Sick Kids, in 1991, two of three doctors charged with professional misconduct in connection with the 1980 death of 8-year-old Steven Yuz were found guilty by a discipline committee of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.  The committee found that in caring for Steven, the actions of Dr. Daisy Pavri and Dr. Ronald M. Grant fell below acceptable medical standards.  Steven was admitted on Jan. 26, 1980, for treatment of severe abdominal pain and vomiting. The medical team in charge of his care initially considered the source of the problem to be psychological, and at one point during his hospital stay Steven was told to help clean up his own vomit.  The youngster's heart stopped on Jan. 31, partly because a junior resident discontinued intravenous feeding for his dehydration. No doctor had seen him for 12 hours. Steven was revived, but during surgery doctors discovered a section of his bowel was painfully twisted, forcing him to vomit.  After Steven died Feb. 20, 1980, of a lung hemorrhage - allegedly the result of his dehydration from vomiting - a coroner's inquest heard of medical mishaps and destroyed records. The jury urged many changes in procedure at the institution.  A malpractice suit filed against the hospital and eight doctors was later settled out of court for $80,000.  Perhaps the most famous case involving the Hospital for Sick Children and alleged medical wrongdoing dates back to the early 1980s and involved the deaths of babies while they slept in the hospital's cardiac ward.  Nurse Susan Nelles was charged with administering toxic doses of the heart drug digoxin to four babies. Charges against her were thrown out after a preliminary hearing.  In an article published in The Canadian Nurse in 1993, radiologist Gavin Hamilton of London, Ont., concluded that a chemical leaching from rubber in the syringes, drug vials and intravenous tubing was more likely than murder to have caused the infant deaths.

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