It's been 54 days since Professor Karabus returned home after his ordeal in the UAE, and he's already back at work.
|||Cape Town - It’s been 54 days since paediatric oncologist Professor Cyril Karabus returned home to Cape Town after a nine-month ordeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and he is back to doing what he loves: practising medicine.
He also plans to write a book about his ordeal.
“It’s very nice to be back with my family and to be able to take a walk in my garden. Cape Town is definitely a nicer city than Abu Dhabi,” said Karabus on Wednesday from his temporary office at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.
“It feels good to be doing medicine again. I’ve been out of action for almost a year. That’s a long time for me.”
Karabus, 78, of Kenilworth, was convicted and sentenced in absentia for the murder of a three-year-old Yemeni girl he treated for leukaemia in 2002, during his short stint as a locum at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi.
He was arrested in August when passing through the UAE on a flight from Toronto, Canada, where he attended a wedding, to South Africa.
“I didn’t know what was happening, no one explained anything. They grabbed me and dragged me away,” said Karabus, recalling his arrest. “I managed to explain that I had a heart problem and had a pacemaker. And they took me to the prison’s medical ward where I spent two months.”
During his imprisonment he did free consultations for some of the prisoners. “I should have charged their medical aids,” joked Karabus, who is now facing over a million rand in legal fees.
“After 33 years working at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, I’m facing a very miserable pension I cannot live on. I have to do locums,” he said.
Karabus explained that he is contemplating taking legal action against Emirates Airlines and the hospital group that hired him for his locum in the UAE as they failed to inform him about the charges against him.
“We are thinking about it but no decision has been made yet,” he said. “There was a security alert on my passport in Toronto when I checked in, but when I questioned them (Emirates Airlines staff), they went away to the manager’s office. When they returned they told me it was sorted.
“They had a hand in getting me arrested. Emirates Airlines is not an airline but a police organisation. If they had warned me I could have stayed in transit,” he said.
“When you are in trouble in the UAE you are treated as an inferior person, and they do what they want to do with you, despite the fact that they are very dependent on expats.
“I will never go there again, not if I can help it. There is no reason to visit there except to make money.”
Karabus said that from the beginning it was not going well with the young patient who died in 2002.
“She had leukaemia and lots of additional problems. I expressed sympathy with the father when she passed away and there was never any particular feeling that he had a problem with me,” he said.
“I don’t expect a letter of apology from the UAE but what I would like to have is a copy of the medical report that was compiled by a group of doctors that said I did not kill the child. I want to put that on my CV, it will help me get more jobs.”
Karabus said that in the past week three babies were delivered under his care. “The obstetricians tease me now and again and tell me they are not used to working with a convict.”
Karabus was greeted by hundreds of people at the airport, including his ex-patients. He also met his grandson Gabriel, now five months, for the first time. “I was anxious walking through security check in Dubai. I expected them to say my papers were not adequate or I needed something else, and I might miss the plane,” he said of his last moments in the UAE.
“I knew there would be people waiting for me at the airport but I didn’t expect such a crowd. I’m grateful for all the support people have showed me from around the world, especially South African Dr Elwin Buchel, who provided me with accommodation.”
Karabus’s plans for the coming months include slowly going through his mail and writing a book about his nine-month nightmare.
nontando.mposo@inl.co.za
Cape Argus