DOMANII CAMERON
A TOWNSVILLE doctor has denied asking a Condon mother to leave his practice with her young autistic son after the boy suffered a “meltdown”.
Samantha Akee visited My Family Doctors at Kirwan for an appointment yesterday with her six-year-old son Darius and her one-year-old daughter.
Ms Akee claimed she was asked to leave the practice after her son suffered the “meltdown”, due to his mental condition, because they were in an unfamiliar section of the surgery.
However, My Family Doctors director Dr Praveen Kumar denied the claim and said nothing like that would happen at the practice.
“There’s two sections in the surgery but he’s (Darius) melted down because there was a change so I had raised my voice in frustration with my son,” she said.
Dr Praveen Kumar leaves the Townsville Watchhouse on bail. Picture: Evan Morgan
“After that, (Dr Kumar’s) come out and told me to take him (Darius) outside but I couldn’t.”
Ms Akee said Dr Kumar also swore at her.
“He said ‘I don’t care, you can’t have that bulls — t around other patients’,” she said.
“He said, ‘We don’t have to put up with this bulls — t from these people’.
“I’m Torres Strait Islander.
“I want to lodge a complaint but I don’t know how I go about doing it.”
Ms Akee said her daughter had started crying because she had yelled back at Dr Kumar.
Dr Praveen Kumar leaves the Townsville Watchhouse on bail. Picture: Evan Morgan
“The ladies gave them (children) a lollipop and apologised,” she said.
Dr Kumar denied the claims.
“No, nobody was kicked out,” he said.
“No, she wasn’t kicked out from the practice.
“We don’t kick anyone out from my practice.
“Nothing like that happens at My Family Doctors.”