Hazel Magnussen's voice wavers when she talks about the events that led to the death of her brother, Dr. Doug Snider, but her resolve to continue publicizing his cause does not.
“Our family continues to grieve the loss of a precious loved one, but it is especially difficult to accept that my brother's life was taken by a medical colleague whom he should have been able to trust,” says Magnussen, a nurse in Delta, BC.
Snider, a family physician from Fairview, Alta., was involved in an on-going battle of wills with another local FP, Abraham Cooper. In 2000 Cooper was convicted of manslaughter for killing Snider, whose body has never been found. Snider disappeared after going to meet Cooper in May 1999.
At his trial, Cooper was alleged to have been “disruptive and detrimental” to the functioning of the Fairview Hospital. Witnesses also said that he had been “rude, antagonistic and abusive” toward other doctors.
The battle between the physicians simmered for years, fuelled by the revocation of Cooper's hospital privileges in 1993 and by a $3.2-million civil suit he had filed, which alleged that Snider and 2 other physicians were conspiring against him.
Magnussen said Snider was frustrated that, as a recovering alcoholic who had sought treatment, his behaviour was being monitored by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) but that of a potentially dangerous colleague was not.
Magnussen has prepared recommendations to improve the way cases involving “disruptive” physicians are handled, and hopes to discuss them with the college. Her proposals include providing support for those who are targets of physical and verbal threats from colleagues. “The college has been open to her suggestions and several of the initiatives she suggests are already in use,” CPSA Registrar Bob Burns told CMAJ. “Where they are not, there can certainly be some discussion about what kinds of improvement can occur.”
Magnussen made her comments during a session on physician conflict presented at the CMA-cosponsored International Conference on Physician Health, held in Vancouver last fall. — Steve Wharry, CMAJ