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(ASHLEY LEGASSIC - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

A Penticton psychiatrist who suffered "devastating" injuries when he was attacked by a patient almost ten years ago has lost an appeal in trying to hold the Interior Health Authority responsible.

According to an Aug. 8 Appeal Court of BC decision, Dr. Rajeev Sheoran won't see a penny of compensation from Interior Health following the province's top court's ruling.

Dr. Sheoran's story dates back almost a decade when he was assaulted by Gregory Stanley Nield in 2014.

Nield, who is also a world-ranked jiu-jitsu competitor, was being held involuntarily as a patient in the psychiatric unit of Penticton Regional Hospital when Dr. Sheoran went to assess him.

A week before he was admitted to the hospital, Nield had been using magic mushrooms, hadn't been sleeping, was having bad mood swings, and was erratic and confrontational, the court decision says.

His family had warned staff on the psychiatric ward that Nield was a skilled fighter and may be violent.

While Dr. Sheoran was assessing Nield, he bent down and Nield punched him in the face. As he then reached for the panic button, he was hit again and lost consciousness.

Nield walked out of the room and said "I think he might be dead."

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He was later convicted for the assault but didn't do jail time. He then won an appeal for a retrial, but before it could take place, Crown prosecutors dropped the charges.

The doctor needed surgery for his injuries and has suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder since being attacked.

"His life has been dramatically affected by the injuries Mr. Nield inflicted upon him," the decision reads.

The psychiatrist took Interior Health to court, arguing it failed to address the risk of violence posed by patients like Nield.

However, in March 2022, the BC Supreme Court dismissed the case saying the health authority had met its duty of care.

In an uncommon move that may well have given the psychiatrist hope he could win on appeal, the court took the unusual step of calculating how much compensation Dr. Sheoran would have gotten if he had won.

The court put the figure at $10 million.

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However, the panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal sided with the lower court.

While the three judges differed on their opinion of why the Supreme Court should have originally dismissed the case, they still concluded its decision was correct.

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