Nelson Mandela's former doctor said he had consulted with members of the Mandela family before writing his tell-all book on Mandela's last days.
Former surgeon-general, Dr Vejay Ramlakan, was speaking on ENCA on Sunday morning following reports that Mandela's widow, Graca Machel, may consider legal action against him.
They allege that his revelations about Madiba violated doctor patient privilege.
Asked if he had breached doctor patient privilege, Doctor Ramlakan did not answer the question directly, but said that he had consulted with members of the Mandela family, without identifying who.
"Both the publishers and I have not received any documents or any communications whatsoever. I would not like to disclose the dynamics of the family and who requested us because I think it's irrelevant. We assert that we have received permission from the family," he said.
He also declined to answer a question if Graca Machel had been consulted in the writing of the book. "No, even that question I think it will open itself up to now discussing about a number of other issues. Let me say that all parties who needed to be consulted were consulted, both from a point of view of publishing and advice from publishers, lawyers as well," he said.
Asked whether he had broken the oath of doctor patient confidentiality by revealing details of Madiba's last days, Dr Ramlakan said that the book had been written carefully in order not to be able to be misinterpreted.
Responding to a question about patients’ rights, Dr Ramlakan said preceding passages in the book relate to issues of clinical details and even earlier in the book highlighted issues on how he was treated in a particular set-up. Pressed on whether he had breached the trust associated with doctor patient confidentiality, Dr Ramlakan said that "we have received permission from the family to write. It was at their request that the book has been written," he said.
"We didn't wake up one morning and decide well, you know what lets write a book on this and the other. This request was made to us and we hopefuly have complied with it as it was made and hopefully we have done justice to the memory or uthatha and hopefully we had brought to light his last years," Ramlakan said.
"The book is not only about the medical issues, the book is about the entire period of his last years and it focuses, initially, on a number of things that are already there in the public domain. When I look at some of the comments that have been made I can see, as you could see after reading the book, you walk away with heightened admiration for what he had been through and how he had manged to, right up to his last moment...," he said.
