The current chair of the Yukon Medical Council has sent an open letter of apology to a doctor whose files disappeared during his appeal of a case of unprofessional conduct in the death of a teenage girl.

Almost 10 years of court cases ensued after 16-year-old Mary-Ann Grennan died as a result of a rare disease called botulism.

Dr. Allon Reddoch, who was cleared on all accounts after years of legal battles, was in the process of appealing a Yukon Supreme Court decision that found he acted unprofessionally in his care of Grennan, when his files disappeared.

The registrar of medical practitioners at the time the files disappeared in March 2000 had travelled to Vancouver to show the council's lawyer Reddoch's files.

Sometime between March 17 to 19, the files disappeared from the registrar's vehicle.

'You are well aware of the incident to which I refer,' Dr. Bruce Beaton wrote in the letter addressed to Dr. Allon Reddoch.

'During the trip to Vancouver the files were stolen from a vehicle and were never recovered.'

At the time the files went missing, the Star reported that Dr. Ken Quong, a past president of the Yukon Medical Association, said the council fumbled the case and cost Reddoch the chance to challenge its findings of unprofessional conduct.

'When they lost that suitcase, it just makes you scratch your head and ask, Who has any credibility?'' he said in an interview in October 2000.

'(The registrar) claims to have had it stolen from the trunk of her car,' Quong said. 'If that was me, and I wanted a review of that file, wouldn't you think they had something to hide?'

The letter, dated last Friday, is written on behalf of all current staff of the YMC and apologizes for the loss of information and the distress it caused Reddoch.

It also states that administrative changes have been made to ensure the same kind of thing doesn't happen again.

The letter does not state what changes have been made to the 'administrative processes.'

There is also no information on why the letter was written now, four years after the Court of Appeal overturned the YMC's findings that Reddoch was guilty of unprofessional conduct.

By press time today, Beaton could not be reached for comment.

Reddoch could not be reached for comment either, as he is currently out of town.

The events that led to almost 10 years of legal battles began in September 1995.

Grennan was admitted to Whitehorse General Hospital on Sept. 9 after becoming ill from eating fish her father, Ed Grennan, had smoked the day before.

She was diagnosed with gastroenteritis by an on-duty doctor, which is an infection or inflammation affecting the stomach and intestine.

Reddoch, who was Grennan's family doctor, visited her on Sunday, although he was not working over the weekend.

He examined her Monday and she appeared to be improving.

At around 10:45 that night, a nurse checked in on Grennan and asked her assistant to do another test at 11 p.m.

By that time, Grennan wasn't breathing, and her heart had stopped beating.

Although she was resuscitated, she suffered permanent brain damage and fell into a coma.

Grennan was airlifted to Vancouver, but died after seven months in a coma, on her 17 birthday in April 1996.

Her parents filed a complaint against Reddoch with the YMC.

The YMC found Reddoch guilty of unprofessional conduct for not applying 'the requisite skill and knowledge' in his care of Grennan, a decision which was upheld by the Yukon Supreme Court.

Reddoch announced that he was appealing the Supreme Court ruling in September 1999. It was during this appeal process that his files went missing while in the hands of the registrar of medical practitioners.

The decision, however, was overturned by the Yukon Court of Appeal in December 2001.

A parallel civil case was also being pursued by Grennan's parents. They launched a suit in 1997 claiming the doctor and a nurse at Whitehorse General were negligent in their care of Grennan.

About five months after a nine-day trial, the Supreme Court said it found Reddoch and a nurse negligent in Grennan's death, awarding the family $143,850.

This decision was also appealed to the Court of Appeal, which again overturned the ruling.

The Yukon's highest court cleared Reddoch and the nurse of any negligence in the patient's death in its December 2002 decision.

Grennan's family then asked leave to appeal the case to the highest court in the country.

The Supreme Court of Canada chose not to hear the case, however, dismissing the appeal in July 2003.

A further defamation suit filed by Reddoch against CBC North was subsequently settled out of court in April 2004.

Reddoch, who was president of the Canadian Medical Association, said at the time he stepped down from his position in order to keep media attention focused on health care and not himself.

In the summer of 2001, he also closed his family practice, having told the Star it was too much to care for his patients and clear his name.

Reddoch currently works as medical advisor for the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board.