Anthony Mackie was 'proud' to call Malcolm-Jamal Warner a friend
The 46-year-old actor hailed the late Cosby Show star - who drowned while on a family vacation in Costa Rica last month - a "beautiful human being" who he always treasured spending time with.
He told People magazine: 'I'm proud to say Malcom-Jamal Warner was a friend of mine. He's somebody that I knew and spent time with, and just was such a beautiful human being.
'And every time I was around him, I was able to take full advantage of those conversations and that time. That, for me, is the most important thing."
The Captain America: The Winter Soldier actor also spoke of how much he valued having late actor and "icon" Andre Braugher as a mentor before he died of lung cancer aged 61 in December 2023.
She said: 'Being in New York and that new kid on the theater scene. To have those lessons and those moments and have that communicated [by] such — at that time for me — such an icon in the business.
'I always tell people just take full advantage of those moments [with mentors] and truly be yourself so that that person can see, react and engage with who you are and not some fictitious idea of who you think they want you to be."
Anthony's Twisted Metal co-star Stephanie Beatriz, 44, also worked closely with Andre on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and she agreed how important interactions with other people are.
She said: 'Unfortunately, we all go through grief in our lives. And all you really have are those memories.
'So Anthony's absolutely right. Coming to people in your life with the truest, most honest self as much as you can at all times is gonna feed the memories when you lose them. And hopefully feed their memories when someday they might lose you.'
Malcolm's mom spoke out about her son's death earlier this week, and reassured fans the actor "did not suffer" and was "at peace" when he died.
In a lengthy tribute shared on the new Malcolm-Jamal Warner Living Legacy Instagram page, she wrote in part: "For those of you who are at a loss, pained by the suddenness of his departure, ache for his presence or just to hear his voice one more time, to see his beatific smile one more time, be comforted that he was at peace and more importantly, he did not suffer.
"Malcolm was birthed through water and transitioned through water.
'This was his time. His mission on earth had been completed.
"Hold close to whatever part of Malcolm's life that touched yours. In keeping it near, you keep his spirit alive — nourishing you with the peace, love, joy and light that embodied Malcolm-Jamal Warner."
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One of the first things Sharon Jones-Baldwin noticed when she entered Munjed Al Muderis' clinic was the large portrait of the star doctor hanging on the wall. It was the product of his interview on Anh's Brush with Fame, the iconic ABC show where comedian Anh Do profiles celebrities over casual conversations and art. 'Is that the one you had done on the ABC?' Jones-Baldwin asked the doctor, according to her affidavit. 'Yes,' he smiled, before leaving the room. This was the last cordial encounter between the doctor and patient, in what Jones-Baldwin described as a horror experience in February 2021 at Macquarie University Hospital that left her in excruciating pain, traumatised and sobbing. 'I would not return to Al Muderis for medical opinion or procedure even if you paid me,' she stated in her affidavit. 'Al Muderis states that he cares about his patients that was not my experience at all.' 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Ultimately, she found it was the patients who told the truth. 'All had suffered significant forms of personal hardship,' Abraham wrote. 'They stood to gain nothing by giving evidence, other than saying what happened to them.' Abraham's damning findings included that Al Muderis performed experimental surgeries, ignored red flags, failed to respond to patients' pleas for help, performed medical services in the United States without a licence, paid secret cash commissions to recruit patients, failed to obtain informed consent and prioritised fame and money above his patients. This week the medical regulators, HCCC and AHPRA, signalled they were reviewing the judgment but surgeons and experts have little faith action will be taken. 'AHPRA is not in the business of punishing people,' Australian Law Alliance health expert Ngaire Watson said. 'While they're doing that, there is a tendency they will let people go on and on and on.' Loading Medibank, which jointly owns a short-stay hospital with Al Muderis at Macquarie University Hospital, said it was 'very concerned' about the judgment and 'are taking this extremely seriously'. Medibank asked Macquarie University Hospital, where Al Muderis continues to operate, to investigate the judgment and take 'all steps necessary' with the regulators. Al Muderis, represented by Sue Chrysanthou, SC, painted a picture during the trial of extensive charity work and links to prestigious institutions. In the wake of the judgment, though, this evidence has publicly unravelled. Major charities Amnesty International and Red Cross Australia have denied Al Muderis served as an ambassador, as stated in his affidavit, while smaller charities he claimed to represent either denied knowing him or said the relationships were historic and limited. The University of Sydney contradicted his evidence about having a position at the top university, stating there was no affiliation and hadn't been for years. During the trial launched by the millionaire surgeon to protect his 'carefully curated' public image, this masthead can reveal Al Muderis was fighting several battles at the same time, as six separate lawsuits were filed against him over the past three years, many by patients unrelated to the trial. 'Your leg's f---ed' In one case, detailed in Supreme Court of NSW documents released to this masthead, patient Joseph Gavin Harvey sued Al Muderis, surgeon Mustafa Alttahir and anaesthetist Craig Plambeck alleging medical negligence and a failure to uphold his duty of care. The amended statement of claim, filed in November 2023, repeats many allegations raised in the defamation case: that Al Muderis failed to explain risks, rushed into invasive surgery, failed to gain informed consent and performed negligent surgery resulting in serious injury and disability. During the pre-operative assessment, court documents allege Al Muderis rushed Harvey into surgery without providing adequate information about the risks. 'This is one of the worst cases I have seen,' Al Muderis allegedly told Harvey. 'You need the surgery because your leg's f---ed.' In his defence, Al Muderis states he provided Harvey with an 'information pack from the Australian Orthopaedic Association … which included information on risks' – a practice Abraham deemed was insufficient for informed consent. The court documents allege Al Muderis encouraged the patient to have both legs surgically straightened 'because total recovery time would be shorter' but ultimately agreed to operate only on one. Al Muderis allegedly told Harvey the hospital stay would be two to four days and did not discuss alternative treatments or provide any written information about the surgery or recovery time. The patient, who was a soccer player and wanted to return to the field as quickly as possible, was allegedly not informed that the surgery 'is likely to cause significant and persistent knee pain and lead to an accelerated need for knee replacement surgery'. After the surgery, Harvey claimed he suffered pain 'significantly greater than would be expected'. 'Because of the severe pain, the plaintiff was given a Ketamine infusion and then a femoral block … neither of which provided lasting pain relief,' the documents state. Despite the severe pain being reported, Al Muderis allegedly told Harvey he should start walking, exacerbating his pain. Instead of the expected hospital stay of between two and four days, Harvey languished in hospital for 2½ months and has ongoing injuries and disabilities, according to the documents. 'Prof Al Muderis breached his duty of care,' the claim says. Al Muderis allegedly told the patient his condition was 'so severe' it warranted expedited surgery 'when he knew this was not the case' and in doing so 'recommended treatment that was overly aggressive' for the patient's condition. The claim alleges Al Muderis subjected the patient to unnecessary harm and 'failed to determine that recovery time was a matter to which the plaintiff attached material significance', injured the patient and then failed to correct the injury. As a result, Harvey alleges a range of physical, pyschological and financial harms. Al Muderis, Plambeck and Alttahir dispute the allegations and the matter is next listed for directions in September. Alttahir was also a witness for Al Muderis in the defamation trial and gave evidence Abraham found was defensive, not impartial and showed he clearly had 'an interest in the outcome of the case'. In the case, documents show Al Muderis is represented by Eliza Faulk, formerly the head of practice claims at the country's largest medical insurer, Avant. This masthead is not suggesting these allegations are true, only that they have been made in court documents. Alttahir and Plambeck were contacted for comment. 'Hefty non-disclosure' The defamation trial heard Al Muderis' insurer paid out large settlement sums to two former patients, Kim Gollan ($1.2 million) and Leah Mooney ($1.75 million) after operations went wrong. The settlements were previously sealed under confidentiality agreements that Al Muderis waived in his pursuit of defamation litigation. While the Gollan matter was settled on a 'no admissions basis', the court ruled in Mooney's favour. Still, Al Muderis did not acknowledge any wrongdoing in Mooney's case under cross-examination. 'Ms Mooney's incidents have changed my life,' Al Muderis told the court. 'It did affect me deeply and to this day, every day I wake up, I think what would I have done different, and to this day, I think that I've done everything that I could do to help this woman.' Abraham found this answer reflected Al Muderis' preparedness to 'embellish his evidence' and criticised his inability to admit error 'even with the benefit of hindsight' and in the face of indisputable evidence. 'Even if the assertion is hyperbole, it is made (when not true) to emphasise his concern for the position Ms Mooney was in,' she said, which 'tells against his credit'. The cases of Gollan and Mooney take the known lawsuit tally against Al Muderis to nine. Nurse-turned-barrister Watson said more than half-a-dozen medical negligence cases being filed against Al Muderis 'indicates a serious problem': 'If I'm seeing them again and again and again, there is something seriously amiss.' Watson said there is a 'high bar' for medical negligence cases in Australia, that are often David-versus-Goliath battles between injured individuals and well-resourced doctors backed by large medical insurers and law firms. 'The power imbalance is stark,' she said, adding cases rarely make it to trial and often involve 'no admissions' settlements, with large sums being paid to avoid public scrutiny. 'I settle 95 per cent of my cases out of court, that come with hefty non-disclosure agreements.' Loading She said there is very limited transparency around the safety of Australian doctors and believes there needs to be greater transparency in error rates and disciplinary histories for all healthcare practitioners. Through her practice, Watson said she has observed 'frequent flyers' – doctors who face several medical negligence cases and regulatory complaints yet none of them are publicly disclosed – which she said indicates a 'serious problem'. 'It goes with a certain personality type,' she said. 'These people have enormous egos and they don't like being corrected.' She said the current healthcare regulation model is deliberately non-punitive and rarely holds doctors accountable for harming patients, leaving costly and risky litigation as the sole remaining option for justice. Watson said she had seen the HCCC dismiss complaints that later resulted in significant settlement sums being made through litigation. She has little faith in the current regulatory investigative processes. Patient advocate Dorothy Kamaker said private hospitals need to take greater accountability. 'They know what's going on. And they really need to look after the patients. Their duty of care is to the patients, not the surgeon,' she said. 'The surgeon might be the milk cow. They might be making a huge amount of money, but in my mind I feel the patients are being screwed.' Corporate governance expert Helen Bird said neither Medibank nor Macquarie University Hospital should be responsible for investigating the judgment's implications for Al Muderis' ongoing career. She argued the institutions were conflicted because of their financial links to Al Muderis. 'It's very hard to see Macquarie University Hospital setting up a robust inquiry,' Bird said. 'The hospital will say 'we do whatever is in the best interests of our patients'. The short answer is they also know who keeps them open and viable.' In a video uploaded to social media, Al Muderis, who has said he intends to appeal the judgment, promoted the doctor-shareholder joint ventures with health funds where he said he does 'hips and knees' and other surgeries. 'Patients recover very fast, normally,' he said. 'Basically, the health fund shifts the money that they give to inpatient rehab to the surgeon, anaesthetist and the assistant and the physio to cover for that. And they still save money. It's a good program. We've been doing it [for] two years very successfully.' Two orthopaedic surgeons, speaking this week on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation from Al Muderis, said these structures led by health funds like Medibank are 'trying to turn us into America and go with managed care', where profits drive surgical decision-making. Another surgeon said Al Muderis was now spending significant time overseas, in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere, where he performs surgeries. 'All the surgeons who invested in the short stay at Macquarie have been left high and dry. Munjed was the draw card on which the [doctor-shareholders] banked [to] make it a success.' Al Muderis did not respond to questions for this story by deadline, but a statement earlier this week said that he had been 'cleared of any wrongdoing by all relevant authorities, including AHPRA and the Medical Council of NSW, and there are no active complaints or investigations against him that he is aware of'. 'Vindicated' Patients who gave evidence in the trial stated they considered suing Al Muderis for medical negligence, but 'felt powerless when considering his wealth, fame and celebrity status'. Mooney has complained several times to the HCCC, and despite the damning evidence of Al Muderis' negligence, lies and dogged failure to investigate her bone infection and its devastating consequences, the regulator is not interested. 'How can that be the case?' The defamation trial involved subpoenaing medical records for each of the patients, and experts then assessing the quality of care they received. In Jones-Baldwin's case, expert and orthopaedic surgeon Stephen Ruff found that Al Muderis ordered scans and determined her hip joint had 'severely collapsed' as justification for rushing her into the emergency hip replacement. However, Ruff said there was a 'huge disconnect' between what Al Muderis said was wrong and the real position, where X-rays showed her hip was 'essentially normal' and there was 'no gross collapse' evidence. The judge accepted Ruff's opinion. Before her surgery with Al Muderis, Jones-Baldwin was recovering from leukemia, and praised the doctor who treated her as a 'walking talking angel'. 'I understand what professional medical care looks like.' When she was first referred to Al Muderis' clinic, she was thrilled to be treated by such a celebrated surgeon. 'I was shocked and excited that I could get to see a specialist of his reputed calibre,' she wrote in her affidavit, saying the waiting room was full of people. 'The best way to describe it is manic.' In Abraham's ruling, she was persuaded that Al Muderis equated being busy with being successful. 'Being busy has with it many consequences,' she said. Jones-Baldwin said Al Muderis never properly explained the surgery and visited her only once briefly at Macquarie University Hospital, where he treated her 'with contempt'. 'He did not acknowledge or greet me. As he left, I called out 'doctor' but he continued to leave,' she said. 'The only thing he was interested in was the actual operation'. Formerly a publicly listed company director and senior government bureaucrat, Jones-Baldwin said when she read and watched the investigation into Al Muderis by this masthead and 60 Minutes published in 2022, she felt vindicated. 'I cried for the other people who had a similar experience with Al Muderis.' Not all Al Muderis' patients feel this way. Some launched a petition this week pledging their support for the surgeon, which now has more than 1200 signatures. 'At a time when his contributions are being publicly questioned, it is vital that the voices of those who have benefited from this groundbreaking procedure are heard,' the petition stated. In the Federal Court judgment, Abraham found Al Muderis told patients they were 'family' and 'connected for life' and invited them on boats and to dinners and social events. She found this 'altered the patient-doctor relationship' and made some feel dependent on him and afraid to sever the therapeutic relationship. In the witness box, Jones-Baldwin was subjected to aggressive cross-examination by Chrysanthou, who accused her, in court and in closing submissions, of being a 'lying fantasist'. Justice Abraham did not agree, saying: 'That description is gratuitously disrespectful. I do not accept it.' This week, Jones-Baldwin said she was grateful for being able to 'speak the truth about Dr Al Muderis' through the trial but has now joined others in calling for the institutions with a duty to protect the public to step up. 'I hope the regulators will take this matter seriously and put things in place to stop this man from harming others,' she said. As for Al Muderis, this masthead asked the doctor this week, through his lawyers, if he would like to apologise to the patients in light of the Federal Court's judgment. He did not respond.
