Botched operation leads to elderly patient’s death
It has emerged that an elderly female has died after a German locum doctor carried out horrifying medical negligence.
An inquest heard that the professional performed one of the “worst botched operations” ever seen in a British hospital.
The victim, a former NHS volunteer, 94, was left unable to walk after the locum made a string of blunders during a routine hip operation at Grantham and District Hospital.
The doctor made the wrong incision, severed a major artery and removed bone that he should not have. The patient, as a result of the professional negligence, was left bleeding on the surgery table.
The inquest in Sleaford, Lincs, heard the pensioner was only saved after another quick thinking doctor walking along the corridor intervened in the operation.
But despite his help and the care of doctors and nurses at the 184 bed hospital, she died eight weeks after the operation was carried out in August 2008.
Professor Angus Wallace, an orthopaedic specialist told the inquest it was “the worst botched operation” he had seen.
The inquest heard Professor Wallace, who is based at Nottingham's Queens Medical Centre, was so concerned about the case that he reported the doctor to the GMC.
The victim’s daughter said that after the Red Cross volunteer from Barrowby, Lincs, dedicated her life to the NHS it had “let her down” when she needed it the most.
A nation scared to use its hospitals
The new death scandal has highlighted growing concerns over NHS trusts in the UK. Only last week MPs heard how a ‘gaping hole’ in the rules on foreign doctors working in Britain is putting patients at unnecessary risk and danger.
In 2004, ministers gave GPs a controversial new contract that allowed them to give up responsibility for out-of-hours care.
The General Medical Council said it is prevented from testing the qualifications of European locums who are brought in as cover.
Such worries came true, especially as the Health Select Committee is currently investigating the death of a Cambridgeshire man who died in 2008, after being visited by an out-of-hours GP. The patient was killed by another German doctor who administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine.
Victim’s family speak of tragedy
In the current case, the 51-year-old doctor, who was based in Stuttgart, has been given an interim suspension by the GMC for 18 months on 10 June 2009, but it is unclear if this ban applies in Germany.
The patient’s daughter stated: “We feel let down. We don't quite understand how he got to operate on my mother.
“We have been told things in stages throughout the last one-and-a-half years. We had concerns that it took six months before this was brought to the attention of the GMC.
“We don't understand how he got to operate on my mother. It's been hard to grieve until you understand what has happened and until you get a clear picture.
“My mother was somebody who was involved in the NHS and supported it even into her retirement working on the tea bar at her local hospital. After all those years the NHS let her down.”
A spokesman for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust commented: “The Trust has apologised to [the] family for mistakes made during her operation.
“Errors were made by the surgeon concerned which were rectified immediately by a senior member of staff.
After the operation [she] was recovering well and assessed to be medically fit for discharge by 25 September 2008.
“The Trust has done everything possible to learn from this incident and to prevent it happening to another patient.”
It is unknown if a compensation claim will be filed.
Updated on 22/03/2010