A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel. The BBC has more.
University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.
Prof Graeme Poston, an expert witness on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, told the BBC: “It surprises me and appals me. Firstly, a penknife is not sterile. Secondly it is not an operating instrument. And thirdly all the kit [must have been] there.”
Police are separately looking into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at the trust and considering manslaughter charges.
The surgeon in the penknife case, whom the BBC is not naming, was operating on a patient at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton when he struggled to find a scalpel.
Instead he used a Swiss Army knife which he normally used to cut fruit for his lunch.
The patient survived but internal documents show the surgeon’s colleagues felt his behaviour was “questionable” and were “very surprised” he was unable to find a scalpel.
The BBC has also discovered the same surgeon carried out three supposedly low-risk operations in two months where all three patients died soon after.
Worth reading in full.
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If he’s got any amputations to do I can lend him my angle grinder!🫣
Ho the sorry state of the once revered nhs
The surgeon who fitted a plate to my right knee some years ago told me he used a Bosch drill. How true I don’t know.
There is much resemblance between orthopaedic surgery and DIY.
Thanks John. I did not disbelieve the surgeon but I suppose I was struck with what he told me, it seemed incongruous.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/top-bone-surgeon-sends-apprentice-1939658
Possibly. Orthopædic surgery requires hammers, screwdrivers, drills, chisels – most of the stuff a carpenter would use.
Most of this can be sterilised but thing like an electric drill would be used wrapped in sterile cloth.
Thanks.
I did part of my nurse training in theatres, including orthopaedics. Yes, they need brute strength and serious kit for big bone & joint work. Carpentry skills definitely overlap 🙂 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/top-bone-surgeon-sends-apprentice-1939658
Now we’re all well established in Clown World, I’m seriously wondering how many professionals we’re trusting with our lives that are actually just DEI hires, because this is absolutely horrendous. They should be naming this surgeon but the fact they’re not tells me it’s because he’ll be keeping his job. So no investigation was deemed necessary after three previous patients of his died then? Very suspicious…🧐 A certain ‘victim group’ and the authorities don’t want to appear racist, perhaps?
I’m wondering how many pilots are DEI hires! 😲
There are a lot more avoidable serious and fatal medical errors than airline errors.
Off-T
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/seen-elsewhere-this-week-in-the-alt-media/
An excellent round-up of articles posted in the alt media from John le Seur at TCW. This is another way of pulling all the Sceptics together and I hope it becomes a regular feature. The more the better.
Thank GOD for our NHS.
The envy of the world, don’t you know?
Yes – all genuflect.
I know I shouldn’t ask but is “the surgeon” from within the ranks of those forming the backbone of the NHS without whose skills and enrichment it wouldn’t be the magnificent, well-functioning service it is?
I suspect so. He was probably remembering his early training.
I doubt that it was negligence or absentmindedness. It would obviously be obvious to a surgeon that you can’t really do that sort of thing. Sounds to me like he was either making a statement or he is a psychopath.
Why, when I hear they won’t disclose anything about the surgeon involved, do I immediately suspect they are trying to not indicate his demographic…?
It’s utterly ridiculous for the surgeon to say there were no scalpels for him to use; what were other surgeons using in the adjacent rooms? Steak knives? This arrogant twit could and should have been stopped in his tracks by other members of staff. Of equal concern about his bizarre behaviour is the fact that NO-ONE said no, you can’t do that. The era of The Consultant As A God is supposed to be behind us.