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Surgeon Operated With Penknife He Uses to Cut Up Lunch

by Will Jones
2 October 2024 11:25 AM

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.

Tags: HospitalsMedicineNHS

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20 Comments
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Dinger64
Dinger64
7 months ago

If he’s got any amputations to do I can lend him my angle grinder!🫣
Ho the sorry state of the once revered nhs

Last edited 7 months ago by Dinger64
3
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
7 months ago
Reply to  Dinger64

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.

1
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
7 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

There is much resemblance between orthopaedic surgery and DIY.

4
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
7 months ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Thanks John. I did not disbelieve the surgeon but I suppose I was struck with what he told me, it seemed incongruous.

0
0
@yorkshirekate
@yorkshirekate
7 months ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/top-bone-surgeon-sends-apprentice-1939658

0
0
JXB
JXB
7 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

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.

2
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
7 months ago
Reply to  JXB

Thanks.

0
0
@yorkshirekate
@yorkshirekate
7 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

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

0
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
7 months ago

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?

7
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
7 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

I’m wondering how many pilots are DEI hires! 😲

3
0
godknowsimgood
godknowsimgood
7 months ago
Reply to  Dinger64

There are a lot more avoidable serious and fatal medical errors than airline errors.

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
7 months ago

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.

3
0
JeremyP99
JeremyP99
7 months ago

Thank GOD for our NHS.

4
0
Marque1
Marque1
7 months ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

The envy of the world, don’t you know?

2
0
JXB
JXB
7 months ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Yes – all genuflect.

3
0
JXB
JXB
7 months ago

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?

3
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
7 months ago
Reply to  JXB

I suspect so. He was probably remembering his early training.

1
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
7 months ago

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.

0
0
thechap
thechap
7 months ago

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…?

2
0
@yorkshirekate
@yorkshirekate
7 months ago

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.

0
0

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