NHS surgeon wrongly connected patient’s organs together in ‘bizarre’ botched operation

NHS surgeon wrongly connected patient’s organs together in ‘bizarre’ botched operation The patient nearly died after the shocking blunder - Bookmark An NHS surgeon has been permanently struck off after he nearly killed a patient by connecting the wrong organs during emergency bowel surgery. Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman was found to have performed a "totally unconventional operation" that caused the male patient's bowel contents to pass into his stomach, leaving him in "uncontrollable pain". The tribunal concluded that Dr Abdel Rahman made a "major surgical error" by mistakenly joining the small intestine to the stomach, an operation deemed "not compatible with life". The blunder meant the patient’s bowel contents had "nowhere to go apart from back into the stomach in a circular fashion", creating a "closed loop" and preventing a bowel movement for three weeks. Despite the patient reporting that he was in escalating pain, Dr Abdel Rahman told the family that the surgery was a success. The patient's life was only saved when another surgeon performed a second operation to correct the error. Dr Abdel Rahman never apologised or admitted his mistake, instead alleging that there was a "witch hunt" against him. He has now been struck off for serious professional misconduct, as his mistake was judged to be "as bad as it gets". Dr Abdel Rahman qualified as a surgeon in Egypt in 1993, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard. At the time of the botched surgery, he was working at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester as a consultant general and colorectal surgeon. He was a locum at the NHS hospital and had worked there for only "a few days". On 25 August 2020, he performed an emergency operation on the patient, referred to only as Patient A. The man had a tumour in his small bowel and a "perforated necrotic loop of small bowel". During the surgery, which lasted four hours, Dr Abdel Rahman cut the small bowel to leave “two ends”. In a statement, Dr Abdel Rahman said that he and a vascular surgeon decided to carry out a procedure to connect the intestine to the stomach so that the "digestive/bowel continuity is maintained". After this, a test was done to make sure there were no "obstructions that would prevent digestive/bowel continuity", he said. Following the surgery, the patient reported his pain increasing until it was "uncontrollable". He was also vomiting and had no bowel movements at all, which indicated that "the procedure was not a success", the tribunal said. A nurse noted that Dr Abdel Rahman seemed "unconcerned" by the fact that Patient A had no bowel movements for three weeks, and was "dismissive" of her concerns. On 11 September 2020, Dr Abdel Rahman discussed the procedure with Patient A’s mother and father, saying that he would send him home "straight away" once his pain was under control and that "all the signs are saying" that his bowels would work soon. Anthony Rate, a consultant general and colorectal surgeon at the hospital, took over the patient’s care on September 15 after his family and nursing staff raised concerns. He did a second emergency operation, which revealed that Dr Abdel Rahman had made major surgical errors. Specifically, he had connected the wrong part of Patient A’s small intestine to his stomach, which meant that the contents of his bowel had "nowhere to go apart from back into the stomach in a circular fashion". Dr Abdel Rahman had created a "closed loop" of the patient’s digestive system, the tribunal heard. Dr Rate salvaged some of the bowel, giving Patient A a stoma – where the cut ends of the bowel were attached to the skin. The General Medical Council’s expert witness at the tribunal, former consultant general and colorectal surgeon Anthony Blower, said that the surgery would have been "extremely difficult" because of a previous surgery done on the patient and the presence of the "huge" tumour. However, Dr Abdel Rahman should have tried to get help from a colleague if he realised the difficulties the surgery might involve, he said. Dr Blower said that the procedure carried out by Dr Abdel Rahman was "at the extreme end of surgical error", and was "as bad as it gets for a consultant surgeon". The procedure that Dr Abdel Rahman carried out was "not known to man", and would have "led directly to the patient’s death" if it had been left as it was, he said. "Dr Abdel Rahman’s procedure can at best be described as bizarre and was a totally unconventional operation that is not compatible with life. "Patient A would have died in the post-operative period if it was not for the intervention of Mr Rate." Dr Blower added that another section of the small bowel had been left lying in the abdomen, which was "totally inappropriate", "unconventional" and "extremely wrong". “He at no time considered that something may have gone wrong surgically,” Dr Blower said. This led to a delay in the realisation that there had been an error. The tribunal heard Dr Abdel Rahman felt there was a "witch hunt" against him, and that Royal Oldham Hospital was "pointing the finger of blame" at him. He claimed that as a doctor he had "30 Years of an unblemished record. Without a single complaint. Ever". The tribunal found: "The Tribunal had seen no contemporaneous or subsequent evidence of remorse, empathy, or recognition of the impact on Patient A and his family. It saw no attempt at an apology." It said that Dr Abdel Rahman made the surgical errors and should have sought help from a colleague before starting the surgery. The tribunal found that he failed to respond to warning signs that the surgery had not been successful, wrongly told the patient’s family that it had been a success, and failed to consider concerns that there was a problem. The professional tribunal also heard that conditions were placed on his registration as a doctor in July 2021, which included that he had to tell the GMC if he applied for a job outside the UK. It found he failed to comply with these conditions when he worked as a locum at Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland in February 2022. He also lied to the GMC about the start date when he told them about his new role. The tribunal concluded that Dr Abdel Rahman’s fitness to practise was impaired by misconduct, and struck him off the register. An immediate order of suspension was put in place in case he chooses to appeal against the tribunal’s decision.