A surgeon sewed a patient’s intestines together, causing an obstruction that prevented the patient from moving his bowels.
The patient could not sue the NHS hospital because healthcare is free. But Dr. Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman lost his job and probably won’t perform surgery again.
The patient had undergone surgery to remove a tumor at Royal Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester. Dr. Rahman decided at the last minute to perform a surgical procedure that was “not known to man” that connects the small intestine and stomach.
But instead of removing the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine) and attaching the small intestine directly to the stomach, Dr. Rahman connected the wrong part of the intestine to the stomach and caused a closed loop.
The patient’s bowel contents had nowhere to go but back up into the stomach, resulting in intense pain and vomiting.
The surgical procedure was “incompatible with life,” according to an expert.
Despite the patient complaining of increasing pain and vomiting with no bowel movements for weeks, Dr. Rahman seemed unconcerned, according to a nurse.
The doctor even told the family that the patient’s bowels would start working soon.
A month after the initial procedure, Dr. Anthony Rate, another colorectal surgeon, took over the case. Dr. Rate spotted the problem and performed emergency surgery. He reversed the previous surgery and created a stoma for the patient to empty his bowel contents into an ostomy bag on his abdomen.
A consultant told the court “[The patient] would have died in the post-operative period if it was not for the intervention.”
“Dr. Abdel Rahman’s procedure can at best be described as bizarre and was a totally unconventional operation that is not compatible with life,” he said.