Category Archives: Testimonials

Case of Botched Mastectomy Surgery Conducted by Struck Off East Kent Surgeon Settles for £60,000

Case of Botched Mastectomy Surgery Conducted by Struck Off East Kent Surgeon Settles for £60,000

29th May 2024 – Our client, a 52 year old woman from Ashford, was diagnosed with recurrent lobular cancer of the left breast over the summer of 2019.

Investigations showed it to be Grade III and it measured some 20mm. A mastectomy was recommended.

Our client first met with ‘Professor Mahadev’, in September 2019 and he carried out the surgery as a Consultant Surgeon later that month at the William Harvey Hospital. Alongside the mastectomy sentinel node biopsies were taken.

Following the surgery, our client suffered severe problems with the operation wound. There was swelling and tightness initially, then the wound opened with leakage, bleeding and infection. There was a haematoma and wound dehiscence requiring regular packing and vacuum dressing.

The wound took some 6 months to heal in total and left an unsightly scar, which needs revision. It was a very poor cosmetic result indeed.

Additionally, our client suffered with neck and shoulder pain and restriction requiring physiotherapy. Ultimately she was caused psychiatric injury through what occurred.

Upon our instruction we secured all the medical records and details of an investigation conducted by the Trust which showed that it had recruited this Surgeon without carrying out proper investigations. In fact, he was already subject to GMC investigations at the time of his recruitment.

Earlier this month he was struck off by the GMC for a litany of clinical errors across his treatment of a number of different women including our client.

We instructed an appropriate Surgeon who advised as to the negligence in the case which included not using drains during the procedure itself. We also took advice on revision surgery.

Further, our client was professionally assessed by a Consultant Psychiatrist and found to have been caused anxiety and depression on account of the negligence.

An early offer by the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, represented through the NHSR, to settle the case in the sum of £25,000 was rejected.

Ultimately through further negotiations, the case settled in the sum of £60,000.

Conducting Solicitor Nick Fairweather commented on the case as follows:-“This is not the first case, in  recent years, where the East Kent Trust’s failure to conduct proper recruitment procedures has resulted in lasting harm to clients. It really is totally unsatisfactory that this Doctor, already under investigation, was allowed to be employed and continue his malpractice in East Kent. I am pleased that he has now been finally struck off by the GMC, thanks to the courage found by our client and the other women who came forward with details of their cases. I pay tribute to our client in this case. It is hard enough to be battling a Cancer diagnosis, and the treatment that comes with it, without finding out, additionally, that the Surgeon whom you relied upon is incompetent. I wish her all the very best for the future”.

If you or your family need the assistance of our experienced specialist team of Clinical Negligence Solicitors then please submit your case details for our consideration.

Case of Death Caused by Perforation of Aorta During Routine Cholecystectomy Settles

Case of Death Caused by Perforation of Aorta During Routine Cholecystectomy Settles

22nd April 2024 – We were instructed by the family of Mrs W a Tenterden lady who died in December 2019, aged 77, following surgery at the Benenden Hospital performed by colorectal surgeon Mr Marzouk.

Ms W was fit and healthy and had been throughout her life. She was the sole carer for her husband who had failing physical and mental health.

When a couple of small gallstones became symptomatic she was referred to the Benenden Hospital under the care of Mr Marzouk.

After investigations, surgery was decided upon in the form of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy which took place on 10.12.19 and should have been a straight forward procedure.

In the event, Mr Marzouk inserted the initial trocar in a sub-standard manner perforating then further damaging the aorta.

Upon recognising his initial error and the ensuing bleeding, Mr Marzouk abandoned the cholecystectomy procedure, converting the laparoscopy into a laparotomy.

His subsequent investigation into the source of the bleeding was inadequate. He failed to find the true source of the bleeding and inappropriately closed without having done so

Ms W deteriorated sharply in recovery with signs of ongoing intra-abdominal bleeding. She had to be returned to theatre where she was attended on by a Consultant Vascular Surgeon who located injury to the aortic wall which was repaired.

She was transferred to the ITU at the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.

Upon arrival there, her condition continued to deteriorate with signs of infection and sepsis as well as compromised blood flow.

She had to undergo further surgery on 11.12.19.

She died ultimately the following morning on 12.12.19, when her position became non- viable due to an extensive period of chronic hypotension.

The cause of death as found by the Coroner subsequently, after a full Inquest Hearing, was multi-organ failure arising from hypovolaemia shock caused by the massive haemorrhage Ms W suffered when her aorta was damaged by insertion of the trocar.

Benenden Hospital also conducted a serious incident investigation.

The family instructed us to investigate and take forward a case in clinical negligence.

We instructed a Consultant General and Laparoscopic Surgeon and Endoscopist who confirmed the negligent performance of the procedure and inadequate attempt to find the source of bleeding subsequently. But for the negligence, Ms W would, of course, have survived.

A Letter of Claim was sent to Mr Marzouk on 21.04.23. Solicitors instructed by his Medical Defence Union eventually produced a Letter of Response on 10.10.23 making full admissions of liability and causation.

This followed on from an early meeting with the family within which Mr Marzouk made informal admissions.

Following the admissions, the case was quantified and settled for an acceptable sum.

Nick Fairweather, who had conduct of this matter, alongside colleagues, commented as follows:- “Ms W was a hard working much loved wife, mother and grandmother and was looking forward to the rest of her retirement which she richly deserved. It is a terrible tragedy that her life was taken prematurely through wholly avoidable errors in what should have been a straightforward procedure. One has to hope that this experienced Surgeon has truly learned lessons from the case. I pay tribute to the dignity of the families who have instructed us. The case was never about money but to get to the bottom of what actually occurred and hold the Surgeon to account. I hope they can take some comfort from the result that has been achieved ultimately in this regard”.

If you or your family need the assistance of our experienced specialist team of Clinical Negligence Solicitors then please submit your case details for our consideration.

East Kent Trust Settles Negligent Disposal of Foetus after Miscarriage Case

East Kent Trust Settles Negligent Disposal of Foetus after Miscarriage Case

Our client, Mrs H, fell pregnant in September 2019, aged 26, and she and her husband looked forward to becoming parents for the first time.

Sadly, a series of early booking scans in November first questioned then confirmed the absence of a heartbeat and that their baby, J, had tragically passed in utero.

Arrangements were made for a surgical management of the miscarriage, which was booked to take place late in November. The evening before, however, Mrs H suffered heavy bleeding and a suspected miscarriage.

She and her husband attended the William Harvey Hospital Ashford’s A&E department where she was triaged and sent to the Major’s area. As the Trust’s own Route Cause Analysis Investigation Report (RCA) later acknowledged:- “..given that she had presented with vaginal bleeding, she should have been accommodated in an area of the department where her privacy and dignity could be maintained…”

Nearly an hour after they arrived in the department, Mrs H and her husband had to deliver J in a cubicle within the toilets. It was traumatic for them both to have to experience such a devastating event in a wholly inappropriate environment.

J’s foetus was placed into a special container with Mrs H completing a special consent form for the pregnancy tissues to retained for a special cremation to be arranged through the hospital chaplaincy.

After treatment and further investigations, she was discharged home the following day.

A cremation and service for J was arranged for Christmas Eve that year.

However, when Mrs H contacted the hospital, 3 days after her discharge, enquiring about J, this prompted a frantic series of calls within the A&E department and to the hospital laboratory during which it emerged that the William Harvey Hospital had, incredibly, managed to lose the products of conception without trace.

When Mrs H phoned the hospital again, a few days later, she was advised that they had been unable to find the foetus and that it was thought likely that there had been a “disposal…by accident”.

The whole experience left Mrs H depressed and traumatised grieving, in particular, the lost opportunity to say a final goodbye to her child.

The Trust’s subsequent RCA investigation concluded that the foetus had been disposed of rather than sent to the laboratory giving as the “main causal factor” for this distraction within the department because it was “extremely busy”. Further, staff were not able to readily access information about the correct processes to be followed.Mrs H subsequently raised the matter with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who investigated and advised that she should take legal action.

Fairweathers were instructed and investigated the case fully, sending a Letter of Claim in June 2023.

An expert psychiatrist examined Mrs H and advised that she had suffered psychiatric injury on account of the Trust’s failings.

Within a Letter of Response sent in October 2023, NHS Resolution, on behalf of the East Kent Trust, made full admissions that the staff working at the William Harvey Hospital were negligent in their management of the remains of Mrs H’s miscarried child resulting in the wrongful disposal of the foetus.

The case was subsequently settled in the sum of £4,000.

The case was dealt with at Fairweathers by Francesca Beach.

Nick Fairweather was scathing in his comments upon the case:- “This is a truly shocking case in which the East Kent Trust has displayed a combination of incredible insensitivity coupled with gross incompetence. Typically, no one was found individually culpable or held to account for what occurred through the Trust’s investigations. It is truly horrendous that in a modern hospital setting, a miscarrying mother has to deliver her baby in a toilet cubical and even then the hospital manages to somehow lose the baby robbing this young couple of the opportunity to say a proper goodbye which is so important in these circumstances. Shame on everyone involved.

I pay tribute to the strength and courage displayed by these parents and their mutual loving support for one another throughout this ordeal. I wish them all the very best for the future.”