Medical negligence news

Inquest: German doctor Werner Kolb's hip surgery on 94 year old woman 'the worst botched operation' expert had ever seen

Michelmores' clinical negligence team provide a link to the Telegraph online news item - click here

Former NHS volunteer Ena Dickinson, 94, was left unable to walk after the locum made a catalogue of errors during a routine hip operation at Grantham & District Hospital.

Werner Kolb made the wrong incision, removed bone he should not have done and severed a major artery.

The former nurse and Red Cross volunteer from Barrowby, Lincs, was left bleeding to death on the operating table.

Last night her daughter Kathy Ingram said that after dedicating her life to the NHS it had "let her down" when she needed it most.

The inquest in Sleaford, Lincs, heard the pensioner was only saved after another quick thinking doctor working along the corridor intervened in the operation.

But despite his help and the care of doctors and nurses at the 184 bed hospital she died eight weeks after the operation was carried out in August 2008.

Orthopaedic specialist Professor Angus Wallace told the inquest it was "the worst botched operation" he had seen.

The inquest heard Professor Wallace, who is based at Nottingham's Queens Medical Centre, was so concerned about the case that he reported the doctor to the GMC.

Only last week MPs heard how a "gaping hole" in the rules on foreign doctors working in Britain is putting patients at risk.

The Health Select Committee is currently investigating out-hours-care following the death of David Gray in Cambridgeshire in 2008.

He was killed by another German doctor, Daniel Ubani, who administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Dr Ubani had flown to Britain to provide out of hours care under a contract from the local health authority.

In 2004, ministers gave GPs a controversial new contract that allowed them to give up responsibility for out-of-hours care.

The General Medical Council said it is prevented from testing the qualifications of European locums who are brought in as cover.

Dr Kolb, 51, who is based in Stuttgart, was given an interim suspension by the GMC for 18 months on 10 June last year, but it is not yet clear if that applies in Germany.

Giving a narrative verdict coroner Stuart Fisher described it as a "most disturbing case."

Mrs Dickinson's daughter Kathy Ingram said "We feel let down. We don't quite understand how he got to operate on my mother.

"We have been told things in stages throughout the last one-and-a-half years.

We had concerns that it took six months before this was brought to the attention of the GMC.

"We don't understand how he got to operate on my mother. It's been hard to grieve until you understand what has happened and until you get a clear picture.

"My mother was somebody who was involved in the NHS and supported it even into her retirement working on the tea bar at her local hospital. After all those years the NHS let her down."

A spokesman for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said last night: "The Trust has apologised to Mrs Dickinson? s family for mistakes made during her operation.

"Errors were made by the surgeon concerned which were rectified immediately by a senior member of staff. After the operation Mrs Dickinson was recovering well and assessed to be medically fit for discharge by 25 September 2008.

"The Trust has done everything possible to learn from this incident and to prevent it happening to another patient.

"Changes have been made to the recruitment of medical staff, including the appointment of locums, and a new surgical safety checklist produced by the World Health Organisation has now been implemented throughout the Trust."

Created: 17/03/2010
Categories: Clinical errors