Medical claims: Surgeon suspended for botched operations

The General Medical Council (GMC) has suspended a vascular surgeon for 12 months. Nayef El-Barghouty was suspended from his role at Scarborough Hospital after botched operations led to one man bleeding to death and a woman being forced to breathe through a tube for the rest of her life.

Last year, it was revealed that Scarborough Hospital had the highest death rates in Britain for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) operations, which are regarded as a benchmark for standards of vascular surgery. 29% of patients having AAA procedures between 2006 and 2008 didn’t survive, whilst the national average was just 4%. Once this was made public, the Scarborough and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust withdrew these operations – all of which were performed by Barghouty and one other surgeon at Scarborough Hospital.

The GMC found that Barghouty was guilty of botching 2 operations and lying to an inquest. In 2008, he carried out what would normally have been a routine operation to remove the thyroid gland of a 42-year-old woman, but, hurrying his way through the procedure, he cut through both of her vocal cords. A tracheotomy was needed so she could breathe, and she has had to re-learn the process of speech.

Barghouty operated on an 82-year-old man to remove a blood clot from his leg the following year (2009). In the initial operation, he incorrectly tied off an artery and left a swab inside the patient’s leg, meaning he had to operate on him a further two times the same day. He severed a major artery during the third operation, and the patient bled to death on the operating table.

After imposing the maximum suspension on Barghouty, the GMC said it was satisfied this would send out a clear message regarding the clinical standards it expects. The errors were described as “woeful” by a medical negligence expert representing the families involved. He welcomed Barghouty’s suspension, but also said that this added new weight to calls for patients to be given access to individual surgeons’ records, in order for them to see how experienced they are and how frequently their patients have suffered complications.

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