The United Kingdom Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), a disciplinary panel, has found a Nigerian born senior surgeon practicing in that country, 59 year old Dr. Lawal Haruna guilty of professional misconduct and has banned him from treating patients.
Dr. Lawal was found to have accidentally removed a woman’s ovary instead of her appendix in addition to botched up three operations over the course of two years. He reportedly removed the woman’s ovary because, he said, the appendix and fallopian tubes were similar ‘worm-like structures’ in the same area.
The woman who was simply referred to as Patient B, was treated by the Doctor when she was admitted for abdominal pain while he was working for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
The panel found out that during the operation, one of the woman’s ovaries was removed leaving her appendix – which was causing her great pain – in situ.
The tribunal heard how it was lucky she was not of child-bearing age as it could have affected her fertility.
Dr. Lawal Haruna botched up two further operations mistaking a lump of fat for an appendix in one case and a skin tag for a harmful lump in another.
Colleagues described the operations as poorly executed and ‘never events,’ even as Dr. Lawan Haruna who claimed to have 25 years experience, later dismissed the incidents as ‘trifling errors.’
He argued that the appendix and fallopian tubes were similar ‘worm-like structures which lie in a similar area.
The surgeon, who represented himself, told the Manchester hearing that he had ‘poor vision’ at the time he carried out the surgery, protested that it would be ‘harsh’ to strike him off. [myad]
