Dozens of children suffered severe harm and pain at the hands of a rogue Great Ormond Street orthopaedic surgeon, a report has concluded.
On Thursday the hospital released a review into the actions of Yaser Jabbar, a limb-lengthening surgeon who treated hundreds of children between 2017 and 2022.
It concluded that 94 patients — more than a quarter of those he operated on — came to harm and he made errors including the wrong cuts in bone.
Thirty-six children came to severe harm, meaning they suffered permanent or life-altering damage, a further 39 patients came to moderate harm and 19 patients came to mild harm.
One girl, Bunty Stalham, had to have her leg amputated at the age of six. Another of Jabbar’s patients, James Wood, has described the “traumatic” experience of being operated on by him in 2019. The surgeon used a pin which “nicked” his femoral artery, and this has left him with ongoing “horrifying pain” and “robbed him” of his teenage years.
Jabbar is understood to live in Dubai and no longer has a licence to practise medicine in the UK. He specialised in high-risk limb-lengthening and reconstruction surgeries on children with conditions affecting their bones and joints.
Limb-lengthening procedures involve surgically breaking the bone then inserting a device known as an Ilizarov frame into the leg. Over the following months, the break is very slowly widened, allowing the bone to stretch and new bone to develop.
Yaser Jabbar no longer has a licence to practise medicine in the UK and lives in Dubai
The review was carried out by a team of eight surgeons from the Royal College of Surgeons, who investigated his treatment of 789 children.
They found that his surgery fell well below the level expected in several areas. Many patients came to harm, with several going on to need further surgery.
“There were instances of premature removal of fixation devices, the combination of procedures without clear rationale, inadequate counselling on fracture risk, and an over-reliance on junior staff,” the report said.
“There were some serious problems found, including poor planning before surgery, not making the area stable enough, unclear or incomplete notes, and putting implants in the wrong place.
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“Other issues were making cuts in the bone at the wrong level or using the wrong method, making decisions that didn’t match what was seen in the scans during surgery, problems with how frames and pins were used, and not involving the wider team when dealing with infections.”
Analysis of the independent expert case reports into the surgeon’s practice “identified that Mr Jabbar was highly inconsistent in his approach to clinical care with recurrent deficiencies in documentation, assessment and surgical decision-making”, the report said.
Matthew Shaw, chief executive of Great Ormond Street, said: “We are profoundly sorry to all the patients and their families who have been affected by the care provided by Mr Jabbar, an orthopaedic surgeon at our hospital between 2017-22.
“The report we have published today sets out in full what happened, what we found in our review of patients, what we have learnt and what we have done as a consequence.
Matthew Shaw, chief executive of Great Ormond Street
VICKI COUCHMAN FOR THE TIMES
“We have made significant changes to both the orthopaedic service itself and across the hospital to minimise the chance of something like this happening again. Many of these changes are designed to help spot potential issues before they become a risk to patient care.
“We know this comes too late for the families affected by this issue, but we are committed to ensuring our hospital is a better and safer place for all current and future patients.”
‘Botched surgery robbed me of my teenage years’
James Wood, 19, from Great Yarmouth, is one of those who suffered severe harm at the hands of the Great Ormond Street surgeon.
He was referred to Jabbar at the age of 12 for leg-lengthening surgery after being born with multiple pterygium syndrome, a rare congenital condition that causes skin webbing across the joints.
In April 2019 he had an operation in which a frame was fixed to his right leg with the aim of stretching the tissues in his knee.
James Wood had surgery on his leg at the age of 12
PA
Weeks later, Wood began to suffer extreme pain and swelling in his right thigh, and an ultrasound revealed that one of the pins used to secure the frame had protruded into his thigh. When it was removed, there was lots of bleeding and surgeons noted damage to his femoral artery.
An independent review into his treatment ahead of Thursday’s report found “poor surgical skill” by Jabbar had resulted in a pin going into Wood’s thigh when the frame was fitted.
Wood, who is now studying English literature and creative writing at the University of East Anglia, said: “I was only 12 at the time so you just trust the doctors. I was never right after I had that operation and was in pain from the moment the frame was put on me.
“Rather than it getting better, it began to get worse. I would get these really intense fits of pain in my right thigh for about an hour at a time. It was the worst pain I had ever felt.
“When I went back to hospital I was told there was a collection of fluid in my thigh. I remember them saying there was a lot of internal bleeding.
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“I then remember waking up from an operation and being told that a pin had nicked my femoral artery. I was told it had been an accident.”
Wood still struggles with movement but has delayed treatment to his left leg owing to the trauma he experienced.
“I struggle a lot with stairs because I have to use one leg at a time. Sometimes my right leg just gives out at the ankle. It makes it a lot harder to walk longer distances and I can be slow walking.
“This experience has robbed me of my abilities from being 13. I’m still recovering to this day. I missed a lot of my formative high school experiences and it left me quite lonely in my childhood because I spent my early teenage years in recovery.
“It was all incredibly traumatic and the pain is still horrifying and has had a long-term impact. To later find out that my surgeon was harming not only me, but many others, and was not stopped for many years, is abysmal. How can this ever have been allowed to happen?”