{"id":264573,"date":"2025-11-05T15:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264573\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:40:51","slug":"addenbrookes-surgery-left-girl-non-verbal-and-in-a-wheelchair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264573\/","title":{"rendered":"Addenbrooke\u2019s surgery left girl non-verbal and in a wheelchair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Shepka,Cambridgeshire political reporter and <\/p>\n

Harriet Heywood<\/p>\n

\"PhilPhil Shepka\/BBC<\/p>\n

Natasha, pictured with her daughter Neave, said her child would “never walk again” after two failed surgeries at Addenbrooke’s<\/p>\n

“My daughter walked into Addenbrooke’s talking, and she was wheeled out non-verbal.”<\/p>\n

A mother is demanding “accountability” from Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Trust after two failed surgeries in 2018 left her daughter with life-altering injuries.<\/p>\n

The procedures were carried out by consultant surgeon Kuldeep Stohr, who continued to practise at Addenbrooke’s Hospital until 2024, despite concerns raised as early as 2015.<\/p>\n

A Verita report, commissioned by CUH, found “a series of missed opportunities” to act on warnings. The trust has accepted the findings and apologised, adding that changes were under way.<\/p>\n

‘I blamed myself’ <\/p>\n

Natasha’s daughter, Neave, was born with positional talipes, a condition causing inward-turning feet.<\/p>\n

She could hop, skip, walk and dance, but had difficulty running and at 11, had a surgery that was intended to improve her mobility.<\/p>\n

“That was probably the last time she walked and called me mum,” Natasha said of the surgery which she described as an “abject failure”.<\/p>\n

“She will never walk again.”<\/p>\n

Neave, now 18, suffers from curvature of the spine, muscle wastage, scar tissue, and deformed feet, Natasha added.<\/p>\n

“I have blamed myself a lot for agreeing to the surgery in the first place,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Hubbard\/BBC<\/p>\n

Addenbrooke’s Hospital has previously apologised to the patients involved<\/p>\n

A separate review examining about 700 planned and 100 emergency operations involving Ms Stohr, some of which were for adults, was ongoing.<\/p>\n

The Verita report<\/a> concluded that earlier action from CUH could have reduced harm.<\/p>\n

One “pivotal missed opportunity” was CUH’s failure to act on a 2016 external review of the surgeon’s work, the report said.<\/p>\n

However, Natasha criticised the report as “appalling,” adding it focused more on protecting the hospital’s reputation than answering questions or holding anyone accountable.<\/p>\n

“[It] doesn’t really answer any questions and it doesn’t really hold anyone to account,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t feel as if I can trust what is being said to me within that report.”<\/p>\n

Retired lawyer Radd Seiger, representing 25 affected families, said: “This was not a rogue surgeon \u2014 this was a rogue system.”<\/p>\n

He called for a judge-led public inquiry and the resignation of CUH chief executive Roland Sinker.<\/p>\n

\"Roland<\/p>\n

Roland Sinker became chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals in 2015, when concerns were first raised about Kuldeep Stohr<\/p>\n

Mr Sinker told BBC Look East he would not resign<\/a>, stating the trust was implementing plans to “put patients at the heart” of future services.<\/p>\n

In a separate statement, he said he was “sorry” to hear Neave’s story and promised to meet patients to hear their feedback.<\/p>\n

“This should not have happened and we are committed to making changes so it does not happen again,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Care Quality Commission was reviewing the findings to determine if regulatory action is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Shepka,Cambridgeshire political reporter and Harriet Heywood Phil Shepka\/BBC Natasha, pictured with her daughter Neave, said her child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-264573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}