A DOCTOR has been struck off after leaving pregnant patients bleeding heavily on the operating room table following botched C-sections.
Dr Osamudiame Giwa-Osagie claimed there was a ‘conspiracy’ against him, and suggested he was being punished for saying he had suffered racial discrimination.
But a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing last year heard two patients ‘could have lost their lives due to his incompetence.’
He repeatedly told colleagues helping him with a caesarean operation in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital in 2009 ‘everything was under control’ as the woman haemorrhaged blood.
Incisions
His unusually fast incisions into the patient were blamed for the heavy bleeding, which meant the patient lost two pints of blood.
Just a month later he repeated the mistake at Salisbury hospital in Wiltshire, where another patient had to be rushed to the emergency room with heavy internal bleeding.
She had lost half her circulating blood, and Dr Giwa-Osagie had twice refused help from senior colleagues during the operation.
During the GMC hearing in November last yer, panel chair Eileen Carr said: “The panel is concerned that you failed to recognise the serious condition of [the first patient] and the risk to her life.
“The panel is satisfied it is not in the best interests of patients for a surgeon not to realise that a life-threatening situation exists and is not under control.”
The GMC’s case presenter Paul Ozin said: “Either of these patients could have lost their lives due to his incompetence, failure to recognise a serious clinical situation, unawareness of his limitations and reluctance to ask for help from senior colleagues.”
The doctor worked as a locum registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital and later at Salisbury District Hospita
Misconduct
Announcing its decision this week, the Dr Giwa-Osagie was told: “The Panel considers that your misconduct is the product of attitudinal deficiencies which you have repeatedly failed to acknowledge during the course of these proceedings.
“The Panel is concerned that you have shown little insight into the seriousness of your actions and the potentially serious consequences that could have resulted in respect of Patient A and Patient B as a result of your management of their care.”
It continued: “the Panel has concluded that [Dr Giwa-Osagie’s] misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with [his] continuing to practise medicine.
“The public interest requires that a strong signal be sent to [him], to the public and to the profession that your continued lack of insight into [his] actions is fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor.
“Accordingly, the Panel has determined to direct that [his] name be erased from the Medical Register.
The GMC panel also decided that Dr Giwa-Osagie should be struck off immediately, rather than having 28 days left to appeal.
The panel said in a statement: “The Panel has already determined that the serious nature of your misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with your continuing to practise medicine and you pose a risk to patients.
“It is therefore satisfied that an immediate order of suspension is necessary for the protection of members of the public and in the public interest.”
Brotherhood
Describing Dr Giwa-Osagie’s case in his defence, the GMC panel also said: “You stated that you have been taught to “cherish international brotherhood”.
“You submitted that in considering Mr Ozin’s submissions on sanction, you began to wonder if you are being punished for daring to suggest that there has been racial discrimination against you.”
During last year’s hearing, he said: “Everything smacks of conspiracy.”
Educated in Nigeria, Dr Giwa-Osagie had been practising in the UK for 20 years.
He said he was ‘sorry for what had happened’, and had tried to apologise to the second patient personally.
