{"id":28354,"date":"2024-10-02T06:48:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T10:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28354"},"modified":"2024-10-02T06:48:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T10:48:56","slug":"surgeon-operated-with-penknife-he-uses-to-cut-up-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/10\/02\/surgeon-operated-with-penknife-he-uses-to-cut-up-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.<\/b><\/p>\n

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon\u2019s actions were \u201coutside normal procedures and should not have been necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prof Graeme Poston, an expert witness on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, told the BBC: \u201cIt surprises me and appals me. Firstly, a penknife is not sterile. Secondly it is not an operating instrument. And thirdly all the kit [must have been] there.”<\/p>\n

Police are separately looking into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence at the trust and considering manslaughter charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The surgeon in the penknife case, who the BBC is not naming, was operating on a patient at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton when he struggled to find a scalpel.<\/p>\n

Instead he used a Swiss Army knife which he normally used to cut fruit for his lunch.<\/p>\n

The patient survived but internal documents show the surgeon\u2019s colleagues felt his behaviour was \u201cquestionable\u201d and were \u201cvery surprised\u201d he was unable to find a scalpel.<\/p>\n

The BBC has also discovered the same surgeon carried out three supposedly low-risk operations in two months where all three patients died soon after.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The BBC has previously reported that:<\/p>\n

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