A surgeon who marked his initials on the livers of two transplant patients has admitted assault by beating.<\/p>\n
Simon Bramhall, 53, committed the offences at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital in February and August 2013.<\/p>\n
The liver, spleen and pancreas surgeon was suspended later that year.<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to two charges at Birmingham Crown Court and will be sentenced at the same court on 12 January.<\/p>\n
He denied the more serious charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm – a plea which was accepted by prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Tony Badenoch QC said the case was “without legal precedent in criminal law”.<\/p>\n
Bramhall, who came to attention in 2010 when he\u00a0transplanted a liver saved from a burning aircraft into a patient<\/a>, was suspended when the branding was discovered by another surgeon.<\/p>\n Liver surgeons use an argon beam to stop livers bleeding, but can also use it to burn the surface of the liver to sketch out the area of an operation.<\/p>\n It is not believed to have been harmful to the liver and the marks normally disappear.<\/p>\n In one case it appears the organ was already damaged and as a result did not heal itself in the normal manner, allowing the marks to be seen.<\/p>\n Mr Badenoch said it had been a “highly unusual and complex case, both within the expert medical testimony served by both sides and in law.”<\/p>\n He said what Bramhall had done was not isolated and required “some skill and concentration”.<\/p>\n “It was done in the presence of colleagues,” he said.<\/p>\n His actions were carried out “with a disregard for the feelings of unconscious patients”, the prosecutor added.<\/p>\n Bramhall resigned after a disciplinary hearing<\/a>\u00a0with University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust in May 2014.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"