Former surgeon who amputated children’s limbs may have worked in four more hospitals

Five more hospitals are under investigation after a disgraced surgeon was found to have amputated the limbs of children needlessly.

Yaser Jabbar, a former consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, is claimed to have harmed at least 22 of the 721 patients under his care.

Now it has emerged that the investigation has been widened to include four more London-based hospitals where Mr Jabbar worked.

These include three private hospitals – The Portland Hospital; Cromwell Hospital; and St John and St Elizabeth Hospital London – and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Among those reported to have been treated by the former consultant, one child had to have a leg amputated. Another may soon have to have a limb amputated, The Sunday Times reports.

Other patients were left with legs at different lengths, sometimes by as much as 20cm. Many live with chronic pain.

The youngest harmed was allegedly only four months old at the point of surgery.

Of the first 37 cases reviewed by independent experts from other UK hospitals, 22 children were found to have come to some degree of harm, including 13 deemed to have come to ‘severe harm’.

On its website, Gosh said: ‘We are aware that some Gosh patients have also been treated by this surgeon at other hospitals in the UK.

‘As we conduct the review, we want to be sure that we are looking at all the care that was provided by the surgeon.

‘To do this we are working with the other four hospitals we know this surgeon worked at.’

One patient named Bunty, who was born with a rare bone disease, underwent a number of surgeries over a 15-month period which were performed by Mr Jabbar.

She was allegedly subjected to procedures such as bone grafting, limb lengthening of the tibia and the use of frames in order to prevent amputation.

All procedures were unsuccessful and the youngster had a below-knee amputation in May 2020.

Gosh apologised for the impact Mr Jabbar’s care had on Bunty but her father Dean Stalham claimed Mr Jabbar ‘used to sweep into the ward and talk himself up as some sort of miracle man, whilst nothing he did ever improved Bunty’s situation’.

The family of one boy he treated, who asked to remain anonymous, have told how he was born with a condition that caused tumours to grow along the nerves, and Mr Jabbar carried out various procedures to reduce the leg length discrepancy and realign the limb.

In 2022, they were told an operation to insert a supporting rid into the leg would be the ‘last hurdle’ and their son would be unrestricted in his activities.

But three months after the surgery, the boy felt his leg “snap” and he chose to have his lower leg amputated instead of having years of more painful procedures.

The hospital said that it will hold a register of ‘all patients treated by this surgeon across these hospitals in the UK’.

They commissioned an external review of its paediatric orthopaedic service in 2022 ‘after concerns were raised by a number of our patient families and staff’.

It said that the review, conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), ‘raised concerns regarding the medical practice of an orthopaedic surgeon’.

Solicitor Caroline Murgatroyd, of Hudgell Solicitors, who is representing families treated by Mr Jabbar, said: ‘Obviously, we want to see each and every case investigated fully, with all treatment taken into consideration, so we welcome the Gosh investigation being widened to cover these four other hospitals where it is known children were seen and treated by Mr Jabbar.

‘Sadly, at Great Ormond Street, in many of the cases we have seen so far, there has been a lack of documentation available with regards to Mr Jabbar’s decision-making process when treating patients, and his consultation with other colleagues and parents, which has raised concerns over the governance and management of the department as a whole.

‘It will be interesting to see how Mr Jabbar was managed when working in other hospitals and whether any concerns were raised at any of these locations when he was treating children.

‘We need full transparency with regards to what happened at every hospital he worked at, and every treatment on every patient.’

Mr Jabbar, who lives in Dubai and no longer works at the London hospital, is reported to be an expert in limb reconstruction but has not had a licence to practise medicine in the UK since January 8 2024, according to the General Medical Council’s website.

Great Ormond Street Hospital said: ‘Following concerns raised by our staff and families, we asked the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) to review our paediatric orthopaedic service.

‘As part of their review, the Royal College of Surgeons raised concerns around the practice of a surgeon who no longer works at the trust. We are in contact with all our patients who were under the care of the surgeon and a group of independent experts from other paediatric hospitals are reviewing their individual care.

‘We are aware that the surgeon saw some patients at other centres in the UK and we are working with these hospitals as they look to review the care provided to their patients.’

HCA Healthcare UK, which runs The Portland Hospital, said: ‘Mr Jabbar was suspended from practising with us in June 2022 for failure to attend a booked clinic.

‘There were no clinical concerns raised at this time about his clinical practice with us, but following the concerns raised at Great Ormond Street Hospital we are conducting our own clinical review.

‘We are contacting all patients who had surgery with Mr Jabbar at HCA UK who will be part of this review and will be offering clinical consultations with an orthopaedic specialist as part of this.

‘We understand that this must be a concerning time for his patients and their families, and ensuring we do the most comprehensive review into his practice with us is our priority.’

St John and St Elizabeth Hospital confirmed Mr Jabbar had practising privileges at the hospital between October 2020 and January 2023.

The spokesperson said three adult inpatient procedures were conducted at the hospital during this period and ‘no concerns were raised about Mr Jabbar’s practice’.

The spokesperson said that the hospital is working with Great Ormond Street Hospital ‘to assist them in their review’.

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