OSAGIE:ANXIOUS WAIT FOR C-SECTION BLUNDER DOCTOR
A doctor whose blunders could have led to the deaths of two women during routine caesarian sections is facing an anxious wait over his career.
Dr Osarume Giwa-Osagie repeatedly insisted that everything was ‘fine’ as the women haemorrhaged, the General Medical Council heard.
He was found guilty of a series of charges but cleared of attending to a patient while wearing a gown that was smeared with blood and tomato pips.
The doctor must now wait four months to hear his fate after the disciplinary panel ran out of time before deciding what sanction he should face.
Giwa-Osagie lost control of surgery during two operations during locum posts at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital in October 2009 and Salisbury Hospital the following month.
In both cases, he breached safety regulations by failing to call a consultant when the women had lost two litres of blood, which is classed as a ‘massive obstetric haemorrhage’, the panel ruled.
He repeatedly told concerned colleagues ‘it will be ok’ and that ‘everything is under control’.
Panel chairman Eileen Carr found he failed to request a consultant surgeon when his patient lost more than 1.5 litres during the c-section at the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital in October 2009.
Ms Carr said: ‘Post partum haemorrhage is a major cause of maternal death in the UK and it is an extremely serious condition.’
‘The panel is concerned that you failed to recognise the serious condition of patient A 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.’
On the first weekend of his posting at the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital on October 3, 2009, he performed a c-section on a woman identified as patient A, who was admitted to the hospital.
The woman lost a ‘lot of blood’ but when Helen McFerran, a second year student who assisted with the operation, said the patient was still bleeding Giwa-Osagi replied: ‘It will be ok’.
Ms McFerran, who assisted with the operation, said Giwa-Osagie made the incision with ‘unusual speed’ on the patient.
‘Her impression was that Dr Giwa-Osagie showed no outward signs of urgency,’ said Paul Ozin, for the GMC.
It was left to a member of theatre staff to get the senior doctor.
Consultant Lena Crighton, who completed the operation, found that the woman was still ‘actively bleeding’ which was probably caused by Giwa-Osagie’s ‘poor’ dissection.
A month later, the doctor insisted that a woman would be ‘fine’ after she lost half her circulating blood during an operation.
The second woman, was a senior staff nurse, who was given a caesarian section at the Salisbury Hospital on 20 November 2009.
Giwa-Osagie was twice asked if he wanted to call for a senior colleague after the patient lost more than two litres of blood, but he refused to get help, saying ‘I’m fine’ and ‘everything’s under control’.
The nurse and her husband said they recalled consultant anaesthetist William Garrett telling the doctor ‘Something’s wrong’ and saying she needed to go back to theatre after the operation.
But Giwa-Osagie replied ‘She’s fine’, and insisted that tests showing the woman’s blood levels were dangerously low must be a mistake.
The woman was rushed back for emergency surgery after Dr Garrett took the decision to order a crash team, which found that Giwa-Osagie had failed to stem serious internal bleeding.
‘In theatre it was clear she had suffered a massive haemorrhage,’ said Mr Ozin.
‘Unfortunately it was necessary to remove her left fallopian tube and ovary in order to locate the urethra and get access to the bleeding.’
Mr Ozin said it was ‘quite alarming’ that Giwa-Osagie had mismanaged two massive haemorrhages within a short period of time and at two hospitals.
He 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 hearing was adjourned until 26 March next year, when it will sit for another week to rule on whether the doctor’s failings amount to misconduct and what sanction he should face.
Giwa-Osagie claimed he was the victim of fabricated complaints, saying: ‘Everything smacks of a conspiracy’.
ends
