Blundering Yorkshire surgeon ‘lied’ over patient’s death

The General Medical Council also ruled Nayef El-Barghouty had been dishonest when he gave evidence to an inquest following the death of grandfather Wilfrid Taylor, 82, following surgery at Scarborough Hospital.

The Egypt-trained vascular and general surgeon will hear in the coming days if he will face sanctions.

The fitness to practise hearing in Manchester was told that he carried out a routine operation in January 2008 on mother-of-two Jo Roche, now 42, to remove her thyroid gland.

But it was carried out in 90 minutes instead of the two to three hours expected and he severely damaged nerves linked to her vocal cords.

Mrs Roche was left barely able to speak and the damage led to blockages in her airway.

Six months later she had to undergo a complete tracheostomy to fit a tube through her neck and into her windpipe to allow her to breathe properly.

In a second operation a year later, the surgeon was due to repair an aneurysm in Mr Taylor’s left leg.

But he mistakenly operated in the wrong area and within hours carried out a second corrective operation that led to torrential bleeding, causing the retired engineer’s death.

The surgeon admitted giving “false and utterly misleading” evidence about the size of the aneurysm to an inquest three months later, claiming his memory of the events was limited and that he had not prepared properly.

The panel rejected the claims, concluding that he “must have realised” his evidence was dishonest.

Police were called in following the death of Mr Taylor, of Eastfield, Scarborough, but no further action was taken.

In both cases the hospital paid damages.

Mrs Roche, a healthcare assistant at a Bridlington GP practice, had to teach herself to talk again.

She said: “Life’s hard basically. The tracheostomy looks so ugly and there’s so much that I can’t do that I used to love, like swimming and singing with the kids.”

Mr Taylor’s son Michael said: “His death was completely avoidable and so I gave evidence to the GMC for him. I want that surgeon to remember what he’s done and make sure that my father doesn’t just become another statistic in his career.”

Simon Wilson, medical negligence expert at Neil Hudgell Solicitors, said they had dealt with a number of cases of patients making claims after surgery by Mr El-Barghouty.

Scarborough Hospital said it could not comment until the GMC deliberations had been completed.