Patients ready to sue doctor struck off in MS case

Solicitors Leigh Day & Co said it was looking into the possibility of seeking compensation for potentially "hundreds" of MS and spinal cord injury patients who travelled to Rotterdam to receive stem cell treatment from Dr Robert Trossel.

Solicitor at the firm Jill Paterson said: "We support the GMC's findings today that Dr Trossel is no longer fit to practise in the UK. We are actively investigating the pursuit of legal proceedings against him to right the wrongs caused to these vulnerable people."

The news of the possible legal action comes after Dr Trossel, 56, was struck off the medical register at the conclusion a long-running disciplinary hearing in central London into his involvement with MS sufferers.

The Dutch-trained doctor was found to have given false hope to vulnerable patients desperate for a cure, charging them thousands of pounds for "pointless" and "unjustifiable" stem cell treatments.

The chairman of the GMC fitness to practise panel, Prof Brian Gomes da Costa, told Dr Trossel he had done "lasting harm" to patients and had "abused the position of trust" afforded to him as a doctor

He said: "You have exploited vulnerable patients and their families. You have given false hope and made unsubstantiated and exaggerated claims to patients suffering from degenerative and devastating illnesses.

"Your conduct has unquestionably done lasting harm, if not physically, then mentally and financially, to these patients and also to their families and supporters."

Five of the patients in the GMC case were injected between August 2004 and August 2006 at his Rotterdam clinic with a substance said to contain stem cells, in a move described as medically unjustifiable, "inappropriate" and exploitative of vulnerable patients.

Two of the patients, along with another MS patient, were advised by Dr Trossel to undergo a treatment called Aqua Tilis therapy (AQT) – described by one as "completely bizarre – involving "antioxidant steam" with "magnetic fields made from generators".

There was "scant", if any, prospect of alleviation of the MS symptoms by stem cell therapy and AQT, the GMC ruled.

The GMC heard that Dr Trossel had no background in neurology or haematology and that he was not an expert in stem cell research. He was also found to have used stem cells that were not designed for human use.

Earlier this month the panel ruled his actions constituted "repeated and serious" breaches of many of the "essential tenets" of good medical practice.

But it ruled that he was not dishonest because he believed the claims he had made about stem cell therapy and AQT.

The patients, the majority of whom were suffering from the "progressive and aggressive" form of the disabling neurological disease, raised thousands of pounds to fund the therapy, in many cases through donations or sponsored events.

He was found to have injected four patients with material containing bovine brain and spinal cord live cells without obtaining informed consent.

Dr Trossel said he only discovered a batch of vials – sent to him in 2006 by Advanced Cell Therapeutics (ACT) - were not designed for human use when he took part in a BBC Newsnight programme.

After contacting California-based All Cells and failing to get confirmation the cells could be used on humans, Dr Trossel told the hearing he stopped using the ACT products.