Doctor in Dubai hospital accused of botched spine surgery

Dubai: A neurosurgeon has been accused of medical malpractice following a botched surgery that left a woman manager with incessant pain in her spine.

The Egyptian woman manager was suffering from continuous pain in her lower back and spine before doctors told her that she had been suffering of Spondylolisthesis, a medical condition of her lumbar vertebrae.

Records said after the patient visited the British neurosurgeon in a Dubai-based hospital in November 2013, he operated on her but her pain refused to go away.

The patient visited other doctors for more opinions before she was told that the British defendant’s operation was unsuccessful.

Thereafter the woman headed to Al Rifaa Police Station where she lodged a malpractice complaint against the neurosurgeon.

Prosecutors accused the Briton of medical malpractice and negligence as he had failed to carry out his duties and responsibilities properly and caused bodily pains and injuries to the Egyptian woman.

When the accused showed up before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court, he refuted the accusations and pleaded not guilty.

The neurosurgeon has argued against all the accusations contending that he carried out a successful operation and blamed the woman for what had happened to her after the surgery.

The Briton contended that the woman’s situation deteriorated because she failed to abide by the after-surgery medical instructions, and should not have carried heavy objects.

According to the charges, prosecutors said the doctor did not get the patient’s approval to operate on her and that he should have fixed the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebras and he should have made a spinal implantation.

The Higher Committee for Medical Liability’s report said the patient’s pains continued after the doctor’s operation and she had to undergo two follow up operations that could’ve been avoided.

The doctor’s lawyer Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi argued before the court that his client did not commit a medical malpractice and countered prosecutors’ accusation of him being negligent.

Al Shamsi further asked the presiding judge to bring in prosecution witnesses to cross-examine them before the court as part of his defence.

In her police statement, the woman alleged that the neurosurgeon had told her that the operation would last 5 hours but she stayed 10 hours.

“After the operation I was informed that I had lost 2.5 litres of blood during the operation and the suspect told me that I had lost it due to the lengthy operation. Five days later I was discharged from hospital, followed up the medical instructions and underwent physiotherapy … but my pains continued and even worsened. I complained to the concerned health authorities,” she said.

When questioned by interrogators, the neurosurgeon maintained that he informed the patient about her surgery in advance and she was also pre-warned about the expected side effects.

He further dismissed any medical malpractice or negligence on his side.

Advocate Al Shamsi is expected to present his defence argument when the court reconvenes next month.