Posted on 06/18/2004 11:07:47 AM PDT by aculeus
A DISGRACED surgeon was warned yesterday that he faces jail after he admitted killing a woman during an operation.
Steven Walker, 47, a consultant, dramatically changed his plea to guilty during the fifth week of his Old Bailey trial for manslaughter.
Judge Sir Stephen Mitchell remanded him on bail for sentencing on Wednesday.
But he said Walker should not "misinterpret" the move. Sir Stephen said: "The options are open. There is no indication whatsoever of there being a non-custodial sentence."
Sir Stephen said Walker had pleaded guilty on the basis that "a difficult operation became an even more hazardous one" when he decided to go on with removing a liver tumour after discovering it was larger than he expected.
Walker, of Camberley, Surrey, had denied the manslaughter of Dorothy McPhee, 71, at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital in 1995.
He had also denied the manslaughter of Jean Robinson, 66, following an operation in the same year, stealing a hospital log and perverting justice. Rebecca Poulet, QC, prosecuting, said it had been decided that it would not be in the public interest to continue with the cases, and they would lie on file.
A similar decision had been made about a second trial alleging manslaughter of another patient, Margaret Wilson, 63, in 1998.
The change of plea followed legal rulings made by the judge on Wednesday.
Walker had already been found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council, following a series of botched operations which left four women dead and others maimed.
Mrs McPhee died following a risky operation to remove a large cancerous tumour from her liver. She lost 36 pints of blood following the operation, which, the court was told, should not have been performed by him. Consultant anaesthetist Helen Matheson said: "The haemorrhage can only be called torrential. Three of us were working full-out to get blood into her.
"It was a very sudden dramatic event. We could not keep up with the blood loss."
The court was told Walker turned his back on Mrs McPhee as she bled on the operating table to have his photograph taken with the dissected liver.
Mrs Robinson, who was also from the Blackpool area, was given an emergency operation after a colonoscopy procedure produced a tear in 1995.
She died three weeks later, following a second operation to reduce an infection and during which the doctor decided to remove most of her bowel. The trial heard evidence from medical experts who said that Walker should not have attempted the procedures.
Ms Poulet said: "His standard of care fell so far short of what could be expected of a reasonably competent surgeon of Mr Walker’s level of training and experience that it makes him criminally liable.
"A patient is entitled to expect that all doctors should recognise the limits of their professional competence."
Walker became a consultant at the hospital in 1995, but was suspended in January 1999 after a final operation during which Mabel Saville, 86, lost huge amounts of blood. She died three months later.
The GMC’s disciplinary panel was told that 16 anaesthetists at the hospital refused to work with Walker. He was struck off the medical register in November 2001 after a number of complaints of botched operations were proved.
The GMC said he had performed surgery "beyond the limit" of his confidence and skill. One patient said she felt "like a freak" after he attempted to rebuild her breast following a mastectomy.
The hearing was told that Walker had used sticky tape during one operation to try to get a woman’s breasts level.
But Walker appealed, and a year later the GMC restored his name to the register on condition that he did not operate.
But a coroner had ordered a police investigation and Walker was again suspended in July 2003 after he was charged.
doctors kill 90,000 + people a year + get away with it, so what's the fuss?
A consultant is someone who has been through all the training and whatnot, is that not the case? So he would have been training to be a doctor for many years, gone through internship/residency etc. at this point?
Let's ask a Brit.
A consultant surgeon in UK is the same as an attending surgeon in USA. They have finished their training and are Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) which is equivalent to being board certified in the USA. This guy was most likely through with his training for 15 years.
I once sat in the cockpit of a fighter airplane.
"doctors kill 90,000 + people a year + get away with it, so what's the fuss? "
Never mind that most of them were already extremely sick and would have died WITHOUT doctors intervention... Right?
Clearly, we should ban doctors. Then we'd live forever.
Ah, the joys of socialized medicine...
I've heard that non-British insurance companies have private planes standing by to rescue their subscribers should they fall ill while visiting the UK.
Actually, he's referring to the figure for deaths by "medical misadventure," not ordinary fatalities despite the best efforts of the practitioner.
Rule Number One in Government Bureaucracy: Don't rock the boat.
Rule Number One in Government Bureaucracy: See rule number One.
I'm sorry about your trials, but one anecdote does not indict the entire medical profession.
Fallacy Of Composition:
assuming that a whole has the same simplicity as its constituent parts. In fact, a great deal of science is the study of emergent properties. For example, if you put a drop of oil on water, there are interesting optical effects. But the effect comes from the oil/water system: it does not come just from the oil or just from the water.
Another example: "A car makes less pollution than a bus. Therefore, cars are less of a pollution problem than buses."
Another example: "Atoms are colorless. Cats are made of atoms, so cats are colorless."
His is an example of the kind of "medical misadventure" to which the "90,000 deaths" figure is referring.
Not if Big Food has anything to do with it. (sarcasm)
You are the one avoiding the hard number - 90,000 KILLED - eahc year.
That's KILLED.
Not "not saved."
KILLED.
Medicine is rotten. The AMA has got to go.
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