Surgeon struck off for using wrong knee prosthesis

A Peterborough surgeon who replaced a knee joint with the wrong prosthesis and failed to report the error has been struck off.

Emyr Choudhury, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Peterborough City Hospital, wrongly used a prosthesis for a right knee on a left knee in 2016. He failed to sufficiently check the implant or inform the patient of his error, a medical tribunal heard.

It ruled that Mr Chowdhury’s “repeated and persistent dishonesty” necessitated in him being removed from the medical register.

The tribunal heard that in April 2016, Mr Chowdhury performed a total knee anthroplasty on Patient A. Three days later, it was discovered and proven that he sent an email to a colleague stating “up-to-date x-rays” of the patient showed the “correct sided implant”. He added that there was a “labelling error” with the prosthesis, but that it was the correct side.

It was heard that he was in no position to confirm this information and that he failed to report the mistake because he realised the wrong implant had been used. He also neglected to report it in a letter to the patient’s GP five months later.

He was also found to have “knowingly provided untrue information” to the patient by informing them it was “impossible to check” at the time of the procedure that the correct-sided replacement had been implanted.

Ruling its sanction, the tribunal said “erasure” was the only option it had in order to “maintain public confidence in the medical profession”.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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