NHS Surgeon Who Connected the Wrong Organs During Emergency Operation Is Struck Off After Patient Nearly Died

A tribunal has struck off an NHS locum surgeon who nearly killed a patient by connecting the wrong organs during emergency bowel surgery. Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman was erased from the medical register after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found he had created a 'closed loop' that sent a young man's bowel contents back into his stomach during an operation at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester in August 2020.

The tribunal examined Dr Rahman's conduct after a routine emergency bowel operation spiralled into what experts later described as an error 'not compatible with life'. The patient, referred to only as Patient A, had been admitted with a tumour in his small bowel and a perforated, necrotic loop requiring urgent surgery.

Dr Rahman, who qualified from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1993 and had been working at the hospital for only a few days, told the tribunal he and a vascular surgeon had connected the intestine to the stomach to maintain 'digestive/bowel continuity'. He said a test during the operation had ruled out obstructions.

Ward Alarm as Patient Fails To Recover

After the operation on 25 August 2020, Patient A's condition deteriorated sharply, with escalating pain, persistent vomiting and no bowel movements for three weeks. Nursing staff repeatedly raised concerns, with one recording that Dr Rahman appeared 'unconcerned' and 'dismissive'.

On 11 September, he reassured the patient's parents that the surgery had been a success and that their son would be sent home soon. He was not.

When consultant colorectal surgeon Mr Anthony Rate took over the case on 15 September, following continued pressure from the family and nursing staff, he ordered a second emergency operation. He found that Dr Rahman had connected the wrong part of the small intestine to the stomach, creating a closed loop in which bowel contents 'had nowhere to go apart from back into the stomach in a circular fashion'. Another segment of bowel had been left unattached in the abdomen.

Mr Rate salvaged part of the bowel and formed a stoma. Without the intervention, the tribunal was told, the patient 'would have died in the post-operative period'.

Expert Condemns 'Bizarre' Procedure

The General Medical Council's expert witness, former consultant colorectal surgeon Mr Anthony Blower, said the case was technically challenging but that a competent consultant should have recognised the difficulty and sought help. He described the operation as 'bizarre', 'totally unconventional' and 'not known to man', concluding it was 'as bad as it gets for a consultant surgeon'.

He said Dr Rahman 'at no time considered that something may have gone wrong surgically', causing a serious delay before the problem was recognised.

Tribunal Finds No Remorse

The tribunal panel said it had seen 'no contemporaneous or subsequent evidence of remorse, empathy, or recognition of the impact on Patient A and his family'. It added that there had been 'no attempt at an apology'.

Dr Rahman, who did not attend the hearing and was not legally represented, claimed in submissions to the tribunal that he had been the target of a 'witch hunt' and that the hospital was 'pointing the finger of blame' at him. He cited '30 years of an unblemished record' with no prior complaints.

Conditions Breached After Overseas Work

By July 2021, the MPTS had imposed conditions on his registration, including a requirement to notify the GMC of any work taken outside the UK. In February 2022, he took a locum post at a clinic in Ireland without complying with those conditions and lied to the GMC about when the job had started. The tribunal called this 'aggravating'.

In its final decision last month, the tribunal concluded Dr Rahman's misconduct was 'fundamentally incompatible with continued registration' and ordered his name erased from the medical register, with an immediate suspension imposed in case of appeal.