UK breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent after being accused of carrying out a series of unnecessary operations.
The Independent reports that the 59-year-old denied all the charges, meaning the victims – nine women and a man – had their stories put under forensic examination at Nottingham Crown Court.
The report says among them was a mother who was said to have agreed to two “unnecessary” operations, leaving her unable to breastfeed, and a woman who had a “significant deformity in her visible cleavage area” after a pair of needless operations on her left breast. One told the court the surgeon, also convicted of three counts of unlawful wounding, had “ruined my life”.
Paterson sobbed as the foreman of the jury returned the guilty verdicts, as did his daughter Emily, who was also in court.
The report says the Scottish-born surgeon was suspended by the General Medical Council in 2012 amid claims he carried out cleavage-sparing mastectomies (CSMs), which led to the recall of more than 700 patients. He was accused of causing grievous bodily harm to patients and lying to his victims, “exaggerating or quite simply inventing risk of cancer”, and claiming payments for more expensive procedures.
A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association revealed that 68 women who underwent a CSM – in which part of the breast was left for cosmetic reasons – by Paterson on the National Health Service (NHS) had gone on to develop a recurrence of breast cancer.
The report says figures also revealed that the NHS has paid out nearly £18m, of which £9.5m was damages, following claims from nearly 800 of Paterson’ patients – a fact that the jury were not made aware of during proceedings.
[link url="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ian-paterson-found-guilty-convicted-wounding-surgery-operations-cancer-a7707516.html"]The Independent report[/link]