A Ghanaian anaesthetist, Dr John Evans-Appiah who caused a woman to undergo surgery without proper anaesthesia has been charged with 18 counts of professional of misconduct by the British General Medical Council.
His charges include his role in the death of a boy, Darren Denholm, while he was undergoing dental surgery.
The charges were brought by Mrs Hazel Woolger, 33, who told the disciplinary committee of the horror she went through during a Caesarean section for the delivery of her fourth child.
Mrs Hazel described her experience could be likened to the horror film, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ saying: “It just seemed so unbelievably awful – the pain of it all, the surgeons working away, the agony while having no one to turn to.”
Because of a shortage of anaesthetists at the Maidstone Hospital in Kent, Dr a Evans-Appiah, a locum, had been called in.
He gave Mrs Woolger an epidural and 10 minutes later performed the standard test to see if it had worked, by drizzling a cold liquid across her thighs and stomach.
“I told him it was freezing cold on my stomach, but he frowned and shook his head disbelievingly,” Mrs Woolger said. He performed the test again. “It was exactly the same: I felt freezing cold and he stood there, shaking his head.”
Dr Evans-Appiah then asked her to lift her legs, and when Mrs Woolger could only mover her feet, he told the surgeon, Prosjeni Sarker, to begin the operation, she said.
When Mrs Woolger felt the surgeon put three clamps on her stomach, she understood the surgery was to be begin and screamed in fear. “I was absolutely terrified,” she said.
Then l felt the knife go slowly along the base of my stomach, it was a very precise feeling, a very burning kind of pain.
After several minutes the pain became almost unbearable, and she began swearing and shouting. I was writhing and moving around, l didn’t know to stop the pain,” she told the Council.
Dr Evans-Appiah has denied the charges. Hearing continues.
