Surgeon banned “putting his own mark on transplanted organs” from practice!

A British surgeon has been crossed from the medical record after he was caught placing his initials on his patients’ transplanted livers.

Surgeon Simon Bramhall was removed from the UK medical record by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) on Monday. When reviewing his case, MPTS members said the surgeon’s ploy was an “act of a degree of professional arrogance” that “undermine” people’s trust in doctors. The ruling means Bramhall will no longer be able to engage in any medical practice in Britain.
The scandal has been going on for several years, after a surgeon was caught using an argon beam burner – a coagulation device commonly used in surgeries – to write his initials on transplanted organs. The doctor’s sign was discovered by another surgeon after an organ transplant failed in one patient and the practitioner had to perform emergency surgery.

In December 2017, the doctor pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault in February and August 2013 while working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Because Bramhall’s personal mark caused no actual harm to patients, he was ordered to community action and a fine of £10,000 ($13,635).

The doctor was suspended in December 2020, with MPTS stating that his actions demonstrated such “professional arrogance” that “effectively deviated from criminal behaviour”. However, last June, the doctor was considered fit to practice again and the suspension order was canceled, to be re-banned permanently, as we mentioned on Monday.

However, the recent review of the case led to an entirely different conclusion for Bramhall. While the court held that as a result of his actions “no lasting physical harm was inflicted on either patient,” one of them suffered “significant emotional damage” from the liver case, which was widely covered in the media at the time.