There have been incidents of surgeons leaving gauze and even scissors and other tools inside their patient’s bodies by mistake, but we believe this is the first a surgeon leaves his initials branded on someone’s organs. This was the case of Simon Bramhall, a UK surgeon who branded his initials on the organs of a man and woman undergoing transplant operations.
Normally, liver surgeons use an argon beam to stop livers from bleeding and it’s actually not harmful to mark a liver since the marks would eventually disappear. The only reason they found the markings was because the female patient’s liver was not functioning correctly and she needed a follow-up operation.
Bramhall pleaded guilty to assaulting both patients and was granted unconditional bail and will be sentenced on January 12, according to the Telegraph. The offense he was charged with was assault by beating since he deliberately marked the livers of patients who were unconscious and under anesthesia.
Crown Prosecution Service specialist prosecutor Elizabeth Reid said: “Simon Bramhall was a respected surgeon who assaulted two of his patients while they were undergoing surgery. It was an intentional application of unlawful force to a patient whilst anesthetized. His acts in marking the livers of those patients, in a wholly unnecessary way, were deliberate and conscious acts on his part.
“Those assaults were wrong not just ethically, but also criminally. It was an abuse of the trust placed in him by the patients.”
The soon-to-be ex-surgeon was a liver, spleen, and pancreatic surgeon who worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, West Midlands for 12 years. He was also involved in tutoring and examining medical students and supervising postgraduate students in higher degrees, management, and research.