British Doc Accused Of Engraving Own Initials on Patients’ Livers

(Mirror Daily, United States) – A British surgeon has recently admitted that he had burned his own initials on at least two of his transplant patients’ livers.

On Wednesday, Simon Bramhall, 53, admitted before a court that he marked the organs on Feb 9 and Aug. 21 in 2013.

He explained that he used a conventional argon beam to burn the letters into the patients’ livers. The tool is used to stop bleeding or mark an area that should be operated upon during transplant surgeries.

He explained that the marks are not permanent, do not affect the function of the organ, and they usually vanish all by themselves. Bramhall was first suspended from his job at a well-known hospital in Birmingham, the U.K., after one of his fellow surgeons noticed the letters ‘SB’ on one of the livers during a follow-up surgery in 2013.

After an internal investigation, the surgeon resigned. At the tie, he told reporters that was he had done was a mistake. On May 16, 2013, he handed in his notice and left the hospital.

Patients Treated like They Were ‘Autograph Books’

The head of the patients’ advocacy group Patient Concern noted that he marked his initials on a human being, “not an autograph book.”

On Wednesday, the embattled surgeon told the judge that he understands the proceedings. He was released on bail and the sentence was slated for Jan. 12.

The prosecution said that they haven’t seen anything like it in their entire careers. Prosecutor Tony Badenoch described the case as “complex” and “unusual” since it requires medical testimony.

Bramhall pleaded guilty, which means that what he did was wrong on both moral and criminal levels. The surgeon engraved the two livers in the presence of his colleagues. Because he did it twice, it means that the incident was intentional and not isolated.

Image Source: Wikimedia

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John Birks

John holds a diploma in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He covers the technology, social media, green business, eco-travel, politics, arts culture.