Surgeon ‘removed mother’s tear gland instead of her brain TUMOUR before trying to cover up botched operation’ – as ex-patients call for him to face criminal charges
- Jules Rose fears she will suffer future eye problems following botched surgery
- Muftah Salem Eljamel was suspended in 2014 after spinal disc operation
- Accident claims solicitors dealing with at least 100 claims involving Eljamel
A surgeon who wrongly identified a tear-duct as a brain tumour has been slammed by former patients who are calling for him to face criminal charges.
Muftah Salem Eljamel was suspended in 2014, after a patient underwent surgery on the wrong spinal disc at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.
Prior to this, in 2013, the 61-year old surgeon, formerly of Newport, Fife, had operated on mother of two, Jules Rose, who had a brain tumour diagnosed after she sought laser eye correction in 2013.
Eljamel (pictured) remains the subject of civil cases in relation to surgery carried out which are still going through the Court of Session in Edinburgh
Eljamel was allowed to operate on Ms Rose despite bosses already having concerns about him, according to a BBC Scotland documentary, which is set to air this evening.
Seasoned marathon runner Ms Rose, 50, was operated on by Eljamel in August 2013, just one month after he was placed under supervision due to serious concerns about his work. NHS Tayside told the programme, Harmed By My Surgeon, they first became aware of concerns in June 2013 and took ‘immediate action’, placing Eljamel ‘under supervision’ while they reviewed his work.
However, Eljamel was still able to work and while doing so, operated on Ms Rose where he removed a tear gland instead of a brain tumour.
Ms Rose, from Kinross, says the professor then tried to cover up his mistake by calling her in for a second operation, telling her part of the tumour still had to be removed, The Daily Record reported.
The mother-of-two believed she was in the hands of the best surgeon in Scotland and it was only after checking her file that she learned he had wrongly identified the tear gland as a tumour.
Ms Rose, who works with people with additional support needs, has been left with dry eyes and unable to wear contact lenses. She now fears she will suffer future eye problems. She is among a raft of patients of Eljamel, under the spotlight in the Disclosure programme.
Ms Rose (pictured) now fears she will suffer future eye problems following the botched surgery
Ms Rose, who is now suing Eljamel, said: ‘This man was meant to be working under supervision at the time he operated on me, owing to earlier complaints. But I have no evidence of any other surgeon acting as a supervisor in any of the notes.
‘I feel I’m one of the lucky ones, that it could have been a lot worse for me. I am very angry.’
She continued to say that Eljamel should have done the operation immediately but that it was 13 weeks before the botched surgery took place at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
‘After the first operation he said he had taken out 99 per cent of the tumour. I was delighted and I told him he was my hero. I sent him a ‘thank you’ card and I thought I was in the very best of hands.
‘No one told me he was under investigation at any time. He had me back in and said some of the tumour was hiding behind my lacrimal gland but the truth is that he had cut out the wrong tissue the first time round.
‘I checked my case notes and I could see that the tissue that was cut out was not the tumour, it was normal tissue, but he didn’t want me to know that.’
Ms Rose has slammed the health board who allowed him to continue to practice.
‘It’s atrocious. For NHS Tayside to allow this surgeon, who had blatantly made a mistake the first time, to allow him to perform another complex operation is unthinkable. It’s not acceptable.’
X-rays of Ms Rose (pictured) show the damage caused by Eljamel, who was meant to remove a brain tumour
This revelation comes as it is revealed that accident claims solicitors are currently dealing with at least 100 claims over long-term health difficulties after he carried out operations. Other former patients of Eljamel’s have also spoken out ahead of the documentary.
Eljamel remains the subject of civil cases in relation to surgery carried out which are still going through the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
Kirriemuir man David Vile, 48, and former Dundee DJ Pat Kelly, 58, say a criminal inquiry is ‘the only way we will finally get to the truth’.
Mr Vile, who previously claimed he had been left on a cocktail of medication after undergoing two discectomy operations by Eljamel in 2007 and 2009, said: ‘Eljamel carried out failed and botched surgeries, leaving patients with life-changing conditions and disabilities, in long-term persistent pain.
‘Former patients and their families need answers as to why Eljamel was allowed to get away with this, who knew what and when, and why was he not stopped sooner?
‘Many patients, including myself, have been left unable to work, unable to do many of things that we used to be able to do. There are no winners here but the losers are most definitely the patients.
‘I also support a call for a criminal investigation – Eljamel needs to be held accountable for his actions.’
Mr Kelly, 58, demanded police launch a criminal inquiry after claiming he was the victim of a ‘botched operation’ by Eljamel in 2007. He continues to suffer chronic back pain and believes the operation was never actually carried out – despite the fact he was opened up on the operating table.
He said: ‘After four long years of battling with NHS Tayside to get the truth, I believe now that the whole of Scotland has the opportunity to see the personal misery and destruction Muftah Salem Eljamel caused to his patients.
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‘The documentary will be a wake-up call as this fight for answers continues..’
Today’s documentary is the first in a new investigative series which will be shown on BBC 1 Scotland which will ask ‘why the surgeon wasn’t stopped earlier’.
Eljamel had to step down from his teaching and research posts at Dundee University after the interim order by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
The General Medical Council later allowed Eljamel to remove himself from the medical register, after ruling it was in the best interests of patients.
A national hotline was subsequently set up to identify possible victims of Eljamel and was overwhelmed with calls.
The Scottish Government ruled out an inquiry, stating it was ‘satisfied’ that a ‘thorough and wide-ranging’ investigation by NHS Tayside will ‘prevent this happening again in future’.
At the start of this year Eljamel sold his house in Newport, Fife, to prepare for a new life abroad. Eljamel also applied for his Edinburgh neurosurgery business to be struck off and dissolved.
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