Patient says surgeon Sam Eljamel “played God” with her body, causing severe and lifelong sequelae.
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Leann Sutherland was 21 years old and suffering from chronic migraines when one of Scotland’s leading surgeons offered to operate on her.
She was told she would be in the hospital for a few days and had a 60% chance of getting better. Instead, she was hospitalized for months while Sam Eljamel operated on her seven times.
The BBC revealed that the surgeon – the former head of neurosurgery at NHS Tayside, one of the British public health service’s Scottish units – had been causing harm to patients and putting them at risk for years, but the health board held him back. role…
NHS Tayside has always maintained that it only learned of the allegations since June 2013 and placed it under supervision at that time. But one person told the BBC the board of health had known since 2009 that there were serious allegations against him.
BBC Scottish Service spoke to three surgeons who worked with Eljamel in Tayside.
All three said Eljamel was allowed to act as if he were a “god” — in part, due to the research resources he brought to the department.
The health board told the BBC it was working with the Scottish government on an independent review of Eljamel’s actions and was unable to comment on individual cases.
“I was his guinea pig”
Prior to her surgery in 2011, Leann worked full-time and holidayed abroad with friends, but her life was marred by migraines.
Eljamel, considered the best neurosurgeon in Scotland, told her he could help.
After an operation, she would be home in a few days, he told her.
He would remove a small section of her skull to relieve the pressure and tell her he would use new glue to seal the wound.
Leann told the BBC: ‘Unfortunately it didn’t seal properly and it burst. The wound opened up and brain fluid started dripping down the back of my neck.’
He says the next day, the hospital bed he was in was “soaked” with his spinal fluid.
When she got up to go to the bathroom, she passed out and said fluid spilled on the floor. A nurse posted a sign on the wet floor in the area.
Leann spent months in the hospital. She contracted meningitis and developed hydrocephalus. Eljamel ordered her to have four lumbar punctures, which the medical analysis concluded she shouldn’t have had.
Leann now knows she was using the glue as part of a research test.
“Tests on me — that’s what it was doing,” she says.
“There can be no other reason to test a glue, to try different deviations. That’s experimenting. I was his guinea pig.”
She adds: ‘He had free rein on my body. He was playing God with my body and the NHS handed him the scalpel, seven times.’
When Leann expressed her concerns to the team, she was told Eljamel had saved her life. She was not informed that she was under investigation, nor that she was later forced to resign from office.
It was only after seeing the recent BBC coverage that she realized she wasn’t alone.
The impact
Leann is now 33 years old. She lives in constant pain. She needs crutches to walk and has a tube—called a shunt—installed in her body that controls her spinal fluid.
“Everything has changed,” she says. “My dream was to become a police officer and it will never happen. I struggle with that. Not being able to have the career you want, not being able to have the lifestyle you want, not being able to have kids.”
“Many things have been taken from me through no fault of my own.”
Leann is one of 100 patients calling for a public inquiry to find out exactly what Eljamel has done.
The harm to her and other patients is irreversible, but she wants to make sure the board of health is held accountable and that no other surgeon can cause such harm.
She says she only realized she had harmed patients after watching a BBC Scotland report.
“I thought it would just be me. I didn’t know there were 99 other people,” she says.
“I don’t understand how he managed to wash the blood off his hands and go home.”
whistler
Eljamel was suspended from NHS Tayside following internal and external proceedings in 2013 and went to work in Libya.
For the first time, three people who have worked with Eljamel have spoken to the BBC.
Mark, whose real name will not be revealed, says he’s speaking out now because he fears the health board hasn’t yet learned the lessons of the past.
“I made allegations at the time, but was silenced,” he says.
“Part of me feels guilty for not doing anything [mais] about it, but I was too young.
“We were told we would never get our internship.”
He says nurses, senior surgeons and managers have known since at least 2009 that Eljamel was regularly out of the hospital doing private work when he was supposed to be operating on patients.
Mark says that on a weekly basis Eljamel lets young surgeons operate unsupervised.
“Letting a young man operate when you’re not even in the building and a patient gets hurt is malpractice,” he says.
“NHS Tayside has covered things like this for a long time in Dundee.”
“He got to the council. Everyone knew it.”
‘Untouchable’
Mark recalls an occasion when he was in the operating room watching a young doctor operate on a patient of Eljamel’s when the young surgeon accidentally severed the spinal cord.
He said the spinal fluid was “oozing” and that he and another surgeon were sent to find a more experienced surgeon. This patient has been permanently disabled.
“What did this leading neurosurgeon do with these patients?” he asks. “I think it was serious damage. Cover-ups happen, so these things need to be investigated again.
The three surgeons told us that Eljamel advised against the use of X-rays because he was too arrogant and wanted to save money.
As a result, it is believed that he badly operated on the spines of at least 70 patients, leaving many permanently disabled.
Mark says one of the reasons Eljamel was considered “untouchable” was because he brought a lot of money into the department through research projects that many of them found “odd and even questionable.”
A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “The Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer of NHS Tayside met with the Cabinet Secretary and local MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) in Tayside in April to discuss the concerns in progress of the patients of the professor Eljamel.
“It was agreed at the meeting that NHS Tayside would work with the Scottish Government on next steps to support individual patients through a process independent of the health board and government.”
“NHS Tayside remains committed to doing everything necessary to support the independent process, recognizing that it will be tailored to each patient’s circumstances.
“Although we cannot comment on individual patients and their treatment due to patient confidentiality, we encourage Ms Sutherland to get in touch with the Patient Care Team at NHS Tayside.”
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
