Surgeon 'ignored pleas to stop op'

A surgeon turned his back on a patient as she was bleeding to death on the operating table and had ignored his staff 's pleas to stop the operation, the Old Bailey heard today.

Stephen Walker wanted a section of liver he had removed to be photographed for a research paper, the jury was told. Theatre staff were " horrified" at his lack of respect for 71-yearold Dorothy McPhee who lost 17 litres of blood in the seven-hour operation.

As she left the theatre she was only kept alive by Adrenalin and died two hours later, the court was told.

Yet before the operation Walker had reassured Mrs McPhee and her family there was "no chance of anything going wrong". After the surgery, as Mrs McPhee was being wheeled into intensive care "barely alive", Walker rang her husband to say the operation had generally gone well.

But Mrs McPhee's daughter rang again and was told by other staff that her mother was critical and the family rushed to the hospital.

A theatre sister was so "amazed and annoyed" by Walker's attitude that she filed a "critical incident report" and noted all the surgeon's comments which were described today by Rebecca Poulet QC, prosecuting, as " deliberately deceptive".

Walker, 47, of Camberley, Surrey, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of manslaughter. One relates to Mrs McPhee in December 1995 and another to Jean Robinson, 66, a month earlier. Both concern operations at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital. He also denies intending to pervert the course of justice and stealing a theatre register.

The court has been told that Walker carried out operations which were way beyond his level of competence and that he should have referred both patients to a specialist unit.

Mrs Poulet told the jury today that scans revealed Mrs McPhee to have a tumour in a particularly difficult section of her liver.

Had Walker referred his patient to a specialist unit she would have had a 95 per cent chance of survival, she said.

During the operation Walker, the lead surgeon, discovered that Mrs McPhee's tumour was much bigger than he expected and should have halted surgery immediately, the court heard.

But he decided to proceed, removing three quarters of a right lobe of the liver resulting in bleeding so catastrophic it would have "been a huge challenge even to the most experienced liver surgeon".

Mrs Poulet added: "It is extremely difficult and frightening for any surgeon but of course Walker's lack of experience didn't help him. He didn't do what he could have done which is close the liver like a book, as it is described, to give himself time to think." By this time the anaesthetists were "very concerned" by Walker's failure to tell them what he was doing and were "angered and dismayed" that he ignored their pleas to stop the surgery.

"They were horrified that while the patient was bleeding profusely on the operating table Walker turned his back on the patient to arrange the specimen (the section of liver he had removed) for it to be photographed. He had arranged a medical photographer to be present.

"In his training he had published papers in relation to surgery and it may well be he wanted these photos for such publications. You may think it showed a terrible disregard for his patient."