Pregnant Mother Died On Operating Table After Surgeon Accidentally Removes Her Ovary Instead of Appendix

A pregnant woman with appendicitis died after a bungling trainee surgeon mistakenly removed one of her healthy ovaries. 32 year old Maria De Jesus, underwent the botched operation at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, Essex, after she was admitted with abdominal pains in October 2011. 

She died 19 days later after suffering a miscarriage as an inexperienced medic Dr Yahya Al-Abed admitted he made a number of errors during the procedure, including removing her right ovary instead of her appendix. Maria De Jesus, miscarried her baby days before she died of multiple organ failure. 

She was suffering from appendicitis but unsupervised trainee surgeons removed one of her ovaries by mistake. Senior surgical consultant, Dr Babatunde Coker, is accused of failing in his role by not attending theatre to carry out the surgery himself or supervising the registrar. Mrs De Jesus, who was 21-weeks pregnant, was discharged ten days after the October 23 operation, but returned to the Romford hospital on November 7, still in serious pain. 
The mother-of-three gave birth to a still-born boy and died on the operating table on November 10 following a second operation to remove her appendix, the tribunal heard. Both doctors are facing fitness to practise proceedings at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, where they could face being struck off. 
The General Medical Council, represented by Peter Horgan, say the doctors’ treatment of Mrs De Jesus, who is referred to as Patient A at the hearing, amounted to misconduct.


Dr Yahya Al-Abed, pictured above, was a fifth-year trainee, had only been at the hospital for three weeks Opening the case today Mr Horgan told the panel Mrs De Jesus was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain on October 21, 2011, and was diagnosed with appendicitis two days later. Trainee surgeon Christopher Liao, who had been working at the hospital for less than three weeks, decided she needed her appendix removed and Mr Coker agreed. 
he consultant was told Mr Al-Abed, a fifth-year trainee, who had also only been at the hospital for three weeks, was performing emergency operations and she was added to his list. There were a number of other staff present in the theatre on Sunday October 23, including a young doctor ‘keen to get some experience’, Osman Chaudhary. Mr Chaudhary was allowed to make the first incision, but when complications arose Mr Al-Abed took over. ‘Patient A had begun to bleed quite heavily. 
Something was not right,’ Mr Horgan said. ‘In the midst of this, Mr Al-Abed removed what he clearly believed to be the appendix. He thought he found it, removed it and gave to a nurse what later turned out to be Patient A’s ovary.’ A colleague later reported that the medic ‘appeared reluctant to call for help’ and Mr Coker was never called. He had been in the coffee room while the operation took place and received no information it was underway. ‘He had lunch, then went home and didn’t become aware until Monday,’ said Mr Horgan. ‘Thereafter Patient A remained in hospital until she was discharged on October 31. 

She returned to hospital and was readmitted on November 7 suffering abdominal pains. ‘On November 9 it was discovered by another doctor that in fact the histology report showed an ovary had been removed and not the appendix. ‘Tragically on November 11 Patient A gave birth to a still-born male baby.’ Mrs De Jesus was again consented to go under the knife and this time her appendix was removed by Mr Liao. ‘But sadly later that afternoon Patient A died whilst on the operating table,’ Mr Horgan said.’ The post-mortem concluded she had died of multiple organ failure brought on by septicemia, the panel heard. The Case is still being deliberated in court.