Surgeon struck off for 'closed loop' bowel surgery

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By Lily Canter

A surgeon has been struck off the medical register after a procedure left a patient with a “closed loop” between their bowel and stomach.

Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman, a locum consultant general and colorectal surgeon, was working at the Royal Oldham Hospital in August 2020 when he performed the emergency bowel surgery.

During the operation he connected the wrong part of the small intestine to the stomach meaning the patient's bowel contents had nowhere to go except back into the stomach.

The "inappropriately performed" gastrojejunostomy he conducted also left another section of the small bowel lying in the peritoneal cavity.

General Medical Council (GMC) expert witness Mr Anthony Blower, a consultant general and colorectal surgeon, gave evidence at the tribunal labelling the errors “as bad as it gets” for a surgeon.

It was at “the extreme end of surgical error” and, if left, would have would have "led directly to the patient’s death", Blower said.