Warning of ‘huge scale’ of claims against breast surgeon as £18m already paid out
The NHS has paid out nearly £18 million after settling the cases of more than 250 patients treated by a surgeon convicted of carrying out needless breast operations.
Top surgeon Ian Paterson, 59, described in court by one victim as being “like God”, lied to patients and exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer to convince them to go under the knife.
He was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding against 10 patients, but one solicitor has said the rogue surgeon could have “hundreds, if not thousands” of other victims.
A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association revealed the NHS has resolved 256 cases, paying out £9.5 million in compensation and £8.2 million in costs, while a further 25 cases are still to be heard.
One of the victims of Scottish-born Paterson looked like a “car crash victim” after undergoing an unnecessary mastectomy while another had a “significant deformity in her visible cleavage area” after a pair of needless operations on her left breast.
The surgeon had maintained all the operations were necessary but a jury of six men and five women agreed with the prosecution that Paterson carried out “extensive, life-changing operations for no medically justifiable reason”.
Paterson, wearing a black suit, blue shirt and red tie sat next to his daughter Emily, and scrunched his eyes and sobbed as the foreman of the jury returned one guilty verdict after another.
Judge Jeremy Baker granted Paterson bail until his sentencing next month, but added it was “likely to be a custodial one”.
Frances Perks, whose mother and sister died from breast cancer, was advised to undergo a series of operations, fearing she could develop “full-blown cancer”.
She said: “I think he’s a psychopath. Why would anyone in their right mind do operations to people knowing that they didn’t need them?
“My feelings towards him is I hate him with a passion.
“You wouldn’t be able to print what I truly think of him and what I would like to see happen to him.
“But I hope he goes down for a very long time and I hope he has a dreadful time in prison and hope he rots in hell.”
The motives for Paterson’s offending remain unclear, with Nottingham Crown Court hearing it may have been to enhance his status as a top surgeon or a desire to earn extra money.
Paterson was able to own a luxury home in Birmingham’s well-heeled Edgbaston area, had numerous properties in Cardiff and Manchester and also had a US holiday home, West Midlands Police said.
Speaking on the steps of the court, another former patient Debbie Douglas said: “Money was definitely a factor, to me it was a money-making machine.
“He’s made people suffer and he has never given anyone any peace.
“He should suffer and he should spend a long time in jail.”
His seven-week trial heard harrowing evidence from 10 patients treated in the private sector between 1997 and 2011 at the Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands, with one victim telling jurors: “That person has ruined my life.”
Jurors were told at the start of the case they should not conduct any research into the case and were not told hundreds of Paterson’s patients were recalled in 2012 after concerns about unnecessary or incomplete operations.
The surgeon was suspended by the General Medical Council that same year amid claims he carried out so-called cleavage-sparing mastectomies (CSMs) which led to the recall of more than 700 patients.
A Freedom of Information request revealed 68 women who underwent a CSM, in which part of the breast was left for cosmetic reasons, by Paterson on the NHS had gone on to develop a recurrence of breast cancer.
Emma Doughty, clinical negligence solicitor for Slater and Gordon, said the true number of Paterson’s victims was hard to gauge.
She told the Press Association: “Although we have seen hundreds of claimants, God knows how many this actually affects.
“There are hundreds if not thousands of claimants (between various law firms) and then we have got to think about people who haven’t come forward, people who have died and so on.
“It’s on a huge scale.”
Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne said: “Paterson was a controlling bully, who played God with people’s lives so he could live a luxurious lifestyle.”
A Spire Healthcare spokesman said: “What Mr Paterson did in our hospitals, in other private hospitals and in the NHS, absolutely should not have happened and today justice has been done.
“We would like to reiterate how truly sorry we are for the distress experienced by any patients affected by this case.
“We can say unequivocally that we have learned the lessons from these events.
“We commissioned a thorough independent investigation and have fully implemented all of the recommendations.”
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2017, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Alexander Britton / PA Wire.
