Bungling surgeon struck off

The Daily Telegraph (London). Saturday, 25 August 2001.

Nicola Woodcock

Surgeon Struck Off Medical Registry after Botched Circumcisions

A SURGEON who left patients in agony after bungled hysterectomy and circumcision operations was struck off the medical register yesterday.

Peter Silverstone, 58, of Elmfield Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, failed to anaesthetise two baby boys properly before operating on them.

Two women also suffered severe blood loss when he left them in the care of nurses after surgery.

He denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the women were private patients and subject to different procedures but he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council.

Silverstone performed circumcisions on boys aged six months and seven months at a surgery in Dipton, Tyne and Wear, in 1998.

Both babies screamed in pain during the operations and one boy bled for hours after the operation until Silverstone visited the family home to give him stitches.

The two hysterectomies were performed in Washington, Tyne and Wear. After the first operation in November 1995, Silverstone went home but was called back to the hospital when the 46-year-old patient suffered internal bleeding.

However the surgeon got caught in traffic and his journey lasted over an hour. He asked a medical student to help with the second operation in 1998 and went on leave the next day.

Silverstone was found to have abused his professional position over the circumcisions and to have acted inappropriately and incompetently. His treatment of both women was ruled inadequate and irresponsible.

Citation:

Nicola Woodcock. Bungling surgeon struck off. The Daily Telegraph (London). 2001-08-25

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