Rogue surgeon in mesh storm moans: Bowel ops scandal has hit my libido
Bowel mesh surgeon who left patients in agony sacked by NHS
A ROGUE surgeon who left dozens of patients in agony after controversial mesh surgery claims that media coverage of the scandal affected his libido.
Tony Dixon is suing the hospital trust that sacked him three years ago to try to stop documents being handed over to solicitors representing his former patients.
His lawyer told the High Court that being identified in the proceedings could harm his mental health, saying he has had suicidal thoughts.
Mr Dixon was first revealed to be under investigation over bowel mesh procedures by the BBC five years ago, and was suspended by Southmead Hospital in Bristol soon after.
A review which concluded in May revealed that more than 200 patients had suffered harm after undergoing unnecessary laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy ( LVMR) surgery at Southmead and the private Spire Hospital in the city where Mr Dixon had also worked.
It found that patients should have been offered less invasive treatment first.
In a statement to the court last month, psychiatrist Dr Pablo Vandenabeele said Mr Dixon, 61, had moderate depression, including ‘disturbed sleep’ and ‘a loss of libido’.
He said Mr Dixon found ‘ the possibility of further media attention extremely distressing’, adding it would probably cause a ‘further deterioration in his mental health’.
Mr Dixon told Dr Vandenabeele: ‘The main thing is media. The GMC (General Medical Council) is nothing... 200 people suing you is nothing.’
Former patient Paula Goss, founder of the Rectopexy Mesh Victims and Support campaign group, described the surgeon’s comments as ‘outrageous’.
She added: ‘He should think of the hundreds of patients he harmed that have not got any libido as well, and that have suicidal thoughts like he is trying to profess he has. People have waited so long since the review in 2017 for justice they have since passed away.
‘So him complaining about suicidal thoughts and depression over media coverage seems very unfair compared to what we have suffered through.’
Last month, Judge Mr Justice Nicklin, who presided over the hearing to decide whether Mr Dixon should be named in the lawsuit against North Bristol NHS Trust, concluded that his risk of suicide was remote.
In refusing the anonymity application, he said exposure to media attention was the ‘price to be paid for open justice and the freedom of the Press’.
Mr Dixon, who is also a pedigree sheep farmer, pioneered a new type of bowel surgery using polypropylene mesh implants to lift prolapsed bowels, often caused by childbirth.
He declined to comment when approached by the BBC, but previously said his operations were done in good faith with most being successful.
North Bristol NHS Trust said: ‘We welcome the court’s ruling that this matter is one to which the usual principles of open justice should still apply.’
A GMC inquiry into the operations carried out by Mr Dixon, who last worked at Spire Bristol in 2017, will take place next year.
The Mail’s Good Health section first exposed how women were suffering agonising complications following mesh implants in 2010, after it emerged the plastic could break up and migrate to other parts of the body.
‘He should think of patients he harmed’