Jail threat to surgeon who branded initials on the livers of patients
A CONSULTANT surgeon yesterday pleaded guilty to assaulting two patients after he branded their livers with his initials during transplants.
In a case described as being ‘without precedent in criminal law’, Simon Bramhall, 53, used an ‘argon beam coagulator’ to write on the unidentified victims’ organs.
The device uses electrical current or light to stop tissue from bleeding, but can also be used to burn the surface of an organ to sketch out the area of an operation.
Bramhall had been due to face trial for assault causing actual bodily harm to the patients at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
But following three days of legal argument his admission of guilt to lesser charge of assault by beating was accepted by prosecutors.
The surgeon faces a maximum six months in jail when he returns to court on January 12 to be sentenced.
Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC told Birmingham Crown Court: ‘This is a highly unusual and complex case.
‘As far as we have been able to establish, it is without legal precedent in criminal law. The pleas now entered represent an acceptance that that which he did was not just ethically wrong but criminally wrong.
‘Dr Bramhall’s initialling on a patient’s liver was not an isolated incident but rather a repeated act on two occasions, requiring some skill and concentration. It was done in the presence of colleagues.’
The incidents took place in February and August 2013. Marking a liver with an argon beam coagulator would not normally be harmful and the marks would usually disappear. It is understood that the liver of the sec- ond patient did not heal itself properly, and Bramhall’s initials were found during a follow-up procedure.
The surgeon was working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital at the time of the offences and was suspended when they came to light. Patients began a campaign on social media to have Bramhall reinstated, but he resigned from the hospital in 2014. Mr Badenthe
‘Without precedent in criminal law’
och described the offences as an abuse of his position and said they were carried out with a disregard for the feelings of unconscious patients.
Bramhall, who in 2010 transplanted a liver saved from a burning aircraft into a patient, is currently working at Hereford County Hospital, where he is a consultant specialising in general surgery.
In February this year, he was issued with a formal warning by the General Medical Council over the branding incidents after it said his actions risked bringing the profession into disrepute.
Bramhall, from Redditch, Worcestershire, was released on unconditional bail.
A spokesman for Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, said: ‘The welfare and safety of patients is the Trust’s priority. Mr Bramhall does not carry out liver transplants at WVT.’