The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Breast surgeon could have many more victims of unnecessary ops
Hundreds of women suffered needless operations by shamed medic
A surgeon convicted of wounding patients with unnecessary operations could have “hundreds, if not thousands” of other victims, a leading solicitor has said as she compared the case to the Mid Staffordshire scandal.
Ian Paterson, 59, lied to his victims, exaggerating or inventing the risk of cancer to carry out procedures, his trial was told.
But while the jury at Nottingham Crown Court was only told of 10 alleged victims treated in the private sector, dozens of women have already received payouts for treatment after settling civil claims.
Emma Doughty, clinical negligence solicitor for Slater and Gordon, said the true number of Paterson’s victims was hard to gauge.
She said: “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.”
More than 700 patients were recalled by the hospitals where Paterson worked as part of a review in 2013, including 553 treated on the NHS.
Among those who have pursued a case is 28-year-old Jade Edgington, from Shirley, West Midlands, who underwent unnecessary operations to remove lumps from her breasts.
She was 16 when she discovered a “quite big” lump in her breast and was referred to Paterson at the Spire Parkway Hospital in Solihull.
He decided to remove the lump, which was the size of a golf ball, in October 2005 and she underwent further operations in December 2006 and April 2007 following the discovery of more lumps.
Two years after her last procedure, she went under the knife again in April 2009 for a small lump in a scar left from a previous operation.
It was only in 2011 that she was told the procedures were unnecessary.
She said that her past experiences would make her more cautious in future, adding: “If someone said to me something very drastic I’d want a second opinion but you still trust in what’s being told.”