The Daily Telegraph

‘I hate him: I don’t know why he did this and I hope he rots in hell’

- By Henry Bodkin

JADE EDGINGTON was the youngest patient to fall victim to Ian Paterson’s lies.

At 16, she trusted implicitly the “high-flying” surgeon when he told her that a lump the size of a golf ball in her breast had to be removed in 2005, the first of three unnecessar­y procedures.

Paterson avoided carrying out biopsies on the lumps, telling her simply: “we need to get it out”.

“You’re put in a situation where you really have to trust the person that you’re dealing with,” she said. It was not until 2011 that Ms Edgington realised she had been duped.

But Paterson had powers of deception over older patients too. Despite being a GP, Dr Rosemary Platt, 66, was persuaded into having a “traumatic and unnecessar­y” operation and told she was at high risk of cancer, despite there being no evidence. She said the procedure left her in “agony”.

Frances Perks, who endured nine operations, including a mastectomy and reconstruc­tion, summed up the emotions of many of the victims. “I hate Ian Paterson – hate him with a pas- sion,” she said. “I still can’t accept that what I’ve had done, I didn’t need.”

Mrs Perks first visited the surgeon in 1994, aged 35. She claimed Paterson used her tragic family history to play on her fears. Despite scans being clear, Paterson told her she would get “fullblown cancer” if she did not agree to the double mastectomy.

Care worker John Ingram, then 42, was told he was “on the road to cancer” if he did not have a double mastectomy, despite tests showing he had only a harmless condition, gynaecomas­tia – enlargemen­t of a man’s breasts. Mr Ingram, now 53, said the operation left him feeling like a “lit cigarette was being held to his nipple” and he relies on painkiller­s more than a decade on.

Patricia Welch, who underwent seven unnecessar­y operations involving a mastectomy and reconstruc­tion, said Paterson “played God with people’s lives”.

“We were led to believe he was a wonderful man, and he was at first – we thought he had our best interests at heart,” she said. “It was such a shock when we found out what he’d been doing was all completely wrong. I re- ally don’t know how he can live with himself.”

Barbara Lewis, 62, was given a “cleavage-sparing mastectomy”, which has been found to increase the chance of cancer returning. Five years ago she was told the she had only two years to live, after the cancer returned.

Treatment has kept her alive against the odds, but she is now running out of options. “I found out, because he’d left tissue behind, there was a possibilit­y that he could have left rogue cells,” she said. “It transpired that I had terminal cancer.”

 ??  ?? Frances Perks was told she would have ‘full-blown cancer’ without a mastectomy
Frances Perks was told she would have ‘full-blown cancer’ without a mastectomy

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