Widower of gallbladder patient sues doctor
THE husband of a woman who died following a gallbladder procedure is launching legal action against the Gazimağusa doctor who performed it, it was revealed this week.
Zehra Paralik Özerdem, the wife of well-known dentist Öner Özerdem, died in South Nicosia’s Apollon Hospital in November after contracting an infection and then sepsis four days after being seen at the private Mağusa Tıp Merkezi in the TRNC. Her daughter, Şükran Paralik, claimed at the time that doctors at the centre had failed to notice that a “hole had been opened up somewhere along the way” during the “15- to 20-minute” procedure and that a “36-hour delay” in carrying out a tomography afterwards had been a key factor in her mother’s death. Then-health minister Faiz Sucuoğlu said the incident was being investigated by his department. This week Mr Özerdem, who spoke of his family’s “six months of huge trauma”, said his lawyer, Tahir Seroydaş, had filed a case on his behalf at Gazimağusa District Court against doctor Mustafa Kalfaoğlu after a post-mortem report came back from Turkey.
He also clarified that the medical procedure in question had been an ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography), that can be used to remove gallstones from the bile duct.
An ERCP involves widening the opening of the bile duct with a “small incision or an electrically heated wire”, according to Britain’s National Health Service website.
Mr Özerdem said the ERCP had been carried out after a scan revealed a “narrowing”.
He said that he had spoken to a number of “experts” since his wife died, who had told him that an ERCP was a “serious operation” that should only be performed if “absolutely necessary” and that patients needed to be fully informed of the risks beforehand.
Mr Özerdem said that while Dr Kalfaoğlu was a “good surgeon” able to perform “colonoscopies and gastroscopies”, he “did not possess the adequate expertise” to carry out an ERCP “[just] because he had attended a 35-day course on it in 2006”.
He also criticised Dr Kalfaoğlu for not coming to check on Mrs Özerdem until “five to six hours after the operation” and claimed he “did not show up at all the next day”, adding that his late wife’s rights as a patient had been “violated”.