Surgeon ‘punched patient’s face during op to treat injury’
A PIONEERING facial surgeon ‘ repeatedly’ punched a patient in the head in an ‘extraordinary’ attempt to correct a fracture caused by an industrial accident, a medical tribunal has heard.
Professor Ninian Peckitt, 63, claimed he had simply ‘digitally manipulated’ the patient’s face as part of hospital treatment, but witnesses said that in reality he had actually been hitting him, the tribunal was told.
The worldrenowned surgeon, who has lectured on the use of titanium implants to treat disfigured patients and has been published in academic texts, faces being struck off the medical register after being accused of failing three of his patients.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester was told a man referred to as Patient A had suffered ‘extensive injuries’ to the right side of his face in an industrial accident.
He was admitted to Ipswich Hospital in February 2012 where Professor Peckitt was working as an honorary locum consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery since the previous month. Christopher Hamlet, representing the GMC, told the hearing: ‘ The case is not centred around the outcome, but the method of the surgery by way of the extraordinary allegation from witnesses that he repeatedly punched the patient in the face.’ He added that Patient A had fallen out of bed which had further
‘Extraordinary
allegation’
displaced his facial fractures.
The hearing was told Professor Peckitt embarked on a ‘closed reduction’ procedure, in which a patient is given anaesthetic before the fractured bone is manually put back together without surgery, and a cast or splint applied.
Professor Peckitt, formerly of Doncaster, later described the procedure as one in which the patient’s face had been ‘digitally manipulated as best they could be achieved’, the hearing heard. It was also alleged he treated Patient A without seeking advice from colleagues. He quit his post at the hospital days later.
He was also alleged to have failed to check the medical records of a second patient, Patient B, which led to him attempting an unnecessary procedure on her, and to have treated another, Patient C, for a complex facial deformity without seeking the advice of another surgeon.
Professor Peckitt, who is now working in Dubai, has submitted emails in which he ‘emphatically denies’ the allegations, and claims he has been ‘ victimised’. ‘ In relation to Patient A, he says they simply didn’t see any punching,’ Mr Hamlet said.
Dr Timothy Mellor, an expert called for the GMC, prepared a report. ‘He confirmed it is entirely inappropriate to try to reduce a fracture with external force alone or whether the punch was additional manipulation – there is no basis you can reduce a fracture in that nature,’ Mr Hamlet said.
The hearing continues.