‘Just like God’... surgeon accused of needless ops
‘I trusted him 110 per cent’
A RETIRED pub landlady who endured a series of ‘entirely unnecessary’ operations followed her Scots surgeon’s advice because she felt he was ‘God’, a court heard.
Carole Johnson broke down as she said she kept details of lumps in her breast secret from her family so as not to spoil their Christmas in 2003.
Mrs Johnson believed the lumps were ‘borderline cancer’ – with Glasgow-born surgeon Ian Paterson allegedly saying they had to be ‘whipped out’.
She had six operations between October 2000, when she was aged 48, and 2007, with the prosecution claiming all but one of the procedures were unnecessary.
She told Nottingham Crown Court: ‘We went on what Mr Paterson said because I trusted him 110 per cent. Whatever he said we agreed with because he was the specialist. We trusted Mr Paterson. He was God to us.’
Paterson, 59, denies 20 charges of wounding with intent against nine women and one man, relating to procedures he carried out between 1997 and 2011.
Jurors have previously heard claims he carried out ‘completely unnecessary’ opera-her tions for ‘obscure motives’ that may have included a desire to ‘earn extra money’.
Other alleged victims include a mother who was said to have agreed to two ‘unnecessary operations’, leaving her unable to breastfeed, and a woman who had a ‘significant deformity in her visible cleavage area’ after a pair of ‘unneeded operations’.
Mrs Johnson told the jury Paterson said lumps had to be removed due to a history of suspicious growths.
She said: ‘On one appointment, I don’t know whether he had said it was cancer or borderline cancer. There were two occasions that it was borderline cancer out of all the lumps I had removed.
‘I can remember that one [the third operation] really clearly. Mr Paterson said it had to be removed and I put the pub before myself in waiting until after Christmas and keeping it to ourselves.
‘Myself and my husband Barry did not tell the children or our mums and dads because we did not want them to worry.
‘Mr Paterson said we could leave it a couple of weeks but could not leave it much longer.’
Mrs Johnson added that her health scare had coincided with a busy time at work. She said: ‘We were running the pub, it was a busy time at the pub. I had Christmas meals to do, so that was why we ended up waiting until after Christmas to have the lump removed.
‘Both myself and Barry kept it to ourselves because we did not know if it was cancer or not.’
Between 2005 and 2007, Mrs Johnson had three further operations to remove lumps. She had to pay for these herself as her medical insurance would not cover the operations.
She said: ‘Because Mr Paterson was trusted by us 110 per cent, we carried on paying ourselves.
‘My GP said on a couple of occasions, “What have you had that lump out for? I didn’t think it needed to come out”.
‘I told her Mr Paterson was the specialist, not her. I doubted my own doctor.’
Paterson, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was formerly employed by the Heart of England NHS Trust and practised at Spire Healthcare.
The case continues.