London, Aug.11 (ANI): A British Indian general physician (GP), who ignored a woman cancer patient's symptoms for six years, faces the possibility of being struck off the membership of the General Medical Council on grounds of serious misconduct.
Dr. Navin Shankar is said to have dismissed 26-year-old Nicola Sams's irregular bleeding and abdominal pains as ' nothing to worry about'.
She died of cervical cancer that had spread to her spine, neck and arms and left her unable to walk or move her hands.
The extent of the disease was only discovered when Miss Sams fractured her neck in a car accident. She had an emergency hysterectomy in May 2006, but died a year later.
Shankar was yesterday found guilty of serious misconduct at the General Medical Council. He has been declared unfit to practise without restrictions after failing a series of knowledge and skills tests.
In a letter to the GMC a month before her death, Miss Sams explained the disease.
She wrote: 'Nothing positive came from my numerous meetings with Dr Shankar. I was generally cut off by him and he would tell me "there's nothing to worry about young lady".
She further revealed: 'I begged him, please can I be sent to the hospital to have a camera put inside me.'
But every time she visited Shankar between 1999 and 2005 at the Wigmore Lane Health Centre in Luton, he told her there was nothing to be concerned about, the hearing was told.
Her father Mike Sams told the hearing: 'There was absolutely no progress made. The thing that was said every time was there was nothing to worry about and a different diagnosis came back.'
Just after the desperate hysterectomy Miss Sams begged her father to 'make sure he [Dr Shankar] does not do this again'.
Her father became her full time carer but she died a month later at their Luton home, on August 14, 2007.
Miss Sams had registered with another doctor months before her accident, after Shankar was banned from his practice for being involved in another incident of malpractice.
The 60-year-old was found guilty of misconduct after he failed in the care of nine-day old baby Daniel Miller in September 2003.
He sent the infant home despite the fact that his foot had turned blue and was cold to touch.
The child had a life-threatening blood clot, and became so ill that he lost almost a third of his body weight and his toes became gangrenous.
At yesterday's hearing, Shankar, was found guilty of 10 of the 11 charges relating to his treatment of Miss Sams between 1999 and 2005. The hearing continues. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
