A British surgeon, Simon Bramhall has pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after etching his initials in patient's organs.
Crazy Surgeon Pleads Guilty To Marking His Initials On Helpless Patients Organs
Simon Bramhall is a renowned surgeon in England specializing in liver, spleen, and pancreas transplants.
He’s performed hundreds of surgeries which have undoubtedly saved many lives, but the courts heard on Wednesday he left his mark in more ways than one.
Consultant Simon Bramhall, 53, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating at Birmingham Crown Court.
After being accused of branding one man and one woman's livers with 'SB' during transplant surgery in 2013.
Liver surgeons use an argon beam to stop livers bleeding.
but can also use the beam to burn the surface of the liver to sketch out the area of an operation. It is usually not harmful and the marks would normally disappear. But the female patient's liver did not heal itself in the normal way and the initials were found in a follow-up operation, it is alleged.
The 53-year-old was first suspended from his post as a consultant surgeon at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital in 2013.
After a colleague spotted the initials “SB” on an organ during follow-up surgery on one of Bramhall’s patients. Shortly after his suspension, Joyce Robins of the patient advocacy group Patient Concern said, “This is a patient we are talking about, not an autograph book.”
What’s so interesting about this case is that the court didn’t know how to proceed.
After Bramhall pleaded guilty, they were in a bit of a pickle. As it turns out, this is the first time a British surgeon was caught branding his initials on patients’ organs.
His former patient Tracy Scriven told the Birmingham Mail, that the surgeon should be immediately reinstated.
"Even if he did put his initials on a transplanted liver, is it really that bad? I wouldn’t have cared if he did it to me. The man saved my life," she said.
Bramhall rose to fame in 2010 after performing a liver transplant using a liver that had been taken from a plane crash victim.
Despite the fact the plane was a total wreck, victim’s liver survived unscathed and was rushed to the hospital for Bramhall’s waiting patient.
Bramhall, who appeared in the dock wearing a pink shirt and dark suit, was granted unconditional bail and will be sentenced on January 12.
It remains to be seen what kind of punishment he will face, but it could be perhaps a heavy fine or even jail time.
