Dunmow boy, 16, fighting for justice after botched surgery by ‘bad apple’ doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital
Rogue surgeon Yaser Jabbar’s impact on teenager George Davison goes far deeper than the damage caused by a botched operation.
The student’s trust in the NHS has been shattered and he wants answers about how the doctor was allowed to continue treating patients after serious concerns were raised about his care and conduct.
The 16-year-old, who lives in Dunmow with parents Sammy and Mark, had been a regular at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for children in London since he was two.
He was born with a hole in his oesophagus and a club left hand. He has a rare condition that affects the development of his bones. As a result, he has had a series of operations and has spent long periods in hospital.
His mum thought he was safe at the world-renowned hospital. “George has needed medical care since the day he was born and Great Ormond Street was always fantastic,” said Sammy.
She freely admits she had “blind trust” in its care – but now hospital bosses are reviewing the cases of George and 720 other children.
They were all treated by consultant orthopaedic surgeon Jabbar, who worked at the hospital’s lower limb reconstruction service from 2017 until he left in September last year. He has not been licensed to practise medicine in the UK since January.
The scandal was exposed by Sunday Times journalist Shaun Lintern, who revealed “at least one patient has had a leg amputated, others have been left in chronic pain and with deformed limbs”.
He found concerns over Jabbar’s conduct were raised in 2020, but it was two years before senior managers acted after a second doctor raised the alarm.
As well as talking to the broadsheet, George and his family have been interviewed by the BBC as they seek justice and are getting used to the glare of publicity.
George told the Indie: “The doctor was a bad apple in a normally good system and that was hidden by people higher up.”
He first met Jabbar in January 2020. There seemed nothing to suggest that the exemplary care they had previously received from GOSH would not continue.
George was due to return to the hospital for further treatment when he was 12 – to coincide with a growth spurt – but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the consultation.
Sammy said: “So we went back to see George’s regular surgeon, who wasn’t Mr Jabbar. She introduced us… and said ‘You know, this man is exceptional. He knows exactly what he’s doing. You can put your trust in his hands’. And we did.”
In June 2021, the surgeon operated. George hoped the procedure would straighten his wrist and lengthen his arm.
The Royal College of Surgeons has since concluded that the operation Jabbar performed left the teenager’s hand more deformed, not less, with a legacy of continuing pain.
Its report says the surgery George was subjected to was “unacceptable” and that he had a “totally different operation” from what was agreed.
The family was only told of that devastating verdict this year. Meanwhile, George has been living with the consequences.
He started his secondary education at Helena Romanes School in Dunmow, but it was a miserable experience. He left because he was bullied because of his disability. A frame Jabbar fitted on his deformed arm made him a target.
The teen enjoyed working out at the gym but has been unable to lift weights as before, and online gaming – a passion for so many teenage boys – now makes his hand hurt.
Sammy is wracked by guilt that she did not realise there was something seriously wrong.
Now the family wants to look to the future, but much still needs to be resolved.
George is now happy at Harlow College, where he is studying hospitality and has made new friends.
However, he remains in medical limbo until he decides if he can bear surgery to repair the damage to his arm and the disruption to his life that months of recuperating will cause.
For now, he has been withdrawn from GOSH’s care, but his complex needs mean that somehow he must regain his faith in the NHS.
Sammy said: “We still have a lot of questions with regard to George’s surgery. What actually happened? Who knew what and when?”
She is haunted by the thought that if initial concerns about Jabbar had been heeded, he would not have been able to operate on her son a year later.
What happened after the surgery has raised wider questions of accountability. “We believe that there was a possibility that the surgeon – a different surgeon who stepped in because Mr Jabbar had an accident –knew that George’s surgery had gone wrong or had been done negligently at that time,” she said.
“I would like to know if more could have been done for George while he had the [metal Ilizarov] frame on his arm. I don’t know if we would ever find what Mr Jabbar was thinking by putting a metal plate in George’s arm while the frame was on. There’s lots of medical questions.”
The family fears George has been the victim of a cover-up and wants honesty and transparency from GOSH and systemic improvements to ensure no other children will suffer in the same way.
Sammy added: “We’re also hoping for some compensation for George – firstly, for what he’s had to experience, but also, if he chooses to go through another bone lengthening to rectify or improve what has happened to him. This is nine months to a year out of George’s life.”
She turned to Bishop’s Stortford firm Tees Law to help on the recommendation of her mother, Lesley Davison, who works for Citizens Advice East Herts.
Georgina Wade is one of the firm’s experts who offers free advice to some of the charity’s clients.
The medical negligence specialist is determined to win compensation but acknowledges: “No amount of money is going to put George back in the position he would have been, as with all medical negligence cases. So the hope for me is that we can at least help to encourage some greater transparency.
“I find that families don’t always know what their options are and don’t know what their rights are. So that’s where we come in.”
The scale of the GOSH scandal has been shocking even to her: “Usually cases are quite discrete. They are, thankfully, usually one-off cases of either just poor judgement or poor practice. So it’s surprising to have a case that is suggestive of systematic failures.
“I believe, as George says, that there was something going on above Mr Jabbar that meant that concerns were not being given the attention they should have.
“George’s family, along with other families I am helping, have been eagerly awaiting a copy of the report issued by the Royal College of Surgeons in October 2023.
“Although George’s family have now received a copy, it is heavily redacted and certainly doesn’t provide answers to many of the family’s questions or alleviate any of their concerns.”
A spokesperson for GOSH said: “We wish to say we are deeply sorry to George and his family, and all the families impacted by the review of care given by a lower limb orthopaedic surgeon. This is not what they should expect from any service at our hospital.
“Within 18 working days of concerns being raised to senior leaders, we asked the Royal College of Surgeons (the College) to review the service.
“As part of this, the College raised concerns around the practice of a surgeon who no longer works at the trust. We have commissioned a group of independent experts to review the care given to all patients seen by the surgeon in question. This work is ongoing.
“We are now ensuring that all the findings in the College’s report are addressed at pace and will invite them back to review our progress next year.
“We want every patient and family who comes to our hospital to feel safe and cared for, and we apologise to the patients who we let down.”