Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman has been struck off after a medical tribunal found that he made serious errors during emergency bowel surgery at Royal Oldham Hospital and failed to respond adequately to the patient’s subsequent deterioration.
How did an emergency bowel operation lead to a doctor’s removal from the UK medical register?
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found that Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman committed serious professional misconduct involving surgery, post-operative care, regulatory breaches and dishonesty.
Dr Abdel Rahman was working as a locum consultant general and colorectal surgeon at Royal Oldham Hospital when he operated on an anonymised patient, referred to as Patient A, on August 25, 2020.
Following a hearing held between July 6 and July 22, 2026, the tribunal ruled that his fitness to practise was impaired and ordered his erasure from the medical register.
Emergency Surgery Created a Dangerous Closed Loop
Patient A was admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital on August 24, 2020, with a complex medical condition and underwent emergency surgery the following day.
The tribunal found that Dr Abdel Rahman had inappropriately performed a gastrojejunostomy, an operation that connects the stomach to part of the small intestine.
During the procedure, he connected the distal end of the proximal jejunum to the stomach in a way that formed a closed loop. This meant bowel contents had no normal route through the digestive system and could circulate back towards the stomach.
The tribunal also found that he had oversewn a staple line and left the proximal end of another section of small bowel within the abdominal cavity.
Expert Described the Procedure as Incompatible with Life
A former consultant general and colorectal surgeon who gave expert evidence for the General Medical Council described the procedure as “not compatible with life.”
The expert characterised the errors as being at the extreme end of surgical failure and “as bad as it gets” for a consultant surgeon.
The tribunal heard that Patient A would likely have died without corrective surgery by another consultant. A second emergency operation was performed on September 15, 2020.
Although the tribunal acknowledged that the original procedure was extremely difficult because of the patient’s complex condition and the presence of a tumor, it concluded that the errors were fundamental failures in surgical technique and decision-making.
Surgeon Failed to Seek Help Before the Operation
The tribunal found that Dr Abdel Rahman should have sought help from another consultant surgical colleague before undertaking the complex procedure.
It concluded that he failed to recognize and work within the limits of his competence and did not provide the expected standard of care or effective treatment.
However, one allegation—that he failed to contact a regional specialist upper gastrointestinal surgical center—was not proved. The tribunal noted that he may not have been informed about the center or how to contact it.(1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Surgeon struck off for ‘closed loop’ bowel surgery
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The hospital had also acknowledged an absence of an organizational framework governing the supervision or mentoring of locum surgeons.
Warning Signs Were Missed After Surgery
Patient A experienced concerning symptoms during the three weeks following the operation.
The tribunal found that Dr Abdel Rahman failed to respond adequately to warning signs including:
- Increasing pain
- Failure to improve
- High nasogastric aspirates
- Failure of the bowels to open
- Abnormal findings from Gastrografin swallow imaging
The tribunal also found that he did not adequately consider concerns raised by nurses and other doctors, seek a second surgical opinion or formally discuss the patient’s condition with a colleague.
He continued to state that the procedure had been successful even though the clinical and radiological evidence did not support that conclusion.
Corrective Surgery Prevented a Fatal Outcome
Concerns raised by Patient A’s family and hospital staff eventually led another consultant to take over the patient’s care on September 15, 2020.
A second emergency operation identified the surgical errors and corrected the life-threatening obstruction.(1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Surgeon struck off for ‘closed loop’ bowel surgery
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The tribunal concluded that the initial surgical errors were made more serious by Dr Abdel Rahman’s failure to recognize the patient’s deterioration and seek timely assistance during the post-operative period.
It classified both the surgical and post-operative failures at the very high end of the spectrum of seriousness.
Doctor Breached Restrictions on His Medical Practice
An interim tribunal imposed conditions on Dr Abdel Rahman’s medical registration in July 2021 while the concerns were being investigated.
The MPTS later found that he breached three of those conditions when he began working as a locum doctor at Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland in February 2022.
He failed to notify the GMC that he had applied for and accepted a position outside the UK before beginning work. He also failed to provide the required confirmation concerning disclosure of the restrictions.(1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Surgeon struck off for ‘closed loop’ bowel surgery
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The tribunal said that breaching conditions designed to protect the public undermined the medical regulatory system.
Tribunal Strikes Surgeon Off the Medical Register
The tribunal found Dr Abdel Rahman dishonest after he misstated when he began working at an Irish clinic.
Citing his serious clinical failures, breach of restrictions and lack of insight or remediation, the panel ruled that his misconduct was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration” and erased him from the medical register, preventing him from practising medicine in the UK.
References:
- Surgeon struck off for ‘closed loop’ bowel surgery- (https://www.doctors.net.uk/news/surgeon-struck-off-for-closed-loop-bowel-surgery)
Source-Medindia