Yahoo Finance Obstetrician who left baby with severe brain damage went to Ghana to set up lookalike clinic
An “arrogant” doctor left a baby with catastrophic brain damage then went to Ghana to set up a lookalike clinic under the same name as his former NHS hospital.
Dr Ignatius Adams, who was described as “yelling and swearing” during delivery, tugged the child so violently that he almost dragged the mother onto the floor.
It later emerged that the registrar obstetrician was at that time under investigation for writing fraudulent prescriptions for family members.
The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, where he worked, has since admitted massive failings in its care and paid substantial damages to the family, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons.
However, the family is demanding to know why Dr Adams was allowed to work at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, on the fateful evening in April 2016.
Mother had three heart attacks
His actions caused the mother to suffer three heart attacks on the operating table because she had lost so much blood.
The child is severely physically and mentally disabled and not expected to live beyond his twenties, while his father lost his job as a high-flying manager at a top accountancy firm due to post-traumatic stress disorder and has not worked since.
Dr Adams left the UK for Ghana shortly after the tragedy, not taking part in a GMC hearing, which found him guilty of dishonest and misleading conduct over the forged prescriptions.
But The Telegraph has established that in 2017 he registered to practice at “Broomfield Hospital” in the Airport Hills district of Accra.
The trust has admitted not offering the mother a caesarean section, despite that being her clear preference months before the birth, even when complications developed.
Obsession with natural births
It comes in the wake of the Ockenden Review into NHS maternity practices, which found that 200 babies and nine mothers died due to poor care, with an obsession among some midwives with so-called “natural”, or vaginal, birth criticised as a major problem.
“The whole culture was “you’re not normal if you don’t do a natural birth”, and now my son’s been ruined by it,” said the father.
“He can only communicate with us by grunts, largely shouts, and he can’t move his hands or legs very much and he can’t be entertained.”
It subsequently transpired that despite telling staff in the weeks before the birth that she wanted a c-section due to a previous complicated delivery, this was not always recorded in her notes.
The family also questioned whether Dr Adams, who trained at Volgograd State Medical Institution, but had worked at the NHS trust for more than 15 years, was up-to-date with his training.
'Inadequately trained' for the job
Caron Heyes, their lawyer at FieldFisher, said: “The way he dealt with the emergency in theatre indicated he either had an appalling level of arrogance or no insight to his lack of knowledge.
“That to me says that he was inadequately trained for the job.”
The trust insists that Dr Adams’s training was up to date, but has not released documentary proof. Because it has now reached a settlement with the family, it can no longer be forced to do so.
A spokesman for the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have apologised unreservedly to the family for the errors that occurred in this extremely sad case.
“A full investigation was carried out and the panel acknowledged that this case was a complex and rare situation.
“The learnings from the investigation were shared with staff as soon as it was completed in 2016.”
The Telegraph was unable to contact Dr Adams for comment.
