Browse Sections

• Education
• Business
• Blog
• Special reports

Expert defends junior doctor

12/ 5/2008

A MEDICAL expert has defended the actions of a junior doctor who failed to spot signs of a potentially fatal condition.

Pregnant Michelle D'Rozario was sent home from Wythenshawe hospital despite showing signs of pre-eclampsia.

The condition, which affects both mother and child, causes high blood pressure and can adversely affect the liver, kidneys and placenta.

She attended Wythenshawe Hospital in October 2005 after loosing sight in one of her eyes for a 45-minute period earlier that day.

Dr Sami Al Shenar, then a junior doctor working at the hospital's prenatal clinic, is accused of overlooking key symptoms in the patient - such as raised blood pressure, swollen body and sight problems - and sending her home.

However five days later Mrs D'Rozario was forced to have an emergency birth. Her daughter Nina - who was two months premature - died shortly afterwards.

But a General Medical Council panel in Manchester heard from a pre-natal expert who said he believed there were no serious errors in how Dr Al Shenar conducted the consultation.

Expert witness Gerry Jarvis, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist based in Leeds, said the condition was relatively rare.

He said: "It would not surprise me that the majority of registrars did not know that flashing lights and blurring vision were a sign of pre-eclampsia."

The patient's pressure had previously been taken by a midwife prior to the consultation. Her medical notes showed two blood pressure readings - one of which was unusually high.

Accused

Quizzed about whether the accused doctor should have double-checked the patient's blood pressure or attached more significance to the temporary loss of vision, Mr Jarvis responded that he would not expect a relatively inexperienced doctor to link vision problems with pre-eclampsia.

He said: "My positions is that you would advise the patent on what to do if they experienced temporary blindness again. I have said in my report I would not have taken any further action. I think most people wouldn't.

"I suspect there would be a lot of causes for it, many of which I don't know, but the fact that it was transient means you could draw significance from."

GMC counsel Robin Kitching asked: "You wouldn't have asked an ophthalmologist to see her? You wouldn't have referred her to a neurologist?"

The witness said: "I do not believe that with a unilateral loss of vision which lasted for 45 minutes and apparently recovered I wouldn't have made a referral but I would have advised the patent what to do if it happened again."

Since the premature birth in 2005, Mrs D'Rozario, 36, from Stockport, who had previously been told she would never have any children, has suffered a second tragedy after having a miscarriage.

If found guilty of professional misconduct, the disciplinary panel have the power to ban Dr Al Shenar, who trained in Jordan, from practising medicine, suspend him from working, order him to retrain or take no action at all.

Proceeding