Mother's anguish over daughter treated by suspended Addenbrooke's Hospital surgeon
The mother of a child who suffered substandard care at the hands of a surgeon who has since been suspended has told ITV News she feels she failed to protect her daughter.
The eight-year-old girl is one of nine children found to have received care at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge which - in the words of an external review into the surgeon - fell "below the standard we would expect".
The girl was born with hip dysplasia, meaning her hip joint was loose. A report sent to her family by Addenbrooke's details failures in her care including damage to her hip cartilage.
Her family said they had been told there was a high chance she would walk without aid after the operation, but she now walks with crutches, takes regular breaks in a wheelchair and will need a hip replacement in the future.
The girl's mother Sarah - not her real name - told ITV News Anglia she blames herself, adding: "I'm her mum, and I should have seen it coming because you're supposed to protect her, and I didn't so I failed her."
The girl has had 17 surgical procedures, has spent months in a cast and has missed nearly a year of school, according to the family's lawyer. The family do not know if she will ever be able to walk unaided.
"She always has a limp and she leans to the side because of her leg discrepancy, and she has a wheelchair because it gets really tough for her," said Sarah.
"She gets really upset because she says she just wants to be a normal kid and she wants to be a cheerleader."
Despite promising to contact affected patients and their families after the nine cases were highlighted in October, the family said they only found out they were among them when they saw the story on the news last month.
Sarah continued: "I was in shock, [and] I was relieved because I just knew that [my daughter] was one of them.
"I'd spent the whole weekend [thinking] someone just tell me: I just wanted someone to tell me, I wanted to know what had been found.
"I wanted to know where her care had gone wrong and they couldn't do that for me."
A spokesman for Addenbrooke's Hospital said: "We apologise to the family that they were not contacted prior to our public statement on 14 February.
"This was an unfortunate oversight and we have taken steps to strengthen our processes."
Jodi Newton, a medical negligence solicitor who is representing the family, said: "It's taking its toll both emotionally and physically on both her and her parents and they've got real worries for her future.
"They don't know how her mobility is going to recover and whether she'll be able to walk as an adult."
TIMELINE:
October 2024: Addenbrooke's orders an external review into the surgeon's work after concerns are raised by staff. It looks at several paediatric hip surgeries performed by the hospital's orthopaedic service over two-and-a-half years and finds the treatment provided to nine children fell "below the standard we would expect". The trust says it will contact affected patients and their families.
14 February: Addenbrooke's reveals it has suspended the surgeon. The trust's chief executive, Roland Sinker, tells ITV News Anglia he is "desperately sorry" for "letting the families down". He adds the trust will commission a further external review into all the planned surgical operations carried out by the surgeon while they were at the trust - as it emerges concerns were raised as early as 2015 and an external clinical review was carried out in 2016.
15 February: NHS England says it will conduct its own wider review into orthopaedic and spinal surgery services at the trust.
17 February: ITV News Anglia reports that a telephone helpline set up by the trust has received 41 calls from the families of former patients fearing they may have been treated by the suspended surgeon.
24 March: Addenbrooke's says the external inquiry it set up after the surgeon was suspended will look at the cases of 800 patients. Mr Sinker says the hospital has appointed barrister Andrew Kennedy KC to chair a panel of expert clinicians to look into the cases. The review is in its early stages.
On Tuesday, five families who called Addenbrooke's after February's announcement spoke exclusively to ITV News.
They said they felt "left in the dark" by the hospital and described worry, fear and sleepless nights over what they called a lack of answers.
Addenbrooke's bosses apologised for delays in communicating with affected families and admitted at that point they had "dropped the ball".
This included the family of 12-year-old Tammy Harrison, who called the hospital's helpline in February but did not hear anything until almost five weeks later.
The hospital contacted the family to apologise for the delay after ITV News highlighted the case and has promised a rapid review.
It said it would publish the findings from the clinical reviews and its initial external inquiry, which is in its early stages, and would continue to provide updates.
The surgeon's position is not yet known.
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