Addenbrooke's surgery problems 'brushed under the rug'

BBC News

02-07-2025

The parents of a nine-year-old girl say problems with a hip operation were "brushed under the rug" as the surgeon involved faces a major NHS review into 800 patient procedures.Orthopaedic surgeon Kuldeep Stohr operated on Darcey at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge in 2022 as her hips were dislocating and claimed it had been a "success".Darcey's parents said "without support" her leg "would inwardly rotate almost to 90 degrees". She now needs further surgery.The hospital has apologised to patients and said reviews into the surgeon's care are ongoing. Ms Stohr declined to comment on Darcey's case but previously said she was co-operating with the investigation.
Ms Stohr was suspended by the hospital and has not been at work since March 2024, initially for personal reasons.In Ms Stohr's absence, her patients were seen by other doctors who discovered, a letter to the parents from the hospital said, a "higher than expected level of complications".
That led to a smaller-scale review, comparing her surgeries with the work of three other surgeons.While the others had no subpar operations, nine of hers were found to be substandard and one of those was Darcey, from the Cambridgeshire village of Somersham.Stephen, 49, said Darcey has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal and "defied the odds" by surviving a severe viral infection at birth.Ms Stohr performed surgery on Darcey in June 2022 as her hips were dislocating and her legs were becoming different lengths.As Darcey - who had a number of respiratory infections post-surgery - was being weaned out of her cast her family noticed her "foot angle would turn in" and immediately raised concerns.They said they had an "unusual" meeting with Ms Stohr, who did not take X-rays but said that she felt comfortable Darcey's hips were in joint."I did say to [Ms Stohr] 'Why is the leg so inwardly rotated?' and she said, 'Well, that might be me'," Stephen said.Charlotte said the doctor's comment left her "shocked; I didn't know how to react".
When Ms Stohr was off in 2024, a stand-in doctor told the family the surgery outcome was not as expected."You trust these people to do the job they're going to do, to do it well and if there's any problems, you will come and you will deal with it after," Charlotte, 35, said. "There was clearly a problem after but it was just brushed under the rug."There were no checks, it was just you and that surgeon and that was it. "Whilst multiple physios, [and an] occupational therapist said ' we feel there's an issue here, can you review Darcey?' the problem was it never got further than Ms Stohr."
A review found Darcey should have had pelvic osteotomies - where the pelvis is re-shaped - and that there was "poor pre-operative judgement".She now needs further surgery, which Charlotte said was "another lot of risks, another anaesthetic, another huge healing time, a lot of stress on Darcey's body".Stephen said he has been left feeling like he made a "mistake" in having the surgery under Ms Stohr, about whom concerns were raised as early as 2015."What we know now is it didn't just go wrong for Darcey, and I don't understand how it could go wrong so many times without being picked up, and also for so long," he said.
The investigation into Ms Stohr is the second one nationally to involve a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon in the past year. Some cases linked to Yaser Jabbar, a former surgeon at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, resulted in harm, including lifelong injuries and amputation.Tom Crompton, a consultant children's orthopaedic surgeon at hospitals in the south east and London, has been asked by Addenbrooke's to look at some of the cases there.While unable to comment on the investigation, he said normal practice was for post-surgery complications to be discussed between multi-disciplinary teams.However, complications which become apparent in the longer-term "really would rely on a consultant monitoring their practice, following up the children long term... being aware of what the normal is and reporting if you think your practice was outside that normal range of discussion."
Dr Susan Broster, chief medical officer at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Addenbrooke's, said she "fully understands that families feel let down".She said two investigations had been commissioned, including one "into what was known when about the practice of the surgeon and whether there were opportunities to have identified and addressed these issues sooner". "We apologise again to patients, and we want to do everything we can to support them at what we know is a distressing and anxious time," Dr Broster said.Ms Stohr, through her lawyers, did not respond to the BBC's questions about Darcey's case, but has previously said: "I always strive to provide the highest standards of care to all my patients. "I am cooperating fully with the trust investigation and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time."
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