Incorrect operation carried out on girl, 2
The girl, 2, known only as Patient X, had to go back to the operating theatre when it emerged a tongue tie release procedure she did not need had been carried out instead of an upper lip operation.
The Medical Council is considering allegations of poor professional performance against consultant paediatric surgeon Professor Martin Corbally.
The surgeon — who is now in Bahrain — appeared before a Medical Council inquiry two years ago in a case involving the removal of the wrong kidney from a boy. The case was halted as the council decided the surgeon and another medic did not have a case to answer and the two doctors undertook not to repeat the conduct complained of.
Yesterday, Patient X’s mother told the council’s fitness to practise inquiry yesterday that her daughter had to take medication for pain and her tongue was hanging out and she was constantly drooling after the operation in Apr 2010.
She said her daughter was now fine and going to school.
It is alleged that Prof Corbally delegated the girl’s surgery to Dr Fahran Tareen on Apr 30, 2010, in circumstances where he failed to communicate adequately or at all to Dr Tareen the procedure to be performed and that he incorrectly described the procedure required for the patent in her medical records as excision of the upper lingual frenulum and later incorrectly recorded her diagnosis as tongue tie upper frenulum.
All allegations against Dr Tareen, who performed the first mouth operation, were withdrawn when it emerged that in a conversation before he went in to theatre Prof Corbally asked him to do a tongue tie operation.
Counsel for Prof Corbally, Eileen Barrington SC, said the consultant accepted he put the procedure down as a tongue tie release operation in the admissions card for the girl but he was obliged to describe it that way as the system at the time in the hospital only had a code for such an operation.
The inquiry was told patient administration computer system had since been amended to reflect the different operations in that area.
The child’s mother said her daughter had been referred to Prof Corbally in the Dublin hospital because she had mouth ulcers and it was very hard to brush her teeth.
She said before her child was taken down for the operation she and her husband discussed the operation with a senior house officer who referred to it as a tongue tie release. The mother said when she said her daughter was not having a tongue tie operation, the doctor looked in her daughter’s mouth and said they still called it a tongue tie procedure.
Dr Tareen, she added, came to her after the procedure and told her the wrong one had been carried out.
Dr Tareen apologised and it was decided to bring he child back for the correct procedure.
She said she only found out later that Prof Corbally had carried out the second procedure. She said that in a phonecall later he apologised for the error.
The hearing continues.
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