‘You must hope you make the right decision’ in surgery

An expert in reproductive medicine has described the judgement call a doctor under review faced when conducting the surgery in question. One must “hope you make the right decision”, the fitness-to-practise inquiry at the Medical Council heard yesterday.

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Declan Egan, of Dangan, Co Galway, is facing one allegation of poor professional performance in relation to the procedure he carried out on Lorna McKeogh on June 2, 2010, at University College Hospital Galway.

Specifically it is alleged that he clipped her right and her left fallopian tubes in circumstances where this was not consistent with the consent form she signed on the day of her surgery.