A patient in his 80s died after bungled treatment at the hands of Dr Alem
Kahsay, when he failed to perform radiotherapy on the full area to treat his
bladder cancer, the hearing was told.
The panel heard, that if treated properly, 'Patient C' would have had a 50 per
cent chance of being cured, which was reduced to just 10 per cent.
Dr Ernest Allan, a cancer specialist at Manchester's Christie Hospital, said: "It
is difficult to know what impact this actually had on his life expectancy."
Dr Kahsay is alleged to have made a similar mistake when treating a patient
with prostate cancer, reducing 'Patient D's' chances of life from 60 to 10
percent.
One patient was left with microscopic tumours after surgery at the Belfast
City Hospital, which if treated properly would have given him an 80 per cent
chance of life.
Dr Kahsay planned for radiotherapy to be given "totally in the wrong area" and the cancer returned, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.
After undergoing another operation the patient has been given just a 10 per cent chance of survival, an expert witness told the panel on Wednesday.
Dr Allan said "there is absolutely no doubt" the treatment was performed in the wrong place.
"The disease did recur, which would be expected since radiotherapy was not performed," he said.
"Radiotherapy was then given to the correct area, but I believe has now recurred and surgery has been done again.
"The prognosis is now very bad, whereas in the first instance the prognosis, if the radiotherapy had been delivered to the appropriate area the chances of survival would have been in the region of 80 per cent, it is now probably in the region of probably 10 per cent."
Another patient was only saved from a similar fate when a radiographer spotted Dr Kahsay had planned to treat the top left area of his lung, when the correct area was the bottom right.
His mistake was corrected and the patient suffered no harm as a result.
"Radiographers are very highly trained people and just as well they are because they managed to spot the discrepancy, although it is a shame they didn't spot the discrepancy in the first patient," said Dr Allan.
"If the radiography had been delivered to the wrong area the tumour would have continued to grow and spread and if the time it was perhaps noted on the follow-up then the tumour would have been completely incurable."
When working as a locum at the Shrewsbury Royal Hospital in November 2010, a potentially fatal blunder by the medic was again averted by a vigilant colleague, the hearing was told.
Dr Kahsay had correctly decided to reduce 'Patient LE's' chemotherapy, but failed to alter the dose on the prescription, it is alleged.
The woman was suffering from symptoms associated with the toxic effects of chemotherapy and she could have "succumbed" if given another high dose.
However, a cancer nurse realised the prescription had not been changed and ensured the patient did not undergo the treatment.
"Patient's can become very ill as a result of the toxic effects of chemotherapy and can occasionally succumb, so it was obviously very important that the dose reduction was made," said Dr Allan.
Dr Kahsay is accused of blunders in his treatment of five cancer patients while working as a locum clinical oncologist between 2008 and 2010.
The General Medical Council (GMC) says his treatment fell "seriously below the standard of that expected of a competent locum".
If the fitness to practise panel in Manchester finds the allegations proved he could face being struck off the medical register.
Dr Kahsay, formerly of Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, London, was not present or represented at the hearing and is believed to have left the country.
In an email to the GMC he said: "I am not interested in working in the UK, period. I told the GMC not to contact me anymore and I don't have an address in the UK. Please stop harassing me."
Dr Kahsay was employed by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust as a locum consultant in clinical oncology between September 1 and November 28, 2008, and August 17 and October 16, 2009, where he treated Patient's A-D.
From November 8 to 19, 2010, he was employed as a locum consultant in clinical oncology by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust where he treated Patient LE.
He is currently suspended from practising in the UK after an Interim Orders Panel decision in July 2011.
Dr Kahsay planned for radiotherapy to be given "totally in the wrong area" and the cancer returned, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.
After undergoing another operation the patient has been given just a 10 per cent chance of survival, an expert witness told the panel on Wednesday.
Dr Allan said "there is absolutely no doubt" the treatment was performed in the wrong place.
"The disease did recur, which would be expected since radiotherapy was not performed," he said.
"Radiotherapy was then given to the correct area, but I believe has now recurred and surgery has been done again.
"The prognosis is now very bad, whereas in the first instance the prognosis, if the radiotherapy had been delivered to the appropriate area the chances of survival would have been in the region of 80 per cent, it is now probably in the region of probably 10 per cent."
Another patient was only saved from a similar fate when a radiographer spotted Dr Kahsay had planned to treat the top left area of his lung, when the correct area was the bottom right.
His mistake was corrected and the patient suffered no harm as a result.
"Radiographers are very highly trained people and just as well they are because they managed to spot the discrepancy, although it is a shame they didn't spot the discrepancy in the first patient," said Dr Allan.
"If the radiography had been delivered to the wrong area the tumour would have continued to grow and spread and if the time it was perhaps noted on the follow-up then the tumour would have been completely incurable."
When working as a locum at the Shrewsbury Royal Hospital in November 2010, a potentially fatal blunder by the medic was again averted by a vigilant colleague, the hearing was told.
Dr Kahsay had correctly decided to reduce 'Patient LE's' chemotherapy, but failed to alter the dose on the prescription, it is alleged.
The woman was suffering from symptoms associated with the toxic effects of chemotherapy and she could have "succumbed" if given another high dose.
However, a cancer nurse realised the prescription had not been changed and ensured the patient did not undergo the treatment.
"Patient's can become very ill as a result of the toxic effects of chemotherapy and can occasionally succumb, so it was obviously very important that the dose reduction was made," said Dr Allan.
Dr Kahsay is accused of blunders in his treatment of five cancer patients while working as a locum clinical oncologist between 2008 and 2010.
The General Medical Council (GMC) says his treatment fell "seriously below the standard of that expected of a competent locum".
If the fitness to practise panel in Manchester finds the allegations proved he could face being struck off the medical register.
Dr Kahsay, formerly of Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, London, was not present or represented at the hearing and is believed to have left the country.
In an email to the GMC he said: "I am not interested in working in the UK, period. I told the GMC not to contact me anymore and I don't have an address in the UK. Please stop harassing me."
Dr Kahsay was employed by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust as a locum consultant in clinical oncology between September 1 and November 28, 2008, and August 17 and October 16, 2009, where he treated Patient's A-D.
From November 8 to 19, 2010, he was employed as a locum consultant in clinical oncology by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust where he treated Patient LE.
He is currently suspended from practising in the UK after an Interim Orders Panel decision in July 2011.
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