A doctor who killed a mother of three after failing a routine procedure has been jailed for three years.
Dr Isyaka Mamman, 85, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for gross negligence after Shahida Parveen, 48, died in 2018 at Royal Oldham Hospital.
He had been making a routine appointment to take samples, but he used the wrong needle, put it in the wrong place, and punctured the sack holding Mrs. Parveen’s heart.
Mamman, who was 81 at the time, had already been suspended for lying about his age.
He was fired but later re-employed by the hospital, where he was responsible for a number of critical incidents prior to the fatal appointment.
Judge Yip, who jailed him for three years at Manchester Crown Court, said death was his main responsibility, but that hospital confidence should have done more after Dr Mamman he would have lied about his age and failed two similar procedures above, injuring patients.
He described the execution of the procedure to Mrs Parveen as “very incompetent”.
Dr. Isyaka Mamman Credit: MEN Media
Mrs. Parveen had gone to the hospital for a bone marrow biopsy and was told that the routine procedure was assigned to Mamman, who worked as a hematology doctor.
Normally, bone marrow samples are taken from the hip bone, but Mamman failed to get a sample on the first try.
Instead, she attempted a rare and “highly dangerous” procedure to obtain a sample of Mrs. Parveen’s breast, despite objections from her and her husband.
The mother, using the wrong biopsy needle, lost the bone and punctured her pericardium, the sac that contains the heart, causing massive internal bleeding.
Mrs. Parveen lost consciousness as soon as the needle was inserted, with her husband running from the room shouting, “He killed her. I told him to stop three times and he didn’t listen. He killed her.”
After his death, a consultant provided an expert opinion that the procedure had been performed inappropriately and incompetently.
The court learned that at the time of Ms. Parveen’s death, there were no standard operating procedures, guidelines, or local safety standards for taking bone marrow biopsies.
Three years before Mrs. Parveen’s death, Mamman had performed the same procedure on a 64-year-old man who suffered a cardiac arrest. He survived but was permanently disabled.
In the sentencing, Judge Yip said the mother of three “had been very disappointed” and that a prison sentence was “inevitable”.
Dr Chris Brookes, group chief physician and deputy executive director of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Royal Oldham Hospital, said: “We look forward to our sincere condolences to family and friends. of Mrs. Parveen and we are deeply saddened by her loss.
“We would like to reiterate our sincere apologies previously provided to Mrs Parveen ‘s family. Our deepest condolences to them.
“Following the death of Ms Parveen in September 2018, the Trust initiated a thorough internal investigation to examine the circumstances that led to and after this tragic incident. The Trust implemented improvements following the investigation that were shared. with Mrs. Parveen’s family.
“The Board of Trustees has admitted responsibility in relation to a civil lawsuit filed by the family.
“The Trust has been closely associated with Greater Manchester police during their investigation and subsequent legal proceedings over Dr Mamman.”
Oldham MP Jim McMahon said: “This is a very worrying tragedy, my thoughts are with the affected family and we need to understand why the Trust did no more.
“To instill trust, the hospital must be open and transparent and open when mistakes are made.
“In this computer failure and in the previous one, it is clear that more can be done to be proactive in communicating with the public about the issues that arise.”