Families and victims affected by disgraced former Great Ormond Street Hospital surgeon Yaser Jabbar have spoken to Sky News after a report found that 94 children were harmed during the care he provided.
WARNING: Contains images of children’s injuries
The report found that over five years, the former orthopaedic surgeon harmed almost 100 children.
Janetta Nana-Owusu was 12 when she suffered a botched surgery to straighten her legs at the hands of Jabbar at Great Ormond Street six years ago.
She was one of the 36 children who suffered “severe harm” at the hands of Jabbar.
Speaking to Sky News, she described “excruciating pain” after her first operation, “the pain was really horrible”.
She was left with permanent scarring along the length of her leg, she still can’t walk long distances and continues to suffer from pain.
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Her mother, Catherine, said the ordeal had been and continues to be “very upsetting, very devastating”.
She wants to know “why?”
“It should not have been that way. Could it have been avoided?”
Darren and Kate, the parents of another child harmed due to the doctor, explain how their son, Vinnie, who is now 16, has been with Great Ormond Street since he was around 10 months old.
He has a deformity to his left knee which means it’s much bigger than his right one.
Kate described how Jabbar did a surgery for the condition where “they basically go in and freeze it”.
She says her son developed frostbite from the surgery and was discharged the day after the procedure despite living two-and-a-half hours away. She said the experience was “all very scary at that time”.
Her son’s knee has gone downhill since the surgery – “he’s struggled, he’s struggled with his mobility”.
‘We put our faith in… one of the best children’s hospital’
Kate said that once Yaser Jabbar was struck off, the family wasn’t seen by the hospital for four years, and “we had eight cancellations in that time”.
She goes on to say that no one noticed that her son’s leg was growing at a bow angle.
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It wasn’t until the beginning of this year after seeing a different doctor that the family was told Vinnie would definitely need a leg procedure, Kate said.
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Darren said although his son “always tried”, his injury “really held Vinnie back, especially sports-wise”.
“It’s not just affected Vinnie physiologically, it’s affected the whole family,” he adds.
Darren adds: “We kind of put our faith in what’s known as one of the best children’s hospitals in the world, and now they’ve missed a four-year window to correct his leg, which is now going to make the procedure much more difficult.”
Kate stressed the mental trauma caused by Jabbar’s surgery, explaining how parents get “that guilt that they should have picked up” that things weren’t right.
“An apology isn’t enough, is it?”
“Vinnie is still left with all the scars and the trauma that he’s had to endure since he could walk,” she said.
Yaser Jabbar no longer works at the hospital and didn’t respond to Sky News’s requests for comment.
Great Ormond Street Hospital’s chief executive, Matthew Shaw, said: “There are no excuses for what has happened.”
He said he was “deeply and profoundly sorry” for the harm victims suffered. However, he insisted: “I can genuinely say the department today is safer than it has ever been.”
Great Ormond Street has been contacted for further comment.
